The Big Secret
December 19, 2010
by J.P.Petit, phd
Let's imagine a thriller. The story takes place in a serious setting. The question that emerges repeatedly, is "are the armed forces of major developed countries and their governments aware of events involving UFOs, hiding the facts from the population? Wouldn't such a question reveal the ambient conspiracy theories? ".
The UFO phenomenon is the talk of the town for more than half a century. For decades, we have repeatedly asked the question, to which everyone replied "No!". How could such things be be hidden from the public eye for so long? How could anyone imagine for one second that such secrecy could persist over successive governments? What all ufologist were really doing is to keep drawing attention to themselves in order to sell their stupid books
Pushing this idea further, a movie writer might imagines a scenario where not only high-grade military have witnessed the phenomenon, but even crazier, as these UFOs approaches the missile silos, the actually de-program these devices removing the ability to launch them. How? Nobody knows. This can only be done by accessing systems highly protected, isolated, independent, buried under twenty feet of rock, next to the checkpoint guarded by two armed officers.
It is easy to imagine the scenario. In underground bunkers, these officers, responsible for controlling these dangerous missiles, receives terrified calls, from simple guards standing at ground level, at only twenty meters above them. The latter are describing the arrival of bright objects, disk-shaped, from which emanates a pulsating light.
On their monitors, these same officers notice some warning lights turning on, meaning that the memories of computers controlling missiles' programming ranges were suddenly erased, inexplicably, up to 10 missiles at a time.
In this movie worth of Spielberg, it shows other scenes. Here is a young officer, accompanied by two deputies, who performs geodetic measurements on missile sites at night, to determine by using the stars, the position of the missile to the nearest meter, in order to program their targeting more accurately. He performs his routine work, on a beautiful starry night.
Suddenly a bright object draws his attention. It then moves in a flash directly above the group, a hundred meters above the men, at most. Terrified, the three rush into their truck and fled.
- Shit ! said the lieutenant who was driving. They removed all the signs because the army has recently expanded roads, augmenting with a ballast in order to allow the heavy trucks bringing the missiles through.
And what was bound to happened, did happen. While crossing at full speed a dip which was no longer signalled, the Lieutenant steers in the wrong direction and flips the vehicle over. The three extract themselves somehow, but none are hurt. They check their surroundings. The UFO stopped following them. They then reach, on foot, a farm located two hours away from them.
- It is just my luck, grumbles the young lieutenant. This truck is brand new, there wasn't even twenty miles on it. Are they going to hold this cost on my paycheck?
The scenes are accelerating. In guard posts, phone calls describes situations in which security officials did not initially want to report nor did they want to register these facts on their logs. To the desperate calls, mocking voice answers: "We will intervene when this thing will have eaten the commando who we sent him!"
Another scene: a specialist in communications enters an operation room and discovers by looking at a wall panel showing the status of the launch site that a large number of missiles in the upper and right have been disabled.
In a guardhouse, a lieutenant, hearing the frantic calls of the guards who on the surface, sees UFOs hover from one silo to the next. After unsuccessfully seeking the intervention of the security service, and a single vehicle carrying a few soldiers shows up, he went to the center in charge of the security of the site and ask to a person in charge who seems to prostrate "fetal position":
- But then, finally, your guys, the ones that were on duty at the time of the events, have never moved out of their post. They stayed there with their car, telling me jive talk for an hour and a half, about having engine problems, or I do not know what, about not being able to drive faster than ten miles per hour. Then they told me they ran out of gas ....
- I can tell you one thing, sir. My guys will never accept, with or without order, hitting the road with this luminous thingflying above them.
We now switch continent. The scene takes place in England. It's Christmas Eve. A captain is celebrating Christmas Eve with family. Suddenly a messenger knocks at his door.
- Chief, it came back.
- What came back?
- Yesterday's UFO.
Muttering, the captain leaves his guests. They came to get him, as deputy base commander, because the latter, busy celebrating Christmas Eve with fat cats, sent the messenger packing.
- What is this bullshit UFO? These lights, it can be anything. But it's going to fuck up my Christmas party!
Here is our captain, in that cold night of a English Christmas, which must get ready, take his radio and tape recorder that he always carry with him when patrolling. The men lead him "where the object was seen," and he discovers deep mark in the trees and broken branches. He reports everything on his small tape recorder.
At this stage, everything seems to be explainable, he thinks, and fit into a certain framework of rationality. They notice the pulsating lights through the foliage of trees, something that "looks like an eye with a darker part in the center. Suddenly an object races at them and stabilizes just their feet. From it emanates a ray of light that projects a circular light spot of at their feet, thirty centimeters in diameter.
- What is this stuff? says the captain. A weapon? A mean of communication? A probe?
Suddenly, the object disappears as quickly as it had appeared, but another is now seen by one of the men, further, that progresses marauding over the military site located in the British zone. Its light beam sweeps the ground.
- Commander, it is just above the bunker where nuclear weapons are stored!
Debriefing. Our captain reports to the authorities of the Air Force of the Third U.S. Army.
- In fact, this craft who was inspecting the storage area of nuclear warheads, it was outside the fence of our own base, isn't it?
- Absolutely, sir.
- It was over British territory. This case does not concern us. It concerns the British. Write a report and send it to the liaison officer, and let these people cope with this case.
We switch the scene back to America. The reactions are very diverse regarding these events. Sometimes the messages are received with surprising placidity:
- Yes, we had something like this on another site.
- But ... when?
- It must have been a week ago. This happened several times.
Some choose to stay silent.
- Say, if I understand you, you also had a similar story?
- Well, yeah.
- And you will make a report?
- What! never in my life!
- Well, we are going to report it.
- Well, then know that if in your report, you mention us, we'll pretends that we have never been involved in this story!
Another scene with the same officer, who eventually testified about his experiences. In a room, he is facing another officer who does not wear badges indicating their unit affiliation, and said:
- About these matters in which you say have been involved, know that it never happened. It's top secret.
- It's top secret, or it never happened? replies the other.
The officer made a gesture of denial, which simply means "you do not talk to anyone."
It's like being in a Spielberg movie. But it is in fact the reality, as testified in September 27, 2010 seven officers from the U.S. Air Force, now retired. They made these statements to the press with written text, signed with their hands and with attached documents involving the Air Force which they have obtained by using the Freedom of Information Act, declassification. And Capt. Robert Salas, who is sort of the spokesman of this group, concludes:
Captain Robert Salas
- What you have heard here today is evidence of a phenomenon. It sounds fantastic and it is fantastic. We presented this evidence in the public interest of open government. Our signatures on affidavits in the press kit that you have attest to the truth of our statements. Our evidence is now public domain. The real question is what is the public going to do with it, this testimony? It has been a general practice of the media to scoff at these kinds of stories, make light of such testimony. We can only ask that you take the time to give some serious consideration, not only to our statements, but to the statements of other witnesses out there who have similar incidents. There is also documentary evidence that helps support what we have said. We hope you will take the time to at least take a look at those, research this a little bit. And if you do, I think you'll come to the same conclusions that we have. That is, that the UFO phenomenon is real, not imaginary.
There is current excessive secrecy in our government surrounding this phenomenon. Unknown aerial objects have in fact been observed over many of our nuclear weapons bases and other nuclear facilities. And in some cases, the appearance of these objects coincided with compromising the operational readiness of our nuclear weapons. Although each of us might have different opinions about the meaning and intent of these incidents, I think we can all agree that the tampering with nuclear weapons is a national security concern. This is Air Force official policy on UFOs. This is dated 2005, but I believe it is current policy. I'll just read one part of it. It says, ‘No UFO reported, investigated and evaluated by the Air Force was ever an indication of threat to our national security.’
That is clearly misleading. It is false, based on our testimonies. This statement, the decision to discontinue UFO investigations was based on an evaluation and report prepared by the University of Colorado in 1969. I believe this was the infamous Condon Committee Study. There is substantial evidence to show that study was superficial and biased. In particular, the Echo and Oscar incidents I spoke about were never investigated by the Condon Committee, even through their principal investigator was well aware of these incidents.
Obviously, the testimony given here today conflicts directly with that Air Force policy statement. We ask that our government answer to the public about the obvious discrepancy between our testimony and that of the current statement. Indeed, we demand an answer. Based on the foundation of our democracy that says... I want to paraphrase Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President Roosevelt: ‘The people should be strong enough and well enough informed to maintain the sovereign control over its government.’
Finally, I want to say, I think I speak for every one of us here, I have the utmost respect for all the men and women in the U.S. Air Force. I graduated from the Air Force Academy. I thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the Air Force, and I was honored to serve my country in that way. Our disagreement and challenge to the Air Force has nothing to do with the people of the Air Force. It has to do with official Air Force policy. And I think they are deliberately withholding the facts. Not just what you've heard here, but, you know, continuously since 1969. And by doing so, they are not allowing the people of this country to engage in the decisions regarding events that are clearly national security issues and of concern to all of us. We're simply asking for the truth.
National Press Club in Washington, September 27
Here are three links. The first allows you to listen to the fifty-five minute press conference.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73ZiDEtVms8
The second leads to a pdf where these statements are transcribed into text form.
The transcript of the press conference
The following link is the end of the press conference. We hear the speakers, including Hastings, answer questions from journalists.
There is indeed an eighth person, present at the press conference, this last one being ignored by the mainstream U.S. media. It's investigator Robert Hastings. He is the one delivering a short keynote speech, being much more categorical in its conclusions. For him, the UFO phenomenon is primarily a dramatic cry of alarm formulated without success for more than half a century. Listen to him:
Robert Hastings, UFO researcher, organizer of the press conference
- Declassified U.S. government documents and witness testimony from former or retired U.S. military personnel confirm beyond any doubt the reality of ongoing UFO incursions at nuclear weapons sites. When I say UFO, the witnesses have described these craft as disc-shaped, or cylindrical shape, or spherical. These objects are capable of both hovering and high-velocity flight, usually completely silently. Over the past 37 years, I have personally located and interviewed more than 120 of these former or retired military personnel, all of whom report UFO incidents at one or more of the following locations: nuclear missile sites, nuclear weapons storage areas, and nuclear weapons test sites in Nevada and the Pacific during the era of atomic atmospheric testing. I believe, these gentlemen believe, that this planet is being visited by beings from another world who, for whatever reason, have taken an interest in the nuclear arms race which began at the end of World War II. Regarding the missile shutdown incidents: my opinion, their opinion, is that whoever are aboard these craft are sending a signal to both Washington and Moscow, among others, that we are playing with fire, that the possession and threatened use of nuclear weapons potentially threatens the human race and the integrity of the planetary environment.
After taking cognizance of these stories, you might say "I do not think it could go that far, that such important events could have been hidden from people. One thing seems to emerge from this speech: for an officer who agree to testify, a hundred others must remain silent. It is more than likely that such cases occurred in all developed countries, including primarily Russia.
When the people of the Condon report were sought, all were familiar with these facts. But at no time these cases were analyzed as a message intended to earth population. The reactions can be summarized with the following thoughts:
- Are those Russian aircrafts? No. Do these objects have shown an aggressive attitude, there were dead men? No. Was there destruction of property? No. Are people aware? No. So where is the problem? Maintain absolute secrecy about all these stories, and continue more than ever to expand our arsenal of "defense" without changing anything. Incidentally, assign a reliable man, a renowned scientist (Professor Condon, who participated in the Manhattan Project), the task of reassuring the public, by publishing a report from a survey of a large university in the country (University of Colorado) . Something that makes serious.That the findings reflect two points:
- This does not represent a threat to the country's citizens
- This does not deserve the scientific community to lend any interest.
In parallel, find me a quiet place where scientists hand-picked, which we ensure won't talk, can reflect quietly on the technology used by those damn crafts, and learn how they manage to erase remotely data targeting our devices.
As my friend Christel Seval (author of "Contact and Impact", published by JMG, that I highly recommend) recently told me the phone:
- It has already been a while since we had heard about these events, which revolve around two of the three launching sites Minuteman Missiles U.S.: Malmstrom base in Montana, and one in Warren, Wyoming (the third being the base of Minot) . Here, Hastings, and that is to his credit, has managed have these seven officers of the Air Force testify together, in the most formal possible manner.
Robert Hastings was sixteen in 1967. At the time he was in high school. Since his father works at the Malmstrom base, three nights a week, as a guard at one of the watchtowers of the base. One night he observes five UFOs, flying over missile sites. His father then engages in an investigation and discovers that indeed the radar base, one of the most powerful of the time, is on alert for some time, incursions of UFOs have been reported near the missile silos.
At the same time he is studying andstarts a business, Hastings decided, at age 22, to devote himself to the study of the UFO phenomenon. Very soon he discovers that, with regard to UFO incursions near the missile silos, the subject is so sensitive that he receives in its attempts to use the Freedom of Information Act flat refusal from the military authorities. He then seeks to collect the testimonies of soldiers who, having attended these bases are now retired. The emergence of these cases can be considered quite related to its investigations and efforts for over thirty years.
An interview with Hastings
Here, finally, some pictures of the speakers:
Captain Robert Salas. Former USAF nuclear missile launch officer :
In 1967, on March the 24 th he is serving in the missile base "Oscar Flight" in the underground firing station, 20 meters deep. He and his partner receive a message panicked from the guards stationed on the surface. They say that an object about ten meters in diameter, glowing red in color, hovers above the silo. Meanwhile, Salas seen "NO-GO" messages on the shooting monitors, showing that firing missiles programs were deactivated. Other indicators show that the same phenomenon occurred in other launching positions. Then the guards say that the object disappeared at high speed, in complete silence.
Salas reports to his supervisor, Fred Meiwald who, white as a sheet, said that similar phenomena occurred in many other points of the launch site. A blackout is decided and Salas is asked to sign a document where he undertakes not to reveal anything to anyone about this case. He will speak about the case until 27 years later, in 1994.
Dwyne Arneson. USAF Lt.Col. Ret., communications center officer-in-charge
Dwyne Arneson is an officer of crypto division. He has access communication of high level of secrecy, and confirms that in 1967 he was able to follow the encrypted communications saying that a UFO had disabled several missile silos in Montana. After leaving the Air Force, he became the partner of Robert Kaminski, working at Boeing, who was asked by the army to evaluate the situation on these missiles deactivation, which all agree, could never have been disabled on their own.
He testifies the fact that, inexplicably, in the midst of this work, the Air Force has suddenly given orders to stop any investigation regarding these incidents and to bury the case.
Robert Jaminson. Former USAF nuclear missile targeting officer
Responsible of the targets and missiles selection, he did acknowledge having been sent on a mission to restore all of the missiles subsite "Oscar Flight." He says he has never heard of situation where two missiles would have been deactivated at the same time, but in this case the number of missiles being out of order was ten.
He then testifies about a UFO hunt in the nearby town of Belt, a craft landed in a canyon. The latter takes off at high speed and disappears when the patrol in charge of investigation arrives at sunrise in the canyon where the craft landed.
Colonel Charles I. Halt. USAF Col. Ret., former deputy base commander
Seconded to the U.S. base equipped with nuclear weapons, based in England, Benwaters, he is the one called on Christmas Eve, after "the return of the UFO." He will be that night, first hand witness of phenomenas at high level of strangeness.
Before a copy of the audio recording starts being "leaked in cocktails party", Halt was determined not to tell anyone about his adventure. Above his reaction after a phone call from a colleague telling him he got a hold of a copy of his report about the incident.
His conclusions: "I do not know what we have seen that night. But I think this object was controlled by an intelligence, and I think it was extraterrestrial in nature or from another dimension .
Jerome Neslon, former USAF nuclear missile launch officer
Also present in an underground missile launch during distress calls of the team guarding the site, on the surface. Indicates that, despite reports that he sent on these events, the case has never been followed up.
Patrick McDonough. Former USAF nuclear missile site geodetic surveyor
He is the young officer who is responsible of performing geodetic measurements on missile silos, operational, or about to become operational, measurements carried at night, using the stars.
One night, him and his two colleagues, as they were working on a missile silo, are visited by a UFO of some fifteen meter in diameter, emitting "a pulsating light", which hovered above them for half a minute. Then the object disappears in a blink of an eye. Anxious to leave in case the craft shows up again, the three men fled, at full speed, and in their haste to return the truck. More dead than alive, they reaches, on foot, a neighbouring farm.
Bruce Fenstermacher. Former USAF nuclear missile launch office
Bruce Fenstermacher has not been a first hand witness. He remembers the message from a team working on the surface: "You will not believe me, captain, but just above us there is a huge white thing, pulsating, cigar-shaped. The light is pulsating, and between pulsations we see red and blue lights
Fenstermacher's testimony is interesting in that it shows everybody's reaction. Men who protect equipment capable of killing millions of lives thousands of miles away are terrorized by the sight of things they do not understand. Some invoke imaginary faults on their vehicle to avoid going where the phenomenon occurs. Others refuse to testify, apparently ready to do anything to flush this memory that they perceive as a real trauma.
Finally, a character, military but without insignia, points out that "this is top secret and that, moreover, all this never happened ..."