Tuesday, March 15, 2005

"Flying Saucer" Recovery At Hart Canyon (Part Two)



By Scott Ramsey
8-1-04

[Scott D. Ramsey has been researching the UFO Incident at Aztec since he first became aware of it back in 1988 while on a business trip to the four corners area. He has been aggressively tracking down witnesses and chasing any and all leads since 1990. He has traveled to 28 states in fourteen years, spent hundreds of hours in various archives, interviewed over 60 credible witnesses tied to the event; he has incurred over $200,000 dollars in expenditures during this ongoing investigation. The fruits of his labor will soon appear in his upcoming book about "The Aztec Incident."]

Now, let's look at the story and start adding in some facts, eyewitnesses and some good old fashion research behind the Aztec Incident.

Dr. Gee’s Claims of Top Secret Radar Bases

Both in Frank Scully's Behind The Flying Saucers, and then, Bill Steinman and Wendelle Stevens’ UFO Crash At Aztec, a reference to “secret radar bases” is found. The first mention of this comes from “Dr. Gee” of Frank Scully's book. Dr. Gee claimed that the U.S. Government had three “Top Secret” radar bases in northern New Mexico that were tracking the errant UFO the morning of March 25, 1948. I also noted the same claim by Steinman and Stevens in their book as well. In July of 1998, I started looking for these alleged “Top Secret radar bases.” I first investigated claims of a radar base located outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that is still in existence, but is now used as an F.A.A. navigational radar system. The old base was once a Nike missile installation during the Cold War days. I soon found that they have a base “historian” at the site by the name of Pat McHugh. He was quite happy to sit with me and go over all of the old AC&W bases that he had in his files. Quickly, we both learned that New Mexico did not have a radar base that matched any of Dr. Gee’s claims.

The next step was to round up a group of adventurers and seek out some old USGS maps of New Mexico, and then try to find a logical spot as to where these bases may have been. By January of 1999 we had found our first radar base. It was called the 767th AC&W, located in El Vado, New Mexico, approximately 65 miles north of Los Alamos National Laboratory. After many painstaking hours spent searching the Air Force archives, we learned that these bases were built by The Atomic Energy Commission, back in 1946, as a means of protection for Los Alamos, Sandia National Labs and Kirkland Air Force Base. The bases were later turned over to the Air Force in 1950, but were closed by 1957-as newer technology had rendered them obsolete. By the end of our sixth trip to Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery, Alabama, we had by then located the other two. Finally, we had identified all three of the bases described by Dr. Gee in 1949.

Finding these bases now puts a feather in Dr. Gee’s hat. Now, we had most of the declassified documents naming the bases and we quickly realized that these were truly “Top Secret bases.” The military had been experimenting with some very powrful, new radar technology that was being tested for the U.S. Navy, while protecting the skies above New Mexico. After pouring over thousands of pages of monthly and quarterly reports, we soon learned the importance of these bases for the ‘40s and ‘50s.

Now, back to Dr. Gee. If someone back in 1949 knew about these bases, then they were someone that was “in the know” even then. This is but one of the many claims made by Dr. Gee over fifty years ago that had merit. In the interest in keeping this article short, we will elaborate more on this in the future.

The Witnesses

Witness No: One argument against the Aztec Incident waged by critics over the years has claimed a lack of eyewitnesses; in our early research into the “Aztec Incident,” we found it very difficult to speak with anyone from the town that might “go on the record”; I was finding myself returning to the Four Corners area about every six to seven weeks, just as I thought I would. Over many weekends I researched the story, looking for an eyewitness to this historical event. Finally, people slowly started to come forward.

Our first witness was K. Farley. When we interviewed Mr. Farley, he was dying of a respiratory disease. He was on bottled oxygen when we met him north of Phoenix, Arizona. As Mr. Farley later described to me during our three-hour interview, he had been in Durango, Colorado on March 25th, 1948, visiting his Aunt as he was traveling to San Diego, California; he was supposed to meet a friend just north of Aztec (New Mexico) and then continue his drive.

As he arrived early that morning at a planned pick-up spot near Cedar Hill (a small town just north of Aztec), his “friend” told him about a lot of trucks and a police car, seen going out a small dirt road just south of their position. The drivers of the vehicles seemed as though they were in a hurry according to Mr. Farley. Thinking an emergency was underway, the two of them decided to go out and see what the problem was. Mr. Farley and his friend (anonymous) arrived at the mesa, now apparently busy with oilfield workers and what appeared to have been local ranchers.

Mr. Farley and his friend moved toward the west side of the mesa to get a better look at the large disc that sat silently there. Mr. Farley said there wasn’t “any noticeable damage”; the craft was “perfectly smooth on the outside, without any seams or marking except for around the middle of the craft.”

Mr. Farley also described two police officers at the scene that were talking to the locals. Finally, the one officer walked over to Mr. Farley and his friend and told them that the military had been notified and that they should leave the area at once. Mr. Farley and his friend refused to leave because nobody else seemed to be listening to the officer. Mr. Farley recalls that some of the oilfield workers were climbing all over the damn thing, which he thought was dim-witted given the circumstances; some older folks started yelling at them to get the hell away from it!

Finally, later that morning according to Mr. Farley, the Military did arrive and discussed the incident individually with the people on the mesa. Mr. Farley has claimed they were “threatened with their lives” and "sworn to secrecy." Since Mr. Farley was not originally from the area, he could not help me identify who the others might have been.

(See Part Three)

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