This post was probably the next important article. After re-reading the unit history, I stumbled across an important revelation. This came about from not what was written, but what was not discussed in the history. This led to a re-evaluation of the Malmstrom UFO story involving Echo Flight.
A trip down memory lane...
A trip down memory lane...
Disproving a UFO Case
First, let me start off by saying that the Malmstrom AFB Echo Flight case is a great UFO story. It's the perfect storm for UFO buffs in that there are reports, documents, and "witnesses." Its listed in the top ten of UFO cases. People have been interviewed to the extent that every surviving individuals cerebral memory capacity has been extracted, evaluated, discarded and re-extracted for what ever purpose in the attempt to prove or disprove individual pet theories. In short, it's a ufologists dream come true...or is it.
But for all it's bells and whistles, Echo Flight proves only to be an illusion...a distant mirage in Ufology's desolate desert. Researching this case is akin to walking into a thick and dense forest making it difficult to see ahead as you hack your way through it's thick foliage. It lures you into a trance as you bog down into it's minutia. Its loaded with perceived facts that take you down potentially promising paths only to wind up at a dead end. It's a siren song. It's proponents take the view, "If looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then..." Yet I find my self yelling at them, "Don't fall for it, open your eyes, it's a f****ing dog!"
I did my time at Franky's Rocket Ranch and we had a haunted missile site as well, Kilo 11, AKA "Killer" 11.
ReplyDeleteThe story of how the ghost got there was when a Mnx crew had to go out to fix something on the missile that required the team to go down in the silo and work alongside of the missile. It was a New Year's eve and some of the crew was eager to get back for a party that night.
Being in a hurry one the maintenance troops didn't take the time to pin the retaining arm that he was working beside.Somehow the retaining arm was sprung and crushed his chest against the side of the silo.
When they got him release from the retaining arm the crew brought him topside. He died there before any medical responders could get there, not that they would have been able to do much for him.
I didn't think much of the stories about the site being haunted, especially since there were several stories about ghosts of indians and calvary soldiers from back when F.E. Warren was a cavalry post called Fort D.A. Russell, where the majestic brick houses and buildings from that time are still in use.
But I had second thoughts about K-11 being haunted the one time I pulled an alert there. Early in the morning or late at night,depending on your perspective (there was no day or night in the LCC, the capsule was a sensory deprivation tank, where the bells, beeps and buzzes and lights flashing were indifferent to whether you were 60 feet under the Great Plains or orbiting one of the moons of Saturn) the K-11 SIN line rang.
Out of the blue.
No ART Team dispatched. No Sit 7, Sit 6 or Sit 4. No HICPA or MOSR 9.
No OZ, IZ, or OZ/IZ.
No Maintenance or Comm Teams there or scheduled. And the MAC weinies wouldn't be flying their choppers, and if they were there was no UHF traffic.
And the bunny rabbits that sometimes set off the alarms wouldn't be able to pick up the SIN line transceiver.
So I picked up the phone at the deputy's console and pressed the SIN line button for LF 11.
"Capsule" I answered.
And that was the end of the conversation.