Good afternoon. Rainy, cloudy, but the Fall colors are coming out strong and soon our landscape on the Kenai Peninsula with be breathtaking to behold. We still have thousands of Tourists on the Peninsula, a majority coming down from Interior Alaska as the temperatures are now going below the freezing mark in the Fairbanks area. Hundreds of RVers will often to the last moment, challenging the arrival of our first snowfall, before they head down the Al-Can Highway for that long drive home.
This is the time of the hunters, with the season now open and thousands of people in search of their moose or bear. In the evening comes a time to sit around the evening campfire, share Smores and enjoy the evening's crisp clean air. This is also a time bold tales, maybe a ghost story for the younger ones and tell their sons or daughters about their rights of manhood on their first big-game hunt. For old veterans it's also a time of war stories from long ago and now almost ancient wars and for the younger ones a time of sharing their experiences in the dreadful Middle East sand box. Alcohol consumption ( mostly beers) was usually kept to the minimum, too many firearms around and because morning came early for the hunters. Most were on their way out as soon as they could see dawn approaching. Most would return home without their trophy or the meat they had hoped for, but the experience was a trophy in itself and always remembered.
The household family is slowly returning to the living category, but I am grateful it isn't Ebola or the Dengue Fever. It seems we have several bugs and viruses striking at the human race. But we must ask ourselves, is it the news services who lead their news reports with the latest statistics of the sick and dead from disease to frighten the listener or reader, just a bit to sell air time and newspapers? Or do we follow the media because through worldwide communications we are now able to learn of the rising numbers of sick and dead from these varying diseases and viruses around the world and it makes us wonder what is God doing here? Are we taking the time to pray against this growing epidemic, or ignore it because its in a different country. Is our faith being tested and are we beginning to doubt God cares or does He really exist as such events strikes right at our faith- how much and how deep is our relationship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. For you who are wonder or doubting because of world events, maybe the loss of a family member or even your planned future has fallen through and you're left with your hands in the air and a look of desperation or rage on your face. Here I might remind you of how the Lord new this would happen, even with the gift of free will, future and past are simply a thought for him. This is where the rubber hits the road and the testing might be beginning for all of us.
Revelations speaks on many things, some very confusing and other chapters quite clear. A sickness will come and a third of the world's population will be consumed by it. A war or series of wars will cause another third to die. But, if we have the faith to Stand Tall, during this time of world changing events, it will not matter if we are chosen to doe by sickness or having the enemy kill us. We will still be with our Lord in Heaven. This is promised. Still, right now and for the last 100-years or more, people were being murdered for their faith. Here, children, teenagers and adults Stood Tall and have found their reward. How will we do, when the threat is made and the question asked. Recently, many a Christian on the other side of the world have been asked this, threatened to accept the Muslim faith and while under terrific strain they lost their faith and accepted Islam, only to be beheaded in the following moments. No, I am not hear to judge them, for I have never been in this position, I'll leave judgment to the Lord. I only hope I am a strong one if this event comes to my family and I.
Before we get to Part Two of The Legend of Blue Eyes, I wanted to share some of todays news briefs.
If you're following the China versus Hong Kong pro-democracy movement, you'll know that China had forbidden Hong Kong the freedom of electing their own candidates for the up coming elections. Though originally promised to allow this, China has now decided they would choose the candidates from the Communist Party and Hong Kong voters will have to elect their political leadership from those people. The pro-democracy movement is extremely unhappy with this and has staged several large protests. Now China is wondering whether or not the Army may be needed to enforce this decision at election time. Hong Kong is seeing its first real taste of freedom, though most of them have a love for the home country- but not the Communist Party and its restrictions. Now does this remind you of another country who chose democracy over their home country's monarchy. Look back into American History to 1770 and the beginnings of rebellion that would lead into the American Revolution. Oddly enough more and more school s are no longer teaching our own history, only going back as far as 1900 for American History classes. Now we can watch it unfold right now in Hong Kong. Follow it in the news and let it remind you of what our own rebels accomplished, while facing a much larger and better equipped army. But Freedom won out.
IRS Scandal: IRS Officials advise that 5 more IRS workers involved in the Congressional Investigation have lost their e-mails. But the IRS has found no evidence that anyone purposely destroyed them.
China: 1,145 cases of Dengue Fever has been in South China's Guangdong Province. 31 of these cases are in serious condition. Japan has confirm 55 cases from this same fever.
Ukraine: Cease-fire agreement signed in Minsk between Ukraine, Russia and Pro-Russian rebels. But it has already been shown to be a fragile agreement as opposing forces have already violated it with some minor skirmishes.
European Union intends to formally adopt new sanctions against Russia on September 8th. World waits to see President Putin's reaction and response.
But Russia response does come with a vow to react if the sanction come about. One sanction will bar 24 Russians from entering NATO countries, also freezing these people's assets held in the 28-nation bloc.
Australia to export uranium to India after both countries signed an agreement of cooperation.
German Government to pay out $250 million to chilren of Holocaust survivors.
Struggling with current sanction, Russia now faces an oil price crash. Price of Urals crude oil, Russia key export, fell $15 this month on cost per barrel and is now priced below $100 a barrel. Oil is the "lynchpin" of Russia's government finances. With the Ukraine Crisis leaving Russia on the brink of Recession, a sudden collapse in oil revenue would be "bad news" for Russia's economy. This last week their price per barrel was $97 and economic slowdown will begin at $95 a barrel. $80 a barrel would bring about an economic crisis, weakening the the value of the ruble and pushing investment levels down in the oil industry. ( with such events occurring involving the oil industry, being pushed into crisis by the NATO sanctions, one must be again knowledgeable of world history; Japan's decision of going to war in 1941 was pushed into being by US and Britain denying Japan any further access to oil and other natural resources until they withdrew their forces from China. NATO should be extremely careful in pushing sanctions on a strong government like Russia, because some people will only be pushed so far before they may announce enough is enough. Buttons could be pushed and our world changed forever.)
An analysis report accomplished in Moscow: Japan's Fukushima Plant has three molten cores, each weighing 100-tons and so radioactive that no one can approach them. Robots have proved useless and they melt. It is now believed by experts that this meltdown could go on for hundreds of years. Apparently, TEPCO, who owns the facility is no longer consulting with Russia or the USA, and reports have come in how the Japanese Mafia, the Yakuza, is "hiring" people to work around the plant. Now 300-400 tons of radioactive water pours daily in the Pacific Ocean and has been doing this for over 3-years. The ocean is being contaminated and the ecology is being effected. Experts on radiation say this contamination cannot be diluted and will become concentrated into the ocean's food chain- algae. Little fish and bottom dwellers will consume the contamination, which will then be eaten by larger fish, and so on. Scientists believe larger fish are already contaminated and being caught for human consumption. Yet, TEPCO hired experts assure the world there is no threat. Still, as contamination is now reaching the North American coasts, TEPCO propaganda machine and the politicians they support through campaign donations, reminds everyone the food is safe to eat. ( I wonder how many of our politicians are eating salmon and halibut this year, or crab?) Even the Fukushima area rice export, resumed after the 2011 disaster, though the contaminated water was going into the area's ground water. Fukushima disaster victims reached 21,586 and area-wide suicide numbers have picked up.
St. Louis, Missouri: 6- people killed in separate incidents within 24-hour period. Victims were all gunned down in drive-by shootings. Police investigating. ( unknown if these are racial hate-crimes and if they have anything to do with the Ferguson racial protests and riots.)
U.S. Center for Disease Control accomplished a study involving thousands of volunteer interviews in 2011, which took a couple years to compile, involving sexual crimes in the US.
19.6% of women have been raped at one point in their lives. Nearly 2% of men have been raped. 44% and 23% of men have experienced some other form of sexual violence; while 15% of women and 6% of men have been stalked. 78% of female rape victims were first raped before the age of 25, as were 71% of male rape victims. Study also showed female victims were 32.3% multiracial women; 27.5% Native American; 21.2% Black women; 20.5 % white women; and 13.6% Hispanic women. Survey for the study involved 12,000 completed interviews.
Russia's Naval Force re-opens Arctic base on New Siberian Islands, which was closed in 1993.
Part # 2 of the "Legend of Blue Eyes"
On an extremely warm night in the late summer of 1974, I was stuck back on the desk as usual. C Flight was working the 4p.m. to 12 a.m. shift and looking forward to going back on midnight shift again. So far, except for a disturbance at the Airman's Club and a couple domestic beefs in base housing, it had been a quiet night. At 9:36 P.M. or 2136 hours, the emergency line began to ring, ( this was before the 911 system came on board for military installations), and I caught it before the second ring. Much to my surprise and the beginnings of a very sore ear, all I heard on the other end was a loud piercing female scream, immediately followed by a thunk-like sound and I knew the caller's phone had hit a wooden floor, leaving me with an open line and no background sounds.
We had a set procedure in place for such calls over the emergency line and I used another regular line to make contact with the base phone service and exchange. They kept a tap on our emergency line, which would give me a location if it was on Edwards property. It took our helped nearly 12-minutes to come back with the calling party- identified as the MARS Station located on South Base. I quickly advised the Flight Chief TSgt Harrel and he was on his way out the door to respond himself. I also dispatched to patrol unit to back my supervisor up. One was the South Base Patrol, who was 12-13 minutes away from from the MARS Site and I dispatched the Senior Patrolman, who was on all-base patrol. He was 15-minutes away and was coming in from West Base. I authorized the senior patrol Code-3 response and South Base patrol Code-2 response. Code-2 was with police lights and Code-3 meant lights and siren. The Flight Chief made up his own mind how he wanted to travel all on his own.
Now the MARS site was a classified installation, a single building about the size of a 3-bedroom ranch house. It was set up a top a 3-foot high cement platform, which made the top security windows a good 9-feet above the ground. The facility is surrounded by 10 foot-high chain-link fence, with triple strand barbed wire on top. There was one access point and this was a double-wide vehicle gate, secured by electronic locking system. MARS handled radio traffic from all over the world- using a series of MARS sites. It also handled classified coded messages that were then routed to another location. It was will illuminated, the fence had nearly a dozen warning signs prohibiting non-authorized entry and the site was manned 24-hours a day by a minimum of 2 personnel. The site was located about a mile off the main southbound highway and nearly 12-miles south of Main Base. I glanced up at our 24-hour clock and estimated a SP unit would be on the scene in approximately 8 or 9 minutes, depending on their speeds. Some of our vehicles were not safe to take over 60 mph, except for the Flight Chief's vehicle and our all-base patrol unit. Both of these cars were the best in our fleet and brand new 1973 Ambassadors.
I had my assistant desk sergeant monitor the open emergency line to see if he could detect any background sounds, or possibly one of the personnel came back on line. We knew this time of night it would be only two people down there. 8 minutes later my South Base patrolman came over the radio and advised me the vehicle access gate into the site was completely smashed and shoved or dragged into the compound by several feet. I told him to wait on a second patrolman before moving toward the building and asked if there were any vehicles around. He advised that two vehicles, privately owned, were in the parking slots, but no other vehicle in sight. He also reported a lack of acceleration or breaking marks in the hard packed compound. Now this struck me as odd. There should have been tire marks in the dirt from doing the kind of damage my patrolman had reported. The Flight Chief was the next on scene and they were approaching the building. Within 2 minutes my Highway unit arrived and I figured 3 patrols could handle what ever had happened. My imagination went a little wild, wondering if the two people working tonight had gotten into a fight, but that wouldn't have involved busting the gate down and two vehicles were still parked there.
A few minutes later, my Flight Chief came over the phone and told me to hold on, while he cut the emergency call off to clear that line and would call me right back on the regular number for the desk. He also said to get an ambulance on the way for two possible patients, both still unconscious at this time but breathing normally and no outward injuries. He then hung up and 30-seconds later I was on the regular line talking with him. He had decided he wanted me down there to observe the scene, because he knew I'd be the one writing this all up. "Make sure you have a well-stocked evidence kit with you." I was also advised to call in one of the housing patrols to take over my spot on the desk, an NCO was required if at all possible and my Assistant had only two stripes- an Airman 1st Class. I even beat the ambulance down there and I had to wait for the housing patrol to arrive so I could take his vehicle.
As I drove up to the site, the damage done to the access gate left me dumbfounded. It looked as if a D-9 Cat had driven through it. smashing it down and crushing all the metal parts. I didn't stay around to study the gate, but parked my unit and dashed inside. (Back then I could still dash.)
As I approached the stairs going up to the facility's door, which we found to be also broken down and the debris scattered about the insides of the station. It looked like someone had placed a small bomb on the door to blow it open, but there was no fire and no evidence of any explosion. By now the female 2-striper was coming out of her fog and beginning to give my highway unit Non-commissioned officer or NCO, some of the details of what had happened. I listened, but she was still too rattled to be coherent. It would be another 15-20 minutes before we were able to understand her and the ambulance crew was loading the male sergeant on to a gurney- he was still unconscious. Vital signs were a bit off, but nothing to explain his condition. He had an expression of fright on him. at least that's what my Flight Chief and I decided and we'd both seen a lot of those expressions in Vietnam.
I had the Desk give the site commander a telephone call and request his presence. I wanted to know if anything was stolen. When he arrived he was speechless from what he saw as he walked over the gate and observed the front door. We briefed him on the man taken to the Hospital ER by ambulance and he walked over to comfort the rattled female Airman 1st Class. I was then asked to come outside by one of my patrolman, who pointed out some really strange footprints in the dirt. We had somehow missed them while coming in, but in the soft dirt patches we discovered just how large these prints were and no one said a thing. One set of prints was right below a window at the south side of the building. One of these two, what I believed to be a foot print, showed a completely smashed Coke bottle in the middle of it. Now I can stand on a Coke bottle-from back then, and not break it and I weighed 300lbs at that time. Measurements were taken of the print and we read over 15-inches in length and a shade over 9-inches in width. It appeared to have 3 rounded toes more than two-inches wide, but no evidence of claws. The critter, from the span of distance of the prints appeared to be walking on two legs, with just under a 4-foot span. I later took plaster imprints of several of the prints including the one with the Coke bottle. During this time I advised the Desk to have a 12 gauge shotgun brought down to us, with 10-rounds of .00 buckshot. My little Smith & Wesson .38 Combat Masterpiece was going to have little effect on any creature this size and the Flight Chief was glad I requested it. He also had this ominous feeling as we stood outside and looked around the darkened desert floor.
I was at the site for a good two hours, taking photos and measurements. Whatever it was, it had smashed the gate down, walked around the building, tried to enter by breaking the front door down but didn't fit through the doorway, and for some unexplained reason it had departed. By what I saw of the heavy metal gate, the critter- maybe a big California Grizzly, or whatever, had not smashed the rest of the doorway apart to make entry and it had departed through the way it came in. Now no one was going to be following this thing out into a dark desert. We were also wondering if we had a hoax going on here- a gag to get the SPs all flustered up.
I interviewed the female Airman up at the hospital, her supervisor wanted her checked over. By the time we arrived at the Hospital the male NCO was now fully awake and we were able to interview them both. Except I wanted to conduct the interviews and have them separated to see if I got the same story or if they might trip each other up. My Flight Chief was back at the office with the evidence we had obtained and all the photographs. By now everyone on C Flight wanted to stop by to see the photos.
I interviewed the Sgt first and then released him back to his ward for a night of observation. He was out by 8 a.m., released by the doctor, but he took a two-week leave straight off. The site supervisor had also requested blood tests to see if his two personnel were under the influence of drugs or intoxicating beverages. My Flight Chief was also going to request it, but the supervisor beat him to it. They were later found to be completely clear of both.
The interviews matched as far as each one went. They had both been working on radio traffic when they had heard a large bang out front- this being the smashed gate. But they saw no vehicle and the female airman was going for the phone to call on our emergency line, when the Sgt let out a yell and was pointing at the window nearest him. He then passed out, leaving the female Airman all alone and they did not carry firearms at the site. Except the supervisor allowed them to keep a privately owned .22 caliber rifle to deal with rambunctious Mojave Green Rattlers. You just never knew where one of those might show up. But the rifle was never touched, no one had time to even recall they had a rifle there in the station. The male Sgt recalled hear a strange noise outside and approached the nearest window to look out and what he saw had apparently terrified him into a light form of shock. He feinted. But before he lost consciousness, he saw the entire window blocked by something, he couldn't see the night's stars or the South Base lights from a highway intersection 2 miles south of the site. Then he sensed movement of this dark thing, "whatever it was, and next thing I know I'm looking straight at a...well, they looked like two big silver dollars, but they weren't eyes. No, they radiated a blue light and I couldn't keep looking at it. Next thing I remember is waking up in the ER."
The difference in the female airman's story was how she held the phone in her hand, watched her shift supervisor point at the window and then pass out. "He really hit the floor hard. But then the door blew inward, like an explosion without...the explosion part. I screamed and that was that. You guys found me then."
This wasn't a lot to go on and there was too much costly damage done for a squadron hoax against the SPs. But I returned to SP Headquarters and began working on my reports and putting my blotter information in. The Flight Chief had notified the Base Command Post of the incident and he called the on-duty SP Investigator to appraise him of the incident. We knew all of our evidence and my report would be funneled over to Investigations, and then possibly up to the OSI. They looked at things and were always brought in weird events, thefts of over $2,000 and major crimes such as suicides, murder and whatever OSI wanted to be involved in. OSI was a secretive group; Air Force personnel who wore civilian attire so no one knew what their rank was and in this way they could deal with senior officers without being wary of their suspect's rank. I would later do a lot of work with them when I began working "Cher", my narcotic/patrol trained canine. I would become the first dope dog to hit Edwards and boy did we take them by surprise.
I moved my typing into the Flight Chief Office so the new shift's desk sergeant could go to work. By late in the morning I half-way expected to hear about further sightings of a massive Grizzly or possible an escaped Gorilla from the Los Angeles Zoo. Nope. I went back to the barracks to catch some sleep and was woke up a little more than an hour later by the squadron's First Sergeant. I was needed back down at SP headquarters. Just me. My Flight Chief was home dreaming whatever he dreamed about. I found out I was needed to type a new blotter for the hours of my shift, which ended the 24 hour day. Being that I would have to sign it, as I always did, they felt I should be the one to type it. I also learned my prior blotter was on hand to use for the information I needed, but all reference to the MARS site incident was blacked over. My whole police report I had spent three hours on was now missing and apparently seized by the OSI or the Base Command Post. All my evidence was now missing and I was ordered to forget all about the incident of the prior night. Everyone involved received the same order. I adhered to that order until I left the service. But it all upset me, I did not like cover-up. Especially when no one would tell me why.
But really, all I had at this point were two people who feinted, who couldn't understand what they saw and several thousand dollars in damage. But within 24-hours, that MARS Site was abandoned and moved into another facility closer to Main Base. But the story was beginning to spread by noon and I never opened my mouth. I expected it was that officer who worked in the Command Post, who went home and told his wife, which went among the officer's wives. If you want a story or rumor spread, one of the wives clubs or hospital personnel were the quickest to get it spread.
Now I thought it had ended with this incident, though we did assigned two SPs to a patrol for South Base and the senior All-Base Patrol for the next few days and this would come in handy.
Part # 3 of the Legend of Blue Eyes in the next Moose Pass Journal. Retelling this story is liable to cause me nightmares- again. But I was asked for it and like any writer, I couldn't disappoint a fan/friend/relative or bill collector.
God Bless,
God Bless
This is the time of the hunters, with the season now open and thousands of people in search of their moose or bear. In the evening comes a time to sit around the evening campfire, share Smores and enjoy the evening's crisp clean air. This is also a time bold tales, maybe a ghost story for the younger ones and tell their sons or daughters about their rights of manhood on their first big-game hunt. For old veterans it's also a time of war stories from long ago and now almost ancient wars and for the younger ones a time of sharing their experiences in the dreadful Middle East sand box. Alcohol consumption ( mostly beers) was usually kept to the minimum, too many firearms around and because morning came early for the hunters. Most were on their way out as soon as they could see dawn approaching. Most would return home without their trophy or the meat they had hoped for, but the experience was a trophy in itself and always remembered.
The household family is slowly returning to the living category, but I am grateful it isn't Ebola or the Dengue Fever. It seems we have several bugs and viruses striking at the human race. But we must ask ourselves, is it the news services who lead their news reports with the latest statistics of the sick and dead from disease to frighten the listener or reader, just a bit to sell air time and newspapers? Or do we follow the media because through worldwide communications we are now able to learn of the rising numbers of sick and dead from these varying diseases and viruses around the world and it makes us wonder what is God doing here? Are we taking the time to pray against this growing epidemic, or ignore it because its in a different country. Is our faith being tested and are we beginning to doubt God cares or does He really exist as such events strikes right at our faith- how much and how deep is our relationship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. For you who are wonder or doubting because of world events, maybe the loss of a family member or even your planned future has fallen through and you're left with your hands in the air and a look of desperation or rage on your face. Here I might remind you of how the Lord new this would happen, even with the gift of free will, future and past are simply a thought for him. This is where the rubber hits the road and the testing might be beginning for all of us.
Revelations speaks on many things, some very confusing and other chapters quite clear. A sickness will come and a third of the world's population will be consumed by it. A war or series of wars will cause another third to die. But, if we have the faith to Stand Tall, during this time of world changing events, it will not matter if we are chosen to doe by sickness or having the enemy kill us. We will still be with our Lord in Heaven. This is promised. Still, right now and for the last 100-years or more, people were being murdered for their faith. Here, children, teenagers and adults Stood Tall and have found their reward. How will we do, when the threat is made and the question asked. Recently, many a Christian on the other side of the world have been asked this, threatened to accept the Muslim faith and while under terrific strain they lost their faith and accepted Islam, only to be beheaded in the following moments. No, I am not hear to judge them, for I have never been in this position, I'll leave judgment to the Lord. I only hope I am a strong one if this event comes to my family and I.
Before we get to Part Two of The Legend of Blue Eyes, I wanted to share some of todays news briefs.
If you're following the China versus Hong Kong pro-democracy movement, you'll know that China had forbidden Hong Kong the freedom of electing their own candidates for the up coming elections. Though originally promised to allow this, China has now decided they would choose the candidates from the Communist Party and Hong Kong voters will have to elect their political leadership from those people. The pro-democracy movement is extremely unhappy with this and has staged several large protests. Now China is wondering whether or not the Army may be needed to enforce this decision at election time. Hong Kong is seeing its first real taste of freedom, though most of them have a love for the home country- but not the Communist Party and its restrictions. Now does this remind you of another country who chose democracy over their home country's monarchy. Look back into American History to 1770 and the beginnings of rebellion that would lead into the American Revolution. Oddly enough more and more school s are no longer teaching our own history, only going back as far as 1900 for American History classes. Now we can watch it unfold right now in Hong Kong. Follow it in the news and let it remind you of what our own rebels accomplished, while facing a much larger and better equipped army. But Freedom won out.
IRS Scandal: IRS Officials advise that 5 more IRS workers involved in the Congressional Investigation have lost their e-mails. But the IRS has found no evidence that anyone purposely destroyed them.
China: 1,145 cases of Dengue Fever has been in South China's Guangdong Province. 31 of these cases are in serious condition. Japan has confirm 55 cases from this same fever.
Ukraine: Cease-fire agreement signed in Minsk between Ukraine, Russia and Pro-Russian rebels. But it has already been shown to be a fragile agreement as opposing forces have already violated it with some minor skirmishes.
European Union intends to formally adopt new sanctions against Russia on September 8th. World waits to see President Putin's reaction and response.
But Russia response does come with a vow to react if the sanction come about. One sanction will bar 24 Russians from entering NATO countries, also freezing these people's assets held in the 28-nation bloc.
Australia to export uranium to India after both countries signed an agreement of cooperation.
German Government to pay out $250 million to chilren of Holocaust survivors.
Struggling with current sanction, Russia now faces an oil price crash. Price of Urals crude oil, Russia key export, fell $15 this month on cost per barrel and is now priced below $100 a barrel. Oil is the "lynchpin" of Russia's government finances. With the Ukraine Crisis leaving Russia on the brink of Recession, a sudden collapse in oil revenue would be "bad news" for Russia's economy. This last week their price per barrel was $97 and economic slowdown will begin at $95 a barrel. $80 a barrel would bring about an economic crisis, weakening the the value of the ruble and pushing investment levels down in the oil industry. ( with such events occurring involving the oil industry, being pushed into crisis by the NATO sanctions, one must be again knowledgeable of world history; Japan's decision of going to war in 1941 was pushed into being by US and Britain denying Japan any further access to oil and other natural resources until they withdrew their forces from China. NATO should be extremely careful in pushing sanctions on a strong government like Russia, because some people will only be pushed so far before they may announce enough is enough. Buttons could be pushed and our world changed forever.)
An analysis report accomplished in Moscow: Japan's Fukushima Plant has three molten cores, each weighing 100-tons and so radioactive that no one can approach them. Robots have proved useless and they melt. It is now believed by experts that this meltdown could go on for hundreds of years. Apparently, TEPCO, who owns the facility is no longer consulting with Russia or the USA, and reports have come in how the Japanese Mafia, the Yakuza, is "hiring" people to work around the plant. Now 300-400 tons of radioactive water pours daily in the Pacific Ocean and has been doing this for over 3-years. The ocean is being contaminated and the ecology is being effected. Experts on radiation say this contamination cannot be diluted and will become concentrated into the ocean's food chain- algae. Little fish and bottom dwellers will consume the contamination, which will then be eaten by larger fish, and so on. Scientists believe larger fish are already contaminated and being caught for human consumption. Yet, TEPCO hired experts assure the world there is no threat. Still, as contamination is now reaching the North American coasts, TEPCO propaganda machine and the politicians they support through campaign donations, reminds everyone the food is safe to eat. ( I wonder how many of our politicians are eating salmon and halibut this year, or crab?) Even the Fukushima area rice export, resumed after the 2011 disaster, though the contaminated water was going into the area's ground water. Fukushima disaster victims reached 21,586 and area-wide suicide numbers have picked up.
St. Louis, Missouri: 6- people killed in separate incidents within 24-hour period. Victims were all gunned down in drive-by shootings. Police investigating. ( unknown if these are racial hate-crimes and if they have anything to do with the Ferguson racial protests and riots.)
U.S. Center for Disease Control accomplished a study involving thousands of volunteer interviews in 2011, which took a couple years to compile, involving sexual crimes in the US.
19.6% of women have been raped at one point in their lives. Nearly 2% of men have been raped. 44% and 23% of men have experienced some other form of sexual violence; while 15% of women and 6% of men have been stalked. 78% of female rape victims were first raped before the age of 25, as were 71% of male rape victims. Study also showed female victims were 32.3% multiracial women; 27.5% Native American; 21.2% Black women; 20.5 % white women; and 13.6% Hispanic women. Survey for the study involved 12,000 completed interviews.
Russia's Naval Force re-opens Arctic base on New Siberian Islands, which was closed in 1993.
Part # 2 of the "Legend of Blue Eyes"
On an extremely warm night in the late summer of 1974, I was stuck back on the desk as usual. C Flight was working the 4p.m. to 12 a.m. shift and looking forward to going back on midnight shift again. So far, except for a disturbance at the Airman's Club and a couple domestic beefs in base housing, it had been a quiet night. At 9:36 P.M. or 2136 hours, the emergency line began to ring, ( this was before the 911 system came on board for military installations), and I caught it before the second ring. Much to my surprise and the beginnings of a very sore ear, all I heard on the other end was a loud piercing female scream, immediately followed by a thunk-like sound and I knew the caller's phone had hit a wooden floor, leaving me with an open line and no background sounds.
We had a set procedure in place for such calls over the emergency line and I used another regular line to make contact with the base phone service and exchange. They kept a tap on our emergency line, which would give me a location if it was on Edwards property. It took our helped nearly 12-minutes to come back with the calling party- identified as the MARS Station located on South Base. I quickly advised the Flight Chief TSgt Harrel and he was on his way out the door to respond himself. I also dispatched to patrol unit to back my supervisor up. One was the South Base Patrol, who was 12-13 minutes away from from the MARS Site and I dispatched the Senior Patrolman, who was on all-base patrol. He was 15-minutes away and was coming in from West Base. I authorized the senior patrol Code-3 response and South Base patrol Code-2 response. Code-2 was with police lights and Code-3 meant lights and siren. The Flight Chief made up his own mind how he wanted to travel all on his own.
Now the MARS site was a classified installation, a single building about the size of a 3-bedroom ranch house. It was set up a top a 3-foot high cement platform, which made the top security windows a good 9-feet above the ground. The facility is surrounded by 10 foot-high chain-link fence, with triple strand barbed wire on top. There was one access point and this was a double-wide vehicle gate, secured by electronic locking system. MARS handled radio traffic from all over the world- using a series of MARS sites. It also handled classified coded messages that were then routed to another location. It was will illuminated, the fence had nearly a dozen warning signs prohibiting non-authorized entry and the site was manned 24-hours a day by a minimum of 2 personnel. The site was located about a mile off the main southbound highway and nearly 12-miles south of Main Base. I glanced up at our 24-hour clock and estimated a SP unit would be on the scene in approximately 8 or 9 minutes, depending on their speeds. Some of our vehicles were not safe to take over 60 mph, except for the Flight Chief's vehicle and our all-base patrol unit. Both of these cars were the best in our fleet and brand new 1973 Ambassadors.
I had my assistant desk sergeant monitor the open emergency line to see if he could detect any background sounds, or possibly one of the personnel came back on line. We knew this time of night it would be only two people down there. 8 minutes later my South Base patrolman came over the radio and advised me the vehicle access gate into the site was completely smashed and shoved or dragged into the compound by several feet. I told him to wait on a second patrolman before moving toward the building and asked if there were any vehicles around. He advised that two vehicles, privately owned, were in the parking slots, but no other vehicle in sight. He also reported a lack of acceleration or breaking marks in the hard packed compound. Now this struck me as odd. There should have been tire marks in the dirt from doing the kind of damage my patrolman had reported. The Flight Chief was the next on scene and they were approaching the building. Within 2 minutes my Highway unit arrived and I figured 3 patrols could handle what ever had happened. My imagination went a little wild, wondering if the two people working tonight had gotten into a fight, but that wouldn't have involved busting the gate down and two vehicles were still parked there.
A few minutes later, my Flight Chief came over the phone and told me to hold on, while he cut the emergency call off to clear that line and would call me right back on the regular number for the desk. He also said to get an ambulance on the way for two possible patients, both still unconscious at this time but breathing normally and no outward injuries. He then hung up and 30-seconds later I was on the regular line talking with him. He had decided he wanted me down there to observe the scene, because he knew I'd be the one writing this all up. "Make sure you have a well-stocked evidence kit with you." I was also advised to call in one of the housing patrols to take over my spot on the desk, an NCO was required if at all possible and my Assistant had only two stripes- an Airman 1st Class. I even beat the ambulance down there and I had to wait for the housing patrol to arrive so I could take his vehicle.
As I drove up to the site, the damage done to the access gate left me dumbfounded. It looked as if a D-9 Cat had driven through it. smashing it down and crushing all the metal parts. I didn't stay around to study the gate, but parked my unit and dashed inside. (Back then I could still dash.)
As I approached the stairs going up to the facility's door, which we found to be also broken down and the debris scattered about the insides of the station. It looked like someone had placed a small bomb on the door to blow it open, but there was no fire and no evidence of any explosion. By now the female 2-striper was coming out of her fog and beginning to give my highway unit Non-commissioned officer or NCO, some of the details of what had happened. I listened, but she was still too rattled to be coherent. It would be another 15-20 minutes before we were able to understand her and the ambulance crew was loading the male sergeant on to a gurney- he was still unconscious. Vital signs were a bit off, but nothing to explain his condition. He had an expression of fright on him. at least that's what my Flight Chief and I decided and we'd both seen a lot of those expressions in Vietnam.
I had the Desk give the site commander a telephone call and request his presence. I wanted to know if anything was stolen. When he arrived he was speechless from what he saw as he walked over the gate and observed the front door. We briefed him on the man taken to the Hospital ER by ambulance and he walked over to comfort the rattled female Airman 1st Class. I was then asked to come outside by one of my patrolman, who pointed out some really strange footprints in the dirt. We had somehow missed them while coming in, but in the soft dirt patches we discovered just how large these prints were and no one said a thing. One set of prints was right below a window at the south side of the building. One of these two, what I believed to be a foot print, showed a completely smashed Coke bottle in the middle of it. Now I can stand on a Coke bottle-from back then, and not break it and I weighed 300lbs at that time. Measurements were taken of the print and we read over 15-inches in length and a shade over 9-inches in width. It appeared to have 3 rounded toes more than two-inches wide, but no evidence of claws. The critter, from the span of distance of the prints appeared to be walking on two legs, with just under a 4-foot span. I later took plaster imprints of several of the prints including the one with the Coke bottle. During this time I advised the Desk to have a 12 gauge shotgun brought down to us, with 10-rounds of .00 buckshot. My little Smith & Wesson .38 Combat Masterpiece was going to have little effect on any creature this size and the Flight Chief was glad I requested it. He also had this ominous feeling as we stood outside and looked around the darkened desert floor.
I was at the site for a good two hours, taking photos and measurements. Whatever it was, it had smashed the gate down, walked around the building, tried to enter by breaking the front door down but didn't fit through the doorway, and for some unexplained reason it had departed. By what I saw of the heavy metal gate, the critter- maybe a big California Grizzly, or whatever, had not smashed the rest of the doorway apart to make entry and it had departed through the way it came in. Now no one was going to be following this thing out into a dark desert. We were also wondering if we had a hoax going on here- a gag to get the SPs all flustered up.
I interviewed the female Airman up at the hospital, her supervisor wanted her checked over. By the time we arrived at the Hospital the male NCO was now fully awake and we were able to interview them both. Except I wanted to conduct the interviews and have them separated to see if I got the same story or if they might trip each other up. My Flight Chief was back at the office with the evidence we had obtained and all the photographs. By now everyone on C Flight wanted to stop by to see the photos.
I interviewed the Sgt first and then released him back to his ward for a night of observation. He was out by 8 a.m., released by the doctor, but he took a two-week leave straight off. The site supervisor had also requested blood tests to see if his two personnel were under the influence of drugs or intoxicating beverages. My Flight Chief was also going to request it, but the supervisor beat him to it. They were later found to be completely clear of both.
The interviews matched as far as each one went. They had both been working on radio traffic when they had heard a large bang out front- this being the smashed gate. But they saw no vehicle and the female airman was going for the phone to call on our emergency line, when the Sgt let out a yell and was pointing at the window nearest him. He then passed out, leaving the female Airman all alone and they did not carry firearms at the site. Except the supervisor allowed them to keep a privately owned .22 caliber rifle to deal with rambunctious Mojave Green Rattlers. You just never knew where one of those might show up. But the rifle was never touched, no one had time to even recall they had a rifle there in the station. The male Sgt recalled hear a strange noise outside and approached the nearest window to look out and what he saw had apparently terrified him into a light form of shock. He feinted. But before he lost consciousness, he saw the entire window blocked by something, he couldn't see the night's stars or the South Base lights from a highway intersection 2 miles south of the site. Then he sensed movement of this dark thing, "whatever it was, and next thing I know I'm looking straight at a...well, they looked like two big silver dollars, but they weren't eyes. No, they radiated a blue light and I couldn't keep looking at it. Next thing I remember is waking up in the ER."
The difference in the female airman's story was how she held the phone in her hand, watched her shift supervisor point at the window and then pass out. "He really hit the floor hard. But then the door blew inward, like an explosion without...the explosion part. I screamed and that was that. You guys found me then."
This wasn't a lot to go on and there was too much costly damage done for a squadron hoax against the SPs. But I returned to SP Headquarters and began working on my reports and putting my blotter information in. The Flight Chief had notified the Base Command Post of the incident and he called the on-duty SP Investigator to appraise him of the incident. We knew all of our evidence and my report would be funneled over to Investigations, and then possibly up to the OSI. They looked at things and were always brought in weird events, thefts of over $2,000 and major crimes such as suicides, murder and whatever OSI wanted to be involved in. OSI was a secretive group; Air Force personnel who wore civilian attire so no one knew what their rank was and in this way they could deal with senior officers without being wary of their suspect's rank. I would later do a lot of work with them when I began working "Cher", my narcotic/patrol trained canine. I would become the first dope dog to hit Edwards and boy did we take them by surprise.
I moved my typing into the Flight Chief Office so the new shift's desk sergeant could go to work. By late in the morning I half-way expected to hear about further sightings of a massive Grizzly or possible an escaped Gorilla from the Los Angeles Zoo. Nope. I went back to the barracks to catch some sleep and was woke up a little more than an hour later by the squadron's First Sergeant. I was needed back down at SP headquarters. Just me. My Flight Chief was home dreaming whatever he dreamed about. I found out I was needed to type a new blotter for the hours of my shift, which ended the 24 hour day. Being that I would have to sign it, as I always did, they felt I should be the one to type it. I also learned my prior blotter was on hand to use for the information I needed, but all reference to the MARS site incident was blacked over. My whole police report I had spent three hours on was now missing and apparently seized by the OSI or the Base Command Post. All my evidence was now missing and I was ordered to forget all about the incident of the prior night. Everyone involved received the same order. I adhered to that order until I left the service. But it all upset me, I did not like cover-up. Especially when no one would tell me why.
But really, all I had at this point were two people who feinted, who couldn't understand what they saw and several thousand dollars in damage. But within 24-hours, that MARS Site was abandoned and moved into another facility closer to Main Base. But the story was beginning to spread by noon and I never opened my mouth. I expected it was that officer who worked in the Command Post, who went home and told his wife, which went among the officer's wives. If you want a story or rumor spread, one of the wives clubs or hospital personnel were the quickest to get it spread.
Now I thought it had ended with this incident, though we did assigned two SPs to a patrol for South Base and the senior All-Base Patrol for the next few days and this would come in handy.
Part # 3 of the Legend of Blue Eyes in the next Moose Pass Journal. Retelling this story is liable to cause me nightmares- again. But I was asked for it and like any writer, I couldn't disappoint a fan/friend/relative or bill collector.
God Bless,
God Bless
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