Saturday, April 02, 2011

A Close Encounter Near Camp Slayer, Iraq – 2006

A Close Encounter near Camp Slayer, Iraq – 2006



By Robert Salas
spiralgalaxy.org
3-30-11

Robert Salas     It has been a very common occurrence that, while presenting at UFO conferences, I am approached by someone who wants to talk about their own sighting. I am always interested in hearing such stories. Most of them are simply remembrances of strange lights in the sky without much in the way of details or supporting witnesses. However, on occasion I meet a witness to an incident that cries out for my complete attention.

The following is such an incident. The witness will be referred to as Sgt. ‘X’ until such time when he is willing to publicly release his name. He assures me that time will come. I am convinced that he is telling the truth of the matter:
In June 2006 (exact date TBD) SFC ‘X’ was with a platoon of twenty-five men at the Radwahnian Palace complex just to the southwest of Camp Slayer.

At approximately 10 pm, they were on a routine patrol thru the town of Makasib and traveling North toward Baghdad International Airport. It is important to note that he and his platoon routinely took this route through the town of Makasib and had done so the previous day.

On this night, his gunner radioed to stop the patrol. “We performed a security halt and dismounted the vehicles. This was normal procedure when someone spotted a situation that could be a danger to the platoon.

The gunner said, ‘It’s not on the ground, it’s up here. Look up!’

I looked up and what I thought I saw was something manufactured. It looked like landing lights propped on 1000 ft. tall poles. We looked at it for 3-5 minutes. 25 people looked up! Then we put on our NVG -7’s (night-vision goggles).

It looked solid. You could not see the stars between the lights. It was triangular in shape with each side of the triangle equal in length. It had lights on only the leading edge, in the shape of a ‘V’. The lights were colored white-orange. There were about four to five lights on each side. The brightness of the lights looked muted; sort of milky white. One of the other men said, with the goggles on you could see the reflection of the city lights underneath. I saw a smooth surface. There were no rivets, no seams, no exhaust ports and no sound. It was totally silent. I did not think it was moving but some of the other men said it was moving slowly. The length of each side was about 4 football fields (1200 ft.). It was enormous. It basically covered the entire town of Makasib!”

“My first thought was, how did they get those poles up so fast? We had been through here the previous night. But then I looked closer and realized there were no poles. After about 5-7 minutes, I decided, we have to move to meet our next scheduled checkpoint. We went really fast thru Makasib to get to the other side. It took us about 5 minutes. We were all anxious to get another look at this object from a distance. When we got to the fruit tree groves, we looked back and it was gone. I told the Lieutenant I thought it would be a mistake to report what we had seen. I told him that, if we did report it, we would be laughed at and probably lose our rank and chance of promotion. He agreed.”

“When we got to headquarters, I simply asked if anything was going on. They said no. However, they did not have direct communication with the Air Traffic Control tower. So, it is possible that people in the tower did see or have a record of the appearance of the object.

Later, I met separately with the men in my platoon and told them that, yes we saw something bizarre, but I would not spread the story too much unless you want to get laughed at. Most of them agreed to keep it to themselves. However, since my separation from the service, I have talked to all the staff sergeants and 4 or 5 E-5s and 6 or 7 privates and specialists at Company reunions. They have not forgotten what they saw and there remains a lot of interest in talking about it.”
This is the first time Sgt. ‘X’ has discussed his story openly. I am honored to be the individual to whom he confided these details. He is attempting to contact some of the other witnesses to this incident, although many of them are still on active duty. He anticipates that some of them will want to come forward also with more details. I too anticipate that more witnesses and details will come forth. Until then, this story will be continued.

5 comments :

  1. I heard this man speak at the same event as Mr. Salas. I was also impressed with his candor and account. I can attest that he has passed my muster, too. My feeling is that he has given an accurate accounting of _startling_ events and is the genuine article.

    alienview@roadrunner.com
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  2. Dear Mr. Salas:
    I have long read/listened to your reports of your major missile shut down event back in the late 1960s and have also long respected you for sharing that event with the public-at-large and the U.S. Congress with The Disclosure Project. However, I simply must comment on why you would write such an article as the above? To 'keep hope alive?' (to barrow from Jesse Jackson)? The fact that Sgt. 'X' may be willing to release his real name in some 'future time' gives me pause for concern. IN my almost 40 years in Ufology, I am always taken aback when I hear of someone either afraid to use their real name, or to use a 'handle' instead of standing up, brave under the sun, and revealing who they really are, for to pay witness to such an event as you detail is a TREMENDOUS historical story that our Nation and the entire world for that matter, should know about, and yet, I am certain that I am not the only one who finds pause and questions when a witness (es) of such magnitude does not give their real name. And oh yes: 'he' (Sgt. 'X'?) will also give the 'exact date TBA' of the event at some future time gives another count against the truth telling of this story. I know, I know: just as you and many, many other military personnel held their peace for decades after either taking an oath (I'm a Veteran, too, so I know of such aka 'oaths'), or doing what you were 'ordered' to do ("Never talk about this to anyone: it is a non-event")while on active duty, in uniform. It is, of course, my humble opinion that for such a major event as you describe above to be taken seriously; you simply must give the person's real name and the actual date of the event in order to be believed and not put yourself, the witness and the story up for the debunkers to rip apart for lack of concrete details. Otherwise, why write the story? For those who may not know it: most active duty military personnel could not run the risk of imprisonment if they came forward after taking a 'uniform oath,' and then after active duty was behind them, they would have to wait perhaps decades later BEFORE making public such fantastic events as UFO sightings/filming/events/crashes, etc., until they are well over the age of caring and worrying, in some cases, of possibly loses their VA benefits as a result to having 'gone public.' I worried about the latter after my sighting/videotaping from 1995 of the proven 'flying saucer' from another world when the VA benefits was all that I had and I WAS threatened to lose them if I did not stop talking to the media, but that's another story . . .

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  3. @Jasonsos:

    The reason I posted this report is because I am persuaded it and the witness are credible. As to his identity, he spoke to an audience of at least fifty people on two occasions during the OZ UFO Conference and gave his real name both times. At this point, he does not recall the exact date of the incident but he thinks he can narrow it down after he speaks with other witnesses. It took me years to establish the date of my own incident. Many members of his platoon speak about this incident during the reunions they have had, so he is hopeful more of them will come forward. The problem is that many of them are still in the service and are deployed at this time.

    The main issue with many witnesses is the fear of ridicule and the impact on their lives and livelihood as a result of that ridicule. I suggest you consider that before being too critical of people who do find the courage to come forward with their stories. I am convinced there will be more information forthcoming on this important incident. In the meantime, let us all give the guy some space and let him come to terms with this process of his personal disclosure.

    Robert Salas

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  4. Missed that one. Looks like we would have had the adjacent area to this unit as our responsibility to patrol, east and south of the base complex for us. I will certainly ask about this with anyone who was with us at that time. June would have been mid-deployment and I was on leave at the end of that month.
    Well, we owned the skies so ground targets were where our eyes spent most of their time. Although the sky at night was sometimes beautiful.

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  5. To rsalas:
    I tired to mention in my 1st paragraph above that I have long respected you and your work. Perhaps you over-looked that. I also related that I knew well of the risks anyone takes while in & out of uniform speaking of such earth-shaking information, so please don't be too critical of me, sir. Objectivity is the goal. You now state that Sgt. 'X' DID give his actual name 'twice' at the OZ Conference, which was a paid 'public' forum. Therefore, his name is out there. And certainly; anyone who comes forward publicly with UFO info has courage, however, you and he not being able to recall the exact date of such an event is objectively questionable. How could anyone forget such as that? As far as giving the man space to 'come to terms with this process of his personal disclosure,' I agree totally, but he DID come to some terms when he related his story at the paid OZ Conference. Of course, he was likely not paid, yet speakers usually are. In closing, it is the truth we are all seeking here, and as the old adage goes; "The devil is in the details."

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