With all the tension being felt by current affairs, a lot of us here in our place seem to be having trouble sleeping. I end up waking up after an hour of sleep and often lie there for 2-3 hours before getting back to sleep. Others are fighting the same battle. So how is it for you all?
For some of you, you might remember a piece I wrote long ago concerning an actual series of events that occurred in my life back in the summer of 1975. I called the story, "Blue Eyes", and for some strange reason I dreamed of those experiences last night. This story was never published, but I did write out a hard copy of same and presented in to my son, Joshua Troy, as a birthday present. He always enjoyed the story. Been many years since I thought about those events, which took place at Edwards Air Force Base, located on the Upper Mojave Desert in Southern California. I spent over 5 years assigned there and truly loved the high desert country. Edwards was the flight test center for the Air Force and the airplane builders came there to test their new aircraft in an attempt to sell them to the Air Force. While there I was able to see the testing of the "Enterprise", the first Space Shuttle, which was launched from the back of a 747. The SR-71, being used for tests by NASA, which also had a huge facility on Edwards. I watched as the tested the upcoming A-10, F-15, F-17 and F-18 ( which was later bought by the Navy/Marines). I was also able to see a lot of the projects that NASA was working and some of these are still classified, sorry. But, as I said I enjoy my tour there.
I was ordered to Edwards after finishing my tours in Vietnam and Thailand. For those of you not aware, I was a Law Enforcement Specialist with the Air Force Security Police. Basically I worked base police, like an Army MP. Being of low rank early on I usually only worked one of three base perimeter entry gates at Whiteman AFB, Missouri before going off to Vietnam. At Edwards I was a sergeant and started out on midnight shift patrol with C Flight. The Air Force calls their small units of personnel "flights" instead of "platoons". I eventually worked my way into becoming my flight's primary Desk Sergeant before being ordered (I actually volunteered) to attend Patrol/Narcotic Dog School in Texas for almost 6 months.
My dog's name was Cher, and she was one of the most intelligent canines I ever saw, graduating as top dog in our narcotic class. I got her as a 11-month old German Shepherd, her first handler, and she was also known as a Bio-Sensor dog (10th generation) which was a science thing the military did to create the finest dog possible for the military. No more hip displaysher, (spell check didn't help any), which is a problem with shepherds. But the program grew too expensive and her generation, costing an estimated $10,000 a puppy, was the last. Average weight for these dogs was 70-lbs, had extended snouts, almost like a coyote which apparently increased their smelling sense, and yellow eyes that greatly increased their night vision. They were also somewhat stronger then the basic shepherd and Cher could make it over an 8 foot wall on the obstacle course with little difficulty because of the increased muscles to her legs. Another increase was in their bite pressure. The other guys hated catching her with the arm pad wrap because she would scissor her teeth rather than just chomp down and shredded a lot of training arm wraps, the man would wear to protect himself when Cher attacked.
Cher would end up saving my life at Fort Sam Houston in Texas. It was during a drug raid on an army dorm during the last week of our training school. The dorm was supposed to be clear and Cher and I were searching rooms assigned to the medics for illegal drugs. She alerted on a foot locker and inside I found a pound of Mexican marijuana. While I was doing the search of the locker, the room occupant, who had been hiding down the hall came in and with a metal bar in his hand attempted to come up behind me to either kill me or knock me out. Cher, acting without my order, quickly alerted to his presence and took him out at the knee. Not only did he receive a Bad Conduct discharge for the drugs, he would walk with a limp for the rest of his life most likely. Cher was also the 1st narcotic patrol dog to come to Edwards and we were seriously busy for a good two month stretch as we were used to search all the barracks on base, vehicles and sometimes base housing and the base schools. To keep her from burning out, she could only work a 6-hour period. Anyway, I have a photo of she and I on my desk.
But, about "Blue Eyes".... The events "actually" happened and it began in the summer of 1975. I was working the night shift as desk sergeant, where I and the assistant desk sergeant took all the police calls, monitored all the base alarms, dispatched the shifts 20 odd patrol units and two security posts ( one on the flight-line and one up at the Rocket Test Site) and typed up the paperwork. Edwards took up approximately 300 square miles, making it the second largest military installation in the Lower 48-states. The base back then was also open, no gates, as we had two state highways that run right through the middle of the base. Edwards also had two gigantic dry lake beds, that had been used for testing since World War II days. As I said NASA was also on base, plus a highly classified North Base facility that was totally off limits to everyone, except of course for those who worked inside and it was surrounded in 8-foot tall chain link fences, with rolls of razor wire and spotlights on top. It was protected by heavily armed civilian guards. I would also come to learn just how private it was when a helicopter crashed one night inside this compound and they wouldn't let the flight line fire department trucks inside to fight the fire caused by the accident. I was there and saw no attempts to rescue the crew, if in fact there was a crew as it could've been a mechanically controlled bird. Such things were being tested back then. There were also underground hangers on the lake bed and one night I watched an aircraft land and then vanish underground into one. North Base was rumored to be where the Rosewell Alien bodies were then being stored, but as I said that's just rumors and Edwards had a million of them over the years of its existence. The rocket site on base is where a lot of scientific projects were underway and rocket engines, such as used for the space shuttle and to launch satellite rockets, were tested.
I mention all this because I want you to get the idea that Edwards was a pretty cool place to work. One drawback was how Edwards was used as an emergency landing strip for Strategic Air Command's B-52s, the guys who carried the "bomb". It was felt, if a bomb did go off, all they would lose is a few thousand of us stationed there and not make a mess out of other parts of Southern California. Several B-52s made such landings while I was stationed there and each time you could imagine the collective held breaths of the people as two of these birds made belly landings.
Anyway, one night while I was on desk duty and our emergency line began to ring ( this was before 9-1-1), and I answered it and only heard a woman's shriek-like scream and then dead air. I immediately contacted the base phone company and after a search was done, which only took a few moments, I learned the call had come in from the base M.A.R.S. Station/Site, which is sort of like a world-wide telecommunications facility and its manned 24 hours a day. They bounce their communications off the atmosphere, without using satellites, or so I was told. I made a call to the Philippines one night using this capability. So, I tried to contact them by phone and not receiving any answer I dispatched two of my patrols. Back then most patrols were one man units, and because of the desert, the South Base patrol was often done with a 1969 Chev p/u 4x4 with a stick-shift. They notified me when they arrived on scene and it was then a few minutes later before I received a telephone call and a request that the flight chief, Tech-Sergeant Russel Harrell also respond. Sometime later I received a call from Sergeant Harrell, who requested I also respond. "You're going to be typing this up, so you'd better see everything first hand." So I left my partner in charge and drove a patrol car to the MARS facility.
The MARS Station was a single building, about 40-feet long and 25-feet wide, built on a split-level design so the first floor was actually 3 feet off the ground. Facility was also enclosed by another 8 foot tall chain link fence with razor wire and spotlights. The double-wide security gate was always shut and locked, but had no guard. At night the facility was manned by two Air Force personnel and this night it was a young male and female who were both enlisted personnel. When I arrived I saw that the double-wide gate had been smashed inward to the ground, as if a tank had run it over. Security cameras on the gate had been destroyed in the crash when entry was made, but the building's security cameras were still intact. Sadly, I was never able to see any of the footage taken that night as it was all seized by the Office of Special Investigation. The OSI is like the Air Force version of the FBI, where all the enlisted personnel and officers wore civilian clothes. The Army calls their unit the CID, for Criminal Investigative Division or Detachment. Can't recall which it was.
When the gate was smashed in, the two people inside heard it, but they were unable to see any vehicle nor anyone in the enclosed 1 acre of land the facility used. The testimony of the man was a bit strange as he advised us that he had gone to the north window to see what had happened, and when he looked outside all he could see were two large bluish globe-like eyes glaring back at him. He then feinted. The female seeing this jumped for the phone, called me and she then feinted and both were found unconscious by my patrolmen. Outside we found some extremely strange foot prints and molds were taken of them, making us at first joke about having a big foot monster running about. Whoever or whatever it was had disappeared but appeared to be two legged. Based on the testimony of the man and the height of the window, the subject outside had to be about 8 foot tall. There was no box to stand on and no ladder to be found nearby. Another piece of evidence found below the window was an small empty bottle of Coco-Cola, which had been completely smashed by one of these foot prints. Looking at it I knew I could stand on such a bottle and not break it, so whatever caused this was heavy. Taped interviews were done, evidence taken and I wrote up my report. The next morning I was called back in to retype my running police blotter and remove the report of the incident from it and all evidence and material was seized by the OSI. But that was not the end of it. For some reason unknown to us, the MARS Site was closed down at that location and moved to another spot on base.
With such large stretches of highway on this massive base and having the two highways running through it, the base had roadside emergency phones set up which was a direct line to the desk sergeant. Well, two nights after the MARS Site incident, I received a call from the South Base Emergency line posted on the southern part of the one highway that ran south to north. The highway ran the length of the base from Rosemond City, right outside the western edge of the base to the far eastern edge of Edwards near the City of Boron, famous for its Borax Plant. They used to host "Death Valley Days" on TV.
From the phone I listened as an elderly gentleman briefed me on an accident he had just been involved in on our side of the highway. He and his wife were passing through the base to save time on their way home to the City of Mojave. I sent the South Base Patrol unit to rendezvous with him at the phone's location. I then talked with the patrolman on that phone for a few minutes and then after briefing my flight chief, I had him escort the couple and their vehicle to our 6510th Security Police Headquarters building. After hours it was part of my job to represent the Base Commander for visitors passing through and I really enjoyed that part of it. Met a lot of great people and a few oddballs and nuts, but that's another story for another time. My flight chief and I wanted to have a little chat with these people after hearing their story related by our patrolman. Basically, it was just after midnight, it was night of course and he was driving along at about 60 mph in a 65 mph zone when this massive bear like thing suddenly appeared right in front of his full-size Ford Sedan. If I recall it was a Ford Galaxy and the front end was pretty well smashed up, but still drive-able. One headlight was smashed. But we also discovered blood in the grill and some extremely long and coarse dark brown, almost black hair that was easily three inches in length. All of which was taken as evidence and the report accomplished, along with a taped interview. Neither the man or woman were injured but they were shaken up. When they showed our patrolman the spot it happened, we sent a patrolman back there once the sun came up and similar foot prints in the sand were discovered that matched the MARS Site. But the old man didn't remember seeing any blue globe-like eyes and after the collision, whatever he hit had vanished into the darkness.
Again, after only a couple hours of sleep I was called in to work to redo my 24-hour running blotter to remove all evidence of the report and everything was again confiscated by the OSI.
I'll admit some of the guys were getting leery about being assigned to South Base Patrol, which was called Patrol Six. But then a few nights later, which had been relatively quiet and another shift was on the midnight to 8 a.m. tour, as our flight had a couple days off, the gate guard at the Rocket Site had called in at about 2 a.m. to report he had lost contact with his security patrol, a single SP unit that patrolled the site. This included checking on numerous buildings and structures inside the site. The site, located on an outcropping of low desert mountains sort of stuck up like a natural castle and the site was located a top it. It was about a 35-minute drive to reach the site from our main base, but in an emergency I could get clearance from the tower to cross the active runway and the dry lake bed to shoot a patrol up to the site in about 8 minutes. That night, the on duty desk sergeant, unable to raise his patrol on the radio, sent one patrol across the lake bed and and another unit the long way. The site takes up about 14 square miles of mostly high ground and desert flatland that surrounded it. All the old fence had mostly been torn down and there will all sorts of old desert roads and trails through the spot beginning back when their were gold mines being worked where the rocket site now stood. It was just the perfect spot for NASA to test their massive rocket engines and then other items were added for the science crowd, which included another underground hanger that had railroad tracks going to it that just disappeared underneath the sand. It was said this facility was used when they were trying to mount some sort of laser weapon onto the SR-71, and they were bringing in railroad cars to shoot at. Or so went the tale. You just never knew what was true or not at Edwards.
I used to spend a lot of time out in the desert, exploring and occasionally rattle snake hunting, and once found a building out in the middle of of "nowhere". This single structure, which had parts of an old security fence around it was about 10-feet high, by ten feet wide all around. The door had been broken open and their were very old Air Force signs posted on it, but it clearly hadn't been used in some time. I went through the now open door and found stairs going down. Ended up going down 7 levels, finding only empty offices filled with dust, tumbleweeds and animal remains. I quit my exploring when I began to hear the warning yaps of a band of coyotes and knew this bunch had moved in here to get out of the night cold that the high desert could produce. In my 5 years there I discovered a lot of old military ruins dating as far back as WWII, now all abandoned.
Back to my story: Will the rocket site patrolman was soon found by the search team, but the interesting part is how he was found lying in the sand unconscious with his smith & Wesson .38 caliber revolver lying on the ground beside him. All six rounds had been fired. He was rushed to the hospital, where he stayed for several days as various people interviewed him and we even had a guard on his room. Sure enough, those weird foot prints were found all around where he had fallen and followed back for nearly half-a-mile into the open desert where they then disappeared. but a wind had come up which would explain how more of the prints were now buried. However, more molds were taken and the man's flight chief conducted a tape interview with the young sergeant, which was also later seized along with everything else. According to the sergeant, he had spotted something moving near the test stand in his headlights, the stand is a basically a steel and concrete thingee that runs up into a tower that holds the rocket engine. He stopped his truck and began looking to see what or who was about the area. When he came from around a corner of the stand he finally saw himself standing in front of a "very large bear-like, or maybe gorilla" like thing with these two silver-dollar shaped blue eye-like globes, that he said were radiant. "Sort of glowed". He could recall and features except for those weird eyes, only that it was awesome in size and had terrified him. So he pulled his revolver, for which he had been certified as an expert shot and had been awarded the Marksmanship ribbon for same, and ended up firing off all 6-rounds at the thing. That's all the could recall until the unit found him and he awakened. He was clearly rattled, but unhurt and his patrol unit was untouched.
Well, as you can guess, all evidence and the reports were again seized. Some of us felt like this was getting tiresome and wanted to know what was going on. But we were kept in the dark like good mushrooms and eventually he returned to duty and never spoke up again about that night. Though he was able to talk himself out of having to handle that patrol area again...Doctor's orders. Then nothing happened for almost two weeks. Then one night I was able to talk my flight chief into letting me off the desk for a night and I took over Patrol 7, which was all-base patrol. I could go or be sent anywhere on base and I really enjoyed being assigned # 7. When mornings came I would often set up radar and catch the morning traffic commuters coming in from off base. We had special Federal Citations for issuance to civilians. While base people were issued regular military citations. We normally didn't ticket any civilian unless they exceeded the 65 mph zone for the highways by 12-15 miles over. I would use this same formula in my future days as a civilian police officer. I figured by doing 15 over the limit you knew why you were being pulled over, but even then I issued a lot of warnings. My own barometer was how people reacted to being stopped for a violation. Sometimes a warning, and a few times and arrest when they became combative.
I once had a civilian woman in tears swearing at me to explain why they were shooting across the desert at 95 mph to attend a funeral in Boron. I gave her the ticket because I just didn't buy her excuse and hopefully it might keep her from killing herself. Yes, I've been issued ticket myself, even once here in Moose Pass by an Alaskan State Trooper. Next day I gave up my license, all the pills I was taking at the time for my disability could've caused me to kill someone.
But this night while I was on patrol on South Base I happened to stop as this man-made park the base had put in. It had a small lake, which usually had water in it, pavilions with picnic tables and I would check the place out as at night the desert areas were off limits for base people. We would catch a lot of lovers out there enjoying the romance of watching the stars, but it could also be a dangerous area due to the packs of roving coyotes, rattle snakes and other dangers. So it was off limits after dark, unless some event was occurring. I found the place empty, parked and took a moment to stretch my legs. It was nearly a full moon and the night sky was spectacular. Suddenly, I noticed some movement on the horizon and at first suspected it might be some driving across the desert lowlands to reach the base or pass through the base and was doing so without headlights on. All I ever saw was a weird pine cone like shape off in the distance. I pulled out the binoculars I carried in my briefcase and soon found it, but it was still too far away. We knew the base was being used for drug trafficking, as small planes were bring in bales of marijuana from Baja California and dropping it off to dealers who worked out of the cities of Mojave and Lancaster. We also had wild cattle still surviving on the desert and I'd finally gotten the chance one day to come across two of these critters walking across the desert by themselves. Looked a bit scrawny so I suspected they were a couple of the wild ones that had long been reported.
I was about to investigate my shadowy desert crosser when I received an emergency call for a fight at the NCO Club. So, I never got the chance to see if this was our elusive Blue Eyes or just some strange desert thingee. When I returned later that night, I never spotted it again. But the reports of Blue eyes ended and we had no further reports while I was stationed there until leaving in 1978 for Alaska.
Oddly enough, I came across a "Blue Eyes" story on line numerous years ago that was supposed to have occurred at the same time our phenomena occurred. But I did not recognize the name of the so-called former Security Policeman and his story did not match up with what had happened that summer. He reported patrol cars being turned over by this strange creature, SPs being injured and I found it to be total bunk.
I'll wrap this up now by saying the following spring, I believe it was in April of 1976 and just before my son, John, was born, when I was working the desk. (I went to dog school shortly after this occurred). My flight line patrol called in to report he had stumbled upon a "rather strange fellow" wandering about the Base Test Pilot School, located at the south end of the flight line. The man had stated he was looking for a name of someone to file a report with concerning a found aircraft. So, I advised the patrolman to bring the man in so the flight chief could speak with him. When the man arrived, truthfully I thought I was looking at some 1950's era scientist off some B rated sci-fi. The man was in his late 50's, wore a white short sleeved button up shirt with a black bow tie. He had one of those pocket protectors that had to have about 12 or more pens and pencils in it. He had a squarish jew, deep inset, weary looking eyes and wore black framed glasses. He also sported a crew cut haircut and was very formal speaking. To make this short, he had discovered what he believed to be possibly one of our spacecraft abandoned out in the Mojave Desert and wondered if we had even known of its location as it was still there and no one was around it. HE EVEN PROVIDED photos of it, with the daylight desert scene all around it and the low mountains to the north behind it. Personally, I had never seen such an aircraft before and it looked like a mixture of a long tube mixed in with a saucer shape and it had no writing or numbering on it. No property of NASA or US Air Force.
Now to add to this story I should add that I have seen declassified photos of our military attempt to build a flying saucer in the 1950's. It came with two cockpits, one on the opposing side of the other, and with a giant fan in the middle used for lift. According to the attached report, the project was canceled because when they attempted to move the fan to move the craft side to side to make turns, it had nearly killed both pilots from being vibrated so hard. I used to go down to the office of information to go through some of their declassified files to see what the military used to do on Edwards. Sort of a hobby. I even found photos of their attempts to use radiation to grow vegetables and fruit to humongous size. A six foot man was standing beside a giant water melon taller then him and many other examples. But the problem was they couldn't get the radiation out of the items, so the project ended in failure.
Well, my flight chief had me contact the Base Command Post, open 24 hours, that maintained contact with Air Force Command and Washington DC, as well as Cheyenne Mountain in Nevada ( in simplest terms this is the the in-the-mountain facility used to protect us from an enemy missile launch catching us by surprise and would launch are own weapons). I briefed the officer in command that night and told him the man's story. He then hung up and within 10-minutes I had a phone call from the Base Commander, who ordered me to confiscate all photos from the man and have him escorted to the base perimeter. "You are to advise this person that if he returns to the base he will be subject to immediate arrest". Then he hung up and we carried out the base commander's orders. But I will say this guy really set of "my willies" alarm. Not sure what he found, but the photos were of course turned over to the OSI.
Such is what occurred at Edwards during my time there. Now they have gates on the base and I doubt regular civilians can enter without having a good reason. We did do an Open House there that summer of 1976 and an estimated one million people visited the base from as far south as Los Angeles and north to Bakersfield. The Space Shuttle was on display along with so many other test aircraft and one of the most photographed exhibits were three very small non-propeller, nor jet engine, aircraft. These were known as "lifting bodies", which were carried under NASA's special B-52 Number 0008, I believe which means it was the 8th B-52 to be constructed, into the upper atmosphere and then released to glide back down, carrying a single pilot. To see one flying as it came in for as landing most people would have called it a UFO from outer space, but in fact it was one of ours involved in the glide tests for the future building of the Space Shuttle. Sort of between the X-15 and the shuttle. Really strange looking craft, two of them tear-shaped and one a bit more wider then the other two.
Our SP desk received over a hundred calls a year to report UFOs, usually, but not always the particular craft would later come in for a landing on our lake bed as part of a NASA test.
Just so you know, during the 10-years of the Vietnam War, more UFO sightings were made over our war than any other spot on this world of ours. I liked to hope maybe some futuristic history class had come back to watch us make all our mistakes. Or maybe it was some little green men who wanted to see what we were capable of doing.
Well, time to sign off this has been a lengthy journal. God bless you all. Love, Bill/Appa