315 lines
18 KiB
Plaintext
315 lines
18 KiB
Plaintext
(The following account will appear in the July/August 1988
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issue of the International UFO Reporter, 2457 West Peterson
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Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60659. Please contact CUFOS for
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permission to make copies. Reproduction without permission is
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strictly prohibited. Copyright (c) 1988 by the J. Allen Hynek
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Center for UFO Studies.)
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AN UNUSUAL CE-III UFO REPORT
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FROM THE BANGOR NAVAL SUBMARINE BASE, BREMERTON, WASHINGTON
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by
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Donald A. Johnson, Ph.D.
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P.O. Box 161
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Kirkland, WA 98083-0161
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DATE: August 31, 1987
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TIME: 11:00 p.m. (PDT)
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TYPE OF SIGHTING: CE-III
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WITNESSES: Dennis Mauer, age 10
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Randy Springsteen, age 8
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Charlene Springsteen, age 26
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LOCATION: U.S. Navy Trident Submarine Base
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Bangor, Washington
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I received a phone call from Bob Gribble of the UFO
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Reporting Center on September 1st, 1987, saying that he had
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received a report of a UFO sighting by two boys, ages 8 and 10,
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who live in base housing with their families at the Bangor Naval
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Submarine Base. I called the mother of one of the boys,
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Charlene Springsteen, and she related the following account.
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Her son Randy, age 8, and her neighbor's son Dennis Mauer,
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age 10, were spending the night together and she allowed them to
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go outside for a few minutes to play on the playground
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equipment. This was at approximately 10:55 p.m. on Monday
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evening, August 31st. The two boys were outdoors for about 10
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minutes and came running back in, "as white as ghosts". The
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boys reported that they had seen a big circular-shaped object
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hovering 20-40 feet over her house, shine a beam of light down
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on the house, then come directly over the boys on the playground
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equipment, stop, and shine a larger beam of light down on them.
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After a few minutes, during which they reported seeing two
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cat-like humanoid figures aboard the craft, the object moved
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away and the kids ran home. After hearing from the boys, the
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mother went outside and saw an "aircraft" with many--"10 to
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20"--red and blue lights arranged in a row in the Northwestern
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sky. She knew that airplanes had red and green running lights
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so concluded that the lighting arrangement was not that of an
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airplane. She then saw the object make a quick turn and zip
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away. She looked around the immediate neighborhood to see if
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any of her neighbors also witnessed the event, but none of her
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neighbors were out.
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The boys reported that they saw an occupant--"some sort of
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creature"-- through a door or opening in the bottom-middle of
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the craft with big long, "cat-like" ears. It was standing up,
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and they saw it bend over something that looked like a
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searchlight and shine the light down on them by pulling a
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lever. They saw a second occupant similar in appearance to the
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first in a second doorway, in the bottom-lower left of the craft.
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Mrs. Springsteen had the boys draw sketches of what they
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had seen the following morning. Her husband is an enlisted man
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in the Navy with the rank of E-6, and works with the base
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security forces. She told me he was skeptical of the boys'
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account and reluctant to have them report the sighting to any
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officials.
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Mrs. Springsteen called the Bremerton police to report the
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sighting, and had a friend call the private security force, Pam
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Am, that provides security for the base housing, on her behalf.
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The Bremerton police, who incidentally would have been out of
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their jurisdiction and so can't legally investigate in response
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to a call from the Bangor base, suggested she call 911 if she
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felt the incident warranted the attention, and the Pan Am base
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security guard did not regard the UFO report as a serious matter.
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I suggested that she probably should report the sighting to
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the base commander, because the UFO was an unauthorized aerial
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object in a restricted, Federal area. However, I emphasized
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that it wasn't my intention to pressure her to do so, and I left
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the decision up to her. She told me she would think about it
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and meanwhile she would talk to Dennis's mother and have her
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call me.
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About half an hour later I received a phone call from Linda
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Mauer, Dennis's mother. At first, Dennis did not tell his
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mother about his encounter the night before because he wasn't
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sure she would believe him. When she did learn about their
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encounter from Charlene Springsteen, she had Dennis draw
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sketches of what he had seen and the sketches were identical to
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those drawn earlier. This convinced her that the boys were
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reporting a real event and not making something up.
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Mrs. Mauer also reported that she had had a previous UFO
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sighting in New Mexico and was more willing to accept the boys'
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account of the events because of it. Her previous sighting
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occurred at her home at a time when they were living in the
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desert, "30 miles from anything", and as she was hanging a
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bedspread on the clothes line she noticed three bright, red
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columns of light move through the sky.
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I called Jim Clarkson in Aberdeen, a police officer and
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MUFON field investigator, and asked him to check with police and
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sheriff departments in the Bangor area to see if they had logged
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any other UFO reports. He reported back that he had talked to
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the Kitsap County Sheriff's Department and they had received no
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reports.
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I interviewed Mrs. Springsteen, Randy, Dennis Mauer, and
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Linda Mauer in person on Sunday, September 6th. The base is a
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high security restricted area not open to the public and a
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visitor requires special permission from someone living on the
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base to visit base housing (see the enclosed copy of my
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visitor's pass). Base housing is south and about a quarter of a
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mile away from the top security military installation where the
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nuclear submarines are docked and nuclear missiles stockpiled.
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I arrived at their home on F Court of Albacore Circle in the
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early afternoon.
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The immediate neighborhood consists of approximately 25
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housing units, grouped into four or five-unit townhouses that
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are approximately 25 feet apart (see sketch prepared by Linda
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Mauer). The playground is shared by 50-60 families and the
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swingset on which the boys were playing at the time of the UFO
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encounter was estimated by Mrs. Springsteen to be 75 feet from
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the Springsteen house. I later measured the distance and found
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it to be 82 feet.
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On the night of the encounter Dennis Mauer was staying
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overnight at his friend Randy's house. This was the last week
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of summer before school started and the boys were up late. In a
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private conversation with one of the neighbors, I learned that
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it is not uncommon for the children in the neighborhood to be
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out playing very late at night. According to Dennis:
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"I asked Sherri if we could go out in the backyard
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and swing on the swings and she said "no" and we begged
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her and begged her and she said yes. And we went out
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there, and it just flew over this (the Springsteen) house
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and then it went over the park."
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The boys were sitting on the swings and trying to spook
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each other by talking about Freddy, the demon-monster from the
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movie "Nightmare on Elm Street". Neither one of the boys had
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ever seen the movie, but it was common for the neighborhood
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children to tell stories that "Freddy is going to get you". It
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was at this point that they first noticed the "spaceship, with
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red and blue lights going around it", coming in from due East at
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a height of two stories above the rooftops. The object stopped
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and hovered over the F-court townhouse, shown a beam of light
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down on the house, then moved directly over the boys and shone
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another, brighter beam down on them. When the object moved
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towards them it moved oddly, with a jerking motion: move and
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then stop, move and then stop.
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When the boys first sighted the object, a few meters over
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the house, Randy's mother was inside sewing at her sewing
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machine, and she had the drapes in the dining room and kitchen
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closed, with only one drape partially opened through which she
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could keep an eye on the boys. The sewing machine was around a
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bend in the wall that separates the dining room from the kitchen
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and partially blocked her view of the window that looks out on
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the playground, so this is why she believes she did not see the
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light beam. Mrs. Springsteen reported that the boys described
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the light as "telescoping". The light beamed on, beamed off,
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and then a wider or brighter beam was shown on the boys. The
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beam of light came from the bottom-center of the UFO. The
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bright beam apparently had a levitating effect on the swings the
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boys were sitting on, lifting them up towards the craft.
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Although the object was reported to be quite low to the
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ground--40 or so feet when it passed over the roof of the
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house--it made no noise and there was no sand or wind blown up
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as would occur from the downdraft of a helicopter. The boys
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estimated the height of the object as two building heights above
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them, which would be approximately 80 feet. They estimated the
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object's diameter to be as wide as the sand filled area of the
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playground, which I later measured to be 52 feet wide.
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The object was described as having a round bottom with many
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blue and red lights on the outside edge in alternating colors.
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The lights were rotating or sequencing around the object,
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possibly in a counter-clockwise direction. The boys only saw
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the bottom of the object, and some type of peak or antenna
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projecting from the top. The rest of the object was obscured
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from their view by the angle at which the object presented
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itself. Dennis's first sketch shows eight lighted,
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square-shaped windows across the upper third of the bottom of
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the object. However, Randy's sketch and Dennis's subsequent
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sketches show five square-shaped windows. There were two
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"doors" or openings, one in the center of the craft and one in
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the lower left. In each doorway stood an occupant. The
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creature standing at the center doorway was observed operating
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the searchlight, which was directed on the two boys.
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Dennis and Randy described the two entities as over six
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feet tall ("taller than Randy's dad"), with over-sized heads and
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thin, spindly bodies. They were covered with greenish fur and
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wore no clothing that was visible. They were humanoid,
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appearing to be bipedal. The creatures had unusually long
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spindly arms, and bodies and legs that seem biologically
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improbable, i.e. unable to support such large heads. Dennis'
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described the size of the principal creature's torso as no
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greater around in circumference than his thigh, which I judged
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to be less than 6 inches in diameter.
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Both creatures had large pointed, cat-like ears on an
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oval-shaped head. The eyes were described as blueish-green and
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round, with unusually long eyelashes. The mouth was wrinkled,
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"like an old grandma's". The fingers and toes of the creature
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in the central doorway were described by Dennis as unusually
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long and had suction-cups on the tips. Dennis didn't recall the
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word for suction-cups, and described them as "like the things on
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the front of darts". Randy's drawing didn't have suction cups
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but he went along with Dennis's assertion about them. Dennis,
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whose description is more elaborate than Randy's, described the
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feet as "frog feet" and felt that both the hands and feet were
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webbed. Both boys drew sketches which showed a creature with
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very big, pointed ears (estimated to be 12-14" long), eyes with
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unusually long eye brows, a wrinkled mouth, and a skinny body.
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Mrs. Springsteen reported that when she returned to the
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house after going out and seeing the UFO depart, she noticed the
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sliding glass door in her dining room was open and the wind was
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blowing the curtains out through the door. She was certain she
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didn't go out that way and doesn't recall anyone else opening
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the door. She regarded it as somewhat odd and possibly
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connected to the incident. In fact, the more she thought about
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it the more she became frightened that someone or something
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might be in the house, and got down her husband's rifle for
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protection and sat with it until he came home from work.
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The next door neighbor, residing at F-17 Albacore Circle,
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saw a bright white, stationary light in the eastern sky at
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sometime after 10:30 p.m. that same night from her bedroom
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window, and she thought she may have seen the UFO before it
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approached the boys on the playground. However, a check of star
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and planet guides revealed that the woman most probably had
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watched the planet Jupiter, which was in the Eastern sky in
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approximately the right place to be mistaken for an unusual
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light.
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Both boys related their stories with some excitement in
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their voices but in an otherwise matter-of-fact manner. They
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tended to lose interest towards the end of my interview with
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their mothers, and asked to be excused so that they could go out
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and play. It is my belief that they were not lying or
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concocting the story, but were trying to relate as best they
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could some unusual event which they believed had happened to
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them.
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While reasonably certain that the boys were not making up
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the story, I am not certain to what degree the facts of the case
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are exagerated or distorted. We need to keep in mind that the
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boys were in a receptive state of mind to have a spooky or
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bizarre event occur, because they had just been trying to "psych
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each other out" with tales of "Freddy". It's undeniable that
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the creatures they described were unbelievably strange, even
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goblin-like in their appearance, like storybook characters. The
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link between saying "Freddy is going to get you" and seeing
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these frightening creatures has to be listed as more than a
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coincidence.
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Furthermore, it is difficult though not impossible to
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believe that a UFO could penetrate an extremely sensitive
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military installation and not be detected. If the incident had
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gone on for much longer it would certainly have stretched the
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bounds of believability to have it go unnoticed and not be
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responded to by security personnel. The fact that the encounter
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was relatively brief in duration tends to lend some credence to
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the possibility that some type of physical object could manuever
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in at tree-top level and then depart so quickly that it could
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evade detection.
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The lack of any noise or downdraft makes a military
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helicopter explanation unlikely. The multiple red and blue
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lights that Mrs. Springsteen observed would also make a
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helicopter or conventional aircraft explanation unlikely. An
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advertising plane might seem at first to be a good candidate for
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the boys' sighting, but there are no ad plane companies still in
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business in the area, and besides, they have no business flying
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around in military restricted airspace. The biggest argument
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against an aircraft misidentification is that no civilian
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aircraft are allowed anywhere near the area. The Trident
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submarine base had been the site of numerous anti-nuclear
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demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience in the early
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1980's, and the Navy security forces get very touchy if anyone
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flies anywhere close to the base, let alone buzzes it at an
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altitude less than 100 feet.
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The fathers of the two boys, both Navy security personnel,
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joked about how seriously their wives were taking the boys'
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accounts, but didn't dispute their stories or offer any
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explanations, other than suggesting somewhat facetiously that it
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may have been the Russians. That seems an extremely unlikely
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explanation, given the severe diplomatic repercussions that
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would result should they get caught. The families decided not
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to report the sighting to anyone in authority at the base, and
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to this day I don't believe the Base Commander knows anything
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about it. It remains a perplexing story, open to either an
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unusual psychological explanation, or interpretation as a truely
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anomalistic aerial phenomenon.
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