Wednesday, September 4, 2013

UFO Encounters Over Loring Air Force Base Seen By Military Servicemen


(From Brian Vike’s UFO Files) Posted by Brian Vike.

Ex Military Man Observes Bright Orange Red Ball Over Loring Air Force Base

Date: Fall of 1965.

I was assigned to the 42nd Combat Defense Squadron at Loring from 1964-1966. I had a similar experience while securing a B-52 download in the fall of 1965. In this case, a very bright orange-red "ball" overflew my remote hardstand, and the flight line, in a perfect zig-zag pattern.


It seemed to be very large, and at an altitude of about 1000 feet. I watched it until it disappeared over the horizon. Later I mentioned it to one of the flight NCOs, but I never heard anything about the incident.

However, many years later, in 1979, I was working in San Francisco. The Chronicle had a feature called, " The Question Man". The interviewer would question random people on the street. The question one day was, "have you ever seen a UFO?" One person responded, " yes, when I was at Loring AFB in the mid '60s.... He went on to describe exactly what I saw. I tried to contact him, without success.

I don't tell this story to just anyone, but I thought you might be interested. Sincerely.

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UFO Over Loring AFB Has Serviceman Debriefed Over Incident

Brian Vike’s Note: I have removed names in this report as not to identify the folks who are talked about in the below report. I have replaced the real names with a fictitious ones. The folks could not be reached to seek permission to post their names. Also Brian Vike would love to hear from any serviceman or Loring AFB personal/families who have knowledge about the sighting. I can be reached at: sighting@telus.net

Hi, Hope this finds you well. Sorry it has taken so long to get back to you, it is Football season and my son plays for (removed) so my wife and I "tramp around the northeast" this time of year!

Well a little background. My dad was Chief of the FAA office in Presque Isle. All the guys there were electronic techs and were responsible for navigational aids and some other equipment such as teletype machines at NOAA and Loring AFB. The nav-aids included the Presque Isle instrument landing system, PQI VOR and TACAN which were (and still are ) located in the middle of a potato field in Washburn, Me. This VOR equipment is considered one of the most important nav-aids in the States because it is the first or last an aircraft uses. Loring aircraft and any other military aircraft use the TACAN and it too is the first or last site in the USA. Ok now the boring is out!

I had a good friend from Boy Scouts whose father was the structures fire chief at Loring. They lived outside of PQI near Quoggy Joe State Park. Our families did a lot together outside of scouts, snowmobiling, camping, and family get together. That October, our troop had a Court of Honor which included a Pot Luck dinner. Rick's father Dale, didn't show up and his mom was very worried. That next weekend the Riley's were over and Dale told us about the sighting.

Seems that calls came in from some of the families on the base. They also saw the lights moving around the base. The base sent out an engine after the first calls came in from the base housing area claiming that lights were seen threw the trees as well as in the air. Dale said that, and I can't remember who, one of the higher ranking officers requested the engine to check out the housing area, and he assumed that it was because of a possible light plane or helicopter crash.

After cruising the housing area they saw the lights towards the flight line and they headed in that direction. After reaching the gate to the flight line Dale said that they could see a red light over the area where the Nuclear storage site was located. The light stayed there for a time while the radios were going "nuts". After a short time (minutes) the light flew off only to return again before disappearing.

The Pentagon closed the base down, not letting anyone on or off, and cut off all non approved communications. In fact, before Dale got home, Rick called me and told us that they were afraid the war was "just around the corner", remember that Loring was a "Dew line" base or first strike .

Dale was allowed off base the next day, late in the afternoon after being debriefed by Air Force personnel. He was not on base the second night, but of course found out about it when he returned later in the week. A few days after this happened he was ordered to report for another debriefing. This time they were "suits". His words not mine. I didn't learn about the "men in black" until years later.

Now Dale retired and moved to Alaska, where they transferred from. Rick is now a minister somewhere in the middle America area, I've lost track of him while in the service.

What I find interesting is that the year before there was another series of sightings in the area. I have come to understand that Loring was visited then too, this from Dale. In December of 74, my next door neighbor and I were out snow sledding one night and observed a strange light passing over the town.

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UFO - Snipers, Helicopter Gunships And Jet Fighters Loring AFB

Date: 1975

Full Description of event/sighting: I was stationed at Loring AFB during the UFO sightings. This is the first time I have seen something in writing about the incident. Thanks for all you do.

Hello Brian, I was a medic working at the hospital while all this was going on. I had a fellow airman I knew that told me about how his radar screen went crazy and how the tracking was really weird and impossible to be done with our current aircraft. A military police airman that I also knew told me about how he violently shook because while he was at his nuclear post a stationary bright light from above was shining on him.

Image Right: Due to its relative isolation in Northern Maine, signs like this were posted alerting people that there were moose in the area at all times.

All he heard was "nothing". Another military police airman told me that he was being stationed along with some others as snipers around the base. I personally saw helicopter gunships and fighter aircraft during this time. Both of these type aircraft were not present before. Hope this is helpful. Thanks for all you do.

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Loring Air Force Base UFO Incident

Brian Vike’s Note: Thank you to the serviceman who sent this information into me, I would really like to hear from any other serviceman or woman who served at the Loring AFB who had witnessed the objects over the base, or who may have knowledge of these sightings. I do have a number of reports from serviceman on the UFO incidents from Loring. You welcome to email Brian Vike at: sighting@telus.net

Any names that are provided in the report below Brian Vike has changed to protect the privacy of the individuals.

Brian, I just came across the information concerning the Loring incident. In October of 1975 I was working at Loring in the WSA. I know of nothing first hand - if you are still interested I would be glad to pass on what I can remember that was second hand.

Additional Information:

Brian, that was a very long time ago and my memory of what happened is far from clear. I was an NCO assigned to SRAM maintenance in the Integrated Maintenance Facility in the Weapons Storage Area. I lived in Base House at Presque Isle (this was actually a former Air Force Facility that they had retained the housing). There were three of us (from Presque Isle) that car pooled together, one named (Ben) who worked in the same building as I and the other (whose name I can't recall) worked in a building adjacent to the weapon storage area. I believe it was some sort of logistic function. The weapons storage area was very remote from the rest of the base and the logistic group was the only other group near the weapons storage area. As I recall the actual weapon storage area we used was a small section of a much larger storage area.

The part we didn't use was abandoned and we were sectioned off by a separate fence. There were also a few abandoned buildings within the weapon storage area that were also abandoned and separately fenced off. One in particular comes to mind that was completely sealed, no windows and the door welded shut. I believe their were numerous other abandoned buildings near the older abandoned part of the weapons storage area. At any rate as I recall the incidents (the visits from the UFO) occurred over a few nights. I believe I became aware of these from our car pooler who worked in logistics. He seemed to be aware of more of what was going on.

I don't believe he was assigned to the 42nd munitions maintenance as we normally had limited contact with the rest of the base although most of the personnel lived on base. On the morning of the last/most significant visit I probably was with the early group at the guard gate that walked up to our facility, possibly I may have been the one who stated that their must of been another UFO. I believe the car pooler from the logistics' group may have told us about the earlier events and at some point indicated that it was a helicopter (of course he had not seen it and was only telling us what he had been told). I can recall the discussions about the security police asking to shoot at it and being told not to despite the UFO about sitting on one of the weapons storage structures (Igloo).

I also recall the commanding officer (I don't recall if it was the base commander or munitions squadron commander) coming to the weapons storage area while the UFO was there or just after. I believe the security police may have told me that. I don't recall being called up to the squadron headquarters and being told that anything, but I probably just don't remember that. I think the car pooler from the logistics group had told us that they had obtained/ordered some type of flares that they were going to use to deter the helicopter if it came back. I don't recall anything about Air Force helicopters being brought in, but I may not have been aware of that or just don't remember. I thought a group of fighter aircraft were assigned to the base following this last incident and were there because of the incident, presumably to react in the even of another visit. But of course that a long time ago and my memory could be flawed.

I hope this is of some use. If you have questions please feel free to ask me.

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Loring AFB UFO Incident - Ex-Military Serviceman Speaks

Brian Vike’s Note: I would like to extend my many thanks to the person who sent in this report. Also, if other ex-servicemen or women, even family members of the service people have any knowledge about this event. I would be grateful for as much detail as you could possibly could provide to me here at The Vike Factor. Please do know that I respect everyone's personal/private information.

Message: Loring AFB UFO Incident -- Many years ago while listening to the Jeff Rense talk show, the discussion about UFOs turned toward the Loring incident which I had knowledge of, and I emailed Rense during the program. I did not see this object, but was directly involved with the aftermath.

What I did not mention on the Rense e-mail was that there was a previous UFO sighting during October of 1974, almost a year exactly to the 1975 incident, though the 1974 sighting by some base personnel did not reach the public.

Now as to the 1975 incident I worked at the WSA where some of the activity took place. At most there were about 60 airmen that worked in the secluded and secure area, and the area itself was guarded by about 8 security police (SPs) around the clock.

One morning, myself and 5 others arrived at the gate to the WSA before the rest and I noted something was wrong because all the SPs were waiting for us on the other side of the gate. Usually some were in the guard shack and others were driving around the WSA, upon exchanging our badges, the SP's became notably shaken and somewhat frantic and began telling us of the UFO that hovered over our structures ( Igloo's with weapons inside). The SP who spoke directly to me said this object was of the two pie pan type, glowed an orange color and shone a green beam in a searching type of manner over and around our structures. He also said they radioed their headquarters back on main base and requested permission to fire their M-16's upon a UFO that was hovering over the structures.

This SP's began telling of other events about the object. I stopped him and asked what the headquarters said, he replied that they didn't get an rapid reply, or something to that affect and kept asking for permission to fire upon it. Later he received an order not to fire upon the object unless it performed acts of destruction or damage to anything in the secure area. So he said we had nothing to do but watch this thing. I think I asked him about the guard dogs reaction and he said the dog was going crazy over the ordeal like the rest of them.

During this conversation many other airmen had arrived after us and were also listening to the various accounts from the separate SP's. There were about 20 of us airmen gathered around the guard shack, and we began walking up to our own building. I remember all was quiet until about 3/4 the way up when one of our senior Sergeants said, "they must have seen a UFO last night". I don't know why I remembered that, just a dawning of something that really occurred I suppose. Here's where I get involved sort of. After all the personnel arrived at the WSA that morning, we are all ordered back to main base. This never happened before or afterwards during the year I was there, you have to realize that the WSA was far from the base and to drive all the way out there, and then be ordered back to the base was an unusual occurrence, and all the WSA personnel gathered in a room at our MMS headquarters.

It was very quiet in this room and everyone seemed to more or less be talking softly among themselves, myself and my best friend were sitting in the back of the room ( I was 17 ) and we briefly said to each other or commented to the affect that we thought we were going to war with these aliens, and that someone was to meet with us and tell us what was going on and why we were assembled here.

However, truth is stranger then fiction, and after about 10 minutes our squadron commander came out and stood in front of us, and used an angry tone of voice. I had never heard from him before and said the following, "you have not heard anything, you have not seen anything and you will not ever say anything. That is a direct order"! Then he dropped the tone of his voice to a much more casual level, and said something about a helicopter had been seen in the area and was being investigated, geesh. We were ordered back to main base just for this ? You do the math! I've seen deception first hand and I didn't even see the UFO. The odd thing was I probably would have wrote the whole thing off and forgot about it but when we were ordered back to main base, then ordered not to say anything, it reinforced the notion that it was real.

There's a yahoo news group called Loring AFB which has some stuff about the incident there and perhaps some first hand accounts, this is not a UFO related group but perhaps you might find someone to help you with further info. Good luck.

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Loring AFB UFO Incident - October 1975 Another Person Speaks Out

Message: Loring AFB Incident - October 1975

To write this, I have to erase from my mind information I have learned over the years about this and go back to that month. From what I can remember, that month started a month before during Labor Day weekend. It took me awhile to realize that these two events happened within a short time of each other. I am quite sure that my memory is right about this, and if not, I apologize.

Labor Day weekend, a family was camping at Baxter State Park, which is in the northern part of Maine. They were at a campground with other campers there. They had a son about four or five years old. He liked to ride his tricycle around the campground. The neighboring campers watched the child, as did his parents. Within minutes, he disappeared. They found his tricycle by the dump and immediately started a search for him.

Nothing. They searched and searched, not even a piece of cloth. The Navy's infrared planes searched, dogs, flyers were sent all over the United States and Canada. Nothing. From what I can remember, the Yankee magazine had an article about the disappearance of this child in 1980, the fifth year since his disappearance. This occupied our minds during September.

My ex-husband was stationed at Loring AFB and debriefed flight crews. Sometime around the first of October I went out to Base Ops to buy a soda or something. This was during the evening and the other stores were closed. We were living on the base, and it was getting dark as I was driving home. I noticed that every fourth to fifth street was out. Since this was during the "gas crunch," I thought the base was being conservative.

Sometime within that week or maybe the start of the next week, my ex mentioned something about something "buzzing" the airstrip. Over the next couple of weeks, the situation escalated. Rumors were flying, the Bangor Daily News published articles about "lights" over Loring AFB. Somehow I heard that it was a "helicopter" with no identifying marks on it, flying at night with no lights, and the pilot refused to answer the radio. It may have been in the Bangor Daily News that the "helicopter" was chased into Canada.



Panic was starting to spread through the base. Women were starting to pack and leave. I don't know if any of them did leave. Loring AFB was very secluded, hidden in a forest of pine trees. Couldn't even be seen from the highway that goes from Caribou to Limestone. During that time, my thoughts were that we could be wiped off the face of the earth and no one would know that we were gone. I thought it was Russia. Loring was a dew line base, first strike. Russia had their missiles aimed at us over the North Pole, as we had our missiles aimed at Russia over the North Pole. As the situation got worse, my thoughts were, "Why don't they force it down, shoot it down, do something!"

October 31, Halloween. Over the years I have read and heard differences about the date. I remember Halloween that year very well. The base was locked down. We had to close all of the blinds, no lights on, the base was darkened, no one was allowed to enter or exit the base. A TV station out of Bangor decided to give us a Halloween treat by showing War of the Worlds, The Betty and Barney Hill Story, and another one I can't or don't want to remember. I heard the planes that night. The first time I can remember hearing the planes. And that is all I can remember of the Loring AFB incident. It just went away.

After over 30 years, this still haunts me. How much danger were we in? In my innocence or whatever, at the time I didn't even realize that there were armed nuclear weapons stored on that base. Where was our government? Not even the base commander tried to soothe our fears. I would really appreciate either an explanation or an apology for the hell that we went through in October 1975.

Additional Information:

Another Thought on Loring AFB

From about September 1976 until May 1977, I worked at an off base NCO club as a *****tail waitress. The installation was a radar site north of Limestone, Maine. I worked Friday and Saturday nights. The bar was open to the military, civilians and Canadians. I believe it was sometime during January or February 1977, a man came into the bar wearing a suit, which was out of place for that type of bar. He was very obvious. The bartender nudged me and whispered, "OSI."

What was going on during the mid-70's?

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Loring AFB Youngster Tells Friend That His Father Knew About The Sighting

Brian Vike’s Note: I would like to request that if any ex-service men or woman have any information about the Loring AFB UFO Incident from back in 1975, would they please contact me at sighting@telus.net. Thank you. Brian. Date of incident: 1975

Message: Hey Brian, just wanted to respond to that Loring AFB incident 1975 Article. She was asking about if anyone knew about it well I kind of do. I lived in Caribou, Maine, which was about 10 miles or so away and visited the base quite frequently. My friend whom I hung around with his father was in the Air Force and worked on the base.

Picture Right: KC-97 Stratofreighter Tanker.

He (my friend) told me that his father saw a UFO on the base and told me about the lights and all of that. So, I told him I did not believe him so he got his father outside and I asked him and he hesitantly said no kind of laughing it off. And his son kept on him saying tell him the truth because he the father was always telling him about it. Even his sisters were saying that he saw it so that's all I know about the incident. Thanks.

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The Lorings AFB UFO Incident Of 1975 - Looking For Answers

Brian Vike’s Note: The lady in question over this event that took place at the Loring's AFB in 1975 is having her mother give her the details on everything that took place at the base. She will be sending the information along to me once it is written up. But in the mean time, the lady and I are looking for any others who were at the base at the time of this UFO incident. If you have any knowledge of this event, would you please contact Brian at sighting@telus.net

Message: Hi, I was searching through the 1970s sighting page and was wondering if you ever heard of "The Loring's Incident" ? My father was stationed at Loring AFB in 1975 in Limestone, Maine. There is a wonderful account of UFOs hovering around the base. Not to mention they were within hundreds of feet from the nuclear weapons site. Every site I go to never has the story and was wondering if you could post it up on your site. Thanks.

Additional Information: 

I was born December 1974 in Limestone, Maine at Loring Air Force base. My family lived in base housing during the incident. During the alert, no one was aloud on or off the base, and lights were to be off after sunset in every house. My father won't ever talk about the incident, but my mother remembers everything! Here is what I found on the net. Although I've heard this story from my family all my life. This story is on alot of various sites. The base is no longer operating.

I just talked to my mother, she was there when it happened, she says it's all in Freedom of Information. I could very well get a great story from her as a witness. But, I felt the best information I could give you was from a more informational source with more details. I've been wondering almost all my life if there is anyone out here that may have been there at the time. You are the first person I have contacted online about this. I figured with all the people that are here in the group, some one might have heard of it. It's been puzzling me. My mother and I have so many questions.

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Loring AFB UFO Incident - A Senior NCO Speaks Out

Brian Vike’s Note: I really do appreciate the information that I have received from ex-serviceman over the Loring AFB UFO Incident. This gentleman heard a muffled noise around the time the unknown would have been over the base. Although he had not witnessed the unknowns, he certainly heard about it the next morning.

I can't stress enough how important having people who may have some knowledge about the incident write to me with what they know. Who know, maybe one day we can find the answer to what this was flying in the sky's around the AFB.

Brian: I read your piece on Rense.com about the 'Loring AFB UFO Incident' during late 1975. I was a senior NCO stationed there at the time. My family and I had recently arrived at Loring from overseas. We lived in the officers' section of base housing on Foulois Drive.

I remember the incident very well because of two things: I was assigned to the 42nd Munitions Maintenance Squadron and my birthday was near the end of October! At any rate, the 42nd MMS was the activity that maintained the weapons storage areas for both conventional and nuclear munitions. I can't stress this fact too strongly - the nuclear WSA was at a location called East Loring which was about five miles from the main base. In Loring's heyday, East Loring was an annex of the base, but by the 70s and later it was largely abandoned except for the WSA.

One night, very late, if my memory serves me, around 0030 or 0100, I heard a hell of a racket. That of a chopper without muffler, moving rapidly and I don't know from which direction and I did not see it but I do know the muffled sound of a chopper's rotor blades - this thing was on steroids and moving fast. This is the part that I can't verify but I do not believe Loring had any helicopters assigned to the base.

To the best of my knowledge, all they had were the B-52s and KC-135s assigned to the 42nd Bomb Wing and two F-106 Delta Darts there as fighter protection (a fighter squadron detachment). At any rate, it didn't take me long to go back to sleep but I did go outside and take a look to see if I could spot anything. I did not but recall it was very cold at the time, but no snow yet. The aircraft sounded like a flying Harley Hog, it was so loud. I do not believe a UFO would be heard!

The next morning when I went in to work at MMS one of my friends asked me if I had heard about the 'UFO' that had been spotted over WSA. I said no, but that I had heard a chopper go over base housing at about the same time.

I have always had a theory about this incident but could never find anyone else who thought the same - or just would not say. I do NOT believe that this was a UFO, that it was a Soviet chopper that had flown in from a sub or trawler parked off the North Atlantic coast. I believe it was probing our defenses, circled around a while, and left. I think the brass knew this but felt that if it was revealed, it would be a big embarrassment.

Just my thoughts but after all this time, hard to prove.

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Military Serviceman Stationed At Loring AFB Recalls UFO Incident

Date: October 1975

Your mom can probably tell you more about the incident at Loring. I may have a newspaper clipping somewhere about it. When I get time to dig around in the boxes on the porch I'll send a copy if I find it. All I remember is air traffic control got some blips on radar that were not our planes, and could not identify who or what they were. Then bright lights, I think, buzzed the runway at very low altitude and disappeared.

The official explanation was they were probably Canadian helicopters, but everyone I talked to said "no way", but would not talk about it in detail. I worked in aircraft debriefing at the time so had fairly close contact with people in air traffic control. They were a bit freaked out by the incident. You may do web searches of Limestone and Caribou news papers if they are available.

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1975 Loring AFB UFO Incident - A Son Relating His Fathers Story

Brian Vike’s Note: Below is an excellent letter from a son who's father served at the Loring AFB back in 1975 when all heck broke loose when many military men observed an unknown object over the base. The military personal who witnessed the event were questioned by people from the Air Force as "someone" wanted to get the facts, then pretty much wanted the entire event to go away, not to be talked or discussed again.

This really is another case where an unknown object has penetrated base security and the base going on full alert and not being able to deal with what was happening in the sky above them. They certainly tried from the letters I have received from eyewitnesses from the base, but everyone on the AFB was pretty much helpless to do much of anything.

Picture Left: B-52 carrying AGM-28 Hound Dog missiles.

There are more military people who have not come forward to give their accounts of what took place that night. Maybe if more folks would finally care to write and share the details on the UFO sighting, it would be most welcomed and very helpful in trying to find answers. Please note, when writing to Brian Vike your personal information will never be given out to anyone. It stays here with me. So please don't worry about any of your private contact information leaving The Vike Factor.

Thank you, Brian.

Date: 1975

Message: I was reading your page on the 1975 Loring AFB UFO incident and got a little chuckle. My father was a security policeman with the 17th Security Police Sq, and was on duty the nights in question. For several years after I learned of the incident, my father as well refused to discuss it. About a year ago, maybe longer, he relented and told me what went on the first night.

The object in question, he refuses to call it an UFO, was silent. It had suddenly appeared over the weapon storage area and the alert aircraft from nowhere. He was a NCO and was getting calls about the UFO and headed over towards the WSA and the weapon assembly building. He climbed up a bunker and stood there, slack jawed, and did nothing. After a few minutes the wing commander was roused and came over to the same bunker and along with his staff officers, tried to figure out what was going on.

He asked my father what the hell was going on and why he hadn't called this into the tower. My fathers response was that he had called the tower and they told him he was full of sh**, and they wouldn't wake the wing commander because as they saw it, there was nothing there. He was surprised because as he put it, the light was blindingly bright. There was no way they couldn't have seen it. He also told them that he was getting calls from all the posts, roving patrols and even from the gate about it. The wing commander called up the tower and asked them to verify the light. They immediately denied it. The commander then told the NCO in the tower, 'If the eagle on my shoulder see's that light, then those stripes on your damned sleeve better see it to." They immediately, albeit a little dumbfounded, said that that they saw it as well. The whole incident this night lasted some time more and then was over. My dad went back and filled out the log with the entire incident and started a report on it as well.

He was actually off the next couple of days but was aware that the incident was being looked into as drug smuggling. He says that is total bull. The object was dead quiet, had appeared and disappeared with little or no warning, came and went as it chose, and stopped or slowed no where else but the airbase and it's weapons storage area. They even chased this thing with some fighters sent up to Loring. I think he said they were Air National Guard F-106's. They never caught up to it. The helicopters there were not just Canadian but many from the Air Force. He heard from his friends on duty that the base big wigs were getting alot of pressure to resolve the matter.

He came back on duty a few nights later and nothing happened that night. That morning a couple of men from the Air Force came up and started questioning everyone who had seen the incident first hand. They were not told to be quiet by these men as they went through the investigation. When they finished, my father said that they came to his duty station to inspect the blotter and related paperwork. They then removed the pages from the blotter and the related paperwork and replaced them with new pages that did not mention the incident. My dad said he knew enough to keep his mouth shut and not ask why they were taking these pages. After that, the matter was closed for all intents and purposes. He later said, that while not told directly by any superiors, talking about the matter wasn't kosher. He then said that it became kind of like a joke.

This is my recollection of the matter and may be incomplete. But he doesn't talk much about this or any other of the things he saw in the Air Force. I'm not sure why, it has been over thirty years and I can't see any of it still being classified. None of the bases he served at exist anymore as operational bases. I hope this story is helpful.

Brian Vike (Retired)
Box 1091
Houston, British Columbia, Canada.

Email: sighting@telus.net

The Vike Factor (Brian Vike) http://the-v-factor-paranormal.blogspot.com/

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