Background

The attached photograph was allegedly “leaked” to the public, and represents an example of a photo within an official Department of Defense (DOD) report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. It was obtained by anonymous sources, and published by TheDebrief on December 3, 2020.

The full story can be viewed at the below presentation by The Black Vault.

The Photograph

Below, you will find the metadata of the photograph. It was surprising what appeared to be the “original” copy of the photo was used, holding the metadata that the photograph was taken in 2019, rather than the reported 2018. It was explained by the author of the piece, Tim McMillan, that it represented a “photo of a photo” and was not the original photograph. However, that seems to be in dispute.

However, after publication, the original version with the metadata was altered and scaled up, thus removing the metadata. Therefore, since the photograph is allegedly from a U.S. military document, it is believe to have no copyright, so the original is archived here for safe-keeping.

Technical Breakdown of the Original

The original was first published on a CDN at this URL and embedded into The Debrief’s article. This version was used as the top representation of the photo when the article was first published. Sometime thereafter, but prior to December 7, the photo was upscaled and the original is no longer embedded in the article.  It still appears on “Stack Path” as of the writing of this, last checked on December 7, but is not currently located on The Debrief anymore.

This can be verified via a second source at: Wayback Machine. You will note now the appendage of “-scaled” is added to the file name, thus indicating an edit and subsequent stripping of the metadata from the original.

The ORIGINAL of that one, which also holds metadata, is found at this URL. This was an even larger size than the one embedded. This is also in the .zip file below. (Thank you to Reddit user pomegranatemagnate for pointing out the original to the original.)

In order to download the original photos, unaltered the way TheDebrief published it with metadata attached, you need to download the following .zip file which contains the original “photo-2-1.jpg” and “photo-2-1-2048×1536.jpg” images as posted by The Debrief.

DOWNLOAD [.zip, 1MB]

The Mystery

To add to the mystery, the photo in question was actually published actually MONTHS earlier, by Blake S. Taylor, on Twitter.

#ufotwitter #paranormaltwitter pic.twitter.com/LlIFEk3wVf

— Blake S. Taylor Investigations (@YoungGun8140) May 12, 2020

The Black Vault reached out to Blake, and he stated he simply recalls downloading it from a site on the internet. He is unable to recall which one. He also posted a public comment explaining the same, wherein he said the following:

“Hey man, I’m pretty sure I found it while rummaging around in one of those sites where we find government documents etc. I’ve been trying to remember it’s been a while. I just remember seeing it saving it and sharing it.”

The Explanation?

Very quickly, an explanation circulated the social media channels where stories like this are possible. The shape of the object, and a subsequent style of balloon, are strikingly similar.

The debate has commenced on whether this was too high for a mylar balloon, but it appears that with the “rough” estimate of altitude of the object in the article, combined with multiple sources outlining how high a mylar balloon can go, it is definitely in the ballpark and possible.

The Source

With permission, I’ve added here a likely source of the photo, regardless of if the object is a balloon or not. The identity of the source may play a future role in uncovering more about this story, and if any true UAP connections exist.

Researcher Roger Glassel painstakingly sought out the identity of the helmet reflected in the canopy. I reached out to Roger, who submitted the following:

“As everyone was focusing on the object, I tried to look at other things. I believe that others have done that as well. The reflection of the helmet was something that caught my attention. Knowing that all the fighter squadrons have their own insignia I started looking for a match. The yellow part of the insignia seem to match VFA-15 – with the lion riding on a rocket – but it wasn’t a perfect match, so I found that VFA-32 was using a yellow lion as well. I looked up VFA-32’s Facebook page and found a perfect match with a lion, blue stripe ribbon, on an white helmet, and thought, hey, this is it. I now hope this will move the discussion forward.”

Here is a screen shot of where Roger found the comparison photo:

Here is the full photograph used for comparison (click to enlarge):

This really is excellent work by Roger, and should be commended! More updates will be posted as they are available.

The Metadata

Conclusion (thus far)

Although it seems incredibly likely this is a balloon, the story (and the case) is potentially still ongoing. It is unclear if additional stories are on the way, so although The Black Vault won’t label this a completely “case closed” case, additional data is certainly welcome should it ever be presented.

The post “Leaked” Photo of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) / UFO, Release by The Debrief, December 3, 2020 first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

The post “Leaked” Photo of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) / UFO, Release by The Debrief, December 3, 2020 appeared first on The Black Vault Case Files.

He has graciously allowed the following photographs, and his research, to be archived here on The Black Vault for reference.

Please add your comments and input in the comments section below.

As more information becomes available, it will be added to this case file.

Summary

by Alex Mistretta

This got started when I heard from one of my sources in Europe that some pictures that I might want to take a look at were making the rounds.

These turned out to be the pictures that a French Paranormal magazine called Top Secret published. They claimed that they received them from an anonymous source. That is all they have have said publicly so far.

Top Secret source and mine are unrelated. I made connections in the intelligence community in Europe years ago in a project unrelated to UFOs. It was for the Congo’s Mokele-mbembe project that I was working on. They have always been reliable, but you know how these things go, you never really know.

I have used them on information based on Russian UFOs in the past, and they have been very reliable with that.

I’m obviously trying to directly get access to Top Secret‘s original source, so we’ll see. By the way, feel free to contact them yourself or anyone that you feel can help.

Obviously, I want to stay on point with this, and be part of whatever comes out in this case, but the important thing is to get to the truth, and “The Black Vault” name is extremely well respected and that can very much help.

Here is what we know so far. The original anonymous source claims that these:

1) The photos were taken from a United State Navy submarine.

2) The location was between Iceland and Jan Mayen island in the Atlantic Ocean. (Jan Mayen belongs to Norway, and is only inhabited by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute and the Norwegian military.)

3) They were taken in March of 1971.

4) The Submarine was the Navy’s USS Trepang (SSN 674) and the Admiral on board was Dean Reynolds Sackett. Obviously, the next step is to try and locate this Admiral Dean Reynolds, if he exists.

5) The Submarine came upon the object by “accident,” as they were in the region on a routine joint military and scientific expedition. Officer John Klika was the one who initially spotted the object with the periscope.

This obviously implies that it wasn’t ours, and unfortunately doesn’t explain the different objects seen in the pictures.

Top Secret claims that on one of the pictures, there were some inscriptions. I don’t have a version of this, and it is too faint to see on these photographs.

Upper left it says “Official Photograph. Not to be Released. CT.”

In the bottom right corner it says (sic) “Unauthorized Disclosure Subject. Security Certificat SSN 674. Criminal Sanction”

I cannot confirm these at the moment, and I don’t know if the spelling of Certificat is just a reproduction error, since these were revealed in their magazine.

This is all I have so far, and I’ll keep sending you whatever additional info I have.

Photo Gallery of High Resolution Photographs, NOT from a Magazine

On July 13th, I was sent the following photographs via email. These are the original photographs that created the hype about this case, but, they supplied me the original scans of the photos, NOT from the magazine.

Photo Gallery of High Resolution, Full Page Scans from “Top Secret Magazine”

The original photo gallery is still below, to archive what originally circulated. However, the original scans, in high resolution, have been posted online.  Below, you can find the original scans, thanks to Reddit user SquizCat. The translations were created by Reddit user hillside. Thanks to both users for bringing these to the forefront of the investigation.

They appear in the order they were published in the magazine, for easier reading.

Original Photo Gallery

Word from the Admiral

On July 8, 2015, investigator and former Navy pilot, Steve Murillo was asked to make a phone call (by request of Alex Mistretta) to Admiral Sackett. In respect to the Admiral, the means to track him down are not going to be published so he is not inundated with calls but he was located. (We please ask, there are researchers currently corresponding with him, and we would prefer that no one track him down to ask for additional answers as this unfolds.)  The following is the update from Mr. Mistretta:

The Black Vault’s Fact Checking

by John Greenewald, Jr.

When I first read about these photographs, I was very intrigued. I felt they needed a closer investigation, and Alex has been doing a great job pursuing the truth, whatever it may be, behind them. Although his investigation is ongoing, I wanted to add some independent points of clarification and verification to the story above. I was very happy to see many of the facts did pan out, which means if it is a hoax, whoever did it definitely thought it out before hand.

Rear Admiral Dean Reynolds Sackett – FACT

The inclusion of Rear Admiral Sackett in the story seems to pan out. He commissioned the USS Trepang. According to NavSource online:

Rear Admiral Dean Reynolds Sackett, Jr comes from Beatrice, Nebraska where he grew up and attended high school. In 1952, he entered the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating with distinction in 1956. He also received a Master of Science Degree in Engineering from George Washington University. He completed a full career of 34.5 years in the U.S. Navy, retiring in 1991 as a Rear Admiral. His assignments included tours in destroyers and nuclear submarines in the Navy’s nuclear power program. He commissioned, as Commanding Officer, the Trepang (SSN-674) [14 August 1970 to 7 December 1973]. He also served as Commanding Officer of the Howard W. Gilmore (AS-16) [11 June 1976 to 15 May 1978], a nuclear capable repair ship.

Location of USS Trepang – FACT

After searching around a bit, I was able to verify that the USS Trepang, as indicated being between Iceland and Jan Mayen Island, was in fact, in the region at the time. As verified by Hullnumber, which chronicles the location of naval vessels:

Following local operations out of New London, Conn., Trepang proceeded to the Arctic early in 1971. From 22 February to 22 March, the nuclear attack submarine operated beneath the northern ice cap, conducting extensive tests to provide data for her weapons systems, as well as carrying out scientific experiments concerning the movement, composition, and geological history of the cap itself.

Shipmate John Klika – FACT

I can also confirm, there was a shipmate by the name of John Klika on the USS Trepang as well. According to the ship roster, also on Hullnumber, you will find:

Ship Logs / Roster

I was also able to track down the official roster and ship logs for the U.S. Trepang for this time frame.

Download: U.S.S. Trepang Roster and Crew List

Possible Explanations

NAVY Target Practice / Weapons Systems Test

When I first saw these, I noted there was something very Zeppelin-like about some of the photos, but, unlike the actual Zeppelin’s, it did not have a carrier for the occupants.

However, after some research, it is possible these were naval target balloons, and the USS Trepang was conducting a weapons test of some kind.  As indicated and referenced/sourced above, “From 22 February to 22 March [1971], the nuclear attack submarine operated beneath the northern ice cap, conducting extensive tests to provide data for her weapons systems, as well as carrying out scientific experiments concerning the movement, composition, and geological history of the cap itself.”

I searched the Library of Congress, and came up with a few examples of Balloon Carriers. They do have a resemblance. Here are the examples (it should be noted that the balloons in these photographs were photographed between 1910-1915… a considerable time difference between this case and these photographs. Could the same technology have been used more than 50 years later?):

It is possible that the object(s) in the photos above, are a type of weapons system test target, and the photographs are of the results of their shoot down.

Declassified Documents

Shortly after this story broke, I filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the military for documents on the Trepang, it’s location during the time of this event, and crew manifests.

The first documents received were from the U.S. NAVY, and included the Trepang’s Command History from January 1971 – January 1972.

DOWNLOAD:  USS Trepang Command History: January 1971 – January 1972 [6 Pages, 0.5MB]

Although I still have open FOIA requests to other agencies, you can see by this document that the USS Trepang was involved in weapons tests, and seems to coincide with the theory these could be some type of Naval targets used for practice.

Periscope

While looking at the high resolution version of the photos, you can see the definitely indicators of the Periscope. For example, this photograph (unrelated to this case, but used as an example):

You can clearly see in the “UFO Photos” above, the ‘cross hairs’ of the periscope, along with the indicator lines. Here is an example above, and they are seen in nearly every photograph. Although this does not prove it was a weapons test, and the object was a target balloon, it could support both sides of this story (ie: taken from a submarine, and taken while the submarine was submerged.)

Signs of Photoshopping?

On June 26, 2017, UFO Investigator Gilles Fernandez posted a discovery made by Wim Van Utrecht, which showed that one of the Trepang photographs may have been photoshopped.

Mr. Fernandez posted the following photograph on Facebook:

This image shows a striking similarity between two parts of the photo, indicating that someone manipulated the photo. Scott Brando, Twitter user @UFOOFINTEREST, submitted the following video (please note: the spelling error is due to a translation error – and although is noted – the video is included here for reference, unedited, as it was submitted to The Black Vault.)

There is a possible explanation for the photoshopping evidence, that may be explainable.

First, let me say that The Black Vault long has concluded that these photographs did not depict UFOs. I believe (and still) they the photographs probably are real (or most of them are) and probably depict Naval Weapon tests and targets.  But we have to keep in mind that these photographs were originally put onto the internet, given to research Alex Mistretta, after being scanned from the magazine.

It is no secret that many magazine (especially those that are not “news” periodicals), will enhance photographs for print. This enhances their appeal and their visual look, but doesn’t necessarily change the entire context of the photo.  As a UFO Investigator, this is a shame, but to a magazine?  That’s just par for the course.

About the USS Trepang

According to Wikipedia:

USS Trepang (SSN-674), a Sturgeon-class attack submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the trepang, Holothuroidea, a marine animal having a long, tough, muscular body, sometimes called a ‘sea slug’ or a ‘sea cucumber’, found on coral reefs.

The contract to build Trepang was awarded to the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation in Groton, Connecticut, on 15 July 1966 and her keel was laid down there on 28 October 1967. She was launched on 27 September 1969, sponsored by Mrs. Melvin R. Laird, the wife of United States Secretary of Defense Melvin R. Laird, and commissioned on 14 August 1970 with Commander Dean R. Sackett, Jr., in command.

Trepang was decommissioned on 1 June 1999 at Bremerton, Washington, and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register the same day. Her scrapping via the Nuclear-Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton was completed on 7 April 2000. Components of ‘Trepang’, including mess tables, crew bunks, and engineering, were used in the “Fast Attacks and Boomers: Submarines in the Cold War” exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of American History from 2000-2003. 

The post Arctic UFO Photographs, USS Trepang, SSN 674, March 1971 first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

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Witness Testimony

SAS soldiers waiting to ambush IRA gunmen were stunned when aliens walked in front of their gun-sights, it was claimed yesterday.

The undercover troops – hiding near an arms cache on a hillside in South Armagh – say they saw up to four small grey figures.

The “aliens” and soldiers stared at each other for a minute. Then the “spacemen” disappeared – and seconds later the eight SAS troops saw a flash in the sky.

They were so disturbed by what they had seen that they took the rare decision to abandon the stake-out.

Their commander was furious – and their comrades in the elite Special Air Service Regiment laughed or accused them of being high on drugs.

But the eight stuck to their story and it was accepted. Now, four years later, it has been revealed to a Ulster UFO study group by a former Army intelligence officer.

Belfast-based expert Hugh O’Brien said: “We are trying to interview the soldiers even though some may be too embarrassed to come forward.

“We have learned that on that morning they were convinced they saw three, perhaps four, small grey figures in human form.

“At no stage did the soldiers feel threatened. They simply could not believe what they were seeing.

“The alien forms made no move towards them but judging from what the soldiers told their regimental priest and commanding officer, the aliens knew the soldiers were there. It was like a stand-off. Within a few minutes, probably much less, the aliens disappeared.

“All the men can recall is that in a very quick space of time they saw a brief flash of light in the sky.”

Mr O’Brien added: “These men were fit, highly-trained observers and to put it down to some flight of imagination would be absurd.”

The weapons cache was recovered by other soldiers.

Submitted to UFO Casebook by Colonel Foster, Great Britain.

The post SAS in Alien Riddle: Troops saw “four little grey men” Walk into Ambush – then Vanish first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

The post SAS in Alien Riddle: Troops saw “four little grey men” Walk into Ambush – then Vanish appeared first on The Black Vault Case Files.

However, in the process of looking into the project name that was given to me, I received an intriguing response from the United States Air Force that will forever be a mystery (unless ‘disclosure’ in 2025 proves me wrong) – but I feel it’s worth a mention.

Could this be a mistake by the Air Force? Possibly!

And admittedly, most likely.

But now, almost two decades later, I have learned the military and the government don’t make many assumptions on FOIA requests, so a “mistaken assumption” on my inquiry would make this one of the only cases they actually did that with me.  And to date, I have filed well more than 5,000 FOIA requests.

So take that for what it’s worth – and here you go.

Background

Originally published in 1997:

Running an internet web site, I get many pranksters, jokers, and liars that write to me and tell me they are from the government, or they are going to kill me, or other ridiculous claims, but there have been a few where it made me think, “Maybe this one is for real.”

I got a letter from an anonymous source, and by their request, I will call him “Benjamin.” Now, “Benjamin” wrote me in regards to The Black Vault, and a posted photograph of an alleged aircraft called “Snowbird.”  

For those who are not familiar with this photograph, it is a supposed alien aircraft, and the picture is the craft mounted on top of a pylon, possibly at a Lockheed plant or even Area 51.

Now, “Benjamin” told me that this was an X-151 aircraft from Project Torridor. “Benjamin” went on to say that you would never get a picture of an alien aircraft in the daylight.

“Benjamin” worked for the National Reconnaissance Office. He relayed to me that all “Black Projects” are compartmentalized, that way no agency can really know what the other is doing.

He went on to tell me a bit about a base in New Mexico, in a mountain called “Baldy.” The base is 200 feet deep, and 30 acres square.

There are 1,500 from another world working there. They come from a dead planet in the Cygnus Ra Star System. “Benjamin” worked there, and gave me the exact coordinates: 21hours 13minutes 52seconds D33 degrees 10′.

The aliens, in exchange for us giving them a place to live, they will help us advance to join some kind of an alliance of planets. They hope that we will be ready by the year 2025.

This is where Project Tobacco comes in. Project Tobacco is a project to get the public ready for this event. It is done through movies, media, books, television, and magazines.

Project Tobacco was given it’s name because if anybody else would find out about it, it would burn up like Tobacco. So, on December 09, 1997, I wrote a Freedom of Information Act request to the United States Air Force, and also to Wright Patterson Air Force Base, which “Benjamin” told me was part of the project.

I received two letters back, both dated December 29, 1997. The first was just an acknowledgment receipt. The second, was a letter starting off saying “This office is not a repository for UFO information.”

It went on to give me information on UFOs and Project Blue Book, and they attached a Fact Sheet on UFOs, a page I have been given many times.

Confused, I checked back to my letter, wherein I did not mention UFOs at all. No mention of aliens or flying saucers or anything that would spark a response like that, NOTHING.

Was this a goof-up? I went back to “Benjamin” who was very surprised I got this response. Wright Patterson is still to respond, but what will I get, if anything, from them? Now I am getting very interested, possibly “Benjamin” is telling the truth. Or maybe the Air Force did goof-up, but maybe they just figured I was talking about UFOs? Highly unlikely, because not all my requests to them deal with UFOs.

Now, I am going to do an excerpt out of one of “Benjamin”‘s letters, because I figure if I paraphrase it, I will just get the information mixed up. So here it is:

“I worked on the Gravity Catapult. Einstein General Theory has a number of similarities to the Maxwell theory of electromagnetism. In electromagnetism, the basic source of all the forces is the charge in the electron. The charge generates an electric field. If you move the charge to form an electric current, the current generates a magnetic field. If you increase or decrease a magnetic field, that hanging magnetic field in turn generates an electric field. The same thing happens in gravity. The basic source of all the forces is the mass of whatever particles you are using. The mass generates a gravity field. If you move the particles to form a mass current, the current generates a new field that is the gravitational equivalent of the magnetic field. (an anti-gravity engine). We have it, have had it for several years now and I worked on it. Why do you think NASA is slowly trying to down-size. They keep calling for smaller cheaper engines and so forth. They know that the present form of space-flight as well as transportation here on Earth is about to change. They don’t want to waste the money…but they have to or everyone will wonder why. The use millions of dollars of tax-payer money on useless stuff! This engine uses no fuel, has no sound and can never break. Since it uses gravitational fields for motion…as long as you have gravity, the engine will work.”

The above letter came from the Department of the Air Force Headquarters in the Pentagon. I had also sent the FOIA request to Wright Patterson Air Force Base, as “Benjamin” told me they were taking part in the project. After a few ‘extension letters’ requesting more time to process my request, I received the following:

Is this information real? Did the United States Air Force Headquarters make a huge mistake by referencing UFOs on a Project Tobacco FOIA request?

Comment below – and share your thoughts!

The post Project Tobacco – Anonymous Tip Turns Into Possible Confirmation of “UFO Disclosure” Project first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

The post Project Tobacco – Anonymous Tip Turns Into Possible Confirmation of “UFO Disclosure” Project appeared first on The Black Vault Case Files.

Major General William C. Garland is commander of the 1st Strategic Aerospace Division at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

General Garland was born in 1916, in Barnesville, Ga., where he attended high school and junior college at Gordon Military College. During this period he served over four years with the Georgia National Guard. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., in May 1942, and immediately entered pilot training at the Greenville Aviation School, Ocala, Fla. He completed pilot training and received his pilot wings at Turner Field, Ga., in March 1943, and completed B-17 transition training at Sebring, Fla., in April 1943.

During World War II, General Garland served with the 401st Bombardment Group stationed in England and flew 32 combat missions in B-17 bomber aircraft. In June 1945 he returned to the United States and subsequently was assigned to Davis-Monthan Field, Ariz., as commanding officer of the Davis-Monthan West Camp.

In October 1945 General Garland went to Colorado Springs, Colo., and was assigned to Headquarters Second Air Force as chief of Operations and Training Division, and in 1946 became operations and training staff officer with the Fifteenth Air Force. In 1948 he was assigned as commander of the 32nd Bombardment Squadron, Smokey Hill Air Force Base, Kan. After graduation in June 1950 from the Air Command and Staff School, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., he was assigned to Headquarters Strategic Air Command, Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., as requirements officer and later served as chief, Programs Division, Directorate of Plans.

General Garland was transferred to Madrid, Spain, in April 1954, where he served in the Plans Section of the Joint U.S. Military Group and in November was named chief of staff of the group. In October 1956 he became chief of staff of the Sixteenth Air Force in Spain. He returned to the United States in May 1957, and was assigned to Lockbourne Air Force Base, Ohio, as deputy commander of the 91st Strategic Wing and later of the 376th Bombardment Wing.

In August 1958 he became commander of the 97th Bombardment Wing, Biggs Air Force Base, Texas, and from December 1958 to July 1961 he served as commander of the 98th Bombardment Wing, Lincoln Air Force Base, Neb.

General Garland entered the National War College, Washington, D.C., in 1961, and following graduation was assigned as chief of staff, Second Air Force, Barksdale Air Force Base, La. During the National War College assignment he obtained his master’s degree in international affairs from The George Washington University. From March 1964 to August 1965 he was commander of the 12th Strategic Aerospace Division at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz.

In August 1965 he became deputy director of information, and in June 1967 he assumed duties as director of information, Office of the Secretary of the Air Force. He became commander of the 1st Strategic Aerospace Division, Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., in August 1969.

He is a command pilot. His military decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross with oak leaf cluster, Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters, Air Force Commendation Medal with two oak leaf clusters and Army Commendation Medal.

Interview

The following is the UFO portion of Major General Garland’s oral history interview. Below, you will find the interview, as received under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), in it’s entirety.

A: Another thing and, once again, this is not the most important aspect. What was the status of the flying saucers when you were in SAF/IO? Did you ever find yourself standing up there and trying to say there are none?

G: Yes. I told them we had the little green men in a hangar at Wright-Patterson. (laughter)

A: You are the one who wrote that one? (laughter)

G: We were having about a thousand letters a month come into our community relations section on flying saucers, UFOs, so we decided we had to do something about it. This was not just SAF/OI. The Air Staff got involved in it. A guy named Randy Holzapple [Gen Joseph R. ], a lieutenant general, was involved in this sort of thing . We worked up a program to let the president’s Scientific Advisory Board get involved in it. We got about a million dollars from someplace and hired this fellow Dr. Condon, who at that time, I think, was at the University of Colorado . Before that he had been running the Bureau of Standards or something and a highly qualified and capable guy. We gave them the money. Our Systems Command people in the Pentagon drew up the contract with them. We didn’t handle it; we said, this is what we need to do. Here’s what we want. We want scientific, top technical people in the country to evaluate this problem. We want them to write a report in detail. We want them to give us a copy of the report, and at the same time we want them to give the press a copy of the report. We don’t want to know a damned thing about it until we see the final report, and we get it at the same time that the press gets it. You are going to have to monitor the contract just like you would monitor a contract if you buy an airplane. We don’t want anybody in the blue suit side giving anybody instructions on what to do. That is the ‘way it was handled. I don’t know’ if you have ever seen the report or not.

A: This is project Blue Book that used to be at Wright-Patterson. We used to have all that down at Maxwell.

G: It’s very interesting because in this study they went back to things like “Ezekiel saw the wheel ,” and they went back to your imagination. In other words , once you started shooting missiles and rockets, now you can imagine that you are going. Of the whole study though, it came out that a very, very high percentage, into the 90s, were explainable. You ended up with only 2 or 3 or 4 percent that were not explainable. In other words, we never questioned that an airline pilot saw something. We questioned what he saw, not what he thought he saw. Most of these things these people were able to reproduce. In a laboratory you could recreate the atmospheric condition, the lighting, and the shadows at that point in time and come up with an answer that the scientific community could accept.

Getting into the technical aspects of it , let’s just reverse the situation . If we are going to outer space, there are windows in which you go in, certain time period. You are going to go in these time periods, or you won’t have enough energy to get there. Then you can back that up and say, “If they are coming here, they are going to come in this time period. If they don’t come in that time period, then it is something else, and they couldn’t come. “It is like when you see an object going through here. You know you reach the speed of sound and you break the barrier. You can ‘t go at that speed of sound without breaking the sound barrier , whether you are round, square, oblong, or what. (laughter) 

That quieted down the thing for a while. Then we had Major Kehoe, an ex-Marine, and Carl Sagan from Cornell, who is a famous TV character now. Kehoe made a living at this. He had a vested interest in it, so he kept the thing going. Sagan had a vested interest in it because he was trying to get us to put up the radio type things that you could send signals out or you could receive signals from outer space. He couldn’t understand why we wouldn’t sponsor all of his programs on that. He is a brilliant man, he is a good scientist. He is involved in NASA programs, but when you have a vested interest you can say, “Well, there might be something to it,” and then the next thing you know, you’ve got a big story and got a lot of people interested. It was one heck of a problem to quiet down.

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/afhistory/Garland.pdf

The post Oral History Interview with Maj. Gen. William C. Garland Regarding UFOs first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

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This interview was posted on the MemriTVVideos YouTube channel. It is archived here for reference.

In a Russia Today TV interview, Admiral Vladimir Chernavin, the last Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Navy and later of the Russian Navy, talked about Soviet-American relations, saying that the Americans “love power” and “refuse to recognize anyone who is not willing to use it.”

In the interview, which aired on October 25, 2015, Chernavin, who was former deputy minister of defense, said that the archives of the Soviet military navy had hundreds of reports of UFO sightings and that he himself had seen a UFO, which “assumed various forms, but mostly, looked like a round hat.”

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Location of Sighting: Alto, New Mexico
Date of Sighting: June 10, 2015
Time of Sighting: 11:40 PM MDT

Description: The witness called the morning after his sighting. He was outside and heard a loud sound. He saw jets coming from the west. The jets were pursuing erratic flying lights. More lights appeared and the witness estimated the number at 15 to 30. More jets joined the pursuit. The activity continued for 30 to 40 minutes. The activity was eventually lost in the Northeastern sky. The witness called 911, but was not given any information about his experience. The witness also added that he was in Roswell earlier in the day and skies were mostly cloudy. He saw what he thought were military helicopters moving in and out of clouds as if they were looking for something. The witness is a pastor for a local church and a Marine Corps veteran. He has lived in the area for about five years and has never seen anything like this.

Summary Report Sent by Witness: What I saw last night has convinced me beyond any doubt that we are not alone and have much reason to be concerned: June 10th 11:40 PM, Alto, NM Military Confronts Massive UFO Flap.

Note: A check of maps show that Alto is not in a military operations area. However, the White Sands Military Operations area is around 20 miles to the West. The closest Air Force Base is Holloman which is about 30 miles to the Southwest. It would seem unlikely that the military would conduct maneuvers late at night outside of a military operations area.

Update – July 26, 2015: The radar data received from the FAA have been found to have been “redacted” in the sighting area.

Update – August 27, 2015: Kudos for the FAA. I contacted the FAA and they provided the missing data that I had thought they redacted.  The FAA is to commended for their prompt response.  There are many military operation areas (MOA’s) in this area where classified military activities are conducted so I was somewhat surprised that I received the data.

Update – Oct 10, 2015: The radar report has been completed.  Radar shows a concentrated area of returns to the Northeast of the witness location.  This is where the witness said that the UFO activity “moved to.”  The area also shows presence of several military aircraft that were later observed returning to Holloman AFB. Click here to read the radar report.

Update – Dec 5, 2015: We have received a response to our FOIA from Holloman AFB inquiring about aircraft that were in the air at the time of the above sighting. Click here to view the report documenting F16 activity in the UFO sighting area

Update – Dec 9, 2015: I had a second interview with the witness. The witness said that the jets returned the following night (June 11, 2015).  The log obtained from Holloman AFB confirms that jets were in the skies about the same time and for the same length of time as on June 10.  The witness stated that the jet and UFO activity continued nightly for two months and abruptly ended on August 10, 2015. This new information suggests that the Air Force may have been performing routine operations, but it is still mysterious on why they would do this outside of a MOA. A search of UFO databases for MUFON and the National UFO Reporting Center did not reveal any additional reports in the area. The witness stated in his second interview that other locals had seen UFO’s, but none have reported them.

The Radar Report

Special Note – July 30, 2015: The FAA was contacted in an attempt to fill in the “missing holes” in the radar coverage noted in the report below. Updates will be posted.

Update – August 27, 2015: The missing data has been received from the FAA. The FAA is to be commended for sending data in an area where classified military operations are conducted.

This is a special report. In the late evening of June 10, 2015 near midnight in Alto, NM a local minister saw military jets pursuing 30 to 40 erratic flying lights. The witness called 911 as the result of the sighting, but was given no information. Click here to read witness report. A look at the updated radar data shows considerable activity from military jets and several concentrated patterns of primary (possible unknown returns). The complete radar report follows.

New Mexico is rich with Military Operations Areas (MOA). The White Sands Missile Range MOA is about 20 miles to the west of Alto and another MOA is about 10 miles to the south. See gray areas in map below:

Some ground based military maneuvers are conducted in Otero County (at an unknown location). Alto is outside of Otero County & White Sands Missile Range (see map below):

There is a long range ARSR-4 radar sensor in Eagle Peak, Texas which is about 150 miles from Alto. This radar has a range of 250 nautical miles. Radar from this sensor and a short range (60 nautical miles) radar in Roswell were used to evaluate radar returns in this analysis. (See map below):

Military craft appear to the NE of witness location at 11:15 PM. (This is the start time of the radar data dump. The craft were likely in the area beforehand.) Military craft were seen approaching Holloman AFB at 11:53 PM. They likely landed not long after this. This location (to the northeast of Holloman AFB) was at the southern edge of the radar request area. (See radar map below for path of “likely” military aircraft.)

Only one military aircraft showed up as an aircraft with a transponder. (Transponder sends signal to the radar indicating position and altitude.) However, it is believed that additional aircraft were present that had their transponders turned off. It is common for the military to only have one aircraft in a “sortie” to have their transponders on. The primary returns map (radar “skin” paints) tracked other likely aircraft in the “sortie.”

The transponder indicated that the military aircraft was flying near 25,000 feet. The speeds were near 500 MPH. The transponder interrogation showed that the craft was rapidly descending as it approached Holloman AFB.

Radar showed a dense concentration of primary returns to the Northeast of the witness location. Many of these returns were likely military aircraft, but some of the returns could very well have been UFO’s. Targets were moving at very rapid speeds (near speeds of aircraft).  (See map below):

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The following was submitted to The Black Vault, and is used WITH PERMISSION. Special thanks to the witness, who wanted to remain anonymous, for their submission.

Witness Testimony

My Name is __________, but I would prefer my name is not released.

My work at the time was classified and I don’t want to get other people into trouble.
 
The Date was Thursday 03/08/2006 – The time would be about 13:30. (It’s taken me this long to get up the courage to make this report).
 
The Weather was very good that day and there was very little or no cloud.  We were looking up at an angle of 60 to 70⁰ . The sun was bright and high behind us.

I was working as a senior aircraft weapons engineer for BAE Systems at Warton aerodrome Lancashire, when; –  I saw what can only be described as a UFO.  Unidentified flying object: – Man-made or Alien?? Who knows????

The best description I can give is to say imagine a 40 gallon steel drum hanging noiselessly in the air and spinning slowly about its vertical axis.
 
Please see the picture to the right to give you some idea as to what I saw. 

This picture shows a very similar object, but I /we were closer, and the object looked about twice the size of this one. This YouTube clip shows the same thing that I saw:

See Below for more detail. I saw this from about 150m away, (Not the 500 as stated in my drawing); it was hanging silently above the end of the runway at a height of about 60 or 80m. It was slowly spinning clockwise if seen from below, at maybe 15 or 20rpm. It was totally silent. It was the colour of unpainted aluminium. Its size is hard to say, but I would put it as a similar size as a small aircraft say 5m across X 10 or 11m tall.

The circumstances of my sighting were even stranger than the sighting it’s-self.   It started when a colleague and I were returning from the other side of the airfield. We were waiting for a staff bus that they use. We were idly talking about a sci-fi TV programme that was coming on, when my friend said “What would you do if you saw a UFO”. And I said “What like that one”, and I pointed up at it.   That’s when it gets really funny. You would think that we would be freaked out over it, but; we just calmly stood and watch it then we got on the bus and carried on with our work. (I can remember still seeing it as we drove past /under it in the bus, but I can’t remember it leaving.)

The only other person on the bus was the driver, and he either didn’t see it or it never registered with him. (He never said anything!)   It was two days later that the sci-fi programme came on TV; and it must have jogged my mind. I realised what had happened and that we hadn’t spoken about it. It was as if it never happened.   Looking back on it, I /we must have had some missing time, we should have been back into the office by 14:00 at the latest, but all I can remember is having a quick coffee and it was time to leave i.e. 17:00. After the incident I became ill. I suffered from a bleeding nose, something I had never had before. Sleepless nights, and a rash around my groin. I also had a protracted episode of going giddy and forgetting things. This was so bad I ended up having to give up my job.  

I still don’t know what happened, but I know that my friend was also very ill, and he also lost his job though illness. From my point; I’ve developed a large interest in the paranormal. Remembering that I was an Aeronautical engineer this in its self is strange.  The other very strange thing is that we didn’t find it necessary to talk about the experience. We just calmly went back to work and never said anything to each other about it. When we did talk about it (Two days later). We found we had the same memories. We both remember waiting for the bus.

We remember the object and the bus ride back to work, but neither of us could, and still can’t remember working the next day or the afternoon directly after the incident.   It’s all a blank, right up until the TV programme. It was the same for my friend up until I spoke to him at work he had no recollection of the incident. We had gone about our days without any trouble and without any idea that anything had happened.  

I believe I’m a well-rounded individual and after 10 years in the RAF and 20 working in industry working as an engineer I don’t go in for flights of fancy. That being the case I would love to know what this was, and what happened that day. If it was man made; ‘I would love to speak to the people that made it’. I can’t begin to imagine what the power source was, or how it was made?  

This is the best and the fullest description that I can give. I hope it makes more sense to other people than it does to me.

————————-  

P.S   When I was about 7 years old I have a very faded memory of seeing a UFO before, “but I was a child”, so it may be a false memory. I would not like to make a record of it as I can’t guarantee that it was real.   We lived in a very small village in Worcestershire UK. It was back in the autumn of 1962ish. I remember it being cold and misty. I was sitting on the church yard wall overlooking a field. I have a vague memory of feeling giddy and slightly queasy.   Looking across the field I could see what looked like a silvery /white round craft standing on three or four legs.

It was a long way away, and difficult to make out, but I remember seeing four small figures dressed in grey coveralls and what looked like grey baseball hats.   They were walking around the craft looking at the grass and poking at it with what looked like thin sticks. One of them then pushed what looked like a thin ‘T’ shaped rod into the ground (the sort geologists use to take core samples with).

I then have the feeling that they noticed me, as the one with the ‘T’ shaped rod looked over towards me and then the whole scene shimmered and vanished. I can’t remember my feelings or anything else. Also I had no memory of this until after my sighting at Warton.   I can also remember waking up as a child with marks on my arm and thighs that I can’t account for.     Anyway thanks for taking the time to listen /read this. Hope it might help someone else.  

Yours with thanks,

_________________

I’d like to speak to other researchers if you think it would useful. It would be good to get a new perspective on my sighting and the subject as a whole.

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Description: The witness called and reported his sighting nearly 40 years after it occurred. He felt compelled to report it.

A clip of my interview with the witness is posted above. The witness was driving from Fort Hood (Killen, TX) to Temple, TX.

He saw a disk shaped craft with lights all around it (on the perimeter of the disk). The witness immediately knew that the craft “did not belong to Uncle Sam.”

The object abruptly vanished after 30 seconds. The witness was alone at the time of the sighting.

Additional Information

History of Ft. Hood, Texas

The post Army Veteran Has Close Encounter With Flying Disk first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

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I subsequently called him the next day and verified details of his sighting. A clip of my interview with the witness can be heard above.

The witness heard the loud sound of helicopters. He went outside and saw a Chinook helicopter.

The helicopter was followed by a large flying disk with a dome on top and the disk was followed by another Chinook helicopter. The saucer flew right over his house. The flying disk was dark and about 30 feet in diameter. All of the craft were flying west. The sighting lasted about 10 minutes.

Note: The nearest military bases to the sighting were Whiteman AFB in Knob Noster, MO; Forbes Field in Topeka, KS and the Army base in Fort Riley, KS. It is not known if the sighting was related to any of these bases?

(Photograph of Chinook is used for illustration only, and is not part of this case)

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Last night, I and my friends were outside of our housing projects and we saw in increments of 2 vehicles that had one plane that was escorting the other without lights…

They made no sound until they were overhead; they were no more than 800 ft. above us slightly more but so close we could get a GREAT VISUAL of them.

I went inside to let friends on Facebook know of the calamity that was occurring until my cousin-in-law told me he hears something and go check outside.

Once I went back outside the other guys who witnessed this phenomenon were filming and we saw 5 more; none of them had lights except maybe 1 or 2, but the last one was flying by itself shaped like a star with no light only 6 green orbs underneath and they were all trying to cloak in this man-made fog.

The reason I said man-made because there was no fog outside before we spotted these crafts.

After the last one we saw with the green orbs, the fog went with it and we could no longer see the stars or the moon.

As crazy as this may seem, this isn’t a hoax; this is my first time on this site, but I feel as if the world needs to know what is going on.

Special Thanks: UFO Casebook

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Description: I started to see UFOs again in Vancouver, Washington. I saw them a lot. It seemed to start about 1990 or around there. I would see them over my apartment a lot and jets would fly after they were out of sight. I even called the radio station there to see if anyone else saw them which was a mistake because then a lady showed up that next day that I did not know. I just did not feel right and she wanted to come in to try and sell me jewelry. She just acted funny so I said no. I would see them over Vancouver Lake a lot. I just kept it to myself until now. I lived in Vancouver for about 9 years and saw them for about 7 years of that time. I seemed to just get use to it like everyday life.

Note: This sighting occurred several years ago and the exact date of occurrence is unknown so little investigation can be conducted. (Like looking for sightings in other UFO databases or newspaper articles.) However, the sighting is interesting given that that the witness saw jets chasing unknown objects.

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A family claim their barbecue was interrupted by four UFOs ‘zooming across the sky’ – quickly followed by a Ministry of Defence helicopter.

Andrea Finney, from Bolton, Lancashire, was enjoying a pleasant outdoor family meal with her husband Nigel and their son when the mysterious event left them spooked.

The 48-year-old, who works in property management, told Mirror Online: “There were four of them, and they zoomed across the sky.

“You just had to be there to see it, it was the strangest thing I have ever seen in my life.

“They zoomed off after we spotted them, and the craziest thing was that they were then followed by a Ministry of Defence helicopter.

“I was just gobsmacked.”

Upon seeing the UFOs, she alerted her husband Nigel to get a camera.

The 50-year-old delivery driver said: “I took photos as quick as I could.

“We just could not explain it. They were not hot air baloons. They were not Chinese laterns. They were just something else.

“Our camera does not have a good zoom on it or anything – it is just a normal camera, so we took what we could but afterwards we just could not explain it.

“It’s a mystery.”

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Is THIS America’s newest top-secret spy plane?
Clearest picture yet of mystery aircraft spotted flying over Kansas just weeks after being seen in Texas

By JONATHAN O’CALLAGHAN and MARK PRIGG and ASHLEY COLLMAN, The Daily Mail

A new photo of a mysterious flying object over Kansas has been revealed.

It appears to be the same aircraft as one that was snapped soaring over Texas last month.
The exact identify of the aircraft remains a mystery, but rumours abound that it could be a secret jet.

‘The photo is grainy because it was taken with a hand-held maxed-out 400mm telephoto lens through a cloud layer and then it was severely cropped to bring it up even close,’ says Jeff Templin, who took the photo on 16 April.

‘There is no way to know the altitude and no way to judge its size as there is no point of reference.

‘My sense of it with the naked eye was that it was quite high, at least the altitude passenger jets cruise over but if it were smaller like a “drone” it could conceivably have been lower and smaller.’

The Aviationist speculates that the plane could be a RQ-180 stealth drone or a prototype of America’s next generation long range strike bomber (LSRB).

They, too, are unsure if it is the same plane as the one spotted previously
A retired Marine with nearly two decades of aviation experience stepped forward with a compelling theory about the mysterious plane that was spotted flying over Texas last month.

On March 10, photographers Steve Douglass and Dean Muskett took pictures of three puzzling aircraft flying over Amarillo, and posted them online in hopes of identifying the planes.

Retired-Marine James Vineyard submitted one of the more interesting explanations, telling the Houston Chronicle he believed they were SR-72 Blackbirds – a spy plane that can cross the U.S. in less than an hour, unmanned.

Vineyard spent 17 years as a Marine and also worked with a jet squadron in Arizona.

He says the Pentagon may have dispatched the planes to the Indian Ocean to aide in the search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight 370.

But Douglass, who saw the planes himself, doesn’t agree.

‘The SR-72 is still in development,’ he said Tuesday. ‘Plus it’s a high-speed, high-Mach plane. These were going airliner speed. They were not in a hurry to get anywhere.
‘
The SR-72 is currently being developed by Lockheed Martin in California, and according to the company’s website they say the plane could be operational as early as 2030.

It is the predecessor of the SR-71 which broke speed records when it flew from New York to Lonton in less than two hours in 1976.

Lockheed Martin’s Hypersonics program manager Brad Leland wrote that the plane is designed to ‘strike at nearly any location across a continent in less than an hour.’

‘Speed is the next aviation advancement to counter emerging threats in the next several decades. The technology would be a game-changer in theater, similar to how stealth is changing the battlespace today,’ Leland said.

Another reader, who wished not to be identified, told the Chronicle with confidence that ‘It’s a B-2 stealth bomber flying out of Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri.’

That’s what the photographers thought when they first saw the group of aircraft, but they say they checked with the base and no B-2s were flying anywhere in the U.S. that day.

Instead, Douglass believes that the planes are a no type of spy plane – a stealth transport plane that could sneak troops into a another country unseen.

Source and special thanks: DailyMail

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This intriguing photo, taken in 1919, was first published in 1975 by Sir Victor Goddard, a retired R.A.F. officer. The photo is a group portrait of Goddard’s squadron, which had served in World War I at the HMS Daedalus training facility.

An extra ghostly face appears in the photo. In back of the airman positioned on the top row, fourth from the left, can clearly be seen the face of another man. It is said to be the face of Freddy Jackson, an air mechanic who had been accidentally killed by an airplane propeller two days earlier. His funeral had taken place on the day this photograph was snapped.

Members of the squadron easily recognized the face as Jackson’s. It has been suggested that Jackson, unaware of his death, decided to show up for the group photo.

Interesting side note: In 1935, Sir Victor Goddard, now a Wing Commander, had another brush with the unexplained. While on a flight from Edinburgh, Scotland to his home base in Andover, England, he encountered a strange storm that seemed to transport him through time into the future.

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