UFOs in Wartime: What They Didn't Want You To Know

by Mack Maloney

  Lieutenant Colonel Halt even sent blankets and food out to the airman during his vigil, but Burroughs refused to use them.

  * * *

  Once the Cold War ended, RAF Woodbridge and RAF Bentwaters were closed. Bentwaters was turned into a business park. Woodbridge is used today by the British army for training exercises.

  The Rendlesham Forest itself was all but destroyed during England’s “Great Storm of 1987.” Since then many of the damaged trees have been replanted, though one report stated that glass globules were found in soil taken from the clearing where the first object had been seen. The same report said the area was also free of microbial growth.

  The Rendlesham case is still investigated by ufologists today.

  PART EIGHT

  The Gulf War and Beyond

  19

  War in the Garden of Eden

  Operation Desert Shield

  While the area around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers — ancient Babylonia and now present-day Iraq — is considered to be the cradle of civilization, the actual history of the place is one of violence and war.

  The Babylonian creation myth is a story of one god being dismembered by another, the remains scattered across the cosmos to form the universe. Ancient Sumerian legends abound, with winged monsters battling each other above the clouds before crashing to Earth. The first recorded war in human history was fought in Mesopotamia around 3200 B.C. In fact, so many wars have been fought in the area over the millennia, even historians can lose count.

  If the ancient Achaemenian prophecy that says the world will come to an end when Satan throws a comet at the earth proves true, chances are good that comet will come down somewhere near the Persian Gulf.

  It’s no surprise, then, that soon after August 2, 1990, the day Saddam Hussein, then dictatorial ruler of Iraq, ordered his troops to invade the neighboring Persian Gulf country of Kuwait, strange things began showing up in the skies over the troubled Middle East.

  * * *

  Saddam’s invasion was a grab for oil. In response, the United States and its allies began an enormous military buildup called Operation Desert Shield, its purpose being the eventual ejection of Saddam’s troops from Kuwait.

  So, as men and material from multiple countries poured into bases throughout the Middle East, the sight of all kinds of advanced, high-tech machines flying overhead became commonplace. But clearly some sightings did not fit the description of any known aircraft.

  For instance, according to a report by the National UFO Reporting Center at www.nuforc.org, on a clear evening in September 1990, just weeks after Saddam’s invasion, a U.S. Air Force advance unit working in the desert near Cairo, Egypt, had a very strange experience.

  The seventy-member group was constructing a MASH facility and a fueling base in preparation for coming hostilities against Iraq. The group had finished work for the day and was heading back to their quarters when they were suddenly aware of a formation of pale orange objects flying high overhead. Aligned in a pair of parallel chevrons, as if forming a huge W, there were at least one hundred UFOs in the formation moving across the night sky.

  Initially, the objects were traveling from the southeast to the northwest. But as the puzzled air force recruits looked on, the entire formation abruptly changed direction and began flying due north. In all, the phenomenon was visible for more than a half hour.

  The next day the air force learned there had been no Egyptian or U.S. military aircraft overhead that night. In fact, no air traffic, military or commercial, had been scheduled for that airspace at all.

  The sighting, so clearly reminiscent of Sergeant Stephen Brickner’s famous Tulagi episode of World War II, was never explained.

  * * *

  According to a story on unsolvedmysteries.com, in November 1990, two months before hostilities broke out in the Gulf, four soldiers on guard duty at a U.S. Army compound in Al-Jubail, Saudi Arabia, saw a bright, blue white object traveling across the sky.

  They judged it to be about 25,000 feet high — and surprisingly it made no sound. It flew slowly at first, following a seemingly random course that left a zigzag light trail overhead. After watching it for a short while, the soldiers saw it suddenly accelerate on a straight course and disappear in less than a second.

  Around the same time, several marines also deployed in the area saw a similar object moving across the night sky. It too vanished in an instant.

  Again, what surprised them was that they heard no sound. Otherwise, they would have thought they were looking at a helicopter.

  * * *

  Later the same month, a resident of Kerak, Jordan, was watching some storm clouds roll in from the Red Sea. The witness noticed one cloud was darker and at a lower altitude than the others; this cloud also seemed to be traveling at right angles to the rest.

  This made no sense — but it got even stranger. As the witness watched in astonishment, the odd cloud separated itself from the rest of the cloud bank and flew directly overhead.

  Within this strange cloud, the witness saw an oval object, metallic and silver gold in color. It was at least 100 feet long and had rapidly flashing red lights on it. The witness sensed that it was emitting a vibration, but there was no noise.

  This object seemed to be heading toward Israel — not a good thing in a region that was well within range of Iraq’s much-feared Scud missiles.

  The witness continued watching the UFO until it faded over the horizon, its exact destination unknown.

  * * *

  One night in December 1990, crewmen aboard the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy were preparing for action in the Persian Gulf.

  Suddenly, a very bright, greenish yellow UFO appeared in the sky high over the massive aircraft carrier. The oval-shaped object remained stationary for almost a minute, as though it was spying on the huge ship.

  Then the amazed crew saw what looked like an opening in the fabric of space. It drew the UFO into it, then closed instantly behind the object.

  * * *

  Another story found on the Web claimed that on January 15, 1991, just two days before the start of the war, a large number of U.S. soldiers saw a UFO over their camp in Saudi Arabia.

  The object was oblong and bluish green in color. But it was its size that was so astonishing. Witnesses said the UFO was at least a quarter mile long and almost 1,000 feet wide. Gigantic by any standard of measurement.

  The UFO appeared very suddenly and hovered silently over the troops for a long period of time. Then it eventually rose up and disappeared into the stars.

  Many soldiers took pictures of the strange object, but the next day, witnesses said, military security people arrived at the camp and confiscated all the troopers’ film.

  Operation Desert Storm

  The Gulf War began on January 17, 1991.

  Code-named Operation Desert Storm, the opening shots were fired when President George H. W. Bush gave the go-ahead for a massive air strike on Iraq.

  A story on nuforc.com tells of a startling incident that happened just after Bush’s order. At 2:46 A.M. on that first day, a formation of four army MH-60 Black Hawk helicopters was making its way toward Iraq’s border with Kuwait. Through his night vision goggles, the lead pilot spotted what he assumed was an F-117 “Stealth Fighter” approaching the formation at an altitude of just 1,000 feet.

  This was odd. The premission briefing the copter pilots had received made it clear there were not supposed to be any U.S. fighter aircraft in their area of operations. So what was this?

  The object came within a quarter mile of the Black Hawks then slowed to a speed well below that of an F-117. At that point the chopper pilots knew this was not a Stealth Fighter.

  The object turned sharply to the north, revealing a size of more than 80 feet long — far bigger than that of an F-117. It showed no lights and was not emitting any heat.

  At that point, the object disappeared. When the team returned to base after completing their mission, the lead pilot asked flight oper
ations if any fighters had been in their area of operations.

  The response confirmed the earlier information: No other aircraft had flown anywhere near the Black Hawks at any time during their mission.

  * * *

  In March 1991, shortly after most hostilities had ceased, two American soldiers in the desert about 50 miles from the Euphrates River spotted something odd in the sky.

  According to the story on UFOcasebook.com, it was after midnight, and the soldiers were on guard duty, looking out for any die-hard Iraqis who might want to attack their bivouacked army unit. As it was, the unit was only partially hidden by a couple of sand dunes, so everyone was on alert. Still, as all of the Coalition bombing had ended the day before, for the first time in a long while, the night was actually quiet.

  Suddenly, the two soldiers spotted a greenish ball of light high in the sky. It moved very slowly, pulsating at times, heading for the horizon. The soldiers had no idea what it was.

  Moments later, their sergeant happened upon the scene. They pointed out the UFO to him, but he had no idea what it was, either. The soldiers radioed their headquarters to see if any fighter jets or commercial flights would be flying over their position. They were told no.

  Still watching the UFO, the men were again astonished when the object suddenly accelerated to tremendous speed. When that happened, everything for miles around was lit up in the same greenish light. One soldier compared it to a hundred cars suddenly turning on their headlights at once. And with that, the object was over the horizon and gone.

  The soldiers called their headquarters to see if any Scud missiles had been fired or if there had been any reports of planes crashing. But they were told nothing unusual had happened that night.

  The next morning, about two hundred Iraqi soldiers surrendered to the American unit, eagerly giving up their weapons in the process.

  Whether the Iraqis had also seen the UFO, and whether it had an effect on their surrender, was not known.

  * * *

  Another incident after the end of hostilities happened in the northern city of Zahko, Iraq.

  According to a story found on www.rense.com a unit of American paratroopers had set up camp in a partially blasted-out building near the center of the city. The paratroopers would frequently sleep on the roof of this building, as it was cooler in the hot Iraqi nights.

  One such night, a paratrooper was looking for satellites going over in the clear, starry sky, when he noticed a strange light. He thought he’d found a satellite at first, but then, inexplicably, whatever it was suddenly stopped in midorbit. It stayed motionless for a few moments, then resumed moving again.

  Convinced that his eyes were playing tricks on him, the paratrooper mentioned it to one of his fellow soldiers. He asked him to watch the object as well. And at first this soldier thought it was a satellite, too — until it stopped in mid-flight again.

  For the next few minutes, the two soldiers watched the object, as it would move north, stop for a few moments, then resume crossing the sky. Even stranger, anytime the object would stop, the sky around it would almost explode in brightness, the object getting brighter than the brightest star in the sky, before becoming so dim, it would almost disappear.

  The first trooper finally yelled to the others in his unit, and soon up to two dozen paratroopers were watching as the object went through a series of elaborate maneuvers including slow deliberate circles and figure eights.

  The sighting ended when the object stopped in the middle of a figure eight, hung motionless for a moment and then rocketed off to the northeast faster, as one witness put it, than the human eye could keep up with it.

  * * *

  When it comes to UFO sightings in wartime, this handful of eyewitness accounts above doesn’t seem any less plausible than any other episodes presented so far.

  But a trio of other incidents, though of dubious authenticity, persist when it comes to UFO lore, the first Gulf War and beyond.

  One maintains that U.S Navy ships patrolling the Persian Gulf during the war shot down a UFO. This supposedly highly classified shoot down happened during daylight hours on January 24, 1991, just a week after the hostilities had begun.

  As the story goes, the unidentified flying object was first picked up on radar by a host of navy ships supporting the allied combat operations in the upper gulf. According to its radar tracks, the object was flying in a very bizarre manner and outside the realm of even the most high-tech Coalition warplane. Crews of the ships involved quickly acquired the object visually, describing it as saucer shaped, chromium plated and emitting a high-pitched piercing sound.

  The object flew close to a group of American ships, including the USS Wisconsin, USS England and USS O’Brien. Then it buzzed a pair of British frigates, the HMS Battleaxe and HMS Jupiter, as well.

  All five vessels fired on the object, nearly expending their ammunition before the combined barrage had any effect. The object was finally hit and was seen going down into the gulf.

  But there are no reports of any wreckage ever being found.

  * * *

  The second incident involves an F-16 fighter jet dogfighting and then shooting down a UFO over Saudi Arabia at the height of the war.

  The principal purveyor of this episode is a shadowy Russian colonel worthy of a James Bond novel. The Russian officer just happened to be in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, when the shoot-down episode took place. He claimed to be one of the first people to know the location of the UFO’s crash site, which was deep in the Saudi desert, some 250 miles northeast of Riyadh.

  Saudi radar technicians told the Russian officer the details of the air battle. Four U.S. Air Force F-16s were on a mission to Baghdad when an unidentified blip appeared on their radar screens. As the Saudi technicians watched, one of the F-16s left the formation and started chasing the UFO. The UFO changed directions in an attempt to escape, but the F-16 continued in pursuit. The UFO then apparently fired a weapon at the F-16 but missed. The F-16 returned fire with two missiles — and both hit the craft. The UFO went down in flames.

  The Saudis said no one was seen ejecting from the stricken craft. But even though helicopters scoured the area over the crash site, no bodies or survivors were found.

  The Russian colonel said the United States immediately tried to cover up the incident, saying it never happened. But upon reaching the crash site and seeing the wreckage for himself, the Russian knew it was not from any known earthly aircraft. He estimated about one third of the object had been destroyed by the American missiles, leaving the rest scattered on the desert floor.

  The colonel described the downed craft as having been circular and built of some unrecognizable material. It was about 15 feet long and, judging by the seats within, built for someone, or something, of small stature. The Russian says he saw instruments, machinery and other things that defied description. This included markings on the instrument panels that were written in some indecipherable language. The Saudis who accompanied him to the crash site were so frightened by the strange debris, and what it might mean, they requested that American investigators come to the crash site immediately.

  When the U.S. military finally arrived, the colonel said he and his men were immediately ordered out of the area. They were eventually flown back to Riyadh.

  The colonel was reported to have said: “There were things the Americans didn’t want us to see.”

  And though his men were able to surreptitiously take photographs of the UFO’s wreckage, the next day, the colonel was ordered by authorities from his own country to turn over all photos of the crash site to them.

  The colonel said he learned later that the U.S. Army eventually gathered up the crash debris, put it into crates and flew it all back to the United States.

  * * *

  The third story having to do with UFOs and warfare in the Persian Gulf region also has surprising resiliency — and brings the whole story right up to the present day. What’s more, it’s also connected to the same my
sterious Russian colonel.

  This account always seems to start out with the same question: Did Saddam Hussein at one time possess a UFO?

  This, in turn, leads to two more questions: Did Saddam’s regime have its own top secret version of Area 51? And if so, was this where the elusive WMD, the unfound weapons of mass destruction that led to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, were actually stored?

  Even before that massive assault against Saddam began, there were persistent reports that the dictator had come into possession of a damaged UFO, possibly shot down either during the 1991 war, or more likely around 1998, while the U.S. military was enforcing a strict no-fly zone over Iraq.

  That particular scenario starts on December 16, 1998, when a video clip, said to have aired on CNN, appeared to show a UFO flying over Baghdad. The object was seen trying to avoid antiaircraft fire being shot at it by Saddam’s forces.

  At the time it was assumed this was just another UFO sighting, one of dozens that take place around the world every day. But then rumors started bubbling up that maybe the UFO was actually hit by the AA fire, shot down and recovered by Saddam’s military.

  As the story went, the UFO, or pieces of it, were then taken to Iraq’s version of Area 51, a place known as Qalaat-e-Julundi. Once there, Saddam had his weapons experts reverse engineer the alien technology, and from that, create some mind boggling WMD.

  So, was this fantastic weapons cache what the United States was secretly after all along? Was this the elusive WMD?

  Even scientists within Iraq didn’t totally discount this theory. Some even took it one step further by claiming that extraterrestrials who’d survived the UFO crash had been living in the modern Babylonia under Saddam’s protection.

  One scientist was quoted before the 2003 invasion as saying: “It is rumored at a market in Sulaimaniya, to the south of Zarzi, that aliens are Saddam’s guests. Where do they stay? People mention some underground base at the old stronghold Qalaat-e-Julundi. It is practically impossible to penetrate into it. The citadel stands on a hill surrounded with vertical precipices on three sides; the precipices plunge down to the Little Zab River. It is said that Saddam lets aliens stay there.”