THINK ABOUTIT SIGHTING REPORT

Date: July 7, 1948

Sighting Time:

Day/Night: Night

Reported:

Location: 38 Miles South of Laredo (Texas), Mexico

Urban or Rural: Rural

Type of Report: StandardCase

Hynek Classification:

Duration:

No. of Object(s): 

Size of Object(s): 90-foot diameter

Distance to Object(s):

Shape of Object(s): saucer

Color of Object(s):

Number of Witnesses:

Special Features/Characteristics:   Alien Photograph, Humanoid/Occupant, Military, Crash/Retrieval

Source: Ron Schaffner, of the former Ohio UFO Investigators League (OUFOIL) Original Source

Summary: In 1978, a former Naval photographer released a series of photographs of the charred remains of a head and torso, which he claimed were extraterrestrial. He said that the photos were taken in 1948, when he was flown to Mexico, south of Laredo, Texas, to document the crash of 90-foot diameter "flying saucer" and its dead pilot.

Full Report

TOMATO MAN REVISITED: The Alleged Alien Body Photographs
by Ron Schaffner

INTRODUCTION

Generally, the history of UFO reportage is not a good one. All too often, researchers are far too eager to latch onto a good story, to attach themselves to a "major" case, that important details are not assessed and evidentiary credibility is not addressed. Perhaps the best example of this is Frank Scully's Behind the Flying Saucers. Intrigued by the story of a crashed saucer, Scully neglected to check his sources, a mistake that came back to haunt him. J.P. Cahn of the San Francisco Chronicle did check into Scully's sources and found them to be con men. Scully was the victim of a hoax.

Consequently, crashed UFO stories are recycled down to succeeding generations of Ufologists. Many of these alleged tales are nothing more than "spin-offs" of previous accounts. When one considers the amount of disinformation spread over the years, it becomes difficult to separate fact from fiction.

Stories, such as Roswell and Aztec have graced the world with accounts of aliens and conspiracies within the United States government. It is not this writer's intent to prove nor disprove these particular stories. Rather, it is to show the reader that with a little imagination a hoax can be perpetrated using information from well publicized cases and.

The following report is well known within the circle of senior Ufologists. Therefore, it is recommended to the freshman Ufologist who may desire to seek the truth in a sometimes not-so-truthful subject.

BACKGROUND

The following information was relayed to the former Ohio UFO Investigators League (OUFOIL) by Willard McIntyre who was involved with a group calling itself the Mutual Anomaly Research Center and Evaluation Network (MARCEN). At that time, this author was the Investigations Director for OUFOIL. This information exchange occurred during the years of 1979 and 1981.

Mr. McIntyre claimed to have corresponded with a gentleman in Tennessee in December, 1978. This unnamed source sent him an 8X10 glossy print of the charred remains of a head and torso, which he claimed were extraterrestrial. McIntyre wrote back saying that he thought the photo represented a light aircraft crash and its burned pilot.

In early January, 1979, this alleged source wrote back and explained in detail a story of a clandestine operation executed on July 7, 1948, to document the crash of a UFO and its dead occupant . By November of 1979, the original negative was mailed to McIntyre. Another negative was shipped the following May showing a burned body lying in vegetation on a hillside.

The source was concerned for possible prosecution of the government, so it was agreed that he would receive full confidentiality. Allegedly, McIntyre checked out his credentials and everything appeared in order.

McIntyre advised us that he sent the original negatives to Eastman Kodak for analysis:

"The conclusion of Eastman Kodak, which we initially felt was of dubious value because of the methodology used, pointed to a negative processed at least thirty years previously. Micro densitometer traces of the negative showed us that no deliberated hoaxing had been done, at least photographically, in the production of the negative."

Negatives were also mailed to William Spaulding of Ground Saucer Watch (GSW). This organization speculate that the pictures represented the remains of a dead monkey used in the V-2 rocket experiments of the 1940s and ‘50s. (1)

ORIGINIAL CLAIMS

The source said that as a young Naval photographer in 1948, he was flown to Mexico to document the crash of 90-foot diameter "flying saucer" and its dead pilot. The photographer claimed he was assigned to White Sands, New Mexico. Prior to the incident, he visited atomic test sites and photographed the after affects of the blasts.

Meanwhile, on July 7 at approximately 1322 hours, the Distant Early Warning [DEW] line early warning radar was tracking an object moving at speeds in excess of 2,000 mph when it flew over Washington state heading southeast. Upon hearing about the bogey's flight path, two fighter pilots out of Dias Air Base in Texas path cruised into position over Albuquerque to identify or intercept the object.

As the two F-94's approached the UFO, it made a 90 degree angle turn towards eastern Texas without apparently decreasing in speed. At 1410 hours, other pilots in pursuit said the object was slowing down and was wobbling in flight. By 1429 hours, the object disappeared from all radar screens. Using triangulation from all the radar installations, it was determined that the object must have went down in Mexico approximately 30 miles south of Laredo, Texas.

After notifying the Mexican authorities, Army and Air Force units were rushed to the crash site, arriving at 1830 hours. The commander phoned Washington and was told that a photographic team would be airlifted to the site. McIntyre's source claimed to be one of those photographers. They were told that they would be going to a top secret airplane crash.

The team was picked up by an Army L-19 Bird Dog at 2130 hours. The source explained that it was quite uncomfortable with five team members and their equipment in such a small plane. They arrived at the designated site at 0215 hours. The plane circled the area and observed a disc shaped craft still smoldering on a heavily vegetated hill.

There was one body found within the craft. The photographers managed to get a series of pictures even though there was intense heat. When the object cooled down, the body was removed to a hill side and another series of pictures were taken.

The body was said to be 4 feet 6 inches long with a head extremely large compared to the rest of the torso. The eyes were gone and there were no visible ears, nose or lips with just a slit without were teeth and a tongue would be. The arms appeared much longer than a human and the hands had four claw-like appendages.

The source went on to explain that the craft appeared as unusual, but the debris looked as if it was "earthly" in origin. There was an absence of any wiring, rubber, glass, plastic, wood, or paper. The structures were bound by normal looking bolts, but could not be unscrewed with conventional tools. Eventually, they were chiseled off. The metal was very hard. Diamond drills and saws were used for disassembly. Another metal was discovered which seemed to be a lighter grade and cutting torches were used.

Army doctors arrived on July 8 and preformed an examination of the body. They could not find any reproductive organs. They compared the gray skin to the texture of a human female breast. The bone structure was more complicated than a human and no muscle fiber was discovered within the torso.

We are also told that a metallurgist was brought in to determine the alloy of the object. He believed this alloy had a honey combed crystalline structure unlike anything know in "earthy" technology. He thought that it could be silicon based.

The entire hill side and valley below were littered with foil fragment; very much like cigarette packages, only harder. The material could not be bent. All the fragments were confiscated by the military.

At 1300 hours, the following day, a C-47 arrived and the body was shipped to an origin unknown to the source. The remaining wreckage was loaded on US and Mexican trucks which headed in the direction of Laredo, Texas. The source explained that he was not told the destination.

The source returned to White Sands and began work on the photographic evidence with a team of other experts. Allegedly, they were constantly watched by Marine security. The mysterious Commander returned to Washington never to be seen again.

A few years later, the source removed 40 negatives from the file and made duplicates and placed the originals back.

OUFOIL's INVESTIGATION

In 1981, McIntyre and Dennis Pilichis (The UFO Information Network ; UFOIN) wrote a booklet entitled: "Alien Body Photos: An Updated Report". Although OUFOIL's name was represented, we had no contribution what so ever to its production. Some of our members believed the photos to be authentic, However the majority, like myself had more questions and became skeptical of the entire story. After all, we could only take McIntyre's story at face value. When we questioned him about certain aspects of the story, he stalled and would not forward us any documentation that he claimed to have. It was at this point where we decided to begin our own independent investigation into the matter.

We attacked this problem by using the correct investigative methodology: Eliminating all possible prosaic explanations first.

We asked ourselves, "Was McIntyre correct when he stated that he originally believed the photos were of a crashed plane and its pilot?" We began with this premise.

Our first procedure was to verify that Kodak actually did the photo analysis that Mr. McIntrye claimed. A letter was sent to Eastman Kodak along with a copy of the prints. We asked for documentation regarding the quality of the print, time frames and the person's name and title who supposedly did the analysis.

We were not surprised when the response came back that Kodak was not aware of any photo work done on the pictures enclosed. Furthermore, their representative said that Kodak would not preform any type of testing that we desired for authenticity. (2)

The second step in our investigations led us to the Burns Institute ( Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children, Cincinnati, Ohio) This hospital is world known for its work with burned patients. We interviewed the Chief of Staff and allowed him to study the photographs. It was his expert opinion that the photos represented an incinerated body of a human. The swelling of the head would be caused by extreme heat flash. (3)

It became apparent to us that these photographs did not depict an extraterrestrial. We decided to probe a little deeper into the story. After all, if the pictures were a deception, then the scenario surrounding them would also have suspicions.

Consider the following:

White Sands Proving Grounds, New Mexico informed us that after a search for information, they had no knowledge of any air disaster on the dates forwarded. In addition, they said that they did not investigate such incidents and there are no photographic teams assigned to the base.(4)

We conducted a mailing to all newspapers in the region to find out if they had any records of an air disaster within a three month time span. All that replied said they had no records of any such event occurring.

The source said that the object was tracked by the DEW radar system. The Distant Early Warning (DEW) is a series of radar installations to provide a warning of enemy attack by air. The project began its planning stages in 1946. Construction did not begin until 1955 and it finally became operational in 1957. If the alleged source was in the military as described, the he would have known that this was erroneous. Is it is possible that the person behind this hoaxed failed to research the DEW Line radar systems?(5)

We are told that two F-94 fighter pilots were scrambled out of Dias Air Base to intercept the object. This is quite an achievement considering that the F-94 didn't fly until 1949 as prototypes. The Air Force didn't fly them until 1950. (6)

Furthermore, there wasn't an operational Dias Air Base in 1948. That location would have been Abilene Army Airfield and it was deactivated in 1945. When reactivated in 1956, the base was called Dyess AFB; not Dias. (7)

The source stated that his team was picked up by a U.S. Army L-19 "Bird Dog" and flown to the site. He described his trip as being uncomfortable with five people and equipment being cramped into this small plane. Unfortunately, the story does not match up to historical fact.

This plane was developed for the U.S. Army as a light reconnaissance aircraft. The first contract for these planes were in 1950. Production was completed on October 7, 1954 and these planes are still in use. They cannot accommodate more than two individuals and there is no room for cargo space. (8)

With regard to the absence of wire and the metals, consider the following points:

1. Upon closer examination of photo #1, what appears to be two conductor cable, probably "earthly" in origin, can be seen..

2. Near the right shoulder we find the frames of some type of eyeglasses. It was our opinion that this was the remains of flight glasses used by pilots.

3. Close scrutiny of the structural remains look man-made. You can see a six-sided hex nut, tubular piping, angle iron and many welded areas. The welds conform to all standard procedures indicative of that time.

Photograph #2 was cropped to reserve web space. The original picture we have on file shows what appears to be three individuals standing behind the body. The legs of the person you are seeing is definitely military since his fatigues are bloused above his field boots. The others seem to be wearing raincoats. If one of these persons is an Officer, he is wearing low quarters and a class "A" uniform (Greens). According to the Air Force, the class "A" uniform with the black stripe down the side of the pants did not come into use until 1957. This uniform is only worn during the winter months. (9)

We have no way to prove nor disprove the allegations made about the physical make up of the "aliens" and their craft. However, it should be noted that the basic scenario is very similar to other crashed saucer stories. The so-called field examinations of the craft and body bear similarities to Roswell, Aztec, and countless other retrieval stories. For instance, this is not the first time that Ufology was told of "honeycombed" material. The large head is also consistent with the stories we all have heard up to present time.

The flight path of the craft is probably the largest gaff in the entire scenario. If one takes all the information given and does some simple calculations, the object should have crashed in Oklahoma or Kansas. In order to reach Mexico, our ‘spaceship' would have had to make another 90 degree turn and fly south by southwest. Mr. McIntyre told other researchers that he knew the flight path was off. Why wasn't this mentioned in the previous investigations? (10)

CONCLUSIONS

You have been presented with an extraordinary claim. In order to quantify such statements, there needs to be undisputable proof that such an event took place. This applies to both the true believer and debunker. It is far better to be cautious with such claims before any endorsement. Simply put, it's a correct procedure to fully investigate a report to its logical conclusion before writing any report.

The above case comes down to just two possibilities. Either the claim is valid as an extraordinary event, or it is a hoax. The simpler explanation clearly favors this to be a hoax.

One could argue that ET uses some of the same hardware as "Earthlings." Maybe you are thinking, "Why go through all this trouble with a hoax?" or, perhaps, "The source was confused on some of the finer details." I could also interject that maybe there is a clandestine movement within the United States to cover-up this episode. Perhaps this is disinformation, a ruse to hide facts regarding another covert operation. As I previously stated, I cannot prove nor disprove these statements.

What we will say is that the above incident could not have happened with the information given. Our investigations indicate this to my satisfaction. This was a photograph of a light aircraft crash and its dead pilot. Whether it was military or not is still an issue open for debate.

This report is meant to be more of an educational tool for researchers. In the future, you may be presented with a similar account. As an objective investigator, you should pursue every avenue at your disposal, much like we did. Bear in mind, that not all the crash saucer stories have this many errors. It may take time to weed out all the evidence, pro or con. After all, the first step to defining Ufology as a worthy study is to collect all the trash and dump it from the database.

END

Note: Robert Easley is credited with coining the term "Tomato Man".

References:

1. GSW stated in their report that they felt the photographs represented a misinterpretation of a laboratory monkey from a V-2 rocket test failure. Their hypothesis does have merit for other UFO crashes, but we felt it was not applicable to the instant case. OUFOIL Investigative Report; 1982; Charles Wilhelm, Editor.

2. Letter from Eastman Kodak to Ron Schaffner dated January 26, 1981.

3. Letter from Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children to Earl Jones dated April 6, 1981

4. Letters from White Sands to Charles Wilhelm dated February 2 and 17, 1981

5. History of the DEW Line 1946-1964; K4112 AFSHRC/HD, Maxwell AFB.

6. Letter and information packet sent to Charles Wilhelm from Lockheed Corporation dated April 6, 1981.

7. USAF Historical Division, Maxwell AFB, AL. 36112

8. Department of the Army; The Center of Military History and Cessna Aircraft Corporation.

9. USAF Historical Division, Maxwell AFB

10. Letter from Willard McIntyre to Lee Graham dated June 3, 1981

While in the US Navy in the summer of 1986, I was standing lookout aboard the USS Edenton ATS 1 (currently decommissioned). The lookout watch, stood outside on top the bridge of the ship, and was responsible for reporting all contacts seen both in the water and sky. It was around eleven p.m. one clear night at sea, located about fifty miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras, NC.

During one of my scans of the night sky, out of know where, four red circular lights appeared. The lights where hundreds of yards apart from each other and formed a square. At first, I thought it was four separate air craft, such as, military helicopters because the lights were stationary; however, due to the distance from the ship, the lights where too large to be aircraft running lights.

There were also no other normal running lights like green and white, which make-up the normal outline of an aircraft seen at night. The lights where located about twenty degrees above the horizon and about a mile away from the ship. Again, these four red lights were each about the size of a small plane, which were very bright and visible in the night sky. The night sky was also clear, moon lit, and a moderate amount of stars were visible, which also aided in calculating the distance and size of these lights.

As stated, when I first saw these lights they were all stationary in the sky and appeared out of know where. Once I noticed that these were not normal lights, grouped in a square and not moving, I called down to the bridge over a salt and pepper line informing the conning officer of a possible UFO sighting. This brought laughter across the wire at first, but I relayed the contact again in a stern but excited voice, which succeeded in getting the bridge officers attention. After relaying the contact information a second time, the four lights, in a flash, darted towards the horizon amazingly fast. The lower two lights in the square went first, with the top two lights following directly behind them in a curved swooshing motion and there was no sound.

Then all four shot straight up into outer-space and out of sight, all within a split second. At this point, I felt very excited and shocked, and was personally praying someone on the bridge had seen what I just saw. Having been an avid watcher of the night sky, seen shooting stars and a believer in that life has to exist somewhere out there, I become even more excited because I knew, I just saw my first unidentified flying object(s).

To my amazement, when I returned to the bridge after my watch, I was very pleased to learn that the conning officer and everyone else on the bridge had seen this sighting and logged it into the ship’s log as a UFO sighting.

Next, after a half hour had passed since the sighting, the radiation detection system (gamma roentgen meter) on the bridge started making a loud clicking sound. At first, no one seemed to know what was making this sound then a very loud bell went off notifying us as to what was going on, we were being radiated.

When the instrument stopped clicking, it indicated we had taken a hit of 385 roentgens in the period of about one minute. At this point, the captain of the ship was awoken and called to the bridge, as well as the chief in charge of the radiation metering equipment onboard ship.

The captain was not impressed with an entry of a UFO sighting being placed in the ship’s log, and at first, took the roentgen meter as being defective. However, the chief informed the captain that the meter had been serviced and calibrated the day before and that other like meters throughout the ship had just gone off indicating the same amount of roentgens received as the bridge.

The captain stated not to log the instance concerning the radiation exposure and left the bridge. During the rest of my watch duty that night, no officer or enlisted person spoke of what happened, and also acted liked nothing happened. This experience, however, was etched into my memory as if it happened yesterday and I have told this story to only a few people, people who I thought would believe me. This is also the first time I have documented the events of this night.

In conclusion, as an indication of the strength of gamma radiation, I and others received that night; all the personnel during the Project Trinity experiments conducted in 1945 at ground zero, only received between 1 and 6 total roentgens of gamma radiation. This leads me to believe, we traveled through the wake of radiation produced by the UFOs seen thirty minutes earlier.

Source & References:

www.mufoncms.com

THINK ABOUTIT SIGHTING REPORT

Date: 1957

Sighting Time:

Day/Night:

Reported:

Location: Edwards AFB, California, United States

Urban or Rural:

Type of Report: UFO Sighting

Hynek Classification:

Duration:

No. of Object(s): 1

Size of Object(s): 30 feet across.

Distance to Object(s): 20 to 30 yards

Shape of Object(s): saucer, shiny silver and smooth

Color of Object(s):

Number of Witnesses: Multiple

Special Features/Characteristics:  Military, Famous Person, Witness Photo

Source: John Cooke

Summary: "I had a camera crew filming the installation when they spotted a saucer. They filmed it as it flew overhead, then hovered, extended three legs as landing gear, and slowly came down to land on a dry lake bed! It was a classic saucer, shiny silver and smooth, about 30 feet across. It was pretty clear it was an alien craft."

Full Report

In 1957, Cooper was one of an elite band of test pilots at Edwards Air Force Base in California, in charge of several advanced projects, including the installation of a precision landing system.

"I had a camera crew filming the installation when they spotted a saucer. They filmed it as it flew overhead, then hovered, extended three legs as landing gear, and slowly came down to land on a dry lake bed!

"These guys were all pro cameramen, so the picture quality was very good.

"The camera crew managed to get within 20 or 30 yards of it, filming all the time. It was a classic saucer, shiny silver and smooth, about 30 feet across. It was pretty clear it was an alien craft.

"As they approached closer it took off."

When his camera crew handed over the film, Cooper followed standard procedure and contacted Washington to report the UFO ­ and "all heck broke loose," he said.

"After a while a high-ranking officer said when the film was developed I was to put it in a pouch and send it to Washington.

"He didn't say anything about me not looking at the film. That's what I did when it came back from the lab ­ and it was all there just like the camera crew reported."

When the Air Force later started Operation Blue Book to collate UFO evidence and reports, Cooper says he mentioned the film evidence.

"But the film was never found ­ supposedly. Blue Book was strictly a cover-up anyway."

Cooper revealed he's convinced an alien craft crashed at Roswell, N. Mex., in 1947 and aliens were discovered in the wreckage.

"I had a good friend at Roswell, a fellow officer. He had to be careful about what he said. But it sure wasn't a weather balloon, like the Air Force cover story. He made it clear to me what crashed was a craft of alien origin, and members of the crew were recovered."

Why has the government kept its UFO secrets for so many years?

"It started in World War 2, when the government didn't want people to know about UFO reports in case they panicked," said Cooper. "They would have been fearful it was superior enemy technology that we had no defense against.

"Then it got worse in the Cold War for the same reason.

"So they told one untruth, they had to tell another to cover that one, then another, then another . . . it just snowballed.

"And right now I'm convinced a lot of very embarrassed government officials are sitting there in Washington trying to figure a way to bring the truth out. They know it's got to come out one day, and I'm sure it will.

"America has a right to know!"

THINK ABOUTIT SIGHTINGS REPORT

Date: December 6, 1952

Reported:

Location: Gulf of Mexico, United States

Type of Case/Report: MajorCase

Hynek Classification:

Duration:

Shape of Object(s): Disc

Number of Witnesses: Pilot/Co-Pilot/Air-Crew, Military, Radar

Special Features/Characteristics: Pilot/Aircrew, Radar, Humanoid/Occupant

Source: Richard Hall / UFO Casebook Source

Summary: When watching the radarscope, Coleman observed two UFOs which he tracked at a speed in excess of 5.000 miles per hour, quite impossible for planes of the day.

Full Report

Just before dawn on December 6, 1952, on a bright moonlight night, a B-29 bomber of the US Air Force was cruising at the altitude of 18.000 feet above the Gulf of Mexico, 100 miles south of Louisiana, on a bearing which has not been disclosed.

The B-29 had been on a night training flight and the mission was at its end, the plane was now traveling back to his home base.

The crew comprised:

Captain John Harter, flight commander
Lieutenant Sidney Coleman, radar operator
Master Sergeant Bailey, assistant radar operator to Lieutenant Coleman Staff Sergeant Ferris, assistant radar operator to Lieutenant Coleman

Lieutenant Coleman was watching his radarscope, waiting to detect he coastline. At 05:25 local time, he saw a fast moving target on the radarscope, approaching the plane from ahead, at the relative direction of 12 o'clock. What puzzled Coleman is that between each sweep of the radar, the object seemed to have moved 13 nautical miles towards the B-29, which he knew was a speed impossible to any known aircraft.

Lieutenant Coleman used his stopwatch to measure the sped of the object and calculated that it was flying at the speed of 5.240 miles per hour.

He then decided to alert the flight commander, Captain Harter. Harter replied that such as speed was "impossible" and asked Coleman to re-calibrate his radar set.

As Coleman was re-calibrating his radar set, four other blips of an unknown nature appeared on his radarscope, but also on Captain Harder's radarscope and on the navigator's scope, also at the relative position of 12 o'clock, and also approaching the B-29 at high speed.

Coleman was done recalibrating the radar set; he actually found out that the calibration was correct from the start and that the radar was functioning correctly.

At this time, one of the four blips on the radarscope left the group of the four blips and accelerated, approaching the B-29, coming very near. Master Sergeant Bailey noted that, and rushed to the right waist blister to try to see what the object was.

Bailey was totally bewildered to see that indeed at the expected position, an object was visually visible; a blue lit object streaking by the plane far enough to the right side of the plane, circling around it.

At this moment, a second group of blips appeared on all three radar set, seen by all, as the crew was now aware that there was something strange on the radar set. The new group of object also appeared at the relative position of 12 o'clock, they were rushing towards the bomber but this time their courses missed the bomber by several miles. Their speed was calculated with the sop watch; it was also 5.000 miles per hour.

At 05:31 local time, the radar set was clear again. The crew who has been on his nerves started to relax a little. But then a third group of blips appeared on the scope, also coming from their 12 o'clock position. Lieutenant Coleman was using the stopwatch again and Master Sergeant Bailey was doing the calculation: the objects of this third group moved at a pace above 5000 miles per hour. This time, it was the flight navigator who rushed to the right waist blister, and he could see two of the unidentified object: they appeared as blue-white lights streaking at a fantastic speed.

Meanwhile, Captain Harter was studying his radarscope; he noted that forty miles behind the B-29, at the relative position of 6 o'clock, a group of five object was cutting the flightpath of the B-29, and turned as to follow the B-29 from behind. They were heading straight to the B-29 at fast speed, then slowed down when they were closing in on the B-29. The remained right there at the back of the B-29 for ten seconds.

Meanwhile, a larger blip had appeared on the radarscopes. This blip made a motionless half inch spot on the radarscopes, a size impossible to any known plane.

The group of five objects pacing the B-29 then turned, and started to accelerate. The entire crew saw on their radarscope that the group of five approached the huge motionless blip and seemed to merge into it. Now, only the large blip remained on the scope. In a moment, the huge blip took speed.

Coleman called Harter on the intercom and told him that he and Bailey clocked the huge blip. Coleman said: "You won't believe this. It was making over 9000 miles per hour."

Harter replied: "I believe it, all right. That's just what I figured."

Case details by Donald E. Keyhoe, NICAP:

Official clearance list, item 8. Gulf of Mexico area, December 6, 1952. B-29 training flight. Radar and visual reports, accurate details, double-checked; speeds computed showed UFO making 9,000 m.p.h.

The second case which Chop had just cleared was even more dramatic. This strange sighting occurred over the Gulf of Mexico, as a B-29 bomber was returning to its base in Texas. It was just before dawn on December 6, 1952 - less than 48 hours after Lieutenant Earl Fogle's near-collision at Laredo, Texas.

Approaching the end of a night practice flight to Florida, the B-29 was cruising in bright moonlight, at 18,000 feet. So far it had been a routine mission.

At 5:24 A.M. the big bomber, piloted by Captain John Harter, was 190 miles from Galveston and about 100 miles south of the Louisiana coast. A minute before, Harter had called the radar officer, Lieutenant Sid Coleman, and asked him to turn on the set, so he could check the coast line on the auxiliary scope in the cockpit.

At 5:25, back in the ship, Coleman was watching the main radarscope to see if the coast showed up. Suddenly the blip of some unknown object appeared at one edge of the screen. When the sweep made its next revolution, Coleman jumped.

In that brief moment the unknown craft had gone 13 miles.

A third blip leaped onto the scope as the oncoming object streaked toward the B-29. For an instant it seemed they would meet head-on. Then Coleman saw their paths were diverging. He snatched up his stop-watch, yelled for the flight engineer.

"Bailey! Help me track this thing!"

Before the blips faded, Coleman and the staff sergeant swiftly computed the unknown's speed.

It was 5,240 miles an hour.

The two men gaped at each other, then Coleman grabbed his intercom mike and called the pilot.

"Captain-check your scope! We just clocked an un known at over 5,000."

"That's impossible," snapped Harter. "Recalibrate the set."

As Coleman hurriedly went to work, Master Sergeant Bailey bent over the scope.

"There's another one-two of them," he exclaimed.

A second later Lieutenant Cassidy, the navigator, cut in on the intercom.

"I've got 'em on my scope, too," he said tautly.

By the time Coleman finished recalibrating, the blips of four UFOs were racing across his screen. Abruptly, Harter's crisp voice came through the intercom.

"I've got four unknowns at 12 o'clock [dead ahead]. What do you show?"

"They're on all three scopes," said Coleman. "I've re-calibrated - it's no malfunction."

Up in the cockpit, Harter incredulously watched the swift-moving blips cross his glass. As one approached on the right, he called out a hasty alert.

"Unknown at 3 o'clock!"

Back in the B-29, Bailey sprang to the right waist blister and peered out into the night. Astonished, he saw a blue- lit object streak from front to rear. Moving so fast it was only a blue-white blur, the saucer vanished under the bomber's wing.

The strange machine had hardly disappeared when another group of blips came onto all three scopes. Like the other machines, the new group was making over 5,000 miles an hour. To make it worse, they were all coming from almost dead ahead. Though their course still diverged enough to miss the bomber by miles, the slightest change might put the crew in instant peril. At those terrific speeds they wouldn't have a prayer, and every man aboard knew it.

Six minutes after the first sighting, there was a sudden lull. As the scopes cleared, Coleman drew a long breath. Apparently the nightmare was over.

A minute passed. The tense airmen were slowly beginning to relax when a third group of blips flashed onto the scopes. Coleman seized his stop-watch again, swiftly called off the times and distances. Bailey figured the speeds, grimly nodded.

"Same as before," he muttered.

The radar officer bent over the screen. Two of the UFO's were rocketing by on the right.

"Unknowns at four o'clock!" he bawled into the mike.

Staff Sergeant Ferris beat Bailey to the waist blister. Open-mouthed, he watched two machines streak by- mere blurs of blue-white light.

Up in the cockpit, Harter's eyes were glued to the auxiliary scope. Forty miles away, five of the saucers were racing behind the bomber, cutting across its course.

Suddenly the saucers swerved, headed straight for the B-29. Harter froze. At their terriffic speed they would close the gap in three seconds.

But before he could move the controls, an incredible thing happened. Abruptly the onrushing UFO's slowed to the bomber's speed. For ten seconds they kept pace behind it, while the pilot held his breath.

Then, swiftly picking up speed, the unknown machines pulled off to one side. At the same moment Harter caught sight of a huge blip-a half-inch spot on the scope. Amazed, he saw the most fantastic thing of all.

Still moving at over 5,000 miles an hour, the smaller craft merged with the large machine. Instantly, the huge blip began to accelerate. Moving so fast that Harter sat stunned, it flashed across his scope and was gone.

A few moments later Coleman's awed voice came through the intercom.

"Captain, did you see that?"

"Yes - I saw it," said Harter.

"We clocked it," said Coleman. "You won't believe this-it was making over 9,000 miles an hour!"

"I believe it, all right," Harter said grimly. "That's just what I figured."

For the rest of the way he kept the crew on alert, but no more saucers appeared.

The meaning of what they had seen was inescapable. The discs had been launched from a huge mother ship for some type of reconnaissance mission. Probably it had covered parts of the United States, but at the discs' tremendous speed they could have been operating anywhere over the globe.

For a rendezvous, whoever guided the discs had chosen this point over the Gulf of Mexico. After the B-29 was sighted, one group of discs had been diverted for a brief observation or tracking. Then, flying at 5,000 m.p.h., they had been taken aboard the mother ship. And in a matter of seconds the huge machine had almost doubled its speed.

It was almost unbelievable. But the radar set had been working perfectly, and the visual confirmation, as Bailey and Ferris saw the machines flash by, was final, absolute proof. Three separate times during the operation saucers had been seen exactly where the three radarscopes showed them.

Captain Harter had radioed ahead, and Intelligence officers were waiting when they landed. Over and over the airmen were interrogated, separately and together. But nothing could shake their story, and statements in the report showed their firm conviction.

Captain Harter: "One group of blips was noted, after the set was calibrated, to arc about and swing in behind us at about 30 miles, and maintain speed and distance for approximately ten seconds... Contact was broken off at 0535, after a group of the blips merged into a one half-inch arc and proceeded across the scope and off it at a computed speed of over 9,000 m.p.h."

Lieutenant Coleman: "I noticed one UFO approach our aircraft at a terrific rate of speed. I timed it as best I could with a stop-watch over a known distance and the flight engineer computed the speed at 5,240m.p.h. I alerted the entire crew to look for the objects visually, and flashes of light were noted. The closest the objects came was approximately 20 miles. I saw about 20 objects in all. I recalibrated the set and there was no change."

"The objects were small and possibly round, with the exception of one very large return shaped as follows, one- half-inch curved arc. I also noticed a large return come up to within 40 miles of our tail from behind and then disappear. To the best of my knowledge, I believe that this object was real and moved at an extremely high speed and was not a set malfunction or optical illusion."

Master Sergeant Bailey: "The radar operator clocked the object [the first one seen] and I computed the air speed of the object to average 5,240 m.p.h. Twice during the period, the radar operator reported an object to be passing at 3 o'clock. Upon looking out the window, I saw a blue-white streak travel front to rear and disappear under the wing."

Staff Sergeant Ferris: "After the radar operator reported objects approaching at 4 o'clock, I immediately looked in that position and saw two flashes of a blue-white nature for approximately three seconds."

As was to be expected, neither Bailey nor Ferris could make out the shape of the saucers. At their great speeds they were naturally only a blur.

Discussion:

It was Albert Chop, who was at the time the public relation officer about UFOs for the US Air Force in Washington DC who released the case to Major Donald E. Keyhoe, USMC Ret. and a leading UFO investigator.

The events are known because they occurred before the JANAP 146 regulation silenced military witnesses of UFOs. After JANAP 146 was imposed, military personal were ordered to report all UFOs internally only, forbidden to report their UFO sightings publicly unless they had a commonplace explanation, and were sued if they ignored the regulation.

If the US Air force had an honest desire that people and the scientific community would evaluate the UFO problem, they would have publicized such data. They did not, and claimed even as late as 1966 before the US Congress that no UFO has ever been detected on radar. Understandably, they did not want to be bothered over the UFO problem.

To the best of my knowledge, skeptic people offered no comment on this case ever. They either do not know about it, or chose to ignore it.

The only academic scientist who checked into the case is Paul R. Hill, a well respected NASA scientist who became interested in UFOs because he had his own UFO sighting in the 50s. He soon acted as the unofficial UFO specialist at NASA, and offered the same conclusion for this case than the conclusion offered by Al Chop, Major Keyhoe, and other ufologists:

Several changes of course were made, and two phases of acceleration were performed. Speeds of 5.000 to 9.000 miles per hour with maneuvers and motionless capability exclude any meteor whatsoever as it is too slow, and exclude any known human flying machine of 1952 and ever since, as it is much too fast. Planes cruising at 5000 miles per hour at an altitude of 18.000 feet would simply immediately disintegrate. Rockets of that time did not have the observed maneuverability.

The fact that the objects arrived head on, turned back, paced the plane, went away to joined with a much larger one which then fled away at an impossible speed is indicative of an intelligent driven operation.

No known human plane or rocket emits a blue light.

Neither meteors nor planes nor rockets do not make rendez-vous.

No rocket or plane has the size seen by the crew for the largest object on the radarscope.

Conclusion:

This incident is no less than a report from US Air Force's own people that groups of extraordinary flying machines with a speed impossible to any known plane of that time, and still impossible to any modern time jet from the point of view of both speed and manoeuver, do visit our planet.

It is also an incident in which not only radar and visual observation was made by multiple witnesses, but in which precise enough measurement of the speed was done, based on instrumentation and not just visual evaluation.

This is also an incident where smaller flying machines paced a US bomber aircraft and, finally, joined with a flying machine of a size which was and still is impossible to any known plane, and whose speed of 9000 miles per hour after a motionless period was and still is something absolutely impossible to any know plane.

This case is one of many which prove that our planet is visited by something for which there is no other reasonable explanation by far, than an intelligent, technological, extraterrestrial origin.

THINK ABOUTIT SIGHTINGS REPORT

Date: August 27, 1956

Sighting Time:

Day/Night:

Reported:

Location: McCleod, Alberta, Canada

Urban or Rural: Air

Type of Case/Report: StandardCase

Hynek Classification:

Duration:

No. of Object(s): Single

Size of Object(s):

Distance to Object(s):

Shape of Object(s): Disc

Color of Object(s):

Number of Witnesses: Multiple

Special Features/Characteristics: Photo, Military, Pilot/Aircrew

Source: STUDIOVNI

Summary: The witnesses were two Royal Canadian Air Force pilots who were flying in a formation of four F86 Sabre jet aircraft. One of the pilots saw a "bright light which was sharply defined and disk-shaped," that resembled "a shiny silver dollar sitting horizontal." The first pilot to notice the object took a photograph.

Full Report

August 27, 1956, near McCleod, Alberta, Canada. The witnesses were two Royal Canadian Air Force pilots who were flying in a formation of four F86 Sabre jet aircraft. The planes were flying due west over the Canadian Rockies at 36,000 feet about one hour before sunset. One of the pilots saw a "bright light which was sharply defined and disk-shaped," that resembled "a shiny silver dollar sitting horizontal," situated below the planes but above a thick layer of clouds. It appeared to be considerably brighter than sunlight reflecting off the clouds. The duration of the sighting was estimated to be between 45 seconds and 3 minutes. The first pilot to notice the object reported the observation to the flight leader and then took a photograph on a Kodachrome color slide. This case and this photograph were subsequently analyzed by Dr. Bruce Maccabee (Maccabee, 1996). Maccabee has presented an argument against the propositions that the phenomenon is due either to reflection of sunlight by the clouds or to lightning. From the available data, Maccabee estimates the luminosity of the object (the power output within the spectral range of the film) to be many megawatts. ("Physical Evidence Related to UFO Reports" - The Sturrock Panel Report)

Dr. Bruce Maccabee's analysis is available online in PDF format:
http://www.scientificexploration.org/jse/articles/pdf/13.2_maccabee.pdf

THINK ABOUTIT SIGHTING REPORT

Date: April 25, 1977

Sighting Time: 4:15 a.m

Day/Night: Night

Reported:

Location: Pampa Lluscuma (near Putre), Chile

Urban or Rural: Rural

Type of Report:

Hynek Classification: CE4

Duration: 15 minutes

No. of Object(s):  two

Size of Object(s):

Distance to Object(s):

Shape of Object(s):

Color of Object(s): violet light

Number of Witnesses:

Special Features/Characteristics: Missing Time, Military

Source: Associated Press / San Antonio News, May 23, 1977

Summary: A Chilean soldier was in shock after a weird, five-day ordeal with a UFO. Six members of an army patrol saw two bright objects descending from the sky. Cpl. Armando Valdes, the patrol leader, set out alone to investigate and, according to the men, simply vanished. Fifteen minutes later, they said, he reappeared, tried to speak and passed out. The date on his watch had been advanced five days, and he now had about a week's growth of beard.

Full Report

"Soldier loses 5 days to UFO"

SANTIAGO, Chile — A Chilean soldier is still in shock after a weird, five-day ordeal with a UFO.

This is his story.

It was 4:15 a.m. in Chile's far north desert country,

Six members of an army patrol were bedded down around a campfire while two men stood guard. Suddenly, two bright objects began descending from the sky.

One dropped into the Andes foothills out of direct sight, but the men in the patrol, now fully awake, could see the glow of its light.

The second, they said, lowered almost to the ground about 500 yards away from the camp. The men said it shone with a violet light with two points of intense red.

Cpl. Armando Valdes, the patrol leader, ordered the soldiers to take up their weapons. Then he set out alone to investigate and, according to the men, simply vanished. Fifteen minutes later, they said, he reappeared, tried to speak and passed out.

They said he regained consciousness about 7 a.m. but that his watch showed only 4:30, the approximate time he reappeared. They also said the date on the watch had been advanced five days, and that Yaldes now had about a week's growth of beard.

According to his comrades, when Valdes was beginning to regain consciousness he said: "You do not know who we are, nor where we come from. But I tell you that we will soon return."

Skeptics

This purported sighting occurred April 25, and since the soldiers' tale was publicized dozens of other unidentified flying objects have been reported up and down the 2,700-mile length of Chile.

Valdes says he does not recall anything that happened during the 15 minutes he was missing-Some skeptics said the soldiers may have seen a desert mirage. But other sightings have been reported on the outskirts of this capital city, in the rainy lake region about BOO mites to the south, and over the Straits of Magellan at I he cold southern tip of the continent.

The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the University of Chile jointly operate a space tracking station a few miles north of Santiago, but officials at the station had no official comment on the reports.

A source at the station who asked not to be identified said he felt some of the previous UFO sightings in Chile were satellites or airplanes. But he said the most, recent sightings, made at relatively close distances, did not appear to be satellites.

Oscar Bravo, a radio announcer at Punta Arenas, the major town on the Straits of Magellan, said he awoke about 3 a.m. one night and went, to the kitchen for a glass of water.

Speed

"First, I noticed the sky was bright," he said.

"This caused me to open the curtains, and I could see these two things suspended in the air emitting a strong light, bright and orange.

"The light went out but returned, with a violent color. Then these two things, of oval shape, moved at a rapid speed, opening themselves like a V and closing at a higher point in the sky." They finally disappeared over the straits, he said.

A few nights later, passengers on a bus going from Puerto Monti to Puerto Varas in southern Chile said they saw something similar about. 100 yards above them in the sky.

Several people who have seen UFOs recently estimated their size at about 12 feet in diameter. Most say they are round or oval—"like a huge wagon wheel," said one woman.

The Chilean Abduction

Source: APRO, July, 1977

"You don't know who we are or where we come from but we will be back soon." These are the strange words uttered by Corporal Armando Valdes, leader of a Chilean military patrol. Just some 15 mintues previously he had been subjected to a mysterious UFO encounter at Pampa Lluscuma near Putre in Chile. The date was April 25, 1977 and the time about 4:00 AM. Putre is 50 air miles ENE of Arica, a larger city in Chile.

Corporal Valdes was in charge of a patrol on routine assignment near Putre in the early morning hours of April 25, 1977. He and his six-man patrol were sitting around a campfire alongside a wall of stones and mud at the secret army post of Pampa Lluscuma. They were talking and singing quite a while to stay awake. Two of the men kept watch several feet away. About four in the morning one of the men. Private Rosales, ran back to Valdes to report that two bright violet lights had landed, one of which was in sight and illuminated the whole area. The light approached closer. Valdes ordered his men to cover up their fire with blankets. The violet light with a red spot at each end withdrew and then returned closer. The patrol was terrified.

There was no sound with the UFO motion. The Chilean high plateau was amazingly silent. Corporal Valdes stated "after praying to God and ordering the light to leave . . . after demanding that it identify itself, I moved a few meters away from my men." The corporal moved toward the object. He disappeared for some 15 minutes. When he reappeared, he was shaking and his voice seemed different. The light had been illuminating the whole area. As Corporal Valdes reappeared he was heard to utter the words at the beginning of this article. He then became unconscious and was attended by his fellow men till he awoke some two hours later. The UFO also disappeared about this time.

While the unconscious Corporal Valdes was assisted by his patrol, his men made another strange observation. They saw that Valdes had a beard growth equivalent to several days without shaving. He had been well shaven before the incident. As Valdes awoke he exclaimed, "I don't remember anything from the moment I left you." He then ordered, "Get ready to leave because it's 4:30 in the morning. It was actually about 7 AM. His calendar watch had stopped at 4:30 but the date was five days advanced - to the 30th instead of the 25th.

These are the bizarre circumstances in the case. Many of the details were related some two hours after the incident to Pedro Araneda, a correspondent and lecturer. The presence of UFOs are not a surprise to Corporal Valdes. He, as well as others in the interior of Chile near Arica, often see luminous UFOs moving about the skies. Valdes states, "The surprising thing was the way it approached us. As soldiers we are trained to deal with any situation. But this phenomenon didn't seem to have any logical explanation. I would like to regain my memory of those fifteen minutes. I would even like to submit to hypnosis to draw out information about what happened."

President and Commander in Chief Augusto Pinochet of Chile has prohibited further interviews with the soldiers. Medical, psychiatric and eventually hypnotic tests are planned for member of the patrol to confirm their stories. Meanwhile more sightings have occurred at Arica, Punta Arenas, Santiago, and other locations up and down the 2700 mile length of Chile. NASA and the University of Chile jointly operate a space tracking station north of Santiago, Chile. Officials of the station could offer nothing to elucidate the facts in this case. The time fact in this particular case - increased beard growth and accelerated clock time - are elements which make this case exceptional and worthy of further consideration.

 

This photograph depicts what appears to be a flying saucer that crashed almost vertically into the soft earth. The UFO in these pictures is allegedly related to this report from Russia:

In the beginning of August 1987, five soldiers of the Leningrad Military District went to the North Karelia region on a special mission, and were required to guard an object of unknown origin. It measured 4 meters long, 4 meters wide, and 2.5 meters high. The 'flying saucer' was found on the territory of another military unit near the town of Vyborg. The object had neither doors nor hatches, and all attempts to open its hull were unsuccessful. The military attempted to break parts off the disc, however, they were only able to remove some rods from the stern. By the end of September 1987, the object had mysteriously disappeared without a trace from the hangar where it was kept.

 

his internationally famous UFO incident took place in 1986, on January 29, at 7:55 p.m. Some have called it the Roswell Incident of the Soviet Union. The information concerning this incident was sent to us by a number of Russian ufologists.

Dalnegorsk is a small mining town in the Far East of Russia. That cold January day a reddish sphere flew into this town from the southeastern direction, crossed part of Dalnegorsk, and crashed at the Izvestkovaya Mountain (also known as Height or Hill 611, because of its size). The object flew noiselessly, and parallel to the ground; it was approximately three meters in diameter, of a near-perfect round shape, with no projections or cavities, its colour similar to that of burning stainless steel. One eyewitness, V. Kandakov, said that the speed of the UFO was close to 15 meters per hour. The object slowly ascended and descended, and its glow would heat up every time it rose up. On its approach to Hill 611 the object “jerked”, and fell down like a rock.

All witnesses reported that the object “jerked” or “jumped”. Most of them recall two “jumps”. Two girls remember that the object actually “jumped” four times. The witnesses heard a weak, muted thump. It burned intensively at the cliff’s edge for an hour. A geological expedition to the site, led by V. Skavinsky of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Siberian Branch of the Soviet Academy of Sciences (1988), had confirmed the object’s movements through a series of chemical and physical tests of the rocks collected from the site. Valeri Dvuzhilni, head of the Far Eastern Committee for Anomalous Phenomena, was the first to investigate the crash. With the help of our colleagues in Russia this is the most accurate account of the incident to date.

Dr. Dvuzhilni arrived at the site two days after the crash. Deep snow was covered the area at the time. The site of the crash, located on a rocky ledge, was devoid of snow. All around the site remnants of silica splintered rocks were found: (due to exposure to high temperatures), and “smoky” looking. Many pieces, and a nearby rock, contained particles of silvery metal, some “sprayed”-like, some in the form of solidified balls. At the edge of the site a tree-stump was found. It was burnt and emitted a chemical smell. The objects collected at the site were later dubbed as “tiny nets”, “little balls”, “lead balls”, “and glass pieces” (that is what each resembled).

Closer examination revealed very unusual properties. One of the “tiny nets” contained torn and very thin (17 micrometers) threads. Each of the threads consisted of even thinner fibers, tied up in plaits. Intertwined with the fibers were very thin gold wires. Soviet scientists, at such facilities as the Omsk branch of the Academy of Sciences, analyzed all collected pieces. Without going into specific details suffice it to say that the technology to produce such materials was not yet available on Earth…except for one disturbing account.

To give an idea of the complexity of the composition of the pieces, let us look at the “iron balls”. Each of them had its own chemical composition: iron, and a large mixture of aluminum, manganese, nickel, chromium, tungsten, and cobalt.

silver ball like object from crash site

Such differences indicate that the object was not just a piece of lead and iron, but some heterogeneous construction made from heterogeneous alloys with definite significance. When melted in a vacuum, some pieces would spread over a base, while at another base they would form into balls. Half of the balls were covered with convex glass-like structures. Neither the physicists nor physical metallurgists can say what these structures are, what their composition is. The “tiny nets” (or “mesh”) have confused many researchers. It is impossible to understand their structure and nature of the formation.

Mesh like object found

A. Kulikov, an expert on carbon at the Chemistry Institute of the Far Eastern Department of the Academy of Sciences, USSR, wrote that it was not possible to get an idea what the “mesh” is. It resembles glass carbon, but conditions leading to such formation are unknown. Definitely a common fire could not produce such glass carbon. The most mysterious aspect of the collected items was the disappearance, after vacuum melting, of gold, silver, and nickel, and the appearance-from nowhere-of molybdenum, that was not in the chamber to begin with.

The only thing that could be more or less easily explained was the ash found on site. Something biological was burned during the crash. A flock of birds, perhaps, or a stray dog; or someone who was inside the crashed object?

Dr. Dvuzhilni’s article was published in a Soviet (Uzbekistan) Magazine NLO: Chto, Gde, Kogda? (Issue 1, 1990, reprint of an article in FENOMEN Magazine, March 23, 1990). In his article Dalnegorski Phenomen V. Dvuzhilni provides details unavailable elsewhere.

The southwesterly trajectory of the object just about coincides with the Xichang Cosmodrome of People’s Republic of China, where satellites are launched into geo synchronous orbit with the help of the Great March-2 carrier rockets. There is no data of any rocket launches in the PRC at the end of January. At the same time, Sinxua Agency reported on January 25, 1988, that there was a sighting of a glowing red sphere not far from the Cosmodrome, where it hovered for 30 minutes. Possibly, UFOs had shown interest toward the Chinese Cosmodrome in the years 1989 and 1988.

There is another curious detail: at the site of the Height 611 small pieces of light gray color were discovered, but only in the area of the contact. These specimens did not match any of the local varieties of soil. What is amazing, the spectroscopic analysis of the specimens matched them to the Yaroslavl tuffs of the polymetalic deposits (i.e. the specimens possessed some characteristic elements of the Yaroslavl, but not the Dalnegorsk, tuffs). There is a possibility that the object obtain pieces of tuff in the Yaroslavl area. Tuffs experience metamorphosis under the effect of high temperatures .

The site of the crash itself was something like an anomalous zone. It was “active” for three years after the crash. Insects avoid the place. The zone affects mechanical and electronic equipment. Some people, including a local chemist, actually got very sick.

This Hill 611 is located in the area of numerous anomalies; according to an article in the Soviet digest Tainy XX Veka (Moscow, 1990, CP Vsya Moskva Publishing House). Even photos taken at the site, when developed, failed to show the hill, but did clearly show other locations. Members of an expedition to the site reported later that their flashlights stopped working at the same time. They checked the flashlights upon returning home, and discovered burned wires.

Eight days after the UFO crash at Hill 611, on February 8, 1986, at 8:30 p.m., two more yellowish spheres flew from the north, in the southward direction. Reaching the site of the crash, they circled it four times, then turned back to the north and flew away. Then on November 28, 1987 (Saturday night, 11:24 p.m.), 32 flying objects had appeared from nowhere. There were hundreds of witnesses, including the military and civilians.

The objects flew over 12 different settlements, and 13 of them flew to Dalnegorsk and the site. Three of the UFOs hovered over the settlement, and five of them illuminated the nearby mountain. The objects moved noiselessly, at an altitude between 150 to 800 meters. None of the eyewitnesses actually thoughts they were UFOs. Those who observed the objects assumed they were aircraft involved in some disaster, or falling meteorites. As the objects flew over houses, they created interference (television, telegraph functions).

The Ministry of Internal Affairs officers, who were present, testified later that they observed the objects from a street, at 23:30 (precise time). They saw a fiery object, flying in from the direction of Gorely settlement. In front of the fiery “flame” was a lusterless sphere, and in the middle of the object was a red sphere. Another group of eyewitnesses included workers from the Bor quarry. They observed an object at 11:00 pm. A giant cylindrical object was flying straight at the quarry. Its size was like that of a five-story building, its length around 200 or 300 hundred meters. The front part of the object was lit up, like a burning metal. The workers were afraid that the object would crash on them. One of the managers of the quarry observed an object at 11:30 pm.

The object was slowly moving at an altitude of 300 meters. It was huge, and cigar-shaped. The manager, whose last name was Levakov, stated that he was well acquainted with aerodynamics, knew theory and practice of flight, but never knew that a body could fly noiselessly without any wings or engines. Another eyewitness, a kindergarten teacher, saw something else. It was a bright, blinding sphere at an altitude of a nine-story building. It moved noiselessly. In front of the sphere Ms. Markina observed a dark, metallic-looking elongated object of about 10 to 12 meters long. It hovered over a school. There the object emitted a ray (its diameter about half a meter). The colour of the ray was violet-bluish. The ground below illuminated, but there were no shadows from objects below. Then the object in the sky approached a mountain and hovered over it. It illuminated the mountain, emitted a reddish projector-like light, as if searching for something, and then departed, flying over the mountain.

No rocket launches took place at any of the Soviet cosmodromes either on January 29, 1986, or November 28, 1987.

Dr. Dvuzhilni’s conclusion is that it was a malfunctioning alien space probe that crashed into the Hill 611. Another hypothesis has it that the object managed to ascend, and escape (almost in one piece) in the north-easterly direction and probably crashed in the dense taiga.

Source: pravda

THINK ABOUTIT SIGHTING REPORT

Date: September 29, 2001

Sighting Time:

Day/Night:

Reported:

Location: Budapest, Hungary

Urban or Rural:

Type of Report:

Hynek Classification: DD

Duration:

No. of Object(s):

Size of Object(s):

Distance to Object(s):

Shape of Object(s): Disc

Color of Object(s):

Number of Witnesses:

Special Features/Characteristics: Photo, Military, Pilot/Aircrew

Source: Kal Korff / Rense.com

Summary: "A military pilot recorded a spectacular video of a silver disk object on September 29, 2001. The craft was flying to his left side and then moved very fast past him in the clouds as can be seen in the video."

Full Report

BUDAPEST, Hungary - A military pilot recorded a spectacular video of a silver disk object on September 29, 2001. The craft was flying to his left side and then moved very fast past him in the clouds as can be seen in the video.

"I was on a flight over Budapest, Hungary," said the pilot, who has requested that his name be withheld until the official inquiry by the Hungarian Ministry of Defence is complete.

"To my left I saw a bright metal aircraft that was the shape of a perfect disk. I was careful to film the object, not to try and chase it since it I could not match its speed. As I was flying a reconnaisance aircraft, I got the idea to film it and used our equipment."

Officials at the Ministry of Defence would not answer questions about the video when asked and warned that officially they have no comment. Despite the denial, when informed of the pilot's name, they did acknowledge that the he was a real air force pilot and that it was true that he flew photo reconnaisance airplanes.

The pilot considers the video he made to be his property and not the Hungarian governments as he was flying the plane while not on duty and was transporting it as a favor to save the government money. He has now hired an attorney and wants the video to be released to the public. He hopes the release of a few frames will make this happen.

[from Hungarian press news article, translated into English]

THINK ABOUTIT SIGHTINGS REPORT

Date: August 5, 1953

Reported:

Location: Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota, United States

Type of Case/Report: MajorCase

Hynek Classification: DD

Duration:

Shape of Object(s): Saucer

Number of Witnesses:

Special Features/Characteristics: Radar, Pilot/Aircrew, Military

Source: FCaptain Edward J. Ruppelt, Former Director of Project Blue Book

Summary: Shortly after dark on the night of twelfth [sic], the Air Defense Command radar station at Ellsworth AFB, just east of Rapid City, had received a call from the local Ground Observer Corps filter center. A lady spotter at Black Hawk, about 10 miles west of Ellsworth, had reported an extremely bright light low on the horizon, off to the northeast..

Full Report

I first heard about the sighting about two o'clock on the morning of August 11,1953, when Max Futch called me from ATIC. A few minutes before, a wire had come in carrying a priority just under that reserved for flashing the word the U.S. has been attacked. Max had been called over to ATIC by the OD to see the report, and he thought that I should see it. I was a little hesitant to get dressed and go out to the base, so I asked Max what he thought about the report. His classic answer will go down in UFO history, "Captain," Max said in his slow, pure Louisiana drawl, "you know that for a year I've read every flying saucer report that's come in and that I never really believed in the things." Then he hesitated and added, so fast that I could hardly understand hini, "But you should read this wire." The speed with which he uttered this last statement was in itself enough to convince me. When Max talked fast, something was important.

A half hour later I was at ATIC - just in time to get a call from the Pentagon. Someone else had gotten out of bed to read his copy of the wire.

I used the emergency orders that I always kept in my desk and caught the first airliner out of Dayton to Rapid City, South Dakota. I didn't call the 4602nd because I wanted to investigate this one personally. I talked to everyone involved in the incident and pieced together an amazing story.

Shortly after dark on the night of twelfth, the Air Defense Command radar station at Ellsworth AFB, just east of Rapid City, had received a call from the local Ground Observer Corps filter center. A lady spotter at Black Hawk, about 10 miles west of Ellsworth, had reported an extremely bright light low on the horizon, off to the northeast. The radar had been scanning an area to the west, working a jet fighter in some practice patrols, but when they got the report they moved the sector scan to the northeast quadrant There was a target exactly where the lady repored the light to be. The warrant officer who was the duty controller for the night, told me that he'd studied the target for several minutes. He knew how weather could affect radar but this target was well defined, solid, and bnght." It seemed to be moving, but very slowly. He called for an altitude reading, and the man on the height-finding radar checked his scope. He also had the target - it was at 16.000 feet.

The warrant officer picked up the phone and asked the filter center to connect him with the spotter. They did, and ihe two people compared notes on the UFO's position for several minutes. But right in the middle of a sentence the lady suddenly stopped and excitedly said, "It'sstarting to move - it's moving southwest toward Rapid."

The controller looked down at his scope and the target was begining to pick up speed and move southwest. He yelled at two of his men to run outside and take a look. In a second or two one of them shouted back that they could both see a large bluish-white light moving toward Rapid City. The controller looked down at his scope, the target was moving toward Rapid City. As all three parties watched the light and kept up a steady cross conversation of the description, the UFO swiftly made a wide sweep around Rapid City and returned to its original position in the sky.

A master sergeant who had seen and heard the happenings told me that in all his years of duty - combat radar operations in both Europe and Korea - he'd never been so completely awed by anything. When the warrant officer had yelled down at him and asked him what he thought they should do, he'd just stood there. "After all," he told me, "what in hell couldf we do - they're bigger than all of us."

But the warrant officer did do something. He called to the F-84 pilot he had on combat air patrol west of the base and told him to get ready for an intercept. He brought the pilot around south of the base and gave him a course correction thai would take him riglit into the light. which was still at 16.000 feet. By this time the pilot had it spotted. He made the turn, and when he closed to within about 3 miles of the target, it began to move. The controller saw it begin to move, the spotter saw it begin to move and the pilot saw it begin to move - all at the same time There was now no doubt that all of them were watching the same object.

Once it began to move, the UFO picked up speed fast and started to climb, heading north, but the F-84 was right on its tail. The pilot would notice that the light was getting brighter, and he'd call the controller to tell him about it. But the controller's answer would always be the same, "Roger, we can see it on the scope."

There was always a limit as to how near the jet could get, however. The controller told me that it was just as if the UFO had some kind of an automatic warning radar linked to its power supply. When something got too close to it, it would automatically pick up speed and pull away. The separation distance always remained about 3 miles.

The chase continued on north out of sight of the lights of Rapid Cty and the base - into some very black night.

When the UFO and the F-84 got about 120 miles to the north, the pilot checked his fuel; he had to come back. And when I talked to him, be said he was damn glad that he was running out of fuel because being out over some mighty desolate country alone with a UFO can cause some worry.

Both the UFO and the F-84 had gone off the scope, but in a few minutes the jet was back on, heading for home. Then 10 or 15 miles behind it was the UFO target also coming back.

While the UFO and the F-84 were returning to the base - the F-84 was planning to land - the controller received a call from the jet interceptor squadron on the base. The alert pilots at the squadron had heard the conversations on their radio and didn't believe it. "Who's nuts up there?" was the comment that passed over the wire from the pilots to the radar people. There was an F-84 on the line ready to scramble, the man on the phone said, and one of the pilots, a World War II and Korean veteran, wanted to go up and see a flying saucer. The controller said, "OK, go."

In a minute or two the F-84 was airborne and the controller was working him toward the light. The pilot saw it right away and closed in. Again the light began to clirnb out, this time more toward the northeast. The pilot also began to climb, and before long the light, which at first had been about 30 degrees above his horizontal line of sight, was now below him. He nosed the '84 down to pick up speed, but it was the same old story - as soon as he'd get within 3 miles of the UFO, it would put on a burst of speed and stay out ahead.

Even though the pilot could see the light and hear the ground controller telling him that he was above it, and alternately gaining on it or dropping back, he still couldn't believe it - there must be a simple explanation He turned off all of his lights - it wasn't a reflection from any of the airplane's lights because there it was. A reflection from a ground light, maybe. He rolled the airp!ane - the position of the light didn't change. A star - he picked out three bright stars near the light and watched carefully. The UFO moved in relation to the three stars. Well, he thought to himself, if it's a real object out there, my radar should pick it up too; so he flipped on his radar-ranging gunsight. In a few seconds the red light on his sight blinked on - something real and solid was in front of him. Then he was scared. When I talked to him, he readily admitted that he'd been scared. He'd met MD 109's, FW 190's and ME 262's over Germany and he'd met MIG-15's over Korea but the large, bright, bluish-white light had scared - he asked the controller if he could break off the intercept

This time the light didn't corne back.

What he UFO went off the scope it was headed toward Fargo, North Dakota, so the controller called the Fargo filter center. "Had they had any reports of unidentified lights?" he asked. They hadn't.

But in a few minutes a call came back. Spotter posts on a southwest- northeast line a few miles west of Fargo had reported a fast-moving, bright bluish-white light.

This was an unknown - the best..

The sighting was thoroughly investigated, and I could devote pages of detail on how we looked into every facet of the incident; but it will suffice to say that in every facet we looked into we saw nothing. Nothing but a big question mark asking what was it.

Captain Edward J. Ruppelt
Former Director, Project Blue Book

By Don Berliner, The Fund for UFO Research, Inc.; 2002

 

About the only point that can be made concerning UFOs without the risk of starting an unpleasant controversy is that they are supremely controversial. Any discussion of their nature, their origins, their significance and, indeed, their very existence, has led to long-term arguments that have yet to reach any generally agreed-upon conclusion.

On the pivotal questions of their being real and of a novel nature, the reasons employed by the negative side focus on the lack of scientifically acceptable proof of the presence of a single UFO. Expert testimony, photographs and radar trackings are discounted as insufficiently scientific. And since UFOs are so often equated with extraterrestrial spacecraft, the negative side points to the alleged impossibility of, and the lack of motivation for, traveling astronomical distances for undetermined purposes.

Those on the positive side point to the same evidence and suggest that comparable material and equally qualified witnesses are accepted by the legal systems of most countries. As for the possibility that UFOs are extraterrestrial spacecraft (a leap that is not necessarily justified), pro-UFO activists say that any discussion of the likelihood of travel from other possible worlds depends on unavailable knowledge of the technology of those operating UFOs, their normal life spans and their motivations (or lack of same) for traveling extreme distances.

The Evidence

Evidence of a UFO sighting may be anecdotal (the description of a personal experience) and/or recorded (photographic, radar, physical). The reliability of any anecdote depends on the amount and precision of the data, and the personal character and technical background of the witness(es). The usefulness of reliable data depends on its nature: Does it point to a conventional explanation or toward something unconventional?

If every UFO report could be convincingly credited to some conventional astronomical or atmospheric phenomenon, there would be no UFO mystery. It is precisely because so many UFO reports cannot logically be blamed on stars, planets, satellites, airplanes, balloons, etc., that a UFO mystery has existed since at least the mid-1940s.

The most convincing UFO reports were produced in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s by airline pilots, military pilots and ex-military pilots. These men had the training and the experience to be able to distinguish between normal sky sights and highly abnormal sights. They knew what airplanes looked like, and what meteors looked like, having seen them many times. Their visual observations were frequently supported by radar data which showed essentially the same thing. They were therefore able, on many occasions, to methodically eliminate conventional phenomena from consideration when trying to identify UFOs.

In those same decades, most UFO sightings were made in the daytime and frequently at close range, when shapes and surface features could be distinguished, thus making positive identification of normal sights easier and the descriptions of unusual sights more detailed. When all normal explanations had been eliminated, the witnesses could concentrate on those aspects of the experience which were most abnormal.

These abnormal aspects included the shapes of UFOs and their behavior. Most of the UFOs seen in the daytime were said to have had simple geometric shapes--discs, ovals, spheres, cylinders--and surfaces that looked like metal. Such shapes are not only nonexistent among known aircraft, but contrary to all known theories of flight, in most cases offering control and performance disadvantages rather than advantages.

Even more unusual were the specifics of their flight performance: silent hovering, silent high-speed flight, extreme acceleration, supersonic flight at low altitude without sonic booms, and violent, very high-g maneuvers. The actions of many UFOs have suggested that they fly independently of the air and even of the force of gravity. The accomplishment of these maneuvers has been among the major goals of the world's aerospace industry for decades.

On the basis of their appearance, behavior and frequent well-kept, tight formation flights, we must face the possibility that some UFOs may be manufactured, high-tech vehicles. If this is the case, they must be either ours or someone else's. Any "UFOs" that are ours should be well known to the U.S. military, which would have been eager to so label them and remove them from the embarrassing "unidentified" category.

Secret American Aircraft

While there are always some military aircraft that are being kept secret for perfectly good reasons, the classified status of their appearance, at least, is generally changed as soon as they become operational or are declared unsuccessful and thus obsolete. It is possible that currently secret American aircraft may display one or more characteristics generally attributed to UFOs, but those listed as secret in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s can reasonably be assumed to be familiar to aviation experts, if not to every member of the general public. They have either gone into production or have been consigned to the scrap heap or to museums.

If we acknowledge the extremely unlikely chance that highly advanced American military weapons have been kept secret for three or more decades--something not known to have happened at any time in history--we must face the very serious implications. We must have spent hundreds of billions of dollars on known and highly inferior aircraft to be used in a cover-up of such deeply classified activities. These inferior aircraft must have been used and continue to be used while far superior aircraft have been kept in hiding instead of being employed to prevent or win wars which have cost many lives and endangered many more.

Such actions would be unprecedented and indefensible. If a country possesses superior aircraft, it does not equip several generations of its air force with second-rate equipment. It does not throw such inferior aircraft into combat when it has quantities of superior aircraft that would stand a far better chance of winning battles quickly and more certainly. It therefore seems extremely unlikely that most of the unidentifiable UFOs seen 30 or more years ago could be American military aircraft. They must, therefore, be foreign.

Secret Friendly Foreign Aircraft

The presence in American skies of aircraft from friendly foreign nations such as Canada, Great Britain, France and Israel would be known to American military authorities and would almost certainly be known to the civilian (FAA) air traffic control system. If there have been considerable numbers of superior foreign aircraft flying over the USA since World War II, they must have been here for good reasons known to the American military. But these countries have also experienced large numbers of puzzling UFO reports, and therefore are in the same uncomfortable position as the USA.

If, by any chance, one or more friendly nations had created such greatly superior aircraft, the U.S. military would almost certainly have purchased them or had them produced here under license, as has been done with the English Electric Canberra jet bomber and the British Aerospace Corp. Harrier VTOL fighter. As with American-built superior aircraft, these would not be kept secret for decades, and would not have been held in reserve when they were needed for defense or combat.

Secret Unfriendly Foreign Aircraft

The likelihood of highly advanced aircraft from less-than-friendly nations flying for decades over the USA without permission or notification is even smaller than the likelihood of friendly foreign aircraft doing so. In this case, there would be the additional great risk of accidental war upon their discovery and identification, and the only slightly lesser risk of the loss of priceless advanced technology in case of a crash or forced landing.

The only unfriendly nation that could have developed and then produced even slightly advanced aircraft would have been the USSR. Other unfriendly nations, such as Communist China, Libya, Iran, Iraq and Cuba, were even more lacking than was the USSR in the intellectual and industrial capability needed to achieve massive technological breakthroughs. Any of these nations--or other nations--would, of course, have repeatedly made use of such superior weapons to achieve political and economic ends which their conventional weapons never enabled them to gain.

So if the theories of domestic or foreign aircraft cannot explain the large numbers of almost certainly manufactured UFOs seen for more than a half-century in almost every part of the world, is it possible that these UFOs could be neither domestic nor what is usually considered to be foreign?

Alien UFOs

At first glance, the idea that some UFOs may be vehicles from outside the Earth seems utterly preposterous, the baseless result of wishful thinking by highly unscientific minds. If alien craft ever reach our planet, wouldn't they first be detected and identified by scientists, rather than by casual observers? Their nature and origins should be determined by appropriately trained individuals, and the news revealed by high-ranking journalists, not by self-appointed experts with no formal preparation for such a momentous assignment.

As improbable as the presence of non-terrestrial craft in the Earth's vicinity may be, the likelihood of such a presence seems to be increasing by the week, thanks to developments in the new and well-accepted science of astrobiology. Astrobiology is the search for evidence of living things in outer space: complex pre-biotic molecules, large quantities of water, meteorite-borne fossils and Earth-like planets orbiting distant stars.

When authoritative reports of radical-design craft having spectacular performance are viewed in the light of a stream of astrobiological discoveries, the possibility that some UFOs are alien does not seem quite so farfetched. Serious-minded scientists in astronomy and other disciplines estimate there could be billions of planets in the universe, and millions that could harbor life. If even a few of those planets were occupied by technological civilizations, their ability (if not desire) to explore other worlds, such as ours, must be a possibility.

The eventual discovery of, or contact by, one or more alien civilizations is assumed. A search of nearby space for unmanned probes sent by alien civilizations is now being seriously considered, since we have been sending unmanned probes to planets in our solar system for many years. The similarity between these probes and UFOs is hard to ignore.

Summary

Hundreds of thousands of UFO sightings have been made by persons in all walks of life, in all parts of the world. Tens of thousands of UFO reports have been made to governmental and private agencies in the past 55+ years. Thousands of these reports have withstood careful scrutiny and appear to represent real objects having a novel nature.

Patterns of these UFOs' appearance and behavior suggest a limited range of sizes and shapes of unidentified craft, despite the often-desperate efforts on the part of the American and other governments to discount them as nothing more substantial than mistakes made by naïve individuals. Their performance, observed repeatedly by expert witnesses, remains as far off the scale today as it was in the 1940s.

If even one of these unidentified UFOs turns out to be an alien craft, the impact on all aspects of our nation's culture--economic, political, personal--will be limited only by what is learned from an open, serious, objective study of the subject.

http://www.freedomofinfo.org

THINK ABOUTIT SIGHTINGS REPORT

Date: March, 2004

Sighting Time:

Day/Night: DAY

Reported: Associated Press 5/11/04

Location: Over Campeche state, Mexico

Urban or Rural:

Type of Case/Report: MajorCase

Hynek Classification:

Duration:

No. of Object(s): 11

Size of Object(s):

Distance to Object(s):

Shape of Object(s): Disc

Color of Object(s):

Number of Witnesses: Multiple

Special Features/Characteristics: Radar, Military, Pilot/Aircrew, Photo, Multiple UFOs, Witness Photo

Source: Associated Press / Jaime Maussan

Summary: Mexican Air Force pilots filmed 11 unidentified flying objects in the skies over southern Campeche state in Mexico, a Mexican Defense Department spokesman confirmed. A videotape was made widely available to the news media. The lights were filmed using infrared equipment. They appeared to be flying at an altitude of about 3,500 meters (11,480 feet), and allegedly surrounded the Air Force jet.

Full Report

Frame from FLIR infrared video camera of objects flying near plane.

Frame from FLIR infrared video camera of objects flying near plane.

Frame from FLIR infrared video camera of objects flying near plane

C26A crew members/eye witnesses

 

Mexican Air Force pilots filmed 11 unidentified flying objects in the skies over southern Campeche state in Mexico, a Mexican Defense Department spokesman confirmed Tuesday. A videotape was made widely available to the news media.

For more information, please see the special feature by UFO Evidence at source

--------------

ASSOCIATED PRESS NEWS ARTICLE:

"Mexican Air Force Pilots Film 11 UFOs"
Associated Press 5/11/04

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexican Air Force pilots filmed 11 unidentified flying objects in the skies over southern Campeche state, a Defense Department spokesman confirmed Tuesday.

A videotape made widely available to the news media on Tuesday shows the bright objects, some sharp points of light and others like large headlights, moving rapidly in what appears to be a late-evening sky.

The lights were filmed on March 5 by pilots using infrared equipment. They appeared to be flying at an altitude of about 3,500 meters (11,480 feet), and allegedly surrounded the Air Force jet as it conducted routine anti-drug trafficking vigilance in Campeche. Only three of the objects showed up on the plane's radar.

``Was I afraid? Yes. A little afraid because we were facing something that had never happened before,'' said radar operator Lt. German Marin in a taped interview made public Tuesday.

``I couldn't say what it was ... but I think they're completely real,'' added Lt. Mario Adrian Vazquez, the infrared equipment operator. Vazquez insisted that there was no way to alter the recorded images.

The plane's captain, Maj. Magdaleno Castanon, said the military jets chased the lights ``and I believe they could feel we were pursuing them.''

When the jets stopped following the objects, they disappeared, he said.

A Defense Department spokesman confirmed Tuesday that the videotape was filmed by members of the Mexican Air Force. The spokesman declined to comment further and spoke on customary condition of anonymity.

The video was first aired on national television Monday night then again at a news conference Tuesday by Jaime Maussan, a Mexican investigator who has dedicated the past 10 years to studying UFOs.

``This is historic news,'' Maussan told reporters. ``Hundreds of videos (of UFOs) exist, but none had the backing of the armed forces of any country. ... The armed forces don't perpetuate frauds.''

Maussan said Secretary of Defense Gen. Ricardo Vega Garcia gave him the video on April 22.

---------------------

MEXICAN RESEARCHER AND JOURNALIST JAIME MAUSSAN'S PRESS BRIEFING, MEXICO CITY, 5/12/2004:

Following yesterday’s news story about the sighting of eleven UFOs by a Mexican Military aircraft, the Mexican Department of Defense - under Secretary of Defense General Clemente Vega Garcia, commander of all armed forces in the country – have taken the unprecedented step of publically confirming the incident. The press conference took place at the Hotel Sevilla Palace in Mexico city and international media representatives were invited.

JAIME MAUSSAN'S PRESS BRIEFING DOCUMENT:

THE FACTS: On April 20, 2004 Jaime Maussan was contacted by a high officer of the Department of Defense to have a private meeting and discuss a subject of a high relevant matter. The next day Maussan met General Clemente Vega Garcia, Secretary of Defense and his major staff and was informed about an incident that took place on March 5, 2004 on the aerial space of Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche where an Air Force Merlín C26A Bimotor airplane was doing a routine flight to detect a smuggling drug airplane during an ant-narcotics operation.

The Merlin C26A was equipped with a high tech advanced digital equipment to register and record all the activities during the operation. Powerful sensor detectors like a FLIR STAR ZAPPHIR II and a RADAR AN/PS 143 BRAVO VICTOR 3 were being used by qualified personal aboard the airplane and all the operation was being recorded both in normal and infrared mode. The airplane was under the command of Mayor Magdaleno Jasso Núñez.

The FLIR operator was Lt. Mario Adrián Vázquez and the RADAR operator Lt. German Ramirez, all of them members of the 501 Aerial Squadron. This airplane is programmed only for surveillance and detection procedures, not for interception or combat manouvres. Their duty is to detect and identify drug dealers flights and then immediately report them to the base where combat planes are scrambled to intercept those narcotics smugglers. At approximately 17:00 PM the Merlin C26A detected an unknown traffic at 10,500 feet over Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche airspace and according to the protocol and suspecting a drug dealer airplane Mayor Magdaleno Jasso made a maneuver to approach the unidentified traffic at certain range to get a close look and record the target with their equipment.

At the same time Mayor Jasso reported by radio to the base that a possible suspect was detected requesting the interceptor planes to be in alert condition. The RADAR AN/PS 143 BRAVO VICTOR 3 was detecting the unknown traffic and the FLIR STAR ZAPPHIR II was recording the object in infrared. As the Merlin C26A tried to approach the unknown traffic to make a visual identification it suddenly in a surprising maneuver escaped flying away at tremendous speed.

By this time Mayor Jasso tried to persecute the target but it was very fast. All this was being recorded by the FLAIR and also the radio conversations with the base describing the unexpected maneuver of the unknown. However the C26A still have not made visual contact with the unknown object. Just some moments passed when suddenly the unknown object returned and began following the Merlin C26A in a surprising situation.

This was detected by the RADAR and the FLIR while the personal aboard were trying to make visual contact of the unidentified traffic now following them. In seconds the equipment detected now not only one but two traffics following them. The images in both RADAR and the FLIR were clear and unmistakable. But both pilot and personal still couldn’t have visual contact with these two traffics following them adding a great suspense to this disconcerting situation. Mayor Magdaleno Jasso reported to the base the incident that was taking place giving detail of all the information registered by the equipment while keep trying to make visual contact of the unknowns. The FLIR kept recording in infrared every movement made by the two unknown objects that seemed to be keeping their distance from the C26A but still following it. The personal aboard the Merlin C26A were confused and disconcerted seeing the images on the FLIR and the RADAR asking themselves what was going on with this situation.

THE INCIDENT TURNS MORE DRAMATIC

But the stressing moment that the C26A crew were passing through was just the beginning of something more dramatic that will turn their undesirable experience into a real nightmare. Some minutes passed while the Mexican Air Force Merlin C26A crew continued making maneuvers to have a visual contact of the unknowns because despite both RADAR and FLIR were showing perfectly clear both unidentified objects for unexplained reasons there was not a visual contact even that the objects by this time were at close range. It was during this round and round maneuvers to identify these two objects that something amazing happened. In a matter of seconds more unknown objects arrived to the scene and the disconcert of the C26A crew was total.

The RADAR and the FLIR detected immediately the presence of nine new objects of the same size and characteristics, unknown objects that arrived to the scene surprisingly like coming from nowhere.

Now the situation has entered into a high level of danger so Mayor Magdaleno Jasso reported by radio to the base this new situation requesting instructions. But the most bizarre thing was that even though there were eleven unknown objects close to them, still the crew couldn’t see them, no visual contact with the unknowns was possible for some reason never experienced before by these high trained men. However the high tech sophisticated equipment and sensors were not lying, there were eleven targets outside them with unpredictable intentions.

At the middle of a complete confusion and disconcert among the C26A crew the unknown objects suddenly made a maneuver surrounding the Mexican Air Force airplane in a circle at close range. The RADAR and FLIR presented an image of an eleven objects near by in a circle formation around the Merlin C26A. The situation turned out of control. Mayor Magdaleno Jasso reported to the base that the C26A situation was now in red alert, surrounded by eleven mysterious round shaped objects camouflaged with a certain unknown advanced technology that avoid any visual contact of them.

However Mayor Jasso kept the calm as well as the crew who were working fast measuring and recording every detail of this unique incident conscientious of their duty as military and trained men. Confronting this situation surrounded by unidentified objects in an unpredictable ending Mayor Magdaleno Jasso took the decision of turning out all the airplane lights and wait to see what happened. Moments of high suspense lived by the crew while the FLIR was recording the images of those bright objects even that visual contact was not possible, moments of silence and uncertainty.

The C26A crew kept calmed doing their duty, documenting every moment of the strange incident while Mayor Jasso continued in contact with the base. After some stressing minutes the eleven objects disappeared giving an end to the strange experience that these members of the 501 Aerial Squadron just lived. The Merlin C26A returned safe to the Air Force Base and Mayor Magdaleno Jasso prepared a complete report of the incident along with the C26A crew. The Secretary of the Defense took notice of Mayor Jasso's report and began a full investigation studying and evaluating every element of the case.

Statements of the crew, images, lectures, measurements of all the equipment as well as a complete evaluation of the meteorological data . The incident was taken very seriously by the Department of Defense Staff and after several weeks of investigation they decided under the command of General Clemente Vega Garcia to contact researcher and TV journalist Jaime Maussan for a special collaboration in this investigation as an experienced researcher in these matters. On April 22, 2004 General Clemente Vega, Secretary of Defense gave Jaime Maussan a copy of all the tapes and data collected by the Merlin C26A during the incident for study, evaluation and analysis by Maussan's research team as complement of this investigation and as an external collaborating source trying to establish a definition of the possible motives and consequences of the March 5, 2004 incident.

General Vega as well as his staff were very open to discuss the subject and showed their legitimate interest in conducting this investigation in order to establish the truth of what happened. General Vega authorized the Merlin C26A crew to give Jaime Maussan the interviews needed without any censorship, giving all the facilities to present this case to the Mexican people, an historic and unprecedented decision that will open a new era of mutual collaboration among the Mexican ufologists and the military forces, a collaboration based in respect and interest to find the truth of the intense UFO activity we have been experiencing here in Mexico since the beginning of the Amazing Mexican UFO Wave back in July 11, 1991.

This new era of relationship among the Mexican UFO witnesses, skywatchers, ufologists and our military forces will try to establish and give form to a new legislation in our law system focused to be prepared for any incident involving these unidentified flying objects, our people, our commercial and military airplanes etc. for learning and understanding what are we going to do and how are we going to confront this reality.

 

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THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

"THE SUICIDE FILES"

SECOND OF FOUR PARTS

[INLINE]

David Zucchino staff writer-------------------------------THIER SONS
WERE DEAD. PERSONAL EFFECTS WERE MISSING. WHEN FAMILIES TRIED TO TRACK
DOWN THE BELONGINGS, THEY CAME TO QUESTION THE MILITARY'S ENTIRE
ACCOUNTS OF HOW THE MEN HAD DIED.

THE U.S. GOVERNMENT ALLOWED CPL. JOHN MACCASKILL'S HEART AND LUNGS,
HIS LIVER AND INTESTINES TO BE CUT FROM HIS DEAD BODY AND BURIED IN AN
UNMARKED GRAVE AFTER HE DIED IN EL SALVADOR, 2,400 MILES FROM THE HOME
HE LEFT ON LONG ISLAND TO BECOME A MARINE EMBASSY GUARD.

THE ARMY COULD NOT TELL THE MOTHER OF PVT. SEAN ALLISON WHERE HIS BODY
WAS UNTIL THREE DAYS AFTER HE DIED IN GERMANY, THEN SENT HER A LETTER
REFERRING TO "YOUR WIFE'S REMAINS."

THE AIR FORCE LOST AIRMAN GAR ROSENLEAF'S BIBLE AND SILVER ROSARY,
PLUS THE LIGHTER FROM VIETNAM HIS FATHER HAD GIVEN HIM-THEN SENT HIS
MOTHER HIS OTHER BELONGINGS, WHICH HAD BEEN RIFLED AFTER HIS DEATH IN
THE NETHERLANDS.

THE NAVY DISCARDED THE CLOTHES THAT ELECTRICIAN'S MATE WILLIAM "TIM"
HARRISON WAS WEARING WHEN HE DIED IN TEXAS, THEN MAILED HIS MOTHER
SOMEONE ELSE'S CLOTHING. ALONG WITH HARRISON'S BROKEN FURNITURE.

AND THE NAVY LOST MACHINIST'S MATE MARTIN ESSARY'S CLASS RING, WALLET
AND RADIO AFTER HE DIED ABOARD A SHIP DOCKED NORFOLK.

FOR DOZENS OF AMERICAN FAMILIES ALREADY IN SHOCK AFTER BEING TOLD
THEIR SONS HAD KILLED THEMSELVES, THE MISHANDLING OF THE DEAD MEN'S
PERSONAL EFFECTS OR REMAINS ADDED A PAINFUL NEW DIMENSION TO THEIR
ORDEAL. THEIR QUEST TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED TO THEIR SONS' BODIES OR
BELONGINGS EVENTUALLY LED THEM TO QUESTION THE MILLITARY'S ENTIRE
ACCOUNTS OF HOW THE MEN DIED.

"IF THEY CAN'T EVEN HOLD ON TO HIS PERSONAL BELONGINGS, YOU HAVE TO
WONDER WHAT KIND OF INVESTIGATION THEY'RE DOING," SAID KATHLEEN KOCH,
THE GRANDMOTHER OF AIRMAN ROSENLEAF, WHO THE AIR FORCE SAID HANGED
HIMSELF IN OCTOBER 1992.

IN MANY CASES, FAMILIES' DOUBTS WERE TRIGGERED BY SMALL INDIGNITIES: A
LOST FAMILY PHOTO, A MISSING DIARY, A WALLET THAT CAME HOME EMPTY. BUT
AS THE FAMILIES BEGAN TO ASK QUESTIONS, THEY ENCOUNTERED MORE PUZZLING
CIRCUMSTANCES:

CONFLICTING VERSION OF HOW AND WHERE THEIR SONS DIED. THREATENING
PHONE CALLS. UNEXPLAINED BRUISES ON THEIR SONS' BODIES. MISSING OR
MISHANDLED EVIDENCE. TAINTED CRIME SCENES. BLANKET DENIALS BY THE
MILITARY. SERVICEMEN ORDERED NOT TO SPEAK TO SURVIVING FAMILY MEMBERS.

IN ALL, 40 FAMILIES HAVE TOLD THE INQUIRER THAT THE MILITARY HAS GIVEN
THEM FALSE OR CONTRADICTORY INFORMATION ABOUT THEIR SONS' DEATHS-ALL
RULED SUICIDES OR ACCIDENTALLY SELF-INFLICTED. THE NEWSPAPER'S
SEVEN-MONTH REVIEW OF THE CASES HAS FOUND A PATTERN OF CONTRADICTORY
OR INCOMPLETE INVESTIGATIONS, RAISING DOUBTS ABOUT THE VALIDITY OF THE
MILITARY'S FINDINGS.

FOUR EX-MILITARY INVESTIGATORS WHO REVIEWED 19 OF THE CASES SAID THE
INVESTIGATIONS DID NOT FULLY SUPPORT FINDINGS OF SUICIDE OR
SELF-INFLICTED DEATHS. THEY CHARACTERIZED MOST PROBES AS PERFUNCTORY
AND CONTRARY TO ESTABLISHED INVESTIGATIVE PROCEDURES.

THE FORMER INVESTIGATORS SAID SOME SUSPICIOUS MILITARY DEATHS WERE
PREMATURELY RULED SUICIDE BY INVESTIGATORS UNDER PRESSURE TO CLEAR UP
CASES. CALLING SUCH DEATHS SUICIDES IS A SWIFT WAY OF RESOLVING THE
CASES AND RELIEVES INVESTIGATORS OF THE BURDEN OF FINDING EVIDENCE TO
SUPPORT PROSECUTION OF A MURDER CASE, THEY SAID.

AMONG THE 40 CASES, CONTRADICTIONS ABOUND. TRYING TO RECONCILE THEM
HAS PITTED THE FAMILIES AGAINST A MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT THEY SAY
BLOCKS THEM AT EVERY TURN. MANY SAY THEY HAVE LOST NOT ONLY THEIR
CHILDREN BUT THEIR FAITH IN THE VERY MILITARY THEY HAD ENTRUSTED WITH
THEIR SONS' SAFETY.

"I'M SORRY, BUT MY PATRIOTISM IS SHOT."-SAID KATHRYN MADDASION, WHO
SAY THE ARMY TOLD HER IT EITHER LOST OR DESTROYED SOME OF THE PERSONAL
EFFECTS OF HER SON, GUY MADDASION, AFTER HIS DEATH IN 1991. " I COULD
TAKE THE AMERICAN FLAG AND BURN IT IN FRONT OF THE FEDERAL BUILDING.
I'M SO DISGUSTED."

OFFICIALS OF THE THREE MILITARY INVESTIGATIVE SERVICES SAID
INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE 40 DEATHS WERE THOROUGH AND PROFESSIONAL. THEY
SAID THEIR AGENCIES WORK WITH FAMILIES TO ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS AND TO
ENSURE THAT PERSONAL POSSESSIONS ARE TURNED OVER TO FAMILIES BY OTHER
MILITARY DEPARTMENTS.

"OUR GOALS ARE THE SAME AS THE FAMILIES'-TO FIND ANSWERS," SAID CMDR.
KEVIN MUKRI, A SPOKESMAN FOR THE NAVAL CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIVE SERVICE
(NCIS) . " AS A PARENT, I SYMPATHIZE WITH THEM. WE REALIZE THAT A
DEATH IN THE SERVICE IS A VERY, VERY DIFFICULT THING.....SO TRUST IS
PARAMOUNT TO US."

MUKRI SAID FAMILIES OF DEAD SERVICEMEN OFTEN BECOME SUSPICIOUS OF THE
MILITARY BECAUSE IT CANNOT, BY LAW, REVEAL DETAILS OF INVESTIGATIONS
UNTIL THEY ARE COMPLETED. AND THE LAW ALSO REQUIRES FAMILIES TO FILE
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA) REQUESTS TO RECEIVE INVESTIGATIVE
REPORTS, SAID ROBERT J. FINAN 3D ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF THE NCIS .

ON AVERAGE, MUKRI SAID, IT TAKES AT LEAST SIX MONTHS FOR A FAMILY TO
RECEIVE AN NCIS INVESTIGATIVE REPORT.

"WHILE IT SOMETIMES HINDERS FAMILY MEMBERS, NCIS IS BOUND BY THE FOIA
LAW REQUIREMENTS," FINAN SAID.

DOZENS OF FAMILIES SAY THE MILITARY HIDES BEHIND THOSE REQUIREMENTS TO
DENY THEM ESSENTIAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE DEATHS OF THEIR LOVED ONES.
SOME MAINTAIN THAT THE MILITARY DISREGARDS EVIDENCE THAT THEIR SONS
POSSIBLY WERE MURDERED.

MADDASION, FOR INSTANCE, CONTENDS THAT HER SON WAS KILLED SHORTLY
AFTER TELLING HER HAD STUMBLED ACROSS ILLEGAL GUN RUNNING AT FORT
BRAGG, N.C. SHE SAID HE WENT ABSENT WITHOUT LEAVE AND CAME TO STAY
WITH HER IN FLORIDA, TELLING HER: "MA, MY LIFE IS IN DANGER. DON'T
TELL ANYBODY. THIS IS BIG."

THE ARMY AND LOCAL POLICE SAID MADDASION SHOT HIMSELF IN THE HEAD
INSIDE A ROOM WHERE HE WAS LIVING NOT FAR FROM HIS MOTHER'S HOME. THEY
SAID NO FOUL PLAY WAS INVOLVED.

MADDASION SAID HER SUSPICIONS WERE HEIGHTENED IN MAY 1992 WHEN SHE
SAYS SOMEONE BROKE INTO HER HOME IN ALTA MONTE SPRINGS, FLA. THE ONLY
ITEMS STOLEN, SHE SAID WERE HER FILES ON HER SON'S CASE- ALTHOUGH A
TV, VCR AND JEWELRY WERE CLEARLY VISIBLE.

MADDASION ALSO SAYS SOLDIERS AT FORT BRAGG TOLD HER THAT HER SON HAD
INADVERTENTLY OVERHEARD A GROUP OF SOLDIERS DISCUSSING PLANS TO
ILLEGALLY SELL MILITARY WEAPONS.

OTHER FAMILIES SAY THEY BEGAN TO QUESTION THE MILITARY AFTER BEING
GIVEN DIFFERENT ACCOUNTS OF HOW OR WHERE THEIR SONS DIED.

MARENICOLA WHITTLES, AN ACCOUNTING CLERK FROM BLOOMFIELD, N.J. , SAID
SHE WAS GIVEN THREE VERSIONS OF HOW HER SON DIED AT A NAVY BASE IN
1989. SHE SAID OFFICERS FIRST TOLD HER THAT MARINE CPT. CORNELIUS
WHITTLES, 22 SHOT HIMSELF WHILE PLAYING RUSSIAN ROULETTE. LATER, SHE
SAID, SHE WAS TOLD HE HAD BEEN CLEANING HIS GUN , AND FINALLY THAT HE
HAD BEEN TOYING WITH THE GUN AS HE COMPARED IT WITH ANOTHER
SERVICEMAN'S WEAPON.

"I WAS ALWAYS A BELIEVER IN, "IF THE MILITARY SAYS IT, THEN IT'S
TRUE." NOT ANYMORE," SAID WHITTLES, WHO MAINTAINS THAT HER SON WAS
SHOT BY SOMEONE ELSE.

SOME PARENTS CANNOT AFFORD TO HIRE INVESTIGATORS OR EXPERTS TO UNCOVER
EVIDENCE THAT CONTRADICTS MILITARY FINDINGS.

MOST OF THE FAMILIES SAY THEY WAITED MONTHS = AND IN SOME CASES MORE
THAN A YEAR- BEFORE OBTAINING INVESTIGATIVE FILES THROUGH FOIA
REQUESTS. PORTIONS OF THOSE FILES ARRIVED CENSORED BY THE MILITARY.

IN SOME CASES, THE REPORTS CONTAIN INFORMATION THAT LITERALLY IS
UNBELIEVABLE.

A COAST GUARD INVESTIGATIVE REPORT CONCLUDED THAT WILLIAM M. SHORT,
18, A COAST GUARD CREWMAN, HAD HANGED HIMSELF ABOARD A SHIP DOCKED IN
CAPE MAY IN FEBRUARY 1992. THE DEATH CERTIFICATE DESCRIBED HIM AS A
BLACK MAN. SHORT WAS WHITE.

THE AUTOPSY REPORT SAID THERE WERE NO INJURIES TO SHORT OTHER THAN TO
HIS NECK. BUT AT HIS FUNERAL, HIS PARENTS SAID, THEY NOTICED A BRUISE
ON HIS FOREHEAD, A CONTUSION ON HIS CHEEK AND SCRAPES ON HIS KNUCKLES.

RICK SHORT, A DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AUDITOR IN LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, AND
HIS WIFE, KATHY, SAY THEY NOW HAVE DOUBTS ABOUT THE SUICIDE RULING.

"WHEN I READ ALL THESE REPORTS, IT'S LIKE I'M READING ABOUT SOMEBODY
OTHER THAN MY SON," SAID SHORT, AN AIR FORCE VETERAN.

THE COAST GUARD SAYS BILL SHORT, WHO WAS DRUNK WHEN HE DIED, LEFT A
SUICIDE NOTE THAT READ: UPON ARRIVAL OF MY DEATH, I (BILL SHORT) WANT
YOU TO: CALL (HIS FATHER AND GIRLFRIEND)," FOLLOWED BY THEIR TELEPHONE
NUMBERS.

THE SHORTS SAY THEIR SON WROTE THE NOTE MONTHS EARLIER AND CARRIED IT
IN CASE OF AN ACCIDENT. IT IS WRITTEN ON A PAMPHLET TITLED "SUICIDE
AND HOW TO PREVENT IT," WHICH WAS HANDED OUT AT A SUICIDE-PREVENTION
SEMINAR ALL CREWMEN WERE REQUIRED TO ATTEND.

LESS THAN 12 HOURS BEFORE HIS SON DIED, RICK SHORT SAID, HE PHONED
HOME TO COMPLETE PLANS FOR HOME LEAVE THE COMING WEEK. SHORT SAID BILL
WAS HIS USUAL SELF, COMPLAINING ABOUT AIRLINE TICKET PRICES AND WHAT
HE HAD JUST PAID FOR NEW UNDERWEAR.

A COAST GUARD OFFICIAL, LT. JAN PROEHL, SAID: "WE ARE SATISFIED WITH
THE INVESTIGATION AND HAVE NO INTENTION OF REOPENING THE CASE."

THE SHORTS SAY THEY PLAN TO EXHUME THEIR SON'S BODY. THEY HAVE HIRED A
LAWYER AND ARE CONSIDERING A LAWSUIT.

"OF ALL THE NIGHTMARES I'VE EVER HAD," KATHY SHORT SAID, "I NEVER
THOUGHT I'D LIVE THROUGH ONE LIKE THIS."

ANOTHER AUTOPSY REPORT, PREPARED NEARLY 20 YEARS AGO, STILL BAFFLES
ESTHER SALEM. IT DESCRIBED HER DEAD SON, SAILOR GARY GLASS, AS
6-FOOT-2, WITH BROWN EYES AND HAIR, SHE SAID. HER SON WAS 5-FOOT-7,
WITH BLUE EYES AND BLOND HAIR.

SALEM SAID THE NAVY TOLD HER THAT HER SON DROWNED ACCIDENTALLY NEAR
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA, IN 1974. HIS MOTHER CONTENDS THAT GLASS,
18, WAS AN EXPERT SWIMMER WHO WAS BEATEN BY SHIPMATES ANGRY THAT HE
HAD TURNED THEM IN FOR DEALING DRUGS.

"IT'S A FRIGHTENING EXPERIENCE THAT TEARS YOU APART," SAID SALEM, OF
BUTLER, PENNSYLVANIA, WHO SAID SHE GAVE UP AFTER 11 YEARS OF TRYING TO
HAVE THE CAUSE OF DEATH CHANGED.

TWO AUTOPSY REPORTS WERE SENT TO SARA AND MICHAEL MARUSA IN HOMER
CITY, PENNSYLVANIA, AFTER THE DEATH OF THEIR SON IN 1989. THE NAVY
RULED THAT SEAMAN MICHAEL MARUSA, 20, ACCIDENTALLY FELL FROM THE USS
CHARLESTON AND DROWNED WHILE THE SHIP WAS DOCKED IN ROTA, SPAIN.

THE FIRST AUTOPSY REPORT, BY A SPANISH MEDICAL EXAMINER, SAID MARUSA
DIED OF HEAD TRAUMA, NOT DROWNING. HIS REPORT NOTED HEMATOMAS ON BOTH
SIDES OF MARUSA'S HEAD AND A SKULL FRACTURE, WHICH HE ATTRIBUTED TO
BLOWS TO THE HEAD. AN AMERICAN PHYSICIAN'S ASSISTANT WHO ATTENDED THE
AUTOPSY AGREED.

A SUBSEQUENT AUTOPSY REPORT, BY TWO AMERICAN PATHOLOGISTS WITH THE
ARMED FORCES INSTITUTE OF PATHOLOGY (AFIP), SAID THE CAUSE OF DEATH
WAS DROWNING. IT SAID NO HEMATOMAS WERE FOUND, AND IT NOTED THAT A
SMALL CRACK IN THE SKULL WAS CAUSED BY THE SPANISH AUTOPSY.

THE NAVY'S INVESTIGATIVE REPORT CONCLUDED THAT THE AFIP AUTOPSY WAS
"MORE CREDIBLE," IT REJECTED THE SPANISH AUTOPSY BECAUSE "IT IS
INCONSISTENT WITH THE AFIP RESULTS."

THE OFFICIAL NAVY REPORT OF CASUALTY, DATED EIGHT DAYS AFTER MARUSA'S
DEATH, COMBINED THE TWO. UNDER "CAUSE AND CIRCUMSTANCES," THE REPORT
SAID: "HEAD TRAUMA/DROWNING."

* ARLENE BALL WAS SHOCKED BY SOMETHING SHE READ IN A NAVY
INVESTIGATIVE REPORT SHE RECEIVED EIGHT MONTHS AFTER THE DEATH OF HER
SON, MARINE PRIVATE JAMES GARDNER, IN OCT 1991.

ALTHOUGH THE REPORT SAID GARDNER SHOT HIMSELF WITH A BROWNING 9MM
PISTOL, IT ALSO NOTED THAT THE BLOOD-SPATTERED WEAPON WAS FOUND WITH
ITS SAFETY ON.

BALL HIRED A WEAPONS EXPERT TO TEST FIRE A BROWNING 9MM. THE EXPERT
CONCLUDED, SHE SAID THAT THE GUNS DESIGN MADE IT VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE
FOR GARDNER TO HAVE SOMEHOW KNOCKED THE SAFETY INTO THE ON POSITION
AFTER SHOOTING HIMSELF, BALL, OF ENOCH, UTAH, SAID THE NAVY HAS BEEN
UNABLE TO EXPLAIN THE DISCREPANCY.

FREDERICK R. MCDANIEL, A FORMER ARMY INVESTIGATOR AND SUPERVISOR WITH
THE ARMY'S CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION COMMAND (CID) WHO REVIEWED THE
GARDNER CASE, SAID INVESTIGATORS SHOULD HAVE CONSIDERED THE
POSSIBILITY THAT GARDNER WAS MURDERED.

"HE KILLED HIMSELF AND PUT THE SAFETY ON? THAT'S UNBELIEVABLE," SAID
MCDANIEL, A RETIRED KANSAS CITY POLICE CAPTAIN.

ARLENE BALL SAID SHE HAS NOT RULED OUT THE POSSIBILITY THAT HER SON
KILLED HIMSELF. "BUT THE NAVY STILL HASN'T EXPLAINED TO ME HOW OR
WHY," SHE SAID.

IN OTHER CASES, IT HAS BEEN SOMETHING THAT WAS INCLUDED AMONG A DEAD
SON'S POSSESSIONS THAT TRIGGERED A FAMILY'S SKEPTICISM.

RICHARD CARNEVALE IS STILL PUZZLED BY A LARGE, SMASHED BLACK ONYX RING
THE NAVY SENT HIM WITH HIS SON'S BELONGINGS. THE NAVY RULED THAT
MARINE CPL. RICHARD CARNEVALE JR., DRUNK AND DESPONDENT OVER A BREAKUP
WITH HIS GIRLFRIEND, HANGED HIMSELF WITH A NECKTIE IN HIS ROOM IN
NORTH CAROLINA IN 1982.

CARNEVALE, OF CLIFTON HEIGHTS, SAID THE RING WAS NOT HIS SON'S. HE
SAID HE SUSPECTS IT BELONGED TO SOMEONE WITH WHOM HIS SON STRUGGLED AS
HE WAS BEING CHOKED.

"MY SON LOVED TO FIGHT, ESPECIALLY WHEN HE WAS DRINKING," CARNEVALE
SAID. "I THINK HE GAVE SOMEBODY SOME LIP AND THEY KILLED HIM."

SOME EVIDENCE SUGGESTS A STRUGGLE. THE NAVY INVESTIGATIVE REPORT SAID
CARNEVALE HAD BEEN INVOLVED IN TWO DRUNKEN FISTFIGHTS HOURS BEFORE HE
DIED. IT ALSO NOTES THAT FURNITURE IN CARNEVALE'S ROOM HAD BEEN OVER
TURNED AND OTHER ITEMS HAD BEEN DISTURBED.

"THERE ARE JUST TOO MANY QUESTIONS THAT WEREN'T ANSWERED," SAID
CARNEVALE'S FORMER GIRLFRIEND, DEBBIE JOHNSTON, WHO SAID THEY HAD
RECONCILED BY THE TIME HE DIED.

KAY ALLISON SAYS SHE SPENT THREE FRANTIC DAYS IN JULY BEFORE THE ARMY
FINALLY FOUND HER SON'S BODY AND CASKET. IN AN AUGUST LETTER, AN ARMY
COLONEL BLAMED BUREAUCRATIC GLITCHES AND SAID: "I CAN ONLY APOLOGIZE
FOR THE ANXIETY CAUSED TO YOU."

ALLISON HAS SINCE MADE UP A PHOTO COLLAGE AND MAILED IT TO ARMY
OFFICIALS AND HER CONGRESSMEN. IT SHOWS PHOTOS OF HER SON SEAN AT AGES
2 AND 4, AT 19 IN COMBAT FATIGUES --- AND LYING DEAD AT 20 IN A COFFIN
WEARING HIS DRESS BLUES.

"PLEASE HELP ME," ALLISON WROTE NEXT TO THE CASKET PHOTO. "THIS IS ALL
I HAVE TO REMEMBER MY SON BY NOW."

ALLISON SAYS THE ARMY HAS TOLD HER ONLY THAT SEAN DIED OF "UNKNOWN
CAUSES" AT ANSBACH ARMY BASE IN GERMANY AFTER CONSUMING "AN UNKNOWN
AMOUNT OF ALCOHOL AND DEPRESSANTS."

"I SENT THEM MY ONLY SON AND HE COMES BACK DEAD," SHE SAID. "AND THEY
WON'T TELL ME WHY."

FOR MANY FAMILIES, THERE IS NO CLOSURE. INSTEAD OF GRIEVING OVER THEIR
SONS' DEATH AND THEN GETTING ON WITH THEIR LIVES, THE LINGERING
QUESTIONS FESTER.

"IT'S A HOLE IN YOUR LIFE YOU NEVER REALLY LEARN TO LIVE AROUND," SAID
CASSANDRA ALLEYNE, WHOSE SON PAUL MAMBY DIED IN 1990 WHILE SERVING IN
THE NAVY IN BEAUFORT, SOUTH CAROLINA.

WITH EACH INCONSISTENCY THEY ENCOUNTER IN THE INFORMATION DOLED OUT BY
THE MILITARY, FAMILIES SAY, THEIR PAIN INTENSIFIES.

"IF THEY WOULD JUST TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED I COULD ACCEPT HIS DEATH,"
ALLEYNE SAID. "BUT THEY DON'T. IT JUST DRAGS ON AND ON."

THE NAVY RULED THAT MAMBY HANGED HIMSELF WITH A ROPE TIED TO A METAL
HOOK ON A TELEPHONE POLE IN HIS BACK YARD. IT'S INVESTIGATIVE REPORT
SAYS "NO SINGLE PRECIPITATING EVENT" PROMPTED THE SUICIDE. IT CITED A
COMBINATION OF JOB STRESSES AND A POST-MORTEM PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATION
THAT FOUND EVIDENCE OF A "PASSIVE -AGGRESSIVE, OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE"
PERSONALITY.

ALLEYNE WONDERS WHETHER HER SON'S DEATH IS RELATED TO PERSISTENT
COMPLAINTS HE HAD MADE ABOUT RACIAL HARASSMENT AT HIS BASE. THE REPORT
CONCLUDED THAT MAMBY, WHO WAS BLACK, HAD FABRICATED THE COMPLAINTS.
THAT CONCLUSION IS BASED LARGELY ON A BRIEF INTERVIEW WITH A
SUPERVISOR MAMBY HAD ACCUSED.

THE NAVY REPORT ALSO SEEMED TO DISCOUNT STATEMENTS FROM FRIENDS THAT
MAMBY WAS IN GOOD SPIRITS HOURS BEFORE HE DIED. NEITHER DOES IT
EXPLAIN HOW MAMBY HANGED HIMSELF WITH HIS FEET TOUCHING THE GROUND.

ALLEYNE SAID SHE BEGAN QUESTIONING THE NAVY'S STORY AFTER SHE NOTICED
A LARGE BRUISE ON HER SON'S FOREHEAD AT HIS FUNERAL. THE NAVY REPORT
SPECULATES THAT MAMBY'S HEAD BANGED AGAINST THE TELEPHONE POLE AS HIS
BODY SWUNG FROM THE ROPE, CAUSING A BRUISE 5 INCHES WIDE.

"IT WAS A BIG BRUISE , A REALLY BAD BRUISE," ALLEYNE SAID. "ISN'T THAT
A SIGN OF A STRUGGLE THAT WARRANTS AT LEAST SOME INVESTIGATION?"

ALLEYNE, OF SOUTH COVENTRY, PENNSYLVANIA, SAID SHE WILL NOT STOP
PRESSING THE NAVY UNTIL IT REINVESTIGATES HER SON'S DEATH.

"IN THE PRIVACY OF MY HEART," SHE WROTE RECENTLY, "I HAVE BEEN
APOLOGIZING TO MY SON FOR MY INABILITY TO DEFEND THIS INJUSTICE
AGAINST HIM.."

IN SOME CASES, FAMILIES' SUSPICIONS WERE AROUSED WHEN THEY RECEIVED
THEIR SONS' PERSONAL DIARIES WITH PAGES REMOVED.

WILLIAM AND DONNA DIGMAN, A CALIFORNIA COUPLE WHO CONTEND THAT THEIR
SON WAS MURDERED, SAID THEY RECEIVED HIS JOURNAL WITH MOST OF THE
PAGES CRUDELY CUT OUT. BOTH CIVILIAN AND NAVY INVESTIGATORS RULED THAT
MARINE CAPT. JEFFREY DIGMAN, 30, SHOT HIMSELF IN THE HEAD IN JANUARY
1989 WHILE ON HOME LEAVE IN CALIFORNIA.

LUCY GARCIA, DIGMAN'S GIRLFRIEND IN PUERTO RICO, WHERE HE WAS BASED,
SAID SHE FOUND THE JOURNAL THERE WHEN A TEAM OF MARINES WAS HELPING
HER PACK DIGMAN'S BELONGINGS. SHE SAID IT CONTAINED NAMES, NUMBERS,
ADDRESSES AND NOTATIONS.

"I GAVE IT TO ONE OF THE MARINES, AND HE LISTED IT ON THE INVENTORY
LIST AND PACKED IT UP," GARCIA SAID.

ALSO MISSING FROM THEIR SON'S POSSESSIONS, THE DIGMANS SAID, WAS A
SMALL SAFE JEFFREY HAD KEPT HIDDEN INSIDE A DESK AT THE CALIFORNIA
HOUSE WHERE HE DIED. THEY SAID THE DESK DOOR HAD BEEN REMOVED AND THE
SAFE TAKEN.

THREE MONTHS BEFORE HE DIED, DONNA DIGMAN SAID, HER SON HAD SHOWN HER
PAPERS LOCKED INSIDE THE SAFE ---- DOCUMENTS HE SAID WERE DRUG-TESTING
RESULTS FROM HIS JOB AS A MARINE SUBSTANCE -ABUSE CONTROL OFFICER.

"HE SAID HE WAS SAVING THEM TO COVER HIS A--," DONNA DIGMAN SAID.

LATER, THE DIGMANS SAID, THEY LEARNED THAT JEFFREY HAD TOLD FRIENDS
THAT SOMEONE HAD BEEN TAMPERING WITH TEST RESULTS TO CHANGE POSITIVE
TESTS TO NEGATIVE.

THE DIGMANS SAID THE NAVY HAS NOT EXPLAINED WHAT HAPPENED TO THE
JOURNAL ENTRIES. THEY SAID LOCAL AUTHORITIES TOLD THEM THEY HAD NO
IDEA WHAT HAD HAPPENED TO THE SAFE.

IN ANOTHER CASE, THE MOTHER OF A SAILOR WHOSE GUNSHOT DEATH IN GUAM IN
SEPTEMBER 1991 WAS RULED SELF-INFLICTED BY THE NAVY SAID SEVERAL
JOURNALS HER SON KEPT WERE NEVER RETURNED. ROBYN HALL, OF LOUISVILLE,
KENTUCKY, SAID HER SON HAD TOLD HER HE WAS KEEPING JOURNALS ON ALLEGED
THEFTS AND CORRUPTION AT HIS NAVY BASE IN GUAM.

" HE TOLD ME HE WAS GOING TO BLOW THE WHISTLE WHEN HE GOT BACK TO THE
U.S.," HALL SAID HER SON, NAVY SECURITY OFFICER MICHAEL J. LESLIE,
TOLD HER A SUPERVISER HAD INSTRUCTED HIM TO KEEP THE JOURNALS AS PROOF
OF WRONG DOING.

LESLIE,25, WAS FOUND SHOT INSIDE HIS SECURITY VEHICLE. ONE OF HIS
HANDS WAS HANDCUFFED TO THE STEERING WHEEL.

AFTER HIS DEATH, HALL SAID, SHE RECIEVED ONLY ONE JOURNAL, WITH MOST
OF ITS PAGES CUT OUT. SHE SAYS THE NAVY IS COVERING UP THE
CIRCUMSTANCES OF HER SON'S DEATH.

"ITS SO DISILLUSIONING." SHE SAID. "I NEVER, EVER THOUGHT THE MILITARY
WOULD LIE TO ME.

THIS IS THE UNITED STATES.

SEVERAL FAMILIES SAY THEY BEGAN TO DOUBT THE MILITARY'S INITIAL
VERSION OF EVENTS AT THEIR SON'S FUNERALS.

NADINE GILMORE , OF WICHITA, KANSAS SAID SHE DECIDED TO INSPECT HER
SON'S BODY AFTER RECIEVING A NOTICE FROM THE NAVY TELLING HER THE
REMAINS WERE "NOT SUITABLE FOR VIEWING." SHE SAID THE NAVY HAD TOLD
HER THAT HER SON CHRISTOPHER "MIKE " VARRIENTOS, 19, HAD HANGED
HIMSELF ABOARD THE USS CAPE COD AFTER IT LEFT HAWAII ON JAN 20---HIS
SON'S FIRST BIRTHDAY.

WHEN GILMORE LOOKED INTO HER SON'S CASKET AT THE FUNURAL HOME IN
WICHITA, SHE SAID SHE WAS HORRIFIED BY WHAT SHE SAW: A KNOT ON HIS
FOREHEAD. ANOTHER ON THE BACK OF HIS NECK. AN ABRASION ON HIS LEFT
CHEEK. BRUISES ON HIS CHEST, RIBS AND COLLARBONE.

"HE LOOKED LIKE HE'D BEEN BEATEN UP," GILMORE SAID. "I KNOW IT SOUNDS
GHOULISH, BUT WE TOOK ONE LOOK AT HIM AND DECIDED TO TAKE PHOTOS
BECAUSE WE DIDN'T BELIEVE ONE WORD OF WHAT THE NAVY WAS TELLING US."

GILMORE SAID SHE WAS ALSO TROUBLED BY WHAT SHE DIDN'T SEE: LIGATURE
MARKS AROUND HIS NECK FROM THE LOADING STRAP THE NAVY SAID HE USED TO
HANG HIMSELF. THE PHOTOS SHE TOOK DO NOT CLEARLY INDICATE ANY MARKS ON
VARIENTOS' NECK.

THE AUTOPSY REPORT PREPARED BY THE MILITARY SAID LIGATURE MARKS WERE
PRESENT ON VARRIENTOS' NECK. AND THE NAVY'S INVESTIGATIVE REPORT SAID
THE BRUISES ON HIS UPPER BODY WERE CAUSED BY RESUSCITATION ATTEMPTS BY
MEDICAL PERSONNEL. THE NAVY HAS NOT EXPLAINED THE OTHER INJURIES,
GILMORE SAID.

ON FEB. 13, THE NAVY'S INVESTIGATIVE REPORT CONCLUDED: "THE EVIDENCE
SHOWS THAT VARIENTOS COMMITTED THE ACT OF SUICIDE ALONE AND
UNASSISTED."

GILMORE INSISTS HER SON DID NOT KILL HIMSELF, SHE SAID HE WAS UPBEAT
WHEN SHE SPOKE WITH HIM BY PHONE 16 HOURS BEFORE HE DIED.

FOUR POSTCARDS, ALL POSTMARKED THE DAY VARRIENTOS DIED, WERE RECEIVED
BY HIS FAMILY. EACH SEEMS CHEERFUL AND LIGHT-HEARTED.

"HEY, BEAUTIFUL...," HE WROTE HIS WIFE ON A CARD IN WHICH HE DESCRIBED
HAWAII. "IT'S BEAUTIFUL, BUT IT WILL NEVER COMPARE TO YOUR BEAUTY...
REMEMBER, I'M BEING GOOD."

ON ANOTHER CARD, VARRIENTOS WROTE: 'YOU KNOW I MISS YOU(AND MY TRUCK)
BUT I MISS YOU MORE, GOTTA GO. LOVE, MIKE."

NADINE GILMORE SAYS THE YOUNG MAN WHO WROTE THOSE CARDS WAS NOT A MAN
PLANNING TO KILL HIMSELF.

"ALL I KNOW IS, I HAVE LOST A SON AND I'M HURTING BADLY," SHE SAID.
"AND THE NAVY EITHER LIES TO ME OR REFUSES TO ANSWER MY QUESTIONS."

AFTER THE OCTOBER 1992 DEATH OF HER SON IN NETHERLANDS, KATHLEEN
ROSENLEAF BECAME SKEPTICAL OF THE AIR FORCE ACCOUNT THAT HE HAD HANGED
HIMSELF AFTER A NIGHT OF DRINKING. SHE SHOWED THE AUTOPSY REPORT AND
INVESTIGATIVE FILE TO A PHYSICIAN NEAR HER HOME TOWN OF BUTTE, MONT.

IN AN INTERVIEW, PHYSICIAN MARK ZILKOSKI SAID MARKS ON AIRMAN GAR
ROSENLEAF'S SKULL AND ABDOMEN WERE NOT EXPLAINED IN THE MILITARY
AUTOPSY. IN ADDITION, ZILKOSKI SAID, HE BELIEVED ROSENLEAF'S HIGH
BLOOD-ALCOHOL LEVEL WOULD HAVE LEFT HIM TOO INCAPACITATED TO HANG
HIMSELF IN THE MANNER DESCRIBED IN THE AIR FORCE REPORT: WITH A
BEDSHEET SUSPENDED FROM ELECTRICAL CONDUIT WIRING.

"I FOUND A LOT OF QUESTIONS THAT WERE'T ANSWERED. OR WEREN'T EVEN
ADDRESSED, " ZILKOSKI SAID. "I CAN'T SAY WHETHER IT WAS SUICIDE OR
HOMICIDE, BUT IT APPEARS THEY CONCLUDED SUICIDE BEFORE RULING OUT
OTHER POSSIBILITIES."

AS FOR ROSENLEAF'S BIBLE, COIN COLLECTION AND OTHER MISSING ITEMS, THE
AIR FORCE ACKNWLEDGED IN A LETTER IN MARCH THAT THEY HAD BEEN LOST
WHEN HIS POSSESSIONS WERE APPARENTLY RIFLED.

"THE AIR FORCE REGRETS AND APOLOGIZES FOR THE LOSS OF THE PERSONAL
EFFECTS," THE LETTER SAID.

IN THE WEEKS AFTER THEIR SON WAS FOUND DEAD ABOARD THE USS WASP DOCKED
AT NORFOLK IN JUNE 1990, GLADYS AND VIRGIL ESSARY SAY, CURIOUS THINGS
BEGAN HAPPENING:

THEY NOTICED TWO MEN IN A BLUE CAR FOLLOWING THEM AS THEY WENT ABOUT
THEIR DAILY AFFAIRS IN RURAL BEEBE, ARK. THEY BEGAN PHONING, WARNING
THEM TO STOP ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT THEIR SON'S DEATH. THE NAVY HAD
TOLD THE ESSARYS THAT THEIR SON, MARTIN ESSARY, 21, HAD HANGED HIMSELF
WHILE DRUNK. IT SAID HE WAS DEPRESSED OVER A BREAKUP WITH A GIRLFIREND
AND A RECENT CONVICTION FOR HELPING A FRIEND BREAK INTO A CAR.

THE ESSARYS SAY THEIR SON HAD PHONED HIS MOTHER THE DAY HE DIED TO SAY
THAT "SOMETHING WAS DOWN" BETWEEN HIM AND ALLEGED DRUG DEALERS ABOARD
SHIP. THEY SAY MARTIN TOLD THEM HE HAD FOUND DRUGS HIDDEN IN THE
AMPHIBIOUS ASSAULT SHIP'S AIR DUCTS AND HAD FLUSHED THEM DOWN A
TOILET.

"HE SAID HE COULDN'T GO THE SHIP CAPTAIN AND TELL HIM, " SAID ESSARY'S
MOTHER, GLADYS ESSARY. "HE SAID: 'IF YOU FINK, YOU'RE DEAD...' AND HE
SAID IF SOMETHING HAPPENED TO HIM NOT TO BELIEVE THE NAVY."

THE ESSARYS' DAUGHTER, WHO LIVED IN NORFOLK, SAID SHE BEGAN TRACING
MARTIN'S MOVEMENTS ON THE DAY HE DIED, SHORTLY AFTER QUESTIONING A
BARTENDER WHO HAD SERVED MARTIN HOURS BEFORE HIS DEATH, SHE SAID, SHE
WAS ATTACKED AT HER HOME BY TWO MEN.

THE WOMAN SAID SHE WAS PUNCHED AND SLIGHTLY INJURED. SHE SAID SHE DID
NOT REPORT THE ASSAULT TO POLICE. SHE ASKED THAT HER NAME BE WITHHELD
FROM THIS ARTICLE BECAUSE SHE FEARS ANOTHER ATTACK.

THE ESSARYS SAY A NAVY DOG TAG WITH A SERIAL NUMBER BUT NO NAME WAS
FOUND AT THE SITE WHERE THEIR DAUGHTER WAS ATTACKED. AND A FEW DAYS
LATER, THE DAUGHTER SAID, SHE WAS VISITED BY A NAVY OFFICER WHO TOLD
HER TO STOP ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT ESSARY'S DEATH.

IN THE FOLLOWING WEEKS, THE FAMILY SAID, THE NAVY TOLD THEM THEY COULD
NOT FIND MARTIN'S CLASS RING, WALLET, MILITARY PERSONAL ITEMS.

"THE WHOLE THING JUST DOESN'T ADD UP, " SAID ESSARY'S FATHER, VIRGIL
ESSARY. "THEY MADE A PREJUDGMENT THAT IT WAS SUICIDE AND THAT'S THE
STORY THEY'RE STICKING WITH ."

THE NAVY'S REPORT SAID THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE OF DURG DEALING ABOARD
THE SHIP OR THAT ESSARY HAD FOUND DRUGS. IT QUOTED GLADYS ESSARY AS
SAYING, WHEN TOLD OF HER SON'S APPARENT SUICIDE, THAT SHE WAS NOT
SURPRISED BECAUSE MARTIN HAD A LOT OF PROBLEMS.

ESSARY SAID SHE TOLD AGENTS SHE WASN'T SURPRISED MARTIN WAS DEAD
BECAUSE OF PROBLEMSHE HAD DESCRIBED WITH ALLEGED DRUG DEALERS.

THE REPORT CITES TWO PIECES OF EVIDENCE THAT POINT TO SUICIDE: AN
APPARENT SUICIDE NOTE FOUND NEAR ESSARY'S BODY, AND A LIFE INSURANCE
AGENT WHO SAID ESSARY HAD ASKED HIM FOUR DAYS BEFORE HIS DEATH WHETHER
HIS POLICY WOULD PAY OUT IN THE EVENT OF SUICIDE.

ACCORDING TO THE REPORT, THE INSURANCE AGENT TOLD ESSARY THAT FULL
DEATH BENEFITS COULD NOT BE PAID IN THE EVENT OF A SUICIDE WITHIN TWO
YEARS OF TAKING OUT A POLICY. HE SAID ESSARY LAUGHED IN RESPONSE. HE
DESCRIBED ESSARY AS SEEMING "VERY SOUND OF MIND" AND A
"HAPPY-GO-LUCKY" PERSON.

THE ESSARYS SAY THE HANDWRITING ON THE APPARENT SUICIDE NOTE IS NOT
MARTIN'S. THE NAVY REPORT SAID A HANDWRITING ANALYSIS WAS INCONCLUSIVE
BECAUSE THE CURSIVE WRITING WAS 'NOT COMPARABLE" TO AVAILABLE SAMPLES
OF ESSARY'S PRINTED WRITING.

THE NCIS INTERPRETED THE SCRIBBLED NOTE TO READ: 'MOM, I WON'T SAY I'M
SORRY. I CAN'T SAY WHY BUT I DON'T KNOW. JACKET."

THE ESSARYS SAID THEY ARE BAFFLED BY THE WORD JACKET, A TERM THEY SAID
THEY NEVER HEARD MARTIN USE. A FORMER MILITARY INVESTIGATOR WHO
REVIEWED THE CASE FOR THE INQUIRER SUGGESTED THE WORD ACTUALLY WAS
F----IT.

IN MARCH, THE PENTAGON INSPECTOR-GENERAL AGREED TO REVIEW THE ESSARY
CASE. THE REVIEW IS STILL IN PROGRESS, ACCORDING TO AN OFFICIAL OF THE
AGENCY.

THE REVIEW CAME AFTER THE LATE VINCENT FOSTER, AN ARKANSAS NATIVE WHO
WAS DEPUTY COUNSEL TO PRESIDENT CLINTON, REFERRED THE CASE TO THE
PENTAGON. THE CASE HAD BEEN PASSED ON TO FOSTER BY CLINTON AFTER AN
ARKANSAS REPORTER, SEAN HARRISON, TOLD PRESIDENT-ELECT CLINTON OF THE
ESSARYS' COMPLAINTS.

(FOSTER DIED JULY 20 OF A GUNSHOT WOUND TO THE HEAD. AUTHORITIES SAID
HE COMMITTED SUICIDE.)

IN THE ESSARY CASE, CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES RAISE QUESTIONS ABOUT THE
SUICIDE RULING:

THE AUTOPSY REPORT NOTED UNEXPLAINED "MULTIPLE ABRASIONS" ON ESSARY'S
LEG.

THE ESSARYS SAY MARTIN RECEIVED A "DEAR JOHN" LETTER FROM A GIRLFIREND
FOUR MONTHS BEFORE HE DIED-NOT SHORTLY BEFORE HIS DEATH, AS THE NAVY
REPORT INDICATED.

THE SAILOR WHO SAW ESSARY ABOARD SHIP A FEW HOURS BEFORE HE DIED
DESCRIBED HIM AS "RELAXED AND JOKIG AROUND." ANOTHER SAILOR SAID
ESSARY APPEARED NORMAL WHEN HE SAW HIM SHAVING AT 3:30 A.M., TWO HOURS
BEFORE HIS BODY WAS FOUND.

YET ANOTHER SAILOR SAID HE WAS CONVINCED THAT ESSARY HAD NOT KILLED
HIMSELF. HE SAID ESSARY HAD "MANY, MANY ENEMIES" ABOARD SHIP.

SEVERAL HOURS BEFORE MARTIN DIED, THE ESSARYS SAID, HE TOLD THEM OVER
THE PHONE THAT HE PLANNED TO TAKE OUT A TRUCK LOAN THE NEXT DAY. HE
ALSO DISCUSSED PLANS FOR HIS FATHER TO DRIVE TO NORFOLK AND TAKE HIM
HOME ON LEAVE IN 12 DAYS, THEY SAID.

EVEN WITH THE INSPECTOR GENERAL'S REVIEW, THE ESSARYS SAY THEY FEAR
FOR THEIR DAUGHTER'S SAFETY.

"PEOPLE JUST DON'T REALIZE WHAT THE MILITARY CAN DO TO YOU," GLADYS
ESSARY SAID. "THEY CAN REALLY MESS UP YOUR LIFE."

FOR ALL THE ANGUISH THAT FAMILIES OF DEAD SERVICEMEN HAVE ENDURED,
NONE HAS BATTLED THE MILITARY FOR AS LONG AS JACK MCCASKILL, A NAVY
VETERAN AND RETIRED NEW YORK POLICE OFFICER, AND HIS WIFE, JOANNE. AND
NO FAMILY HAS HAD TO CONFRONT SOMETHING SO MACABRE AS THE MUTILATION
OF THEIR SON'S BODY.

THE MACCASKILL WERE IN A STATE OF SHOCK ON MAY 26,1988, THE DAY TWO
MARINES WALKED INTO JOANNE'S OFFICE ON LONG ISLAND AND SAID THAT HER
SON, CPL. JOHN CACCASKILL JR., HAD SHOT HIMSELF. JOANNE REMEMBERS
BEING TOLD THAT JOHN WAS IN CRITICAL CONDITION IN EL SALVADOR, WHERE
HE SERVED AS A MARINE EMBASSY GUARD.

A CABLE FROM THE U.S. EMBASSY IN EL SALVADOR TO WASHINGTON AS JOHN
CLUNG TO LIFE WAS UNEQUIVOCAL: "ATTEMPTED SUICIDE, " IT SAID.

THREE DAYS LATER, JOHN DIED IN A SAN SALVADOR HOSPITAL. HE WAS 21.

FEELING HELPLESS IN THEIR GRIEF, JOANNE AND JACK SAY THEY ACCEPTED
WHAT THE NAVY TOLD THEM: JOHN HAD COMMITTED SUICIDE AFTER A NIGHT OF
HEAVY DRINKING AT A BAR CALLED THE "M" CLUB.

ASSURED THAT NO FOUL PLAY WAS INVOLVED, THEY SAY, THEY WAIVED AN
AUTOPSY AND ASKED THAT THEIR SON'S BODY BE RETURNED HOME RIGHT AWAY. A
NAVY INVESTIGATOR CONSIDERED AN AUTOPSY UNNECESSRY BECAUSE IT " WOULD
NOT PROVE MUCH, " ACCORDING TO A NAVY INVESTIGATIVE REPORT.

AT THE FUNERAL, THE FAMILY RECALLS, A MARINE BUDDY OF JOHN'S CONFIDED
IN THEM. "IT DIDN'T GO DOWN THE WAY THEY SAID," THEY REMEMBER THIM
SAYING.

THAT NIGHT, THE ENTIRE MACCASKILL CLAN SAT DOWN AT HOME IN ROCKVILLE
CENTRE, N.Y. EACH FAMILY MEMBER WROTE A LIST OF QUESTIONS ABOUT JOHN'S
DEATH.

"THERE WERE SO MANY QUESTIONS THAT WEREN'T ANSWERED. NOTHING MADE
SENSE,' JACK RECALLED.

CONFUSED BY WHAT THE MILITARY HAD TOLD THEM, THEY DECIDED TWO WEEKS
LATER TO HAVE THEIR SON'S BODY EXHUMED FOR AN AUTOPSY. THY WANTED
ANSWERS. WHAT THEY GOT WAS A GUTTED BODY.

"THEY EVISCERATED HIM- HIS HEART, LUNGS, LIVER, INTESTINES,
EVERYTHING." JACK SAID. "WE GOT A SHELL BACK INSTEAD OF OUR SON."

IN A LETTER TO THE FAMILY IN MAY 1990, THE STATE DEPARTMENT SAID THE
GUTTING WAS "A NORMAL PROCEDURE.....REQUIRED BY SALVADORAN LAW" AS
PART OF THE EMBALMING PROCESS PERFORMED BY A LOCAL MORTUARY. THE
PROCEDURE COST THE EMBASSY $2. JOHN'S ORGANS WERE NEVER FOUND.

THE SUBSEQUENT AUTOPSY REVEALED SOMETHING ALMOST AS SHOCKING: THE
DAMAGE TO JOHN'S FACE AND MOUTH WAS NOT EXTENSIVE. TO JACK, WHO HAD
SEEN HIS SHARE OF GUNSHOT VICTIMS IN 22 YEARS AS A POLICEMAN, HIS
SON'S FACE WAS NOT THAT OF A MAN WHO HAD BEEN SHOT INSIDE THE MOUTH
WITH A .357 MAGNUM.

" THE BLAST AND THE FLAME AND THE GASES SHOULD HAVE BLOWN OUT HIS
TEETH, HIS NOSTRILS, HIS EYES, RIPPED OUT HIS CHEEKS, " MACCASKILL
SAID, "HIS TEETH WEREN'T EVEN BROKEN. JOHN LOOKED LIKE HE WENT TO
SLEEP."

JACK AND JOANNE MACCASKILL DECIDED TO INVESTIGATE JOHN'S DEATH
THEMSELVES. THEY EMBARKED ON A FIVE-YEAR CRUSADE THAT WOULD COST THEM
$30,000, PRODUCE TWO EXHUMATIONS, AND PIT THEM AGAINST THE MILITARY
AND THE STATE DEPARTMENT.

THEY LEARNED FROM THE NAVY'S INVESTIGATIVE REPORT THAT THERE WAS ONLY
ONE WITNESS TO THE SHOOTING. A SALVADORAN WOMAN, QUOTED IN SPANISH IN
A LOCAL POLICE REPORT, SAID SHE SAW AN AMERICAN PUT A GUN TO HIS
MOUTH. IT IS NOT CLEAR FROM HER STATEMENT WHETHER SHE SAW- OR ONLY
HEARD- THE SHOT.

THE NAVY REPORT SAID JOHN WAS DRUNK AND KILLED HIMSELF DURING AN
ALCOHOL-INDUCED BOUT OF DEPRESSION. NO BLOOD-ALCOHOL TEST WAS
PERFORMED TO DETERMINE HOW MUCH HE HAD CONSUMED.

THE NAVY REPORT CONTAINS CONTRADICTORY STATEMENT'S BY WITNESSES, MANY
OF WHOM WERE DRINKING AT THE TIME JOHN DIED.

THE REPORT DOES NOT ADDRESS THE CONTRADICTIONS. A NAVY INVESTIGATOR
LATER WAS QUOTED IN A REPORT AS SAYING HE DID NOT WANT TO "BADGER"
WITNESSES.

"IT WAS LABELED A SUICIDE FROM THE GET-GO", JACK MACCASKILL SAID, "SO
EVEN IN THE FACE OF EVIDENCE TO THE CONTRARY, THEY'BE HAD TO COVER
THEIR A----S AND STICK TO THEIR STORY."

THE REPORT CONTAINS CONFLICTING TESTIMONY ABOUT TWO .357 MAGNUM
REVOLVERS BROUGHT INT THE BAR-ONE BY MACCASKILL AND THE OTHER BY A
FELLOW MARINE GUARD WHO WAS DRINKING WITH HIM AND TWO WOMEN. THE NAVY
SAYS THE MARINE LOST HIS .357 MAGNUM THAT NIGHT.

SOME EXPERTS HIRED BY THE MACCASKILLS HAVE EXPRESSED DOUBTS ABOUT THE
NAVY'S CONCLUSIONS. BUT ONE SAYS EVIDENCE POINTS TO SELF-INFLICTED
WOUND.

THE EXPERTS REVIEWED AUTOPSY REPORTS PHOTOS, EXHIBITS AND X-RAYS,
ALONG WITH NAVY INVESTIGATIVE REPORTS.

A REPORT BY LESLIE LUKASH, CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER IN NASSAU COUNTY,
N.Y., SAID HE FOUND "NO EVIDENCE OF POWDER RESIDUE ON THE FACE, NOSE,
MOUTH" OF MACCASKILL TO INDICATE THAT A GUN WAS FIRED IN HIS MOUTH. HE
CONCLUDED THAT THE WEAPON HAD BEEN FIRED AT LEAST 15 INCHES FROM
JOHN'S FACE.

RICHARD J. JANELLI, A FIREARMS EXPERT ALBERTSON, N.Y., WROTE IN A
REPORT: "IT IS 100 PERCENT SURE THAT THE QUESTIONED FIREARM WAS NOT
HELD INSIDE THE MOUTH."

JOSEPH H. DAVIS, CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER FOR DADE COUNTY, FLA., WROTE
THAT HE COULD NOT DETERMINE HOW JOHN DIED, LARGELY BECAUSE "THIS IS A
POORLY AND INADEQUATELY INVESTIGATED CASE."

DAVIS ADDED: "THERE IS NO NEED FOR FEDERAL GOVERNMENTAL AGENCIES TO BE
CONCERNED ABOUT A TARNISHED IMAGE. IT IS TOO LATE FOR THEM TO BE FREE
OF CRITICISM."

EDWIN J. SANOW, A BALLISTICS SPECIALIST IN INDIANA, WROTE IN A REPORT:
"THE WEIGHT OF PHYSICAL EVIDENCE TAKEN ALL TOGETHER STRONGLY REFUTES
ANY POSSIBLE SCENARIO FOR SUICIDE. NO DOUBTS AT ALL EXITS."

ARMAND GAUDIOSI, A PATHOLOGIST'S ASSISTANT WHO EXAMINED MACCASKILL'S
BODY, SAID THE DEATH WAS MORE LIKELY AN ACCIDENT OR HOMICIDE.

"IN 32 YEARS OF DOING AUTOPSIES, AND SEEING MAYBE A THOUSAND DIFFERENT
SUICIDES WITH GUNSHOT WOUNDS. I HAVE NEVER SEEN ON LIKE THIS," HE SAID
IN A STATEMENT.

HALBERT E. FILLINGER, AN ARSENIC PATHOLOGIST IN HESHAM, SAID HE FOUND
NO EVIDENCE OF POWDER RESIDUE OR SCARING AFTER REVIEWING THE ORIGINAL
AUTOPSY REPORT. "THE POSSIBILTY OF A SOMEWHAT MORE DISTAN GUNSHOT
WOUND MUST BE ENTERAINED," WROTE IN 1988.

BUT DURING A 1990 AUTOPSY FILLINGER SAID LAST WEEK, FOUND GUNPOWDER
GRANULES EMBEDDED IN JOHNS TONGUE. THAT MEANT THE GUN BAR WAS IN THE
MOUTH, HE SAID-EVIDENCE THAT JOHN PROBABLY SHOT HIMSELF.

EVIN SO, FILLINGER SAID, HE BELIEVED THAT MACCASKILLS WERE "ABUSED" BY
THE NAVY AND BY THE "DISTINCT ABSENCE OF A COMPETENT, HIGH QUALITY
INVESTIGATION.

THE MACCASKILLS SAY THEY STILL ARE NOT CONVINCED THAT JOHN COMMITTED
SUICIDE BECAUSE SO MANY QUESTIONS REMAIN UNANSWERED.

"THESE ARE COMMON-SENSE QUESTIONS BEFORE ASKED BY ORDINARY PEOPLE,"
JACK MACCASKILL SAID.

A STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESWOMAN IN WASHINGTON DECLINED TO COMMENT ON
THE CASE.

IN 1990, THE MACCASKILL SAID, THE NAVY CHANGED THE MANNER OF
MACCASKILL'S DEATH FROM "SUICIDE" TO "SELF-INFLICTED". BUT IT DID NOT
ALTER ITS ORIGINAL RULING THAT JOHN FIRED THE GUN THAT KILLED HIM.

THE PENTAGON'S INSPECTOR GENERAL AGREED LAST SUMMER TO REVIEW THE
CASE, WITH A REPORT EXPECTED EARLY NEXT YEAR. THE MACCASKILLS SAY THEY
ARE SKEPTICAL.

"WE'VE BEEN LIED TO FOR FIVE YEARS," JOANNE MACCASKILL SAID. " THE
BEST WE CAN HOPE FOR THAT WE'VE MADE THEM MORE ACCOUNTABLE FOR OTHER
FAMILIES IN OUR SITUATION."

AFTER TWO EXHUMATIONS, JOHN'S REMAINS WERE BURIED IN A CEMETERY IN
WESTBURY, N.Y. NOT FAR FROM THE HOME WHERE HE WAS RAISED. JOANNE AND
JACK REMEMBER HIM AS A YOUNG MAN MADLY IN LOVE WITH THE MARINE CORP
SMITTEN BY ITS IDEALS OF SERVICE AND HONOR.

JOHN DIED WITH THE MARINE CORPS EMLEM TATTOOED ON HIS RIGHT ARM.
BENEATH IT WERE THE WORDS SEMPER FIDELIS AND MOM.

TEN DAYS BEFORE THE FATAL SHOT WAS FIRED AT THE "M" CLUB, JACK HAD
MAILED HIS SON AN AMERICAN FLAG THAT ONCE BELONGED TO JOHNS
GRANDFATHER. JOHN WAS MAKING PLANS TO FLY OVER THE U.S. EMBASSY ON
MEMORIAL DAY, ONE DAY AFTER HE DIED.

The Philadelphia Inquirer

Wednesday, December 22, 1993

The suicide files: Death in the military----last of a four part
series.

[INLINE]

TANGLED INVESTIGATIONS LEAVE A TRAIL OF QUESTIONS
_________________________________________________________________

THE BROTHER OF COL. JAMES SABOW HIRED HIS OWN EXPERTS AND CONCLUDED
THAT A KILLER IS ON THE LOOSE. HE SEES MILITARY BUNGLING ---- AND A
BLATANT COVER--UP. OTHER FAMILIES WONDER, TOO, IF JUSTICE WILL BE
SERVED.

By David Zucchino

Inquirer staff writer

THE LAST TIME SALLY SABOW SAW HER HUSBAND ALIVE, HE WAS DEEP INTO HIS
USUAL MORNING ROUTINE. COL. JAMES SABOW HAD RISEN EARLY, SHOWERED,
SHAVED, HAD COFFEE AND SETTLED IN TO WATCH CNN COVERAGE OF THE GULF
WAR.

IT WAS JAN 22, 1991.

ABOUT 8:30 A.M., SALLY SABOW RECALLS SHE DROVE OFF TO MORNING MASS,
LEAVING HER HUSBAND SITTING CONTENTEDLY IN FRONT OF THE TV INSIDE
THEIR MILITARY QUARTERS ON F STREET AT MARINE CORPS NAVAL AIR STATION
IN EL TORO, CALIFORNIA.

AN HOUR LATER , SABOW SAYS , SHE RETURNED HOME TO DISCOVER HER HUSBAND
LYING DEAD IN THE BACK YARD. PART OF HIS HEAD BLOWN AWAY BY A BLAST
FROM A 12 GUAGE SHOTGUN. TWO WEEKS LATER, STILL NUMB WITH GREIF AND
SHOCK, SABOW WAS STUNNED YET AGAIN BY A DEVELOPMENT THAT HAS SINCE
DOMINATED HER LIFE: THE NAVY CONCLUDED THAT COL. SABOW , 51,
DESPONDENT OVER AN ALLEGATION THAT HE HAD TRANSPORTED PERSONEL ITEMS
ON MILITARY AIRCRAFT, HAD COMMITTED SUICIDE.

IT DIDN'T MAKE SENSE TO HER. JIM WAS DETERMINED TO PROVE HIS
INNOCENCE. SABOW SAYS. THE NIGHT BEFORE HE DIED, SHE RECALLS , SHE HAD
WATCHED HER HUSBAND VOW TO A FELLOW OFFICER TO FIGHT THE CHARGES IN
MILITARY COURT. SHE HEARD HIM THREATEN TO EXPOSE ALLEGED DRUG
TRAFFICKING ON THE BASE.

BEYOND THAT, SALLY SABOW SAYS, THE EVIDENCE SHE HAD SEEN SUGGESTED
MURDER , NOT SUICIDE. SHE HAD SEEN A LUMP HALF THE SIZE OF A BASEBALL
BEHIND HER HUSBANDS RIGHT EAR, AS IF HE HAD BEEN BLUDGEONED.THE
TELEVISION WAS ON" MUTE." SHE KNEW JIM USED THE MUTE BUTTON ONLY WHEN
HE HAD TO STEP AWAY TO ANSWER THE DOOR. AND THE TWO FAMILY DOGS WERE
LOCKED IN THE GARAGE. HER HUSBAND NEVER LOCKED UP THE DOGS. SABOW
SAYS, UNLESS SOMEONE CAME TO THE BACK DOOR.

NOW, ALMOST THREE YEARS LATER, JIM SABOW'S WIDOW AND HIS BROTHER SAY
THEIR EXPERTS HAVE FOUND EVIDENCE PROVING THE COLONEL WAS MURDERED.
THEY ACCUSE THE MILITARY OF COVERING UP A HOMICIDE, MISHANDLING
EVIDENCE, REARRANGING THE DEATH SCENE, AND PLOTTING TO DISCREDIT THE
FAMILY. THEY MAINTAIN THAT SABOW WAS KILLED BECAUSE HE PLANNED TO
EXPOSE THE ALLEGED USE OF MILITARY AIRCRAFT TO SMUGGLE DRUGS.

"MY BROTHER WAS MURDERED --- AND I CAN PROVE IT," SAID JOHN DAVID
SABOW, A SOUTH DAKOTA NEUROSURGEON. "I KNOW WHO KILLED HIM. AND THEY
KNOW I KNOW. IT WILL ALL COME OUT."

FOR OTHER FAMILIES OF DEAD SERVICEMEN, THERE ARE NAGGING FEARS THAT
THE TRUTH NEVER WILL COME OUT. BECAUSE THE MILITARY HAS SO MISHANDLED
INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE DEATHS OF THEIR LOVED ONES, THEY SAY, THEY MAY
NEVER KNOW HOW THE MEN DIED.

WORSE YET, THE SABOWS AND A FEW OTHER FAMILIES SAY, KILLERS HAVE
GOTTEN AWAY WHEN MURDERS WERE WRONGLY RULED SUICIDE.

FORTY FAMILIES HAVE TOLD THE INQUIRER THAT THE MILITARY DECEIVED THEM
AND IMPROPERLY INVESTIGATED THE CASES OF SERVICEMEN WHOSE DEATHS WERE
RULED SUICIDES OR ACCIDENTALLY SELF-INFLICTED. THE NEWSPAPER'S REVIEW
OF THE CASES FOUND A PATTERN OF PERFUNCTORY AND INCOMPLETE
INVESTIGATIONS IN WHICH EVIDENCE WAS MISHANDLED OR DESTROYED.

IN SOME CASES, LAB TESTS WERE NOT PERFORMED. BLOOD AND TISSUE SAMPLES
WERE NOT ANALYZED. FINGERPRINTS WERE NOT TAKEN. EVIDENCE WAS THROWN
AWAY. LEADS WERE NOT PURSUED. PEOPLE WERE NOT QUESTIONED.

WITH EACH PASSING DAY, TRAILS GROW COLDER AND WITNESSES' MEMORIES GROW
MORE FAINT. AS THE 40 CASES LIE CLOSED IN MILITARY FILES, FAMILIES'
DEMANDS FOR NEW INVESTIGATIONS GROW MORE URGENT.

"I REFUSE TO LIVE THE REST OF MY LIFE WITH THESE LIES ABOUT MY
BROTHER," SAID JULIA HARRISON, WHOSE FAMILY DISPUTES A RULING BY THE
NAVY THAT ELECTRICIAN'S MATE WILLIAM T. HARRISON COMMITTED SUICIDE IN
TEXAS IN JANUARY. "WHOEVER KILLED HIM IS STILL OUT THERE --- AND I
WONDER HOW THEY SLEEP AT NIGHT."

LAST MONTH, CONGRESS PASSED A BILL REQUIRING THE PENTAGON TO REVIEW
ITS PROCEDURES FOR INVESTIGATING DEATHS RULED SELF-INFLICTED, AND
REPORT BACK TO CONGRESS BY NEXT JULY. THE MEASURE ALSO CREATES A
MECHANISM FOR FAMILIES TO PRESENT TO THE PENTAGON'S INSPECTOR-GENERAL
EVIDENCE OF A "MATERIAL DEFICIENCY" IN A DEATH INVESTIGATION.

MOST FAMILIES SAY THEY WANT MORE: NEW INVESTIGATIONS BY AN AGENCY
UNCONNECTED TO THE MILITARY. SOME HAVE FORMED A SUPPORT GROUP CALLED
"UNTIL WE HAVE ANSWERS."

"AT THIS POINT, I PROBABLY DON'T HAVE A PRAYER OF FINDING OUT HOW MY
SON DIED," SAID A FOUNDER OF THE GROUP, ROBYN HALL, WHO HAS DISPUTED
THE NAVY'S SUICIDE RULING IN THE 1991 DEATH OF HER SON MICHAEL J.
LESLIE. "BUT IT'S GRATIFYING TO KNOW CONGRESS HAS QUESTIONED THE
MILITARY'S METHODS-- AND RECOGNIZED WE HAVE LEGITIMATE COMPLAINTS."

SPOKESMEN FOR THE MILITARY'S THREE INVESTIGATIVE AGENCIES DEFENDED
THEIR INVESTIGATIONS AS THOROUGH AND PROFESSIONAL. THEY SAID THE
AGENCIES WERE AWARE OF NO NEW EVIDENCE TO WARRANT REINVESTIGATING THE
CASES.

FOR CATHERINE JAKOVIC, THE MORE QUEATIONS SHE ASKS ABOUT HER SON'S
DEATH, THE MORE CONTRADICTORY THE ANSWERS SHE GETS.

THE NAVY FIRST SAID MARINE LANCE CPL. SCOTT JAKOVIC WAS ALONE WHEN HE
SHOT HIMSELF IN THE HEAD WHILE ON GUARD DUTY IN 1991. THEN, IT CHARED
A FELLOW MARINE IN CONNECTION WITH THE SHOOTING. WHEN THAT MARINE WAS
ACQUITTED, THE NAVY AGAIN SAID JAKOVIC HAD SHOT HIMSELF-- WHILE
PLAYING RUSSIAN ROULETTE.

MORE THAN TWO YEARS AFTER SCOTT'S DEATH, JAKOVIC STILL DOES NOT KNOW
HOW HE DIED.

"THE MILITARY TRIES TO INTIMIDATE YOU AND KEEP YOU IN THE DARK." SHE
SAID. "THEY DON'T WANT THE TRUTH TO COME OUT."

THE DEATH OF COL. SABOW WAS RULED SUICIDE TWO WEEKS AFTER SALLY SABOW
FOUND HIS BODY. IT WAS TOO QUICK, SABOW'S BROTHER SAYS. THE
FINGERPRINT, BLOOD AND GUNSHOT RESIDUE TESTS WEREN'T BACK FROM THE LAB
YET. IT SEEMED TO DAVID SABOW THAT THE NAVY WAS EAGER TO CLOSE OUT HIS
BROTHER'S CASE. HE SUSPECTED THE MILITARY WAS HIDING SOMETHING.

SABOW DECIDED TO HAVE THE ENTIRE CASE INVESTIGATED. HE HIRED GENE
WHEATON, A FORMER ARMY AND AIR FORCE INVESTIGATOR WHO HAD SUPERVISED
HUNDREDS OF INVESTIGATIONS, AND TED . GUNDERSON, THE FORMER CHIEF OF
THE FBI OFFICE IN LOS ANGELES. HE ALSO HIRED FORENSIC SPECIALISTS TO
STUDY THE AUTOPSY AND CRIME SCENE PHOTOS.

WHAT THEY FOUND CONVINCED SABOW THAT HIS BROTHER HAD BEEN MURDERED BY
SOMEONE IN THE MILITARY WHO FEARED THE COLONEL WOULD REVEAL DRUG
TRAFFICKING VIA MILITARY AIRCRAFT.

SABOW SAID HIS FORENSIC EXPERTS HAVE CONCLUDED THAT THE SHOTGUN BLAST
BLEW AWAY HIS BROTHER'S BRAIN STEM, INSTANTLY CEASING ALL BREATHING.
YET THE EXPERTS FOUND EVIDENCE THAT SABOW BREATHED BLOOD INTO HIS
LUNGS FOR FOUR TO FIVE MINUTES BEFORE HE WAS SHOT.

THAT EVIDENCE, COMBINED WITH THE LARGE BUMP ON SABOW'S HEAD, LED THE
EXPERTS TO A CONCLUSION: THE COLONEL WAS BLUDGEONED FROM BEHIND BY A
RIGHT-HANDED PERSON, KNOCKED UNCONSCIOUS, AND THEN WAS SHOT IN THE
HEAD MINUTES LATER.

THAT CONCLUSION IS SUPPORTED, DAVID SABOW SAID, BY THE POSITION OF HIS
BROTHER'S HANDS. IF THE COLONEL HAD SHOT HIMSELF, HE SAID, HIS ARMS
WOULD HAVE FLOWN OUT AND AWAY FROM HIS BODY. BUT THE ARMS WERE FOLDED
IN PRAYER POSITION IN FRONT OF SABOW'S FACE, SABOW SAID.

BEYOND THAT, INVESTIGATOR WHEATON CONTENDS, THE CRIME SCENE WAS
REARRANGED TO FIT A SUICIDE SCENARIO. WHEATON SAID THE FIRST
INVESTIGATORS ON THE SCENE TOLD HIM COL. SABOW WAS FOUND LYING A FEW
FEET AWAY FROM A LAWN CHAIR. CRIME SCENE PHOTOS SHOW THE CHAIR LYING
ON TOP OF SABOW, ACCORDING TO WHEATON.

THE PHOTOS ALSO SHOW OPEN SHOTGUN AMMUNITION BOXES LYING ON THE GARAGE
FLOOR. WHEATON SAYS INVESTIGATORS TOLD HIM THAT THE BOXES WERE FOUND
CLOSED AND STORED INSIDE A CABINET.

"THEY ARRANGED THE SCENE SO THEIR REPORTS WOULD "FLOW PROPERLY",
WHEATON SAID. "THEY DUMMIED IT UP. THEY THOUGHT THE SUICIDE MADE MORE
SENSE THAT WAY."

ALTHOUGH THE COLONEL WAS NOT WEARING GLOVES, THE NAVAL CRIMINAL
INVESTIGATIVE SERVICE (NCIS) REPORT SAID NO FINGERPRINTS WERE FOUND ON
THE GUN OR THE TWO SHELLS LOADED INTO IT. MOREOVER, WHEATON SAID, AN
AGENT TOLD HIM THAT TWO INVESTIGATORS HANDLED THE GUN WITH THEIR BARE
HANDS, TAINTING THE EVIDENCE.

SALLY SABOW NOTICED THAT HER HUSBAND WASN'T WEARING HIS GLASSES WHEN
HE DIED. HE WAS EXTREMELY FAR-SIGHTED, SHE SAID , AND COULD NOT SEE UP
CLOSE WITHOUT THEM.

SO HOW, SHE WONDERED, DID HE SELECT 12 GAUGE SHELLS FROM A JUMBLE OF
BOXES, BURIED IN THE GARAGE CABINET. THAT ALSO CONTAINED 16-GAUGE AND
20-GAUGE SHELLS?

THE NCIS SAID NO FINGERPRINTS WERE FOUND ON THE AMMUNITION BOX, YET
WHEATON SAID AN INVESTIGATOR TOLD HIM THAT ANOTHER INVESTIGATOR
HANDLED THE BOX WITH HIS BARE HANDS.

AND, ACCORDING TO DAVID SABOW, THE BREECH OF THE SHOTGUN WAS WAS
DEVOID OF BLOOD. IF SABOW HAD PUT THE BARRELL TO HIS MOUTH AND FIRED,
AS THE NCIS REPORT SAID, THE BREECH SHOULD HAVE BEEN SPATTERED WITH
"BLOWBACK" BLOOD AND BRAIN TISSUE.

IN OCTOBER, THE SABOW'S FILED A CIVIL COMPLAINT IN FEDERAL COURT
AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT AND MILITARY, SEEKING DAMAGES FOR EMOTIONAL
DISTRESS AND ALLEGING A CONSPIRACY TO CONCEAL CIRCUMSTANCES OF SABOW'S
DEATH.

THE GOVERNMENT, WHICH HAS UNTIL MID-JANUARY TO FORMALLY RESPOND, HAS
NOT YET DONE SO, ACCORDING TO SABOW'S ATTORNEY. A SPOKESWOMAN FOR THE
U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE IN LOS ANGELES DID NOT RETURN CALLS SEEKING
COMMENT.

THE SUIT ALLEGES THAT THE MILITARY CONSPIRED TO "OPPRESS , THREATEN,
HARASS, COERCE, INTIMIDATE AND INFLICT EMOTIONAL DISTRESS" ON THE
SABOWS. IT CHARGES THAT EL TORO COMMANDERS PLOTTED TO PORTRAY COL.
SABOW AS A "CROOK" AND "FELON," AND PREPARED A LETTER TO THE SOUTH
DAKOTA BOARD OF MEDICAL EXAMINERS ACCUSING DAVID SABOW OF MISCONDUCT.

ACCORDING TO THE SUIT:

INVESTIGATORS FAILED TO CORDON OFF THE DEATH SCENE AND LEFT SABOW'S
BODY EXPOSED AND UNCOVERED FOR ABOUT SEVEN HOURS ON A WARM AFTERNOON.

THEY FAILED TO PROPERLY "BAG" SABOW'S HANDS TO PRESERVE EVIDENCE THAT
HE FIRED THE SHOTGUN.

THEY STUCK THE SHOTGUN INTO THREE PAPER BAGS INSTEAD OF PROPER
EVIDENCE BAGS, POSSIBLY TAINTING THE EVIDENCE.

THEY FAILED TO CHECK BENEATH SABOW'S FINGERNAILS FOR POSSIBLE EVIDENCE
THAT HE STRUGGLED WITH AN ATTACKER.

THEY FAILED TO PRESERVE SABOW'S ORGANS AND TISSUE SAMPLES.

THEY MISQUOTED WITNESSES. "YOU'D DO A BETTER JOB AS A CRIMINAL
INVESTIGATOR IF YOU WATCHED OLD PERRY MASON RERUNS," AND SABOW'S
LAWYER PAUL COPENBARGER.

ACCORDING TO THE SUIT, COL. SABOW'S MILITARY ATTORNEY WAS QUOTED BY
THE NCIS AS SAYING THE COLONEL WAS "DESPERATE" WHEN THE TWO MEN SPOKE
THE MORNING SABOW DIED. THE LAWYER LATER SAID HE ACTUALLY TOLD THE
NCIS THAT SABOW "EXHIBITED THE NORMAL ANXIETY ASSOCIATED WITH BEING
UNDER INVESTIGATION, BUT DID NOT APPEAR IRRATIONAL OR DESPERATE," THE
SUIT SAID.

THE NCIS QUOTED SALLY SABOW AS SAYING SHE SAW "A LOOK OF TERROR" IN
SABOW'S EYES THE MORNING HE DIED. SHE DENIES SAYING THAT.

"IF I HAD THE SLIGHTEST HINT THAT HE WAS DESPONDENT, I WOULD NEVER
HAVE LEFT HIM ALONE," SHE SAID. "HE WAS ANXIOUS ABOUT THE ALLEGATIONS,
OF COURSE, BUT HE WAS PERFECTLY FUNCTIONAL AND NORMAL."

COL. SABOW'S COMMANDER EXPRESSED DOUBT THAT SABOW WOULD KILL HIMSELF
OVER MINOR ALLEGATIONS THAT A MILITARY PLANE IN WHICH HE RODE
DELIVERED STEREO SPEAKERS AND POSTERS TO HIS SON AT AN AIR FORCE BASE.
SIMILAR CHARGES WERE SUCCESSFULLY BROUGHT AGAINST THE TOP TWO
COMMANDERS AT EL TORO, WHERE SABOW WAS THIRD-IN-COMMAND UNTIL HE WAS
SUSPENDED 10 DAYS BEFORE HIS DEATH.

ONE OF THOSE COMMANDERS TOLD THE NCIS:"IT IS ILLOGICAL THAT COLONEL
SABOW WOULD TAKE HIS LIFE SOLELY ON THE BASIS OF EVENTS IN THE VERY
EARLY STAGES OF AN INVESTIGATION."

THE SABOWS SAY THEY HAVE SPENT MORE THAN $100,000 TRYING TO PROVE THAT
JIM SABOW DID NOT KILL HIMSELF. THEY SAY HE WAS A STRAIGHT-ARROW
MARINE, A PROUD OFFICER AND VIETNAM WAR HERO WHO EXEMPLIFIED THE BEST
OF THE CORPS.

IT PAINS THEM, THEY SAY, TO BE DECEIVED AND BULLIED BY THE VERY MARINE
CORPS THAT JIM SABOW LOVED SO DEEPLY.

"THE DISGUST I NOW FEEL TOWARDS THE MILITARY IS OVERWHELMING," DAVID
SABOW SAID. "WHAT THEY'VE DONE TO THIS FAMILY IS SICKENING."

SALLY SABOW SAYS SHE FEELS BETRAYED.

"I USED TO BE ONE OF THE MOST PATRIOTIC PEOPLE IN THE WORLD," SHE
SAID. "NOW I WON'T PLEDGE THE FLAG. I WON'T SING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM.
MY FAITH IN MY COUNTRY IS DESTROYED."

ON THE DAY HE DIED IN MISSISSIPPI, AIRMAN ALLEN SHULTS HAD HIS CAR
SERVICED. THEN HE DID HIS LAUNDRY. LATER ON, HE CALLED A FRIEND BACK
HOME IN KANSAS TO PLAN A PARTY.

A FEW HOURS LATER, ACCORDING TO THE AIR FORCE, 6-FOOT-3 ALLEN SHULTS
TIED A SHEET TO A DOOR'S BROKEN HYDRAULIC CLOSURE, LOOTED IT AROUND
HIS NECK, AND HANGED HIMSELF. HE WAS DEAD AT AGE 20, ASPHYXIATED IN
HIS DORMITORY ROOM AT KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE NEAR BILOXI, MISSISSIPPI,
IN JULY 1992.

AT FIRST, ROYAL AND LINDA SHULTS ACCEPTED THE MILITARY'S SUICIDE
RULING, ALTHOUGH THEY SAY THEIR SON SEEMED HAPPY WHEN THEY SPOKE TO
HIM DAYS BEFORE HE DIED. BUT WHEN THE AIR FORCE REFUSED TO PROVIDE
DETAILS --- INCLUDING A DEATH DATE FOR ALLEN'S TOMBSTONE---THEY BEGAN
TO WONDER HOW HE DIED.

AT THEIR HOME IN ATCHISON KANSAS THE SHULTS DECIDED TO HIRE A PRIVATE
DETECTIVE TO INVESTIGATE ALLENS DEATH. WHAT HE FOUND THEY SAID,
CONVINCED THEM HE WAS MURDERED.

CHRIS RUSH, A PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR FROM NEW YORK SAYS HE WAS SUPRISED
BY THE PAUCITY OF EFFORT AND EVIDENCE THE AIR FORCE PUT INTO THE
SHULTS CASE.

" THEY DIDN'T EVEN FOLLOW THEIR OWN INVESTIGATIVE PROCEDURES," RUSH
SAID THIS MONTH.

"THEIR INVESTIGATION EFFECTIVELY ENDED AT 8:PM THE DAY ALLEN DIED."

ACCORDING TO RUSH THE AIR FORCE:

*DID NOT PERFORM SALIVA TESTS TO DETERMINE WHO SMOKED TWO CIGARETTE
BUTS FOUND IN SHULTS ROOM. NEITHER WAS OF BRANDS HE SMOKED.
INVESTIGATORS SAID HE WAS ALONE WHEN HE DIED.

*DID NOT CHECK UNDER SHULTS FINGERNAILS FOR POSSIBLE EVIDENCE THAT HE
HAD STRUGGLED WITH SOME ONE.

*DID NOT TAKE FINGERPRINTS FROM THE ROOM.

* DID NOT CHECK TELEPHONE RECORDS OF CALLS TO AND FROM SHULTS ROOM ON
THE DAY HE DIED.

* MISSED "V" SHAPED CONTUSIONS ON SHULTS NECK THAT WERE NOT CONSISTENT
WITH MARKS LEFT BY BED SHEET HANGING.

*DESTROYED THE SHEET USED IN THE HANGING .

RUSH SAID 13 OF 15 PEOPLE HE INTERVIEWED AT THE KEESLER BASE TOLD HIM
THAT STATEMENTS ATTRIBUTED TO THEM BY THE AIR FORCE WERE EITHER
ENTIRELY FALSE OR TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT.

AFTER INTERVIEWING THEM AND THEN SHOWING THEM THEIR STATEMENTS IN AN
AIR FORCE INVESTIGATIVE REPORT. RUSH SAID, " THEY WERE DUMFOUNDED.
THEY SAID: "THATS NOT WHAT I SAID,".

RUSH SAID HIS INVESTIGATION FOUND CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE THAT SHULTS
DEATH WAS CONNECTED TO HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE WIFE OF ANOTHER
SERVICEMAN.

THE HEAVILY CENSORED AIR FORCE REPORT SAYS SHULTS AND THE WOMAN HAD
ARRANGED A RENDEZVOUS FOR JULY 5 ---- THREE DAY AFTER SHULTS DEATH.
RUSH SAID SHULTS TOLD A FRIEND THE NIGHT HE DIED THAT THE WOMAN WAS
GOING TO DISCUSS A DIVORCE WITH HER HUSBAND.

THE AIR FORCE CONCLUDED THAT SHULTS, AFTER AN EVENING OF DRINKING,
KILLED HIMSELF BECAUSE THE WOMAN WAS SPENDING THE WEEKEND WITH HER
HUSBAND. IT QUOTED THREE CO--WORKERS WHO SAID SHULTS HAD SEEMED
DEPRESSED.

RUSH ALSO SAID SHULTS' SUITEMATE TOLD HIM HE THOUGHT SHULTS WAS HIDING
A WOMAN IN HIS ROOM WHEN HE SAW SHULTS THERE ABOUT 9:30 P.M. THE
MILITARY ESTIMATED THAT SHULTS DIED AROUND MIDNIGHT.

ACCORDING TO RUSH, THE SUITEMATE SAID THE AIR FORCE NEVER ASKED FOR
DETAILS ABOUT HIS VISIT TO SHULTS' ROOM.

RUSH ALSO SAID HE WAS TOLD THAT A DIFFERENT WOMAN --- WAS IN THE ROOM
WITH SHULTS THAT NIGHT.

THE AIR FORCE REPORT SAID A NOTE WAS FOUND IN SHULTS ROOM THAT READ: "
I LOVED YOU BUT I COULDN'T TAKE THE PRESSURE."

THE REPORT SAID A HAND WRITING ANALYSIS WAS INCONCLUSIVE , FINDING
INDICATIONS THAT HE WROTE THE SIGNATURE ALLEN WENDELL SHULTS ON THE
NOTE BUT " LIMITED INDICATIONS" THAT SHULTS WROTE THE PRINTED MESSAGE.

THE SHULTSES SAY THE HANDWRITING IS NOT THEIR SON'S, AND HE SO
DETESTED HIS MIDDLE NAME HE NEVER USED IT.

RONALD F. DECKER, A FORMER AIR FORCE OFFICER OF SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS
(OSI) INVESTIGATOR WHO REVIEWED THE OSI REPORT, SAID: "THERE ARE MANY
ITEMS THAT OSI APPARENTLY CHOSE NOT TO INVESTIGATE. THIS INVESTIGATION
IS NOWHERE NEAR AS COMPLETE AS IT 'APPEARS'."

U.S. REP. JIM SLATTERY (D. KAN.) SAID THE SHULTSES DESERVE A BETTER
INVESTIGATION.

"LINDA AND ROYAL SHULTS HAVE CONVINCED ME THAT THE AIR FORCE'S
INVESTIGATION NAY HAVE BEEN DESIGNED TO FIT A PREDETERMINED
CONCLUSION," SLATTERY SAID THIS MONTH. "THERE ARE LEGITIMATE QUESTIONS
ABOUT WHETHER ALLEN COMMITTED SUICIDE."

THE OSI REPORT DESCRIBES SHULTS' ROOM AS NEAT. RUSH SAID THE
DEATH-SCENE PHOTOS SHOW GARBAGE, CLOTHING AND OTHER ITEMS STREWN
ABOUT, SUGGESTING A STRUGGLE. SHULTS WAS FOUND WEARING A T-SHIRT
TURNED INSIDE OUT.

RUSH SPECULATED THAT THE MARKS ON SHULTS' NECK COULD HAVE BEEN LEFT BY
THE WATCHBAND OF SOMEONE CHOKING HIM FROM BEHIND. HE SAID SHULTS MAY
HAVE BEEN STRANGLED AND THEN HANGED WITH THE SHEET.

BONITA J. PETERSON, THE FORMER MEDICAL EXAMINER IN JACKSON COUNTY,
MISSOURI, EXAMINED THE AUTOPSY REPORT, DEATH SCENE AND AUTOPSY
PHOTOS,AND THE MILITARY REPORT. SHE SAID THE NECK MARKS WERE NOT MADE
BY THE SHEET.

"I MUST CONCLUDE THAT THE POSSIBILITY OF HOMICIDE HAS NOT BEEN
EXCLUDED." PETERSON SAID IN A REPORT PREPARED FOR THE FAMILY.

RUSH SAID THE AIR FORCE DID NOT PURSUE EVIDENCE--- A VIDEOTAPE AND
COMPUTER MESSAGES---THAT SHULTS' DEATH COULD HAVE BEEN RELATED TO
HAZING BY AN ILLEGAL BASE FRATERNITY CALLED "GODFATHERS OF KEELSER."

"THEY RULED SUICIDE FROM THE START," RUSH SAID. "THEY NEVER CONSIDERED
THE POSSIBILITY OF HOMICIDE.......PROVING A HOMICIDE TAKES WORK.
SUICIDE IS EASIER."

LINDA SHULTS, A SCHOOLTEACHER, SAID SHE AND HER HUSBAND, A PRINCIPAL,
HAVE SPENT $50,000 ON THE CASE SO FAR. EVEN AS THEY PREPARE FOR THEIR
SECOND CHRISTMAS WITHOUT ALLEN, SHE SAID, THEY CLING TO THE HOPE THAT
IT IS NOT TOO LATE TO FIND OUT HOW HE DIED.

"IF THIS THING COSTS US OUR SAVINGS AND HOME, IT'LL BE WORTH IT IF WE
FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR SON," SHULTS SAID. "WE OWE ALLEN THAT
MUCH."

THE DAY BEFORE HE DIED, ELECTRICIAN'S MATE WILLIAM TIMOTHY HARRISON
WAS INTERROGATED BY NCIS AGENTS. THEY ACCUSED HIM OF STEALING A PISTOL
FROM THE ARMORY OF HIS SHIP, THE U.S..S. DEVASTATOR, DOCKED IN
INGLESIDE, TEXAS.

ACCORDING TO AN NCIS REPORT, HARRISON WAS KEPT UNDER NCIS SURVEILLANCE
IN THE HOPE THAT HE WOULD LEAD AGENTS TO THE GUN AND OTHER ITEMS HE
WAS ACCUSED OF STEALING.

EVEN SO, THE NCIS SAYS HARRISON MANAGED TO DRIVE FROM HIS APARTMENT TO
A LOCAL PAWN SHOP AND BUY A .45-CALIBER PISTOL FOR $300 JAN. 7. FROM
THERE, THE NCIS SAYS, HE WENT TO A WAL-MART AND BOUGHT AMMUNITION.

THEN, ACCORDING TO THE NCIS, HARRISON DROVE BACK HOME AND SHOT HIMSELF
IN THE HEAD WITH HIS NEW GUN. THE AGENCY RULED THAT HARRISON COMMITTED
SUICIDE BECAUSE HE WAS DISTRAUGHT OVER THE THEFT INVESTIGATION. THE
STOLEN GUN NEVER WAS FOUND.

THE REPORT SAYS AN NCIS AGENT CONTACTED HARRISON'S SHIP ON JAN. 7
BECAUSE THERE HAD BEEN "NO MOVEMENT AROUND HIS APARTMENT." IT SAYS THE
AGENTS STAYED IN A CAR AND LET HARRISON'S LANDLADY OPEN HIS APARTMENT
TO LOOK FOR HIM WITHOUT TELLING HER WAS SUSPECTED OF STEALING A GUN.

HARRISON'S FAMILY SAYS THE EVIDENCE ASSEMBLED BY THE NCIS DOES NOT
PROVE SUICIDE .

"THE SUICIDE RULING WAS CUT AND DRIED BEFORE HIS BODY WAS IN THE
GROUND," SAID HARRISON'S MOTHER, KATHLEEN HOLLER.

THERE ARE MANY QUESTIONS HARRISON'S FAMILY SAYS THE NAVY HAS FAILED TO
ANSWER SINCE TIM HARRISON DIED. WHAT THEY HAVE TOLD, THEY MAINTAIN, IS
FALSE.

"THEY LIE TO YOU, TRYING TO MAKE THE FACTS FIT THEIR VERSION OF WHAT
HAPPENED," SAID HARRY HOLLER, HARRISON'S STEP-FATHER. "EVERY THING
THEY TOLD ME, SITS RIGHT IN MY LIVINGROOM, A LIE."

HARRISON LEFT MO SUICIDE NOTE. ALTHOUGH SOME FELLOW SAILORS TOLD
INVESTIGATORS THAT HARRISON WAS "MOODY" AND HAD "A VIOLENT TEMPER,"
THEY SAID HIS BEHAVIOR WAS NORMAL IN THE DAYS BEFORE HIS DEATH.

THE NCIS REPORT NOTES NO "OVERT INDICATIONS OF DISTRESS" IN HARRISON.

KATHLEEN HOLLER SAID HER SON WAS HAPPY WHEN SHE SPOKE WITH HIM ON THE
PHONE NOT MORE THAN 24 HOURS BEFORE HE DIED. SHE SAID HE DESCRIBED A
RECENT VOLUNTEER TRIP WITH A LOCAL EMERGENCY RESCUE SQUAD, AND MADE
PLANS TO COME HOME ON LEAVE THE NEXT MONTH.

HE DID NOT MENTION THE NCIS INTERROGATION, SHE SAID.

A REVIEW OF THE NCIS REPORT SUGGESTS THAT THE SUICIDE RULING WAS
PREMATURE.

HARRISON WAS RIGHT-HANDED, BUT A MEDICAL EXAMINER'S REPORT SAID
INDENTATIONS ON HIS LEFT THUMB AND FINGERS INDICATED THEY HAD BEEN IN
CONTACT WITH THE GUN.

HARRISON'S HANDS WERE SWABBED FOR EVIDENCE THAT HE HAD FIRED A GUN BUT
THE NCIS REPORT GIVES NO INDICATION THAT THE WERE TESTED OR THAT
ATTEMPTS WERE MADE TO TEST FINGERPRINTS FROM THE GUN.

NO FULL AUTOPSY WAS PERFORMED. THE MEDICAL EXAMINER'S REPORT SAID HE
PERFORMED "EXTERNAL EXAMINATION" BUT DID NOT CUT INTO HARRISON'S BODY
OR HEAD, AS IS CUSTOMARY.

"THE WOUND APPEARED TO BE CONSISTENT TO SUICIDE," THE ONE-PAGE REPORT
SAID.

KATHLEEN HOLLER SAID SHE NOTICED BRUISES ON HER SON'S NECK AND EARS AT
HIS FUNERAL . NO SUCH MARKS WERE NOTED IN THE MEDICAL EXAMINER'S
REPORT.

THE NCIS SAID THE .45-CALIBER PISTOL THAT KILLED HARRISON WAS FOUND
LYING ON HIS CHEST.

GENE WHEATON, NOW A PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR, SAID THE PISTOL'S POWERFUL
RECOIL SHOULD HAVE SENT IT FLYING ACROSS THE ROOM. WHEATON REVIEWED
THE NCIS FILES FOR THE INQUIRER.

THE DEATH CERTIFICATE LISTS THE TIME OF DEATH AS "UNKNOWN," BUT PLACES
IT SOMETIME DURING THE "A.M." ON JAN.7 . THREE NEIGHBORS SAID THEY
HEARD A LOUD "BANG" SOMETIME DURING THE EARLY EVENING; ONE ALSO SAID
SHE HEARD SOMEONE "MOVING SOMETHING AROUND"HARRISON'S APARTMENT ABOUT
10 P.M.

THE NCIS REPORT SAID "IT IS REASONABLE TO CONCLUDE "SUICIDE BECAUSE
HARRISON WAS "DISTRAUGHT OVER THE AMOUNT OF EVIDENCE COMING TO LIGHT
IN THE INVESTIGATION AGAINST HIM."

THE SHIP'S COMMANDER DISAGREED WITH A FINDING THAT HARRISON HAD
"DISPLAYED PREVIOUS SUICIDAL TENDENCIED." HE OTHERWISE ENDORSED THE
SUICIDE RULING.

THE NCIS REPORT NOTED THAT "CERTAIN MINOR CONFLICTS APPEAR IN THE
EVIDENCE." BUT NONE TO "WARRANT COMMENT."

IN AUGUST, A COMMENT IN A LETTER SENT BY THE NCIS TO THE FAMILY
INDICATED THAT ANY POTENTIAL REINVESTIGATION OF HARRISON'S DEATH WOULD
RUN INTO SERIOUS PROBLEMS.

BECAUSE THE INVESTIGATION "DID NOT UNCOVER ANY EVIDENCE OF FOUL PLAY,"
THE LETTER SAID, ALL REMAINING EVIDENCE WAS "DISPOSED OF OR
DESTROYED."

FIRST . THE NAVY MARENICOLA WHITTLES THAT HER SON DIED WHILE PLAYING
RUSSIAN ROULETTE . NEXT, SHE SAID, SHE WAS TOLD THAT HE HAD DIED
ACCIDENTIALY WHILE CLEANING HIS GUN. THEN, THEY TOLD HER THE FATAL
SHOT WAS FIRED WHILE HE WAS PLAYING WITH HIS GUN.

" THEY DID HALF AN INVESTIGATION AND STOPPED," SHE SAID. " AND THEN
THEY TELL ME: BELIEVE WHAT WE TELL YOU. CASE CLOSED. THATS IT.

WHITTLES DISPUTES A NAVY RULING THAT HER SON, MARINE CPL. CORNELIUS
WHITTLES, ACCIDENTALLY SHOT HIMSELF IN THE HEAD WHILE TOYING WITH HIS
GUN IN 1991 DURING GUARD AT THE EARLE NAVAL WEAPONS STATION IN COLTS
NECK, N.J.

A BASE SPOKESWOMAN DECLINED TO DISCUSS THE DEATH OF WHITTLES OR THE
DEATHS TWO OTHER GUARDS AT THE BASE UNDER SIMILAR CIRCUMSTANCES. ONE
OF THE DEATHS ALSO INVOLVED A MARINE CORPORAL -SCOTT JAKOVIC-WHILE THE
OTHER WAS OF A CIVILIAN GUARD. A GUARD PLEADED GUILTY OF SHOOTING THE
CIVILIAN WHILE "GOOFING AROUND" WITH HIS GUN.

"THERE SEEMS TO BE A TOTAL BREAKDOWN IN DISCIPLINE," WHITTLES SAID.
"IF THESE YOUNG MEN WERE PLAYING WITH THEIR GUNS, WHY WASN'T SOMETHING
DONE ABOUT IT?

THE NAVY'S EXPLANATION FOR THE DEATHS-RUSSIAN ROULETTE OR OTHERWISE
TOYING WITH GUNS-HAS BEEN OFFERED TO THE SURVIVORS OF SEVERAL DEAD
SERVICEMEN. THE FAMILIES DISPUTE THE MILITARY'S ACCOUNTS.

IN THE NCIS REPORT, WHITTLES' DEATH WAS LISTED AS ACCIDENTALLY
"SELF-INFLICTED." THE REPORT SAID HIS 9MM BERETTA PISTOL DISCHARGED AS
HE HELD IT TO HIS HEAD. SECONDS EARLIER, THE REPORT SAID, WHITTLES HAD
COMPARED THE SAFETY FEATURES OF THE BERETTA WITH THOSE OF A WEAPON
HELD BY ANOTHER GUARD.

WHITTLES SAYS SHE SUSPECTS THE MILITARY COVERS UP DRINKING AND
HORSEPLAY WITH GUNS.

CPL. WHITTLES FIANCEE, TRACY SANDBURG, SAID SHE SPOKE WITH HIM ON THE
PHONE LESS THAN AN HOUR BEFORE HE DIED. SHE SAID WHITTLES TOLD HER
THAT SECURITY OFFICERS IN THE CONTROL ROOM WITH HIM AT EARLE THAT
NIGHT WERE DRINKING AND CLOWNING AROUND.

"SOMEONE WALKED IN, AND OVERHEARD HIM ASK IF HE COULD STASH BEER
THERE, " SANDBURG SAID. "AND HE /WHITTLES/ SAID, "NO. GET IT OUT OF
HERE, THIS IS A RESTRICTED AREA."

SANDBURG SAID WHITTLES PUT HER ON HOLD FOR A MOMENT, THEN CAME BACK ON
THE LINE AND SAID HE HAD TO HANG UP BECAUSE A REPORT HAD COME IN ABOUT
PRANKSTERS OVERTURNING A CAR.

"WE SAID GOODBYE, AND THAT WAS THE LAST TIME I SPOKE TO HIM," SHE
SAID.

ALTHOUGH THE NAVY REPORT SAYS WHITTLES FIRED HIS GUN WITH HIS RIGHT
HAND FOR RESIDUE THAT WOULD INDICATE HE HAD FIRED A WEAPON.

A CIVILIAN AUTOPSY REPORT NOTED: "THERE IS NO IMPRESSION OF THE
TRIGGER NOTED ON FINGERS AND THERE IS NO GUNPOWDER NOTED ON THE RIGHT
OR LEFT HAND."

OTHER SECURITY GUARDS IN THE ROOM WITH WHITTLES WHEN HE WAS SHOT WERE
NOT TESTED FOR GUNSHOT RESIDUE, ACCORDING TO THE NAVY REPORT. THE
REPORT ALSO SAYS INVESTIGATORS WERE UNABLE TO FIND LATENT FINGERPRINTS
ON WHITTLES' GUN.

"HOW DO THEY GET AWAY WITH THESE HALF INVESTIGATIONS?" WHITTLES ASKED,
"PEOPLE SHOULDN'T HAVE TO PUT UP WITH THIS....MY SON GAVE THE MARINE
CORPS EVERYTHING HE HAD. HE DESERVES BETTER."

QUESTIONS STILL HAUNT STANLEY AND DELORES WOLF EIGHT YEARS AFTER THE
ARMY TOLD THEM THEIR SON SHOT HIMSELF IN THE HEAD WHILE ON GUARD DUTY
AT SCHOFIELD BARRACKS IN HAWAII.

STAN WOLF, AN FBI ELECTRONICS SPECIALIST IN NEVADA, IS PUZZLED BY WHAT
HE READ IN ARMY CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION COMMAND (CID) REPORT. THE
REPORT SAID SEC. 4 RICHARD S. WOLF GRABBED A .38-CALIBER RUGER
REVOLVER AND AMMUNITION FROM A FELLOW GUARD DURING A SHIFT CHANGE IN
OCTOBER 1985, THEN PUT THE WEAPON TO HIS HEAD AND FIRED.

A MILITARY MEDICAL EXAMINER CONCLUDED THAT WOLF, 20, KILLED HIMSELF
"WHILE PLAYING RUSSIAN ROULETTE."

BUT AN ATOMIC ABSORPTION TEST REVEALED NO TRACES OF GUNPOWDER ON
WOLF'S HANDS, WHICH SHOULD HAVE BEEN COVERED WITH POWDER RESIDUE FROM
FIREING THE GUN. THE ARMY REPORT SAYS MEDICAL PERSONNEL WASHED WOLF'S
HANDS BEFORE SWABBINGS COULD BE TAKEN FROM THEM.

THE AUTOPSY FOUND NO EVIDENCE OF POWDER BURNS IN WOLF'S HEAD WOUND.
SUCH BURNS ARE NORMALLY LEFT IN SELF-INFLICTED WOUNDS.

THE WOLFS SAY DEATH SCENE PHOTOS SHOW BLOOD SPATTERS ON A WALL BEHIND
WOLF NO HIGHER THAN 25 INCHES. BUT THE ARMY REPORT SAID WOLF, WHO WAS
5-FOOT-10, WAS STANDING WHEN HE SHOT HIMSELF WITH A ROUND THAT
TRAVELED UPWARDS THROUGH HIS HEAD. WHY THEN, STAN WOLF WONDERS, WERE
THE BLOOD SPATTERS SO FAR BELOW HIS SON'S HEAD?

THE AUTOPSY REPORT MAKES NO MENTION OF "BLOWBACK"-BLOOD AND
TISSUE-THAT SHOULD HAVE COVERED WOLF'S HAND.

AND A KEY WITNESS, WOLF'S SECURITY PARTNER, GAVE CONFLICTING VERSIONS
OF WOLF'S DEATH.

SPEC. 4 LYDIA MCCORKLE FIRST SAID WOLF GRABBED HER GUN AND A SINGLE
ROUND, THEN LOADED THE ROUND AND SPUN THE HUN'S CYLINDER.

MCCORKLE LATER AMENDED HER STATEMENT AND SAID SHE DID NOT SEE WOLF
EITHER LOAD THE ROUND OR SPIN THE CYLINDER.

BECAUSE OF DISCREPANCIES BY MCCORKLE AND OTHER WITNESSES, THE ARMY
REOPENED THE CASE IN SEPTEMBER 1986, BUT REACHED THE SAME CONCLUSION:
WOLF SHOT HIMSELF.

MCCORKLE SAID WOLF TOLD HER JUST BEFORE HE PULLED THE TRIGGER.
"RUSSIAN ROULETTE? I HAVE A ONE-IN FIVE CHANCE."

ASKED BY INVESTIGATORS WHY SHE THOUGHT WOLF HAD SHOT HIMSELF, MCCORKLE
SAID: "I DON' T BELIEVE HE WAS SUICIDAL.....I BELIEVE HE WAS JUST
SHOWING OFF."

TO STAN WOLF, THE FORENSIC EVIDENCE SUGGESTS THAT SOMEONE OTHER THAN
HIS SON FIRED THE GUN. UNTIL THE ARMY RECONCILES THE CONFLICT BETWEEN
THAT EVIDENCE AND WITNESSES' STATEMENTS, HE SAID, HE WILL NOT BELIEVE
HIS SON SHOT HIMSELF.

"I KNOW ONE THING," HE SAID. "IT DIDN'T HAPPEN THE WAY THEY SAID IT
DID,"

______________________________________________________________________
____________

MORE THAN TWO YEARS HAVE PASSED SINCE CATHERINE JAKOVICS ELDEST SON
PHONED HER WITH DEVASTATING NEWS: HER YOUNGEST SON, SCOTT, WAS LYING
NEAR DEATH IN A HOSPITAL. HE HAD BEEN SHOT IN THE HEAD.

BY THE NEXT NIGHT, OCT. 13,1991, LANCE CPL. JAKOVIC WAS DEAD, FIVE
MONTHS SHORT OF HIS 21ST BIRTHDAY.

NUMB WITH GRIEF, JAKOVIC LISTENED AS NAVY OFFICIALS TOLD HER THAT
SCOTT ACCIDENTALLY HAD SHOT HIMSELF WITH HIS OWN WEAPON WHILE ALONE ON
GUARD DUTY AT EARLE.

IT WAS ALL THERE IN BLACK AND WHITE, ON A SINGLE TYPED SHEET CALLED
REPORT OF CASUALTY FORM DD-1300, FILLED OUT JUST NINE DAYS AFTER SCOTT
DIED: "SELF-INFLICTED GUNSHOT WOUND TO THE HEAD."

THE QUICK RULING ATE AWAY AT JAKOVIC. IT WAS SO UNLIKE SCOTT TO DO
SOMETHING SO IRRESPONSIBLE, SHE THOUGHT: HE WAS SO CAREFUL WITH GUNS.
AND SHE KNEW FROM HIS VISITS HOME THAT HE WANTED OUT OF EARLE, WHERE
HE TOLD HER THAT COMMANDERS OVERLOOKED SECURITY VIOLATIONS AND DRUG
USE BY SERVICEMEN.

THE MORE JAKOVIC PRESSED THE NCIS FOR INFORMATION, THE MORE
IMPLAUSIBLE THE OFFICIAL VERSION OF EVENTS SEEMED TO HER: A WEAPONS
EXPERT WITH NO HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL OR DISCIPLINE PROBLEMS
SUDDENLY SHOT HIMSELF AT A BUSY GUARD STATION IN THE MIDDLE OF THE
AFTERNOON-AND NOBODY SAW IT.

WHAT JAKOVIC DIDN'T KNOW WAS THAT , JUST 10 HOURS AFTER HER SON'S
DEATH, A MARINE GUARD HAD TOLD AN NCIS AGENT THAT HE HAD SEEN MARINE
PVT. EDWARD MARKOVITCH PUT A HUN TO JAKOVIC'S HEAD MINUTES BEFORE THE
SHOOTING. THE NAVY DID NOT REVEAL THAT INFORMATION FOR FOUR MONTHS.

FINALLY, IN FEBRUARY 1992, THE NCIS SAID THERE HAD BEEN A WITNESS TO
JAKOVIC'S DEATH AFTER ALL: PVT. MARKOVITCH. THE NAVY CHARGED
MARKOVITCH WITH INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER IN CONNECTION WITH JAKOVIC'S
DEATH.

THERE WAS ANOTHER, UNRELATED CHARGE AGAINST MARKOVITCH: COCAINE USE.

AFTER MILITARY TRIAL LAST YEAR, MARKOVITCH WAS CONVICTED OF THE DRUG
CHARGE. BUT HE WAS ACQUITTED OF MANSLAUGHTER, IN PART BECAUSE NAVY
AGENTS FAILED TO PROPERLY READ HIM HIS RIGHTS AND LOST CRUCIAL
PAPERWORK.

THE NCIS THEN LET STAND THE ORIGINAL RULING THAT JAKOVIC HAD SHOT
HIMSELF-WHILE PLAYING RUSSIAN ROULETTE WITH A 9MM AUTOMATIC.

"APPARENTLY, THERE ARE NO FACTS-JUST THE NIS VERSION OF FACTS,"
JAKOVIC SAID RECENTLY, STILL NOT CERTAIN EXACTLY HOW HER SON DIED.

DURING TWO MILITARY HEARING FOR MAKOVITCH, HELD IN PHILADELPHIA IN
1992, JAKOVIC LEARNED THE FULL SCOPE OF THE NAVY'S BUNGLED
INVESTIGATION. ACCORDING TO TESTIMONY.

NCIS AGENTS ALLOWED MARKOVITCH TO DRINK A SODA AND GO TO THE BATHROOM
BEFORE SWABBING HIS HANDS FOR POSSIBLE EVIDENCE THAT HE HAD FIRED A
WEAPON. A GUNSHOT RESIDUE TEST WAS INCONCLUSIVE.

AN NCIS AGENT ALLOWED A MARINE TO HANDLE THE GUN THAT KILLED JAKOVIC,
THUS TAINTING A CRUCIAL PIECE OF EVIDENCE.

NCIS AGENTS BASED THEIR INITIAL RILING THAT JAKOVIC HAD KILLED HIMSELF
LARGELY ON A PANICKED PHONE CALL BY MARKOVITCH MOMENTS AFTER THE
SHOOTING, IN WHICH HE TOLD A SUPERIOR THAT JAKOVIC HAD "SHOT HIMSELF".

MARKOVITCH ADMITTED TO A SUPERVISOR MINUTES AFTER THE SHOOTING THAT HE
AND JAKOVIC HAD BEEN "MESSING AROUND" WITH THEIR WEAPONS AND THAT HE
HAD DRAWN HIS OWN GUN, THE SUPERVISOR SAID. JAKOVIC WAS 'VERY CARELESS
WITH HIS PISTOL," WARRANT OFFICER HAROLD EVAN SAID.

LANCE CPL. JEROME BARRY HAD TOLD THE NCIS THE DAY JAKOVIC DIED THAT HE
HAD SEEN MARKOVITCH HOLD A GUN TO JAKOVIC'S HEAD MINUTES BEFORE THE
SHOOTING. "I KNOW JAKOVIC PRETTY GOOD, AND I CAN SAY THAT IT WAS
UNUSUAL TO HEAR THAT HE WAS PLAYING AROUND WITH HIS GUN, BARRY SAID.

IN AUGUST 1992, MARKOVITCH'S ROOMMATE TOLD THE NCIS THAT MARKOVITCH
HAD TOLD HIM HE HAD ACCIDENTALLY SHOT JAKOVIC AFTER THE TWO DISCUSSED
RUSSIAN ROULETTE SCENE FROM THE FILM DEERHUNTER.

LANCE CPL. TODD HARRIS SAD MARKOVITCH TOLD HIM THAT MARKOVITCH AND
JAKOVIC WERE "MESSING AROUND" WITH THEIR WEAPONS WHEN MARKOVITCH ASKED
WHETHER JAKOVIC THOUGHT THE GUN ON A TABLE HAD A BULLET IN THE
CHAMBER.

"HE (MARKOVITCH) TOLD ME HE THEN RACKED THE SLIDE BACK AND FORWARD.
THEN ASKED JAKOVIC AGAIN, IF THERE WAS A ROUND IN THE CHAMBER....,
HARRIS SAID IN A STATEMENT, "MARKOVITCH THEN POINTED THE WEAPON AT
JAKOVIC AND SAID "LETS FIND OUT." HE TOLD ME HE THEN PULLED THE
TRIGGER." SHOOTING JAKOVIC IN THE HEAD.

MARKOVITCH'S CIVILIAN ATTORNEY, GARY ROGERS, SAID LAST WEEK THAT
HARRIS' WAS FULL OF HOLES" THAT THE NAVY DECIDED NOT TO CALL HIM AS A
WITNESS. MYERS SAID PROSECUTORS COULD NOT PROVE THAT JAKOVIC'S HANDS
OR THAT THE TWO GUARDS HAD PLAYED RUSSIAN ROULETTE.

MARKOVITCH WAS CONVICTED OF NEGLIGENT DERELICTION OF DUTY, FINED
$1,500, AND REDUCED IN RANK.

MYERS ACCUSED THE NAVY OF MAKING MARKOVITCH AS SCAPEGOAT TO COVER UP
WEAPONS VIOLATIONS AT EARLE.

"THEY HAVE CONDONED DERELICTION AT EVERY LEVEL OF THAT COMMAND," HE
SAID IN COURT. SEVERAL MARINES TESTIFIED THAT SUPERIORS TOLERATED GUN
HORSEPLAY AND SECURITY BREACHES.

ASKED FOR COMMENT, THE SPOKESWOMAN AT EARLE SAID IT WAS BASE POLICY
NOT TO DISCUSS SECURITY PROCEDURES.

"THIS IS HORRENDOUS," JAMES W. KEEFE. I SPENT 21 YEARS AS AN ARMY
CRIMINAL INVESTIGATOR, SAID OF THE NCIS INVESTIGATION AFTER VIEWING
THE CASE. "THERE IS NO WAY THIS IS SELF-INFLICTED DEATH.

KEEFE SAID THE NAVY BOTCHED THE CASE BADLY THAT PROVING WHAT REALLY
HAPPENED BE DIFFICULT. "THE HANDLING OF EVIDENCE IS ATROCIOUS," HE
SAID.

TODAY, CATHERINE JAKOVIC SAYS SHE IS MORE ANGRY AT THE MILITARY THAN
AT MARKOVITCH WHO SHE SAID "PUT HIS HEAD IN MY LAP AND BAWLED LIKE A
BABY" AT SCOTT'S FUNERAL.

"MY SON IS DEAD AND GONE AS FAR AS THEY ARE CONCERNED," SHE SAID OF
THE NAVY. "THEY WON'T CHANGE THAT SELF-INFLICTED RULING SO THEY CAN
CLOSE THEIR CASE."

IN HER MIND, SHE SAID , HER SON'S CASE WILL NEVER BE CLOSED. THE
INDIGNITIES NEVER SEE NO END.

IN APRIL, SHE SAID, THE MILITARY DENIED THE FAMILY'S CLAIM FOR SCOTT
JOKOVIC'S 51,200 DEATH BENEFIT. IN A TERSE LETTER, THE DEPARTMENT OF
VETERANS AFFAIRS GAVE A REASON:

"THE VETERANS DEATH WAS DUE TO HIS OWN WILLFUL MISCONDUCT."

THINK ABOUTIT SIGHTINGS REPORT

Date: 1970

Reported:

Location: Ft. Gordon, Georgia, United States

Type of Case/Report: RawReport

Hynek Classification: DD

Duration: 20 mins

Shape of Object(s):

Number of Witnesses: 200+

Special Features/Characteristics: Military

Source:UFO Evidence Source

Summary: Our company had fallen out for morning formation. we were waiting for the 1st seargent to join us when someone in our ranks started saying "what is that?" What I saw was an object that first appeared to be a full moon only larger by half than I had ever seen it. As I continued watching it, it steadily grew in size untill it was at least 5 times larger than I have ever seen the moon be..

Full Report

Our company had fallen out for morning formation. we were waiting for the 1st seargent to join us when someone in our ranks started saying "what is that?" I looked down the ranks of my platoon and saw that they were pointing at a point approx. 30 degrees above the horizon. What I saw was an object that first appeared to be a full moon only larger by half than I had ever seen it. As I continued watching it, it steadily grew in size untill it was at least 5 times larger than I have ever seen the moon be. There were no light and dark areas on the surface such as the moon has, yet the surface was luminous and exactly as the moon would look if there were no other features on its face. It sat there for about 20 sec. and then a beam of light started (and I do mean started because it moved out from the object very slowly, Its width being the width of the object itself but narrowing as it moved towards the ground, it looked like the beam of a flahlight in reverse only in slow motion
it was about halfway down when 2 F-4s took off under military afterburner and banked straight for it.you could tell they were in afterburner by the length of their exhaust plume. At the same time our first seargent came out of the day room and after seeing what we were hollering about turned around and ran back into his office (apparently to notify someone}. The 2 F-4s formed up and were heading straight towards this object of which it was impossible to tell exactly how far away it was when the beam reversed direction, went back to the object and the object left moving straight awy from us so fast it looked like what happened in those old tube type tv's when you turned them off and that picture shrunk down to a dot in about 1 sec. Ever since this happened, I have been interested in ufo's. Always expecting to read an account of this particular sighting. Mainly because not only was it veiwed by my whole company, but apparently by the bases aircraft control tower and someone with the authority to scramble two military aircraft. As soldiers we never heard another word as to what we saw. I can't beleive no-one has come forward and told about this after so many years, so I am for whatever it's worth.

Personal Background

Aerospace machinist (computer numerical control).

Reported Sighting? No
Name: Lanny Ward
Location: Everett, Wash
Age: 52

THINK ABOUTIT SIGHTINGS  REPORT

Date: December 16, 1954

Reported:

Location: Goulburn, Australia

Type of Case/Report: PressReport

Hynek Classification:

Duration:

Shape of Object(s): Saucer

Number of Witnesses: Multiple

Special Features/Characteristics: Radar, Pilot/Aircrew, Military

Source: Daily Telegraph December 16th, 1954 / Australian UFO Research Network Source

Summary: Navy pilot has reported seeing two "flying saucers" flash past him while he was flying over Goulburn, N.S.W. Radar officers at Nowra Fleet Air station picked up the objects on their screen.

Full Report

NAVY SEES "FLYING SAUCERS" ON RADAR SCREEN

Source: Daily Telegraph December 16th 1954

Navy pilot has reported seeing two "flying saucers" flash past him while he was flying over Goulburn, N.S.W.

Radar officers at Nowra Fleet Air station picked up the objects on their screen. The pilot said he had the "saucers" go past his Sea Fury plane at supersonic speed.

Navy authorities last night would not comment on the reports which they said was "top secret" but they said the incident occurred three months ago. Pressmen heard of the report while visiting the Nowra Fleet Air Arm station yesterday with the minister of the Navy (Mr Francis). The pilot report said he was flying over Goulburn at 15,000 feet when he saw two lighted objects flash past. He said they easily passed his sea Fury fighter which was capable of flying 450 to 500 miles per hour.

CHECK

The pilot reported the incident to Nowra radar officers about 9.30 p.m. The screen showed three objects at his position-his Sea Fury and two other flying objects. radar officers were unable to identify the two mother objects. A later check showed no other planes were in the vicinity. The pilot said he saw the objects for only a few seconds before they disappeared. He told the interviewing senior officers that the objects, which were brightly lit, appeared to be spinning at fantastic" speed.

SECURITY

Pilots last night would not discuss the report or revel just what the pilot had seen. Unofficial sources said the pilot's report had gone to security section on the Navy, Army and Air Force. This was because of a standing order to all forces to be "on the alert" for unidentified flying objects. Authorities instituted the order after similar after similar reports by other service and civil pilots in the past six months.

Several pilots have reported having seen unidentified objects flying at remarkable speeds past or above their own planes. Most of the objects have been sighted on the East coast between Brisbane and Melbourne. Navy pilots at Nowra and senior Navy men say they are puzzled by the report. The pilots many of them Korea veterans, discount the possibility that the tow objects could have been unauthorized aircraft. In talk among themselves they refer to the flying saucer incident, but because of its top secret classification, news of the incident has been kept from the public.

Last night the minister for the Navy (Mr Francis) would not comment on the report. The secretary of the Navy Department (Mr T Hawkins) said he had never heard of this report or any other "flying saucer" report involving the navy. Mr Hawkins added "If there were any importance in this report I would certainly have heard about it. "This is new to me"I will make inquires tomorrow.

To add

NAVY CONFIRMS STORY OF "FLYING SAUCERS"
Source: Daily Telegraph December 17th 1954

CANBERRA, Thursday The minister for the Navy (Mr. Francis) tonight confirmed that an R.A.N airman had seen two unidentified objects on his radar. The Nowra air base had also picked up
the objects on their radar he said. Reports that Navy radar sets had recorded two "flying saucers" were published this morning.

Mr.Francis said that R.A.A.F Headquarters were investigating the incident. He said "On a cross country flight from the Naval Air station at Nowra on August 31 a pilot in an aircraft at 13,000 feet observed two vague shapes underneath. "The lights passed ahead of him at very fast speed. "The pilot was flying at 220 knots at the time." The pilot immediately contacted Nowra and advised them. "They confirmed his report on their radar screens. "The report was passed by Naval Intelligence to R.A.A.F. Intelligence in accordance with reports of this nature. "These reports are colated and examined by R.A.A.F headquarters."

A message last night from Washington quoted a statement by president Eisenhower on "flying Saucers" Mr Eisenhower said that a U.S Air Force official had told him that the "Saucers"
did not come from outer space. He did not say whether he thought "flying Saucers existed. END

THINK ABOUTIT SIGHTINGS REPORT

Date: June 15, 1968

Reported:

Location: DMZ, Viet Nam

Type of Case/Report: StandardCase

Hynek Classification: CE2

Duration:

Shape of Object(s):

Number of Witnesses:

Special Features/Characteristics: Military, Physical Trace

Source: AUFORN Special Report, Issue 34, April 2003

Summary: On Friday, 15 June 1968, Allied forward spotters along the eastern part of the Demilitarised Zone, a 9.6km wide strip separating North and South Vietnam, reported seeing about 30 strange slow-moving 'lights' in the night sky.

Full Report

HMAS HOBART HIT DURING VIETNAM UFO ENCOUNTER?
Story by Jon Wyatt

In June 1968 Australia was dismayed by the news that the guided-missile destroyer HMAS Hobart had been badly damaged by 'friendly fire' in Vietnam: Two crew died and seven were wounded during the USAF attack.

Officially, the Hobart 'Incident' occurred during a night operation against 'enemy helicopters' - but was it in reality a UFO story?

The evidence is very intriguing, and to find out why let's go to the beginning.

On Friday, 15 June 1968, Allied forward spotters along the eastern part of the Demilitarised Zone, a 9.6km wide strip separating North and South Vietnam, reported seeing about 30 strange slow-moving 'lights' in the night sky. At the time the belief was these were lumbering North Vietnamese Russian-built M-14 'Hound' helicopters ferrying men and materiel over the border.

After the sightings, Allied Command, fearing another Tet Offensive-style build-up, rushed more anti-aircraft guns to the border, and placed Phantom fighter-bombers at Danang Air Base on standby, and it also asked available Allied warships to patrol the DMZ coast. HMAS Hobart II one of those warships that responded.

That night, the forward spotters along the eastern DMZ again reported the 'enemy helicopters' had re-appeared, and the Allied forces sprang into action.

Details of the subsequent aerial 'melee' remain sketchy, but it is known several US 7th Air Force Phantom fighter-bombers soon arrived on the scene and began firing on the intruders; and were supported by anti-aircraft ground fire. During the Allied attack the 'enemy helicopters' were seen to move down the east coast and then out to the sea - and there things went terribly wrong.

A US Navy Board of Inquiry, which investigated the Hobart 'incident' for the Australian government, found shortcomings of the Phantom's radar system were partly to blame: to stop big targets flooding the radarscope the radar had a cut-off mechanism, so the returns from a warship and a slow moving low flying helicopter could appear similar on-screen.

After the 'lights' fled seaward, the first 'friendly fire' incident occurred shortly after midnight when the US Navy swift boat PCF-19 was sunk by three air-to-air missiles while patrolling some kilometres south of the DMZ. Five of the seven crew died (more about this later).

At about 3.30am, the Hobart was patrolling (blacked-out and maintaining radio silence) near Tiger Island, about 20kms off Cap Lay, when her radar room detected a fast, in-coming aircraft. The IFF (Identication Friend of Foe) system indicated it was 'friendly' and the ship was attempting to establish further identity when a Sparrow air-to-air missile struck her amidships on the starboard (right) side. The missile penetrated the alluminum hull and exploded killing Ordinary Seaman R J Butterworth and wounding two others.

While the crew was rushing to Action Stations, two more air-to-air missiles penetrated the starboard side and killed Chief Electrician Hunt and wounded several others - and narrowly missed a magazine. Hobart fired five rounds from a deckgun, but the swept-winged attacker escaped.

During the DMZ 'lights' operation, the guided-missile destroyer USS Edson, the guided-missile cruiser USS Boston, the US Coast Guard cutter Point Dume, and the USS PCF-19 also came under 'friendly fire' , but fortunately without causing more casualties.

Eventually, the Phantom pilots involved in the operation that night and early morning, were recalled and grounded.

After daybreak, US helicopters airlifted the wounded Australian sailors to Danang and the damaged Hobart went to Subic Bay, Philippines, for repairs and was off the scene for five weeks - and that night DMZ 'lights' returned.

Whatever the 'lights' actually were remains a subject of conjecture, but it appears they were sighted for some weeks and went unchallenged. A week after the Hobart 'incident' the Melbourne Sun noted: "sightings were reported by radarmen in Quang Tri Province about five miles [eight kms] below the border zone. It was the sixth time since last Saturday that such sightings have been reported ... US command has ordered its fighter-bombers and artillery to withhold fire not wanting a repeat of the incidents in which the Allied ships were fired upon."

Also adding further to the mystery, no wreckage of downed enemy choppers was found. In August 1968 the Royal Australian Navy News confirmed: "No physical evidence of helicopters destroyed has been discovered in the area of activity nor has extensive reconnaissance produced any evidence of enemy helicopter operations in or near the DMZ".

In 1996 I interviewed the Hobart's skipper, the late Ken Shands, and he also said, "Neither before nor after the incident ... was there any report by any of the ships of a helicopter being there [around Tiger Island]. Now having said that, the captain of one of the American ships told me later at Subic Bay that he thought there were helicopters there, but the fact is he didn't report, and if he believed there was a helicopter ... it was his duty to report it at the time, but there was no report."

So what appeared over the DMZ that sparked the mission that saw Hobart hit?

The events of that night have doubtless raised much discussion - it was the RAN's costliest day of the entire war - and Australian navy history books mention 'unusual atmospheric conditions over the DMZ', 'insect swarms' or 'bird flocks' as possible sources of the sightings, but were they unidentified flying objects?

General George S Brown (1918-1978) was commander of the 7th US Air Force and deputy commander for Air Operations, Military Assistance Command Vietnam from 1968 to 1970 - and so was in command of the Phantoms involved in the snafu. In later years he rose to chair the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington. In 1973, he fronted a Chicago media conference held to discuss the North American UFO flap of that year, and while airing his views on UFOs at the conference he said:
"I don't know whether this story has ever been told or not [but UFOs plagued us in Vietnam]. They weren't called UFOs they were called enemy helicopters, and they were only seen at night and they were only seen in certain places. They were seen up around the DMZ in the early summer of '68, and this resulted in quite a battle. And in the course of this, an Australian destroyer [Hobart] took a hit ... there was no enemy at all involved but we always reacted. Always after dark. The same thing happened up at Pleiku at the Highlands in '69".

George Filer, today Director of the Mutual UFO Network Eastern, USA, served as a USAF intelligence officer under General Brown during the Vietnam conflict, and he has also said, "In 1968, I briefed General Brown the USAF Chief of Staff most mornings on the intelligence situation in Vietnam... a lot of times we'd get UFO reports over the DMZ".
The late Bill Cooper served as a patrol-boat captain in Vietnam from 1967 to 1969, and during a talk at the 1989 Los Angeles UFO conference he said:

"After about five months I was sent up north to the DMZ, to a place called Qua Vieaf [perhaps Qua Viet] on the Tacan [sic] river .... It was while there that I discovered that there was a tremendous amount of UFO and alien activity in Vietnam. It was always reported in official messages as 'enemy helicopters'. Now any of you who know anything about the Vietnam war know that the North Vietnamese did not have any helicopters especially after our first couple of air raids into North Vietnam [during 1965]. Even if they had, they would not have been so foolish as to bring them over the DMZ, because that would have ensured their demise."

Cooper later recanted his belief in an alien presence and instead insisted UFOs are "technology originally developed by the Germans in their secret weapons programs during WW-II, by geniuses like Nikola Tesla and many others". However the mystery of 1968 DMZ 'lights' marched on, and the following is from another American patrol boat crew member.

Jim Steffes, ENC, USN Retired, served on the patrol boat PCF-12 on the night of the Hobart 'incident', and he confirms strange goings-on in the sky. In his article 'The sinking of PCF-19 as seen from PCF-12', he states the PCF-12 met the ill-fated PCF-19 at sea that night to fix the PCF-19's radar. At approximately 0030 hours the PCF-12 received a 'flash traffic' that PCF-19, the first 'friendly fire' target, had disappeared in a flash of light. The PCF-12 reached the scene as Point Dume was pulling the two badly wounded survivors aboard. As PCF-12 searched in vain for more survivors, she found she had company.

As he and the crew peered into the darkness, the moon sometimes behind clouds, "we spotted two aircraft 'hovering' on our port and starboard beams. They were about 300 yards away and 100 feet above the water. As the boat swung around to put the aircraft ahead and astern of PCF-12, I could hear Mr. Snyder [the Officer In Charge] requesting air support and identification of these helos. The answer from the beach was 'no friendly aircraft in the area, have contacts near you on radar and starlight scope'.

Steffes says he saw one 'helo' in the moonlight and believed "It had a rounded front like an observation helo and it looked like two crewman sitting side by side". Then, "I watched as tracers began to come toward us as this helo opened fire. The guns were from the nose of the helo. Our guns opened up and I ran back to my position as the loader on the after gun. We heard a crash of glass and a splash as one of the helos hit the water, the other helo broke contact and left the area."

Steffes says for the next two and one half hours the PCF-12 played cat and mouse with one or more helos, opening fire whenever they moved in. He also observed the Point Dume firing tracers at blinking lights moving around her in the air. All the radios were crackling constantly as friendlies were checked out. "The result was no friendlies, these had to be North Vietnamese."

Then, three and a half hours later, at about 3:30am, military jets roared overhead and after they acknowledged the PCF-19's position, he soon heard explosions and gunfire to the north (the Hobart 'incident'?). "As dawn broke, we could only see the shoreline and the Point Dume."

Steffes concluded: "We continued to monitor and track these 'lights' for several weeks after this up until September ... I know what the 'official story' is, but this is mine as true and complete as I can remember."

Jim Steffes' story of course raise many fascinating questions including:

Did the PCF-12 crew fall victim to 'cultural tracking': aliens using their advanced technology to mimick our technology to interface with humans?

If the lights were North Vietnamese observer helicopters? why did they fly around for hours with their lights on, why weren't they shot down, and why was no 'helo' wreckage ever retrieved?

Many Ufologists believe alien visitors havelong been studying human wars; and this may have been the case in 1968.

Paranormal Postscript:
Hobart served out three tours of duty in Vietnam, however it seems after 1968 she had an extra crewman.

A Signalman, who served on the ship during the 1990s, says that one morning at 4am when the warship was approaching Hobart, Tas., he was climbing a flex ladder to the flag deck when he felt the ladder move below him, then felt "something actually walk past/through me on the ladder". Then, when he reached the flag deck and entered the Signalmans Shelter, he sensed "someone in there with me and could hear them breathing as though they had been running or working hard".
The Signalman later learnt from the Chief Coxswain, a 15-year veteran, that "a Leading Seaman Signalman" had been killed while scaling the ladder to action stations in 1968: "Apparently, the ship took a missile hit and a piece of shrapnel took this poor man's head clean off his shoulders".

During the late 1990s when the Signalman was re-posted to the ship, he sent a young sailor up the ladder to 'test the waters', and the bloke also came down shaking.

The "Green Ghost", as the ship was also affectionately known, was de-commissioned in May 2000, and scuttled at Yankalilla Bay, south of Adelaide, in late 2002, where she is now a scuba-dive spot.

Main Sources:
1. Sydney Morning Herald 19 June, 1968, p. 1 and Australian 19 June, 1968, p.1
2. Melbourne Sun 24 June, 1968, p.2
3. Royal Australian Navy News, 16 August, 1968
4. Navy in Vietnam: A record of the Royal Australian Navy in the Vietnam War 1965-1973 by Denis Fairfax (Australian Government Publishing Service 1980) pps.59-60
5. Interview with Ken Shands, Anzac Day 1996, Melbourne
6. General George S Brown, USAF Chief of Staff, Department of Defense transcript of press conference in Illinois, 16 October, 1973, found at: http://gamegene.com/ufo.htm
7. 'George Filer Keeps Watching The Skies' by Michael Vitez, Philadelphia Inquirer, 20 August, 2001, found at www.rense.com
8. 'The Milton William Cooper Speech', 17 November, 1989, found at: http://www.the-greys.com/pirho/speech.html
9. 'MajestyTwelve' by William Cooper, 1997, found at: http://williamcooper.com
10. 'The Sinking of PCF-19 as seen from PCF-12' by Jim Steffes, ENC, USN Retired, found at www.gunplot.net/vietnam/hobartvietnamandpcf19.html
11. Jim Steffes' Vietnam Photo Album website found at http://www.bcres.com/river/steffes.htm
12. Article 'Ghost At Sea' found at www.castleofspirits.com


Jon Wyatt is a Melbourne freelance writer and editor.
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

THINK ABOUTIT SIGHTINGS REPORT

Date: September 3, 1965

Reported:

Location: Damon, Texas, United States

Type of Case/Report: StandardCase

Hynek Classification: CE1

Duration:

Shape of Object(s): Triangle

Number of Witnesses:

Special Features/Characteristics: Police, Witness Photo

Source: FUFOR, U.S. Air Force-Project Blue Book, Donald Keyhoe - UFOs A New Look Source

Summary: Purple and blue lights were attached to opposite ends of an enormous object, hovering about 150 feet from witnesses at about a 100-foot altitude. Object appeared to be triangular shaped, about 200 feet wide and 40-50 feet thick in the middle, tapering off toward both ends.

Full Report

About 11:00 p.m. on a Friday night, Deputy Sheriff Bob Goode, 50, was driving his patrol car south out of Damon toward West Columbia on Highway 36. Since he had suffered a bite on his left index finger earlier that day from a baby alligator, he had asked Chief Deputy Billy McCoy, 38, to ride with him in the event the pain flared up and interfered with his driving. It was a sparkling clear moonlit Texas night, and Goode rested his arm in the open window of the door as they drove through the prairie. Suddenly McCoy spotted a bright purple light on the horizon to the southwest which appeared to be about five to six miles distant. At first they thought it might be something in the nearby oil fields, perhaps an oil-drilling rig. But then a blue light, smaller in diameter than the purple light, emerged from it and moved to the right before stopping. Both lights remained in this orientation for a while before beginning to drift upward. This upward floating motion continued until the objects reached an elevation of 5-10 degrees above the horizon.

Goode then studied the lights through a pair of binoculars, but could not make out any additional features. As their curiosity mounted, the officers began to look for back roads that might take them closer to the lights. They stopped again, and this time the lights suddenly swooped toward them, covering the intervening distance in 1-2 seconds, abruptly stopping practically overhead. Their patrol car and the surrounding terrain were brightly illuminated in purple light. They could now see that the purple and blue lights were attached to opposite ends of an enormous object, hovering about 150 feet from them at about a 100-foot altitude.

In his later statement to the Air Force, McCoy described what he saw:

"The bulk of the object was plainly visible at this time and appeared to be triangular shaped with a bright purple light on the left end and the smaller, less bright, blue light on the right end. The bulk of the object appeared to be dark gray in color with no other distinguishing features. It appeared to be about 200 feet wide and 40-50 feet thick in the middle, tapering off toward both ends. There was no noise or any trail. The bright purple light illuminated the ground directly underneath it and the area in front of it, including the highway and the interior of our patrol car. The tall grass under the object did not appear to be disturbed. There was a bright moon out and it cast a shadow of the object on the ground immediately below it in the grass."

To both men, the object seemed to be "as big as a football field." Goode could feel strong heat emanating from the object onto his left arm, through his shirt-sleeve.

After a few seconds, with the strange object hovering almost directly overhead, they fled the scene and headed toward Damon "as fast as we could go," making speeds of up to 110 miles per hour. McCoy kept watching the object out the rear window of the car. For 10 to 15 seconds, the UFO continued to hover above the pasture. Then it abruptly shot back in the direction from which it had come. "After arriving at approximately its original position," McCoy reported, "it went straight up in the air and disappeared at 25-30 degrees above the horizon."

Back at Damon, the shaken officers calmed themselves, and then decided to go back and investigate again. This time they drove down the Damon-West Columbia road, but saw nothing. Finally they returned to the area where they had first seen the lights, and once again spied the purple light on the horizon, and again saw the smaller blue light emerge with a strange two-step motion and float upward. Fearing another close encounter, they again fled the area.

Goode and McCoy continued on their shift until three or four in the morning, then stopped for breakfast at a cafe. Goode noted that his alligator bite was no longer sore, and when he unwrapped the bandage he discovered that the swelling had gone down and that the wound was nearly healed. Next day, the wound showed virtually no scarring.

The deputies reported the sighting to Ellington Air Force Base, and Major Laurence Leach, Jr., arrived on September 8, 1965, to interview McCoy and Goode and take a statement. Leach's report to Project Blue Book headquarters at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base reflected his puzzlement. "There is no doubt in my mind," he said, "that they definitely saw some unusual object or phenomenon....Both officers appeared to be intelligent, mature, level-headed persons capable of sound judgment and reasoning."

(Air Force unidentified case, Project Blue Book files, National Archives. For more detailed information, see Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I.R. Lore, Jr., UFOs: A New Look, NICAP, Washington, D.C., 1969, pp. 7-8; McCoy statement, Brazoria County Sheriff's Department, Sept. 8, 1965; "Ellington [AFB] Probes UFO Seen by Local Deputies," Brazosport Facts, Sept. 6, 1965; Rhonda Moran, "The Night of the UFO," Brazosport Facts, Sept. 13, 1995.)

THINK ABOUTIT SIGHTINGS REPORT

Date: October, 1951

Reported:

Location: Nellis Air Force Base, Yucca Flat, Nevada, United States

Type of Case/Report: StandardCase

Hynek Classification: DD (Daylight Discs)

Duration: 10-15 mins

Shape of Object(s): Disc

Number of Witnesses: 2

Special Features/Characteristics: Military, Nuclear Facility

Source: NICAP, Walter Webb Source

Summary: Formation of 18 silvery, rotating, disc-shaped objects, each one with a dome, come down over a nuclear test site, hover for 10 to 15 minutes, and then depart, at an angle, vanishing out of sight in seconds.

Full Report

This sighting; if true, may be unprecedented. It is unusual because of the large number of UFOs reportedly observed at one time in combination with the supersensitive location and timing of the event. On November 18,1964, I happened to be investigating a Boston newspaper story which found me prowling around a West Quincy (Boston suburb), Massachusetts, cemetery in search of some sort of weird nocturnal creature (see my; NICAP report, " 'The Watermelon Caper.'--November 13-14, 1964"). Although I later concluded the Little beast WAS probably an owl or other known animal, the uncle of the initial witness told me, during the course of the investigation, that he had sighted, UFOs in Nevada when he was in the service.

I wrote the following at the end of my 1964 report: "He (I'll call him "Mr. M.") thought the observation might have been made in 1951. He was with a group of servicemen at Yucca Flat and just before a nuclear test was due to go off, they all saw a formation of 18 silvery, rotating, disc-shaped objects, each one with a dome, come down over the test site, hover for 10 to 15 minutes, and then depart, at an angle, vanishing out of sight in seconds."

At the time I was concentrating upon the investigation at hand and was more interested in securing details from Mr. M. about the creature seen by him and the. .neighborhood kids- in the cemetery. Moreover, I was somewhat skeptical about his story of a UFO armada.

UFOCAT Strangeness Class--Type 3 (UFO in trajectory with .single discontinuity)
Vallee Class--Type III-B (UFO halts in flight and hovers before resuming motion)

---

Recently I opened my "sightings pending" folder and attempted to contact some of the witnesses in cases that were never followed up for a number of reasons. One of these individuals was Mr. M.. Although 16 years had elapsed since my interview with him, I discovered that he still resided at the same apartment house but in a different apartment. I telephoned him on February 28, 1981, and re-introduced myself. However, he seemed reluctant to discuss the 1951 episode and, in fact, politely refused to grant a face-to-face interview. As I drew him out, it appeared he received such ridicule from the police and others during the '64 incident that he understandably shied away from any future involvements of a similar nature. I assured him that his name would be kept confidential, that it was important such UFO sightings become part of the written record, that I had interviewed many others, and, in fact, was at UFO eyewitness myself. He seemed to loosen a bit although he still declined to see me in person. And so I began asking questions over the telephone. Under the circumstances, I felt very fortunate to have been able to extract the following account from Mr. M.

THE SIGHTING

In 1951 Mr. M. was an Air Force corporal stationed at Nellis Air Force Base, Las Vegas, Nevada. That same year the Atomic Energy Commission established the  Nevada Test Site  and began detonating nuclear devices at Yucca Flat (about 120 kilometers, or .75 miles, northwest of the base). He recalled that during one of the first tests --- perhaps the second or third in a series of seven--he was among those at Nellis who volunteered for sentry duty at the perimeter of the AEC site. When asked if he could pin down the date, he said  "October sticks in my mind" although he couldn't be absolutely certain. The time of the sighting was early morning after sunrise and occurred perhaps 15 or 20 minutes before the detonation.

Armed with these clues, I called the Union of Concerned Scientists in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and spoke to Paul Walker. I had already learned there were 12 nuclear tests in Nevada during 1951 and now wanted to know the dates, times, and code names of each of the tests. Walker not only had that information but also the height of the burst and the yield. His source was the book, The Effects of Nuclear Weapons, edited by Samuel Glasstone and published jointly .by the Department of Defense and the AEC in April, 1962.. There were two series of tests in Nevada during 1951. The first one was called Operation Ranger and consisted of five detonations in. January and February. The final seven-shot sequence. was Operation, Buster-Jangle in October and November. Three of those tests---Shots Able, Baker, and Charlie--occurred, respectively, on October 22 at 6:00 a.m. PST; the 28th at 7:20 a.m.;. and the 30th at 7:00 a.m. Able was a small tower burst at 30 meters (100 feet), yielding less than 0.1 kiloton. Baker and Charlie .were air-drops, exploding at 341 and 345 meters (1118 and 1132 feet) above the desert floor with a force of 3.5 and 14 kilotons, respectively. Able was ruled out immediately since the UFO sighting would have had to take place 10 or 15 minutes before sunrise. When I reached Mr. M again on March 5, I asked him if he. could remember how soon after sunrise his UFO observation had happened. He replied that it must have been a half hour or so. Both Baker and Charlie qualified. When I asked the witness about the size of the explosion, he recalled it was between 10 and 20 kilotons. This narrowed down the date to October 30. (Local sunrise on that date, 6:00.)

Mr. M., who was 19 years old at the time (on November 3), thought his post was several kilometers--perhaps five to six (three to four miles)--east of Ground Zero, which would place the sun at his back. Suddenly, as he glanced at the clear sky in front of him, he perceived three silvery, elliptical. objects hovering in the direction of the. target zone and at an estimated height of up to 600 meters (a few thousand feet). Time: approximately 6:40-45, as determined by the known time of the detonation 15 to .20 minutes later. Each object possessed a flat bottom and a dome on top. No other features were visible. The UFOs were arranged in a horizontal triangle, with one object positioned in. front toward the observer and the others in back to either side. The analogy Mr. M. used was "like looking down a bowling alley at ten-pins." The UFOs were shiny and reflected the early morning sunlight. No sound could be detected from that distance.

The prime witness and another guard, who also saw the objects, turned to get the attention of the Corporal of the Guard. When the latter arrived, Mr. M. noticed an armada of other discs had joined the original trio. They were all arranged in about six groups of three stretched out in a horizontal row. Apparently, none of the three witnesses saw the huge formation arrive. Mr. M. remembers he had time to count a total of 18 discs.

"After perhaps "30 seconds to a minute" (total observation time), the entire UFO formation abruptly departed upward at an angle and. vanished in seconds. The Corporal of the Guard said something like "if we're smart, we; won't say anything about this." Mr. M. never heard any mention of the sighting again. No conventional aircraft appeared on the scene to pursue the UFOs since aircraft weren't permitted over the test area (he doesn't recall seeing or hearing the aircraft that dropped the nuclear device 15 to 20 minutes later).. However, the witness believes the UFOs' presence undoubtedly was recorded somewhere. The objects themselves, he feels, must have been monitoring the test .He hinted that, as a consequence of his sighting, he believes UFOs are of extraterrestrial origin.

When I told Mr. M. that in 1964 he said the discs rotated and hovered for 10 to 15 minutes, he answered by saying he didn't recall any rotation and the objects definitely weren't visible that long. (Of course, it has been 16 years since he talked with me and 30 years since the sighting itself. Perhaps the longer time actually was a reference to the interval between the sighting and the nuclear detonation.)

During my March 5 telephone call, I asked the witness if he might attempt to estimate each UFO's apparent size and angular elevation. Of course, it was understood such estimates made 30 years after the fact would be so uncertain as to be almost useless. Farther, the observer was unable to visualize the arm's-length size comparison (he kept coming up with a 12- inch rule or pie plate, which would make the UFOs enormous). If the objects were five to six kilometers distant and 600 meters up, the .35-degree elevation value offered by the witness should be reduced to less than 10-degrees. If, on the other hand, the original elevation figure is in the right ballpark, then  the objects .were actually much higher--say, 3000 to '4600 meters (10.000 to 15,000 feet) at he same distance. It seems to me that in order for the domed shapes to have been visible, it is quite possible the UFOs were closer to the witness. In such case, the witness's initial angle estimate would again be in the right ballpark. The fact of the matter is that juggling the above figures is a rather useless exercise at this point in time.

I asked Mr. M. if he would mail a sketch of the UFOs and their formation, but he declined. Therefore, the drawings that accompany this report are the investigator's own interpretation based upon close questioning of the witness on the telephone.

MASS FLIGHTS OP UFO'S

In an effort to determine just how prevalent such mass UFO flights are, I conducted a cursory survey of some of the literature, especially Ted Bloecher's on the UFO Wave of 1947 (private printing, 1967). During the June, 1947 peak period covered by the Bloecher study, I found 16 sighting reports alone that referred to UFO formations numbering 18 or more. An unknown portion of. these probably have mundane explanations such as flocks of high-flying birds, airborne seed fibers (milkweed, cottonwood), spider gossamer, and clusters of balloons. One group of 50 to 60 night-flying discs (Case #554) 'was even accompanied by the suspicious sound of "goose-like honking": Nevertheless, there appeared to be a number of fairly reliable observations in the Bloecher collection describing UFO fleets composed of Mr. M.'s total or more, as follows: 18, 19, 20, 21, 20-30, two dozen (three :reports), 25..25-30, and 30. Groups of three discs in geometrical formation weren't uncommon in the '47 survey.

One of the most detailed and reliable accounts of a mass flight I happened to come across was investigated by APRO Consultant (psychology) R. Leo Sprinkle. It. was reported in The APRO Bulletin, December, 1975. On September 24, 1974, at. Rock Lake in Wyoming, a. pair of fishermen witnessed the flyover of approximately 35 silvery discs arrayed in an oval formation which emitted a droning noise like a beehive. At the end of the sighting, the objects began to climb at a steep angle and the sound ceased at that point. Then they accelerated rapidly out of sight.

On occasion such items as radar chaff discharged from military aircraft and exploding balloons account for some mass-flight sightings. The famous "saucer invasion" of Farmington, New Mexico, on March 17, 1950, proved quite literally to be a bust: Many of the town's citizens asserted they watched hundreds of discs--from 500 to "thousands" -- cavorting in the sky. Blue Book chief Ed Ruppelt in The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects (Doubleday, 1956), explained that a  skyhook balloon burst near Farmington on the 17th, and the drifting pieces sparkling in the sunlight at very high altitude probably were responsible for the local flap.

EVALUATION

When I first heard Mr. M''s story 16 years ago, I must admit I was dubious. His hesitation in 1981 to allow a face-to-face interview is, in my judgment, satisfactorily explained by the official ridicule he suffered during the '64 episode. I would describe the witness as "reluctantly cooperative." During our telephone conversations, I was impressed by a number of things. Without any prompting from me, Mr. M. immediately referred to "18" as the number of UFOs he claimed he had seen during the '51 sighting--the precise figure he gave me 16 years ago. And, as stated elsewhere in this report, such an armada of UFOs is, by no means, a rarity.

The witness had more than simply a passing knowledge of events at the AEC Nevada Test. site in 1951. I was able to eventually pin down the date of the experience using the information he recalled and checked against known dates, times, etc., for the nuclear tests that year. He correctly identified the total number of tests in the fall series of nuclear tests (seven) the test he attended (second or third in the series), the month of his sighting (October), the time (half hour or so after sunrise and 15 or 20 minutes before the detonation), and yield of the test (between 10 and 20 kilotons). This last bit of in formation was enough to permit selection of the final date since the October 30 test was the only one in the entire series that fit within the bracketed lower and upper limits given by the witness; other yields were either much lower or much higher. Thus, while this doesn't necessarily prove Mr. M. had a UFO sighting, it does go a long way toward establishing that he was present at the atomic test site when he said he was.

The appearance and behavior of the UFOs described rule out conventional objects such as aircraft, helicopters, blimps, and balloons. In addition, no such objects would have been permitted over the test site just before the detonation-- especially a mass flight!

Thirty years have elapsed since Mr. M.'s observation, and until now he has never reported it officially to anyone. I tend to accept his account of what he said, happened in Nevada on that October morning in 1951. Therefore, I believe this sighting should be classified as an unknown.

NAMES AND ADDRESSES OF WITNESSES

NOTE: THE PRIMARY WITNESS'S NAME, CURRENT ADDRESS, AND TELEPHONE NUMBER ARE TO BE KEPT STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL AND ARE NOT TO BE PUBLISHED!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Unidentified USAF guards (2).

Walter N. Webb
MUFON Consultant
3/8/81

cc:  Walter Andrus (MUFON)
Richard Hall (MUFON)
David Webb (MUFON)
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

SKETCH OF UFO FORMATION FROM TELEPHONE
CONVERSATION WITH WITNESS (INTERPRETATION
IS ONLY AN APPROXIMATION)

(This web page was produced for the NICAP web site and the Nuclear Connection Project, March 15, 2003, by Francis Ridge, with material submitted to MUFON by Walter N. Webb. Copies provided by  Jan Aldrich.)

THINK ABOUTIT SIGHTINGS REPORT

Date: August 31, 1954

Reported:

Location: Nowra, Australia

Type of Case/Report: MajorCase

Hynek Classification: RV

Duration:

Shape of Object(s):

Number of Witnesses:

Special Features/Characteristics: Radar, Pilot/Aircrew, Military

Source:Bill Chalker Source

Summary: One of the most controversial radar visual reports of the fifties occurred on August 31st, 1954. The story leaked out in December, 1954, and made front page headlines. The official navy file on the event remained classified until the Directorate of Naval Intelligence released a copy upon my request in 1982. During his 1973 visit to Australia, Dr. Hynek was able to interview the pilot involved in this famous incident.

Full Report

One of the most controversial radar visual reports of the fifties occurred on August 31st, 1954. The story leaked out in December, 1954, and made front page headlines. The official navy file on the event remained classified until the Directorate of Naval Intelligence released a copy upon my request in 1982. During his 1973 visit to Australia, Dr. Hynek was able to interview the pilot involved in this famous incident, which became known as the "Sea Fury" encounter.

Dr. Hynek made his notes on this interview available to me during my 1984 visit to the Chicago headquarters of his organisation, the Centre for UFO Studies (CUFOS). I, in turn, provided Dr. Hynek with a copy of the official file on the incident.

Lieutenant J.A. O'Farrell was returning to Royal Australian Navy Air Station Nowra after a night cross country in a Sea Fury aircraft. After contacting Nowra at about 1910 hours, O'Farrell saw a very bright light closing fast at one o'clock. It crossed in front of his aircraft taking up position on his port beam, where it appeared to orbit. A second and similar light was observed at nine o'clock. It passed about a mile in from of the Sea Fury and then turned in the position where the first light was observed.

According to O'Farrell, the apparent crossing speeds of the lights were the fastest he had ever encountered. He had been flying at 220 knots. O'Farrell contacted Nowra who in turn confirmed that they had two radar "paints" in company with him. The radar operator, Petty Officer Keith Jessop, confirmed the presence of 2 objects near the Sea Fury on the G.C.I. remote display. The two lights reformed at nine o'clock and then disappeared on a north easterly heading. O'Farrell could only make out "a vague shape with the white light situated centrally on top."

The Directorate of Naval Intelligence at the time wrote that O'Farrell was "an entirely credible witness" and that he "was visibly 'shaken' by his experience, but remains adamant that he saw these objects"

In a recent interview, "Shamus" O'Farrell described the incident:

"I said, "Nowra, this is 921. Do you have me on radar." "And a few seconds later they came back and said, "Affirmative 921. We have you coming in from the west. We have another two contacts as well. Which one are you." "I said, "I think I'm the central one." And so they said, "Do a 180...for identification." So I did a quick 180 and then continued on around and made it a 360 back to where I was going.

"They said, "Yes, we've got you. You're the centre aircraft." I said that's correct. They then said to me, "Who are the other two aircraft," and I said, "I don't know. I was hoping you would tell me, because I didn't think there was anyone up here. "They said, "Well there shouldn't be, and they certainly shouldn't be that close to you."

"So the conversation went on like this and I was very pleased to be talking to somebody because it gave me a lot of reassurance. With that these two aircraft came in quite close to me and I could really see the dark mass and that they were quite big, but I couldn't make out any other lights or any other form of an aircraft. With that they took off and headed off to the north east at great speed.

"I was about to press the button and tell them at Nowra that the two aircraft were departing when Nowra called me up and said, "The other two aircraft appear to be departing at high speed to the north east. Is that correct?" and I said, "Yes!". And they said, "Roger, we'll see if we can track them." They tracked them for a while and then lost them. "I came in and landed at 7.30 (1930) and when I got there there were quite a few people waiting for me. I thought it was a bit strange and so they came over, and they said, "You sure you had aircraft out there!", and I said yes.

The Surgeon Commander came over and spoke to me. He said did I feel sick, or was I upset. I said no. He ran his hand over my head to see whether I had any bumps. He had a look at me and decided I was okay. So then he said, "Perhaps you'd like to come to the sick bay after you've changed and we'll do an examination." So after I was finished I went up to sick bay and he gave me a more thorough medical, and said, no, I appeared to be alright. I found out later, that at the same time, they checked to make sure I hadn't been drinking before I took off and all that sort of thing."

During this interview, Dr. Hynek's involvement came up:

"This man (Hynek) - a professor - had made a study of thousands of sightings all around the world and he had decided my sighting was one of those that he had not been able to explain away by other means. Any way I had a talk with him. He was a very interesting chap and he made the comment that there were about 13 or 15, I don't remember, sightings that he was aware of over the years that were like mine and could not be explained away. The interesting thing he said was that all of these sightings had been made by professional people in aviation.

By that he meant they were military pilots, military air crew, civil aviation operators, air traffic controllers, and the like, or airline pilots. These were the ones he was now (1973) going around meeting the people themselves and investigating. All the others he had written off and had been able to explain down to some other phenomena. It came to the point where he said, "Your sighting cannot be explained away." And he left it at that. To this day I wouldn't know where it came from or where it went."

I have had the opportunity to talk extensively with Shamus O'Farrell. I was particularly interested in how the interview with Dr. Hynek in 1973 came about:

"It was done through Sir Arthur Tange, who was secretary of the Department of Defence at the time. Hynek contacted him direct.... Sir Arthur Tange contacted me and said Hynek was coming out. He had written to him, through the US Embassy, to set up a meeting.... And the next thing I knew I had a telephone call one day from Sir Arthur Tange saying that Hynek was coming and he would like me to met him. I said, well, I haven't got all the facts, there all a bit hazy. So he sent me the two Defence Department files over to read, to refresh it all."

Bill Chalker: "That seems to indicate a high level of interest in Hynek's visit at the time?"

"Yes, well, I don't think so. All that happened was that it was more of a courtesy because he was a very important guy, Hynek, and they wanted to show him the courtesies etc. As far as Defence was concern it was dead and forgotten but they had not got rid of the files. They kept them. Normally when files like that are written off they are either decided they'll put them in Archives or dispose of them and destroy them. But they had done neither. They had remained in the JIO. They'd kept them. I don't know what they had in mind about it, I never questioned it. I just used them as a means to refresh my memory.

"Later the guy who became the chief Defence scientist, John Farrands, was very interested in it too, and he had done a lot of early investigations in most of the reports when he was chief defence scientist and in the period just before he became chief defence scientist. He had a talk with me. I was a friend of his. I use to meet with him at lunch. He went over it in great detail. He knew it all. He agreed it was something that couldn't be refuted. No matter how hard they tried, and they tried very hard to knock it all back. They checked everything from medical, down to when was the last time I had had a drink..."

Bill Chalker: "That must have been a bit of a concern to you?"

"Well, I wanted to hush it all up. That sort of investigation made me look a bit of a fool. I was worried it wasn't going to do my career any good. "(Apart from the radar witness) it locked in a sighting over the NDB (non directional beacon) at Narulan, at the same time. There happened to be a guy working on the NDB. It was down at the time. He had gone to repair it. He happened to look up at the time because he saw these lights fly overhead. Also the air traffice control officer in the tower at Mascot saw them approaching him. "It was all investigated by the then RAAF guy who did it and later it was also investigated by the Joint Intelligence Bureau."

In 1993 I assisted The Extraordinary television programme with a recreation of the Sea Fury incident. Shamus O'Farrell, Keith Jessop and I were interviewed on the show. The case stands as one of the best unexplained radar visual UFO cases on record in Australia.

THINK ABOUTIT SIGHTINGS REPORT

Date: May 13, 2005

Sighting Time: 12:19 A.M.

Day/Night: Night

Reported:

Location: Kirkland, Washington, United States

Urban or Rural: Urban

Type of Case/Report: RawReport

Hynek Classification: ND

Duration:

No. of Object(s): Single

Size of Object(s):

Distance to Object(s):

Shape of Object(s): Triangle

Color of Object(s):

Number of Witnesses: Single

Special Features/Characteristics: Radar, Military, Pilot/Aircrew, Photo, Multiple UFOs, Witness Photo

Source: Mr. Reboare / National UFO Reporting Center (Seattle) Source

Summary: Perfect black triangle with 9 orange/yellowish lights on two sides of triangle, one on tip four following each leading edge, with none on stern/back end of triangle. The craft made barely, if any noise, and seemed to be defying the laws of gravity and aviation as it was floating and banking left.

Full Report

 

As a former airline employee I was trained to identify incoming aircraft, determine their speed, and notify personnel to help marshal and tug aircraft to deplane passengers. I am also an artist and amateur photographer.

12:19AM May 13, 2005
Location: Kirkland, WA
Weather: Light stratus towards the West, clear towards the East
Light Pollution: moderate due to ambient light and humidity seemed high as stars were not well visible. The sky was one or two hues lighter than its normal black due to humidity and light pollution. My view of craft was 45 degrees up from terra facing due East.

Object:
Perfect black triangle with 9 orange/yellowish lights on two sides of triangle, one on tip four following each leading edge, with none on stern/back end of triangle. The color of the lights was a very light salmon/orange yellow. The lights glowed with barely detectible movement similar to air heating phenomena which you see on heated roadways, but in this case the area was confined to the lights themselves.

Observation of craft:
Discovered the craft due east in my field of view and the craft was traveling north. I estimate the craft was ¾ to 1 mile from my position. I estimated altitude 200-350 feet from ground traveling 70-110 knots “banking” (more like floating) towards the port/left. Craft leveled off traveling towards the NE and became undetectable as it became level, in perfect stealth. The craft seem to “float” like observed satellites float in an arc across the sky, but this craft floated in a straight line close the earth. The size of the craft was as big as a 747 or at least ¾ of a football field.

Personal notation:
I was going out to drop some recycling material at 12:18AM PST and heard or sensed something very subtle in the sky. Directly in front of me due East, I looked up 45 degrees and saw clearly a perfect black triangle. The craft had lights on two sides of it and they were no brighter than dim stars, but they were all uniformly spaced and of the same color. The craft was traveling north. I was dumbstruck as the craft made barely, if any noise, and seemed to be defying the laws of gravity and aviation as it was floating and banking left traveling towards the Northeast. I use the term “banking” lightly because it was not relying on the air to bank, it was more like it was just righting itself to level as it floated. I strained to hear anything and could not, but sensed great power or energy. I was amazed at the razor sharp edges of the triangle and was struck by the clarity of the salmon colored lights that ran up one side of the triangle leading edge and up the other side but not on the part of the triangle which was on the back. I remember thinking, those lights are designed to be subtle and not seen. I saw that the craft was leveling off and as soon as it did it completely disappeared.(This next part is based on human intuition and is understandably arbitrary) I remember thinking "ok, is that one of us?" but I didn't get the feeling that it was. Something didn't feel right. I felt like there were people onboard but the feeling I had was that they were super intelligent, like test pilots (I have an old acquaintance who was a test pilot and he was the smartest person I have ever met) but that they were with some power or government that superseded everything. I felt that the people onboard had a sort of clincal super intelligence, if a person can sense such things like this. That's just what I felt, I can't dismiss or excuse it.

My overall feeling was one of amazement, also a very ominous feeling which turned into excitement and fear.

Here’s the sad part of this… I had been doing night photography for the last couple of nights and had my digital camera ON.MY.NECK, but I knew that I couldn’t dig it out of it’s bag, power up, switch it to manual, turn the iso to max, the f-stop to max and a 1/3 second exposure, as I was wrapped up trying to soak in as much detail as possible. I just didn’t have time and I knew it instinctively.

--Mr. Reboare

--------------------------------------

From National UFO Reporting Center in Seattle:

As a former airline employee I was trained to identify incoming aircraft speed to notify personel to help marshall and tug aircraft to deplane passengers. I am also an amateur photographer.

12:19AM May 13, 2005 Location: ((address deleted)) Avenue by 124th Avenue, Kirkland, WA 98034 Weather: light stratus towards the west clear towards the east Light Pollution: moderate due to ambient light and humidity seemed high as stars were not well visible.

45 degrees up from terra facing due east est altitude 200-350 feet from ground travelling 70-110 knots banking towards the right levelling off towards NE becoming undetectable as it became level, perfect stealth.

Object: perfect black black triangle/ 7 lights on two angles of triangle, one on tip three following each leading edge,none on back end of triangle.

The color of the lights was a very light salmon/orange yellow. Lights glowed with barely detectible movement similar to air heating phenomena on heated roadways, but in this case the area was confined to the lights themselves Easy to track as it was banking to it's forward right edge. I had a clear view of the bottom of craft as it was banking but when it levelled out it was GONE/perfectly stealthy.

Personal notation: I was going out to drop some recycling material and heard or sensed something very subtle. I looked up towards the east and saw clearly a perfect black triangle which was travelling 45 degrees up from my view facing due east. I was dumbstruck as the craft made barely any noise, and seemed to be defying the laws of gravity and aviation as it was banking North east from my with no audible noise. I strained to hear anything and could not, but sensed great power or energy. I was amazed at the razor sharp edges of the triangle and was struck by the clarity of the salmon colored lights that ran up one side of the triangle leading edge and up the other side but not on the part of the triangle which was on the back.

I saw that the craft was leveling off and as soon as it did it completely disappeared.

My feeling was one of amazement, also a very ominous feeling which turned into excitement and fear.

((NUFORC Note: We have corresponded with, and spoken with via telephone, the witness, and he appears to us to be quite serious-minded and credible. PD))

THINK ABOUTIT SIGHTINGS REPORT

Date: January 16, 1958

Sighting Time:

Day/Night:

Reported:

Location: Trindade Island, Brazil

Urban or Rural: Island

Type of Case/Report: MajorCase

Hynek Classification: DD

Duration:

No. of Object(s): Single

Size of Object(s):

Distance to Object(s):

Shape of Object(s): Disc

Color of Object(s):

Number of Witnesses: Multiple

Special Features/Characteristics: Photo, Water-Related, Military

Source: STUDIOVNI/ Jerome Clark (CUFOS)

Summary: Trindade, a small rocky island in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean 600 miles off the coast of Bahia, Brazil, was the site of one of the most impressive photographic cases in UFO history.

Full Report

 

By Jerry Clark (Center for UFO Studies)

Trindade, a small rocky island in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean 600 miles off the coast of Bahia, Brazil, was the site of one of the most impressive photographic cases in UFO history.

In October 1957 the Brazilian Navy set up a small scientific base on the unoccupied island, where oceanographic and meteorological research would be conducted in connection with the International Geophysical Year. Starting early the next month, instrument-bearing weather balloons were launched daily. They were designed to explode in the upper atmosphere, releasing the instrument packages which would parachute to earth to be retrieved by the researchers. By the end of the month base personnel were reporting silvery UFOs which seemed to be monitoring the balloons’ movements.

On January 1,1958, at 7:50 A.M., the passage of a bright point of light, like a mirror reflecting sunlight, was observed by the entire garrison. The next evening a round object with an orange glow circled the Navy tow ship Triunfo traveling off the Bahian coast 400 miles from Trindade. As the crew watched, the UFO executed sudden right-angle turns and at other times hovered near the ship. The sighting lasted for 10 minutes.

The most fantastic event occurred on the sixth. The base’s chief officer, Cmdr. Carlos A. Bacellar, had just overseen the launching of a weather balloon into a morning sky clear of everything but a single large cumulus cloud at 14,000 feet. Inside the radio cabin Bacellar listened to the signals the balloon emitted as it ascended. Suddenly those signals inexplicably diminished, then went dead.

When Bacellar went outside to investigate, he saw nothing out of the ordinary, at least at first. The balloon was ascending normally—until it came directly below the cloud, at which point it seemed to be sucked abruptly upward. For the next 10 minutes it remained out of sight and inside the cloud. Finally, when it reappeared, it was above the cloud and devoid of the instrument package.

Soon a silvery object emerged from behind the cloud. As it moved slowly from the southwest to the east, a technician gazing through a theodolite spotted it and alerted the commander, who viewed it briefly through binoculars, then through a sextant. Crescent-shaped and bright white in color, the object reversed course at one point and remained in sight for some time before it entered a cloud bank (Fontes, 1960).

The photographs

Later [16JAN58], at 12:15 P.M., as the Almirante Saldanha sat anchored off the south coast of Trindade and prepared for a return trip to Rio de Janeiro, 48 crew members and passengers spotted an object approaching the island. Among the witnesses was Almiro Barauna, a civilian who had been brought along because of his skill in underwater photography. Barauna gave this account to João Martins of the magazine 0 Cruzeiro:

I had my Rolleiflex 2.8-model E, which was kept inside an aluminum box for protection against the corrosive effects of water and salt. I had left my Leica with a telephoto lens in my cabin a few minutes before. The deck was full of sailors and officers. Suddenly Mr. Amilar Vieira and [retired Air Force] Capt. [José Teobaldo] Viegas called to me, pointing to a certain spot in the sky and yelling about a bright object which was approaching the island.

At this same moment, when I was still trying to see what it was, Lt. Homero [Ribeiro] — the ship’s dentist—came from the bow toward us, running, pointing to the sky and also yelling about an object he was sighting. He was so disturbed and excited that he almost fell down after colliding with a cable. Then I was finally able to locate the object, by the flash it emitted. It was already close to the island.

It glittered at certain moments, perhaps reflecting the sunlight, perhaps changing its own light — I don’t know. It was coming over the sea, moving toward the point called the Galo Crest. I had lost 30 seconds looking for the object, but the camera was already in my hands, ready, when I sighted it clearly silhouetted against the clouds. I shot two photos before it disappeared behind Desejado Peak. My camera was set at speed 125, with the aperture at f/8, and this was the cause of an overexposure error, as I discovered later.

The object remained out of sight for a few seconds— behind the peak— reappearing bigger in size and flying in the opposite direction, but lower and closer than before, and moving at a higher speed. I shot the third photo. The fourth and fifth ones were lost, not only because of the speed the saucer was moving, but also for another reason: in the confusion produced as a result of the sighting, I was being pulled and pushed by other persons also trying to spot the object and, as a consequence, photographed the sea and the island only—not the object. It was moving again toward the sea, in the direction from which it had come, and it appeared to stop in mid-air for a brief time. At that moment I shot my last photo (the last on the film). After about 10 seconds, the object continued to increase its distance from the ship, gradually diminishing in size and finally disappearing into the horizon [ibid.].

The object was gray, metallic, and solid-looking, though surrounded by a greenish haze or mist. With a ring running through its midsection, it resembled a flattened version of the planet Saturn.

Badly shaken by the experience, Barauna removed the film from the camera almost immediately but delayed processing it for an hour. Finally he and Capt. Viegas entered the ship’s darkroom together, while Cmdr. Bacellar (who had not been on deck when the sighting occurred) waited outside the door. Ten minutes later Barauna showed the wet negatives to Bacellar (there was no photographic paper available) and said that it looked as if the UFO’s image had not been picked up. The commander examined the negatives carefully and spotted the image. Subsequently, the other witnesses stated that the object in the photographs was the one they observed ("New Evidence," 1965).

Aftermath

Barauna took the negatives with him to Rio and processed them in his own laboratory. Shortly afterwards Bacellar showed up at Barauna’s home to look at the developed photographs, which he then took to the Navy Ministry. Two days later he returned them, and shortly thereafter Barauna was summoned to naval headquarters, where high-ranking officers grilled him. The Ministry sent his negatives to the Cruzeiro do Sul Aerophotogrammetric Service for analysis. They were declared genuine. In short order Brazil’s President, Juscelino Kubitschek, ordered them released to the press.

In the days ahead some of the witnesses gave interviews to newspapers. On the twenty-second Cmdr. Paulo Moreira da Silva of the Brazilian Navy’s Hydrography and Navigation Service stated that the "object was not a meteorological balloon, for the one we had launched that day was released at 9 A.M., two [sic] hours before the appearance of the object in the sky... . Also it was not a guided missile from the United States because the island of Trindade is off the route of those rockets."

Olavo T. Fontes, a well-connected Rio physician who represented the Tucson-based Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (A.P.R.O.), learned of the incident from naval informants on February 4. On the evening of the fourteenth, at the Navy Ministry, he was shown five photographs. He did not know then that the fifth had been taken earlier than the first four (Barauna’s photographs), and to this day little is known about this picture. Fontes believed it was taken by a Navy sergeant in late December at Desejado Peak on the island (Lorenzen, 1962).

A naval source later told Fontes that the day before Barauna took his pictures, the Almirante Saldanha’s radar had tracked an unknown object. At 2:30 A.M. on the sixteenth, less than 10 hours before the Barauna sighting, Ezio Azevedo Fundao, chief of surgery at a Rio hospital, and members of his family saw a Saturn-shaped UFO off the coast of Brazil, in the direction of Trindade. At approximately the same time the same or an identical object was observed from the deck of the Tridente, a Navy tow ship.

On February 23 Paulo M. Campos, a reporter for Diario Carioca, citing an unnamed but "best possible" source, wrote that "more than the sighting of the flying saucer itself, what really made a deep impression on the Navy was the report that instruments like radio transmitters, and apparatus with magnetic needles, ceased operating while the flying object remained in the island’s proximity. The Navy decided to

consider this a top-secret fact." When he checked with his own sources, Fontes could get neither confirmation nor denial of this alleged aspect of the event. (In a 1983 interview Barauna recalled that just prior to the UFO’s appearance all of the electrical power on the ship had failed [Smith, 1983].)

After Brazil’s House of Representatives demanded further information from the Navy, it was given a secret report on the official investigation. The document was leaked in October 1964 to Coral Lorenzen, director of APRO. After reviewing the various sightings and the January 16 photographs, its author, Corvette-Capt. Jose Geraldo Brandao, concluded that the "existence of personal reports and of photographic evidence, of certain value considering the circumstance involved [absence of evidence of tampering, the presence of other witnesses], permit the admission that there are indications of the existence of unidentified aerial objects." He also noted the "strong emotional upset . . . in all persons who sighted the object, including the photographer, civilians, and members of the ship’s crew" ("New Evidence," op. cit.).

A hoax?

On November 27, 1959, Donald H. Menzel, a Harvard University astronomer and UFO debunker, wrote Richard Hall of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena to report his "tentative conclusion" concerning the object in the Trindade photograph:

I have in my possession one well-authenticated case of a saturn-like object, whose nature is known and clearly distinguishable in this particular instance. A plane, flying in a humid but apparently super-cooled atmosphere, became completely enveloped in fog, so about all one could see was a division where the stream lines were flowing up and down respectively over and under the wings. The cabin made a saturn-like spot in the center, and the wings closely resembled the appearance of the Brazilian photographs.

The Trindade object’s speed and sprightly maneuvers were explainable, Menzel claimed, as an illusion created by the reflection of sunlight on the plane.

But four years later, in The World of Flying Saucers, Menzel publicly declared the case a hoax, charging that Barauna had faked the photographs via double exposure in collusion with an associate (Menzel and Boyd, 1963). He wrote, without mentioning newspaper articles and official reports to the contrary, that when reporters had a "chance to interview the officers and crewmen who allegedly had observed the Trindade saucer and could support Barauna’s story... [n]one of them had actually seen the object." In fact, in 1959 Hall had provided Menzel with a translation of a March 8, 1958, O Cruzeiro article which names several of the witnesses (Hall, 1959).

Menzel reprints a Brazilian Navy press release, but when the original and Menzel’s version are compared, some significant discrepancies become apparent. In the latter three words are added and six left out.

The original reads: "Evidently, this Ministry cannot make any statement about the object sighted over the island of Trindade, for the photographs do not constitute enough evidence for such a purpose." Menzel renders it thus: "Clearly, this Ministry cannot make any statement about the reality of the object, for the photos do not constitute enough evidence for such a purpose." Whereas the first statement acknowledges an object and a sighting, the second implies that their reality is open to question — hardly the Brazilian Navy’s intention.

Menzel’s attack continues in his next book, The UFO Emgma, wherein — though citing no source — he outlines the "extremely simple" method that he claimed was used to fake the photographs. "In the privacy of his home," Menzel writes, "the photographer had snapped a series of pictures of a model UFO against a black background. He then reloaded the camera with the same film and took pictures of the scenery in the ordinary fashion. When the film was developed, there was the saucer hanging in the sky." Menzel seems to have woven this story out of whole cloth. He also repeats the unfounded allegation that "no one else, except a friend (and presumed accomplice), had seen the disk flying overhead" (Menzel and Taves, 1977).

Though the U.S. Navy, which had expressed interest in the case at the time of its occurrence (Fontes, op. cit.), refused public comment, in a 1963 letter Maj. Carl R. Hart of the U.S. Air Force’s Project Blue Book quoted from an Office of Naval Intelligence report: "This gentleman [Barauna] has a long history of photographic trick shots. . . . [He prepared a purposely humorous article, published in a magazine, entitled ‘A Flying Saucer Hunted Me at Home’, using trick photography" (Hart, 1963). It should be noted that the article was a debunking piece intended to show how a much-publicized 1952 Brazilian flying-saucer photograph was created (Smith, op. cit.).

In 1978 an Arizona-based group, Ground Saucer Watch (GSW), which specialized in analysis of purported UFO photographs (and which had rejected most as phony), subjected good-quality prints to a computer-processing technique, focusing on edge enhancement, color-contouring, picture-cell distortion, and digitizing. GSW’s specialists came to these conclusions:

The UFO image is over 50 feet in diameter. The UFO image in each case reveals a vast distance from the photographer/camera. The photographs show no signs of hoax (i.e., a hand-thrown or suspended model). The UFO image is reflecting light and passed all computer tests for an image with substance. The image represents no known type of aircraft or experimental balloon. Digital densitometry reveals a metallic reflection. We are of the unanimous opinion that the Brazilian photos are authentic and represent an extraordinary flying object of unknown origin [Hewes, 1979].

Given the number of witnesses, the results of photoanalyses both military and civilian (Hopf, 1960), and the need for debunkers to reinvent the incident to "explain" it, it seems most unlikely that the Trindade photographs were hoaxed.

Sources:

Fontes, Olavo T. "The UAO Sightings at the Island of Trindade." The A.P.R.O. Bulletin Pt. I (January 1960): 5-9; Pt. II (March 1960): 5-8; Pt. III (May 1960): 4-8.

Hall, Richard H. Letter to Donald H. Menzel (November 2,1959). Hall, Richard H., ed. The UFO Evidence. Washington, DC: National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, 1964.

Hart, Carl R. Letter to Richard H. Hall (January 24, 1963).

Hewes, Hayden. "The Mystery Disk over Trindade Island." UFO Report 7,1 (February 1979): 18-19,58.

Hopf, John T. "Exclusive IGY Photo Analysis." The A.P.R.0. Bulletin (May 1960): 1,4.

"IGY Team Snaps UFO." The A.P.R.O. Bulletin (March 1958): 1,6.

Lorenzen, Coral E. The Great Flying Saucer Hoax: The UFO Facts and Their Interpretation. New York: William-Frederick Press, 1962. Revised edition as Flying Saucers: The Startling Evidence of the Invasion from Outer Space. New York: New American Library, 1966.

"Brazilian Official Report on the Trindade UFO." Fate 18,3 (March 1965): 38-48.

Menzel, Donald H. Letter to Richard H. Hall (November 27, 1959). Menzel, Donald H., and Lyle G. Boyd. The World of Flying Saucers:A Scientific Examination of a Major Myth of the Space Age.Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1963.

Menzel, Donald H., and Ernest H. Taves. The UFO Enigma: The Definitive Explanation of the UFO Phenomenon. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1977.

"New Evidence on IGY Photos." The A.P.R..0. Bulletin (January 1965): 1,3-8.

Smith, Willy. "Trindade Revisited." International UFO Reporter 8,4 (July/August 1983): 3-5,14.

"UFOs in Latin America." In Hilary Evans with John Spencer, eds. UFOs 1947-1987: The 40-Year Search for an Explanation, 97-113. London: Fortean Tomes, 1987.

"UFO Photo Certified by Brazilian Navy Labeled a Hoax by USAF." The UF0 Investigator 1,10 (July/August 1960): 3.

* By permission of the author. Clark, J. "Trindade Island Photographs." The UFO Encyclopedia: The phenomenon from the beginning (2nd ed., Vol. 2, pp. 898-903). Detroit, MI: Omnigraphics, Inc. 1998