I was the Officer in charge of optical Instrumentation at vandenberg air force Base in the 1369th photo squadron And as such it was my duty to supervise The Instrumentation photography of every Missile that went down the western test Range In those days we called them icbms Inter-county ballistic missiles because Most of them blew up on launch And our job was to determine why they Blew up To provide the engineers good enough Engineering sequential photography so They could see what was wrong with with The bird as it Took off in flight what we photographed Up there affected me for the rest of my Life And made a huge impact on my Understanding of the universe And of Governmental manipulation of of our Minds The purpose of them was they were Ballistic missiles they were to deliver Nuclear weapons on targets that’s what They were What they were there for we weren’t Launching real nuclear weapons we were Watching dummy warheads they were the Exact size
Shape and dimension and weight of a Nuclear warhead for my Stunning achievement in finding a place Where i could look back at vandenberg Air force base from up north and for Figuring out how to transmit the timing Up there And for getting the the the thing set up I was awarded the air force guided Missile insignia i was the first Photographic officer in the air force to Get the They called it the missile badge it was A highly coveted Uh thing at the time it was definitely In 1964 Because florence mansman confirmed that And he knew He had written it down and knew the Exact date of it They counted down the missile we heard Engine ignition Lift off we knew the missile was Underway and we were looking Down south southwest And the missile popped up through the Fog it was just beautiful And i hollered there it is then our guys On our m45 tracking mount with 180 inch Lenses on it got it and the big bu Telescope swung over and got It and we followed the thing and sure Enough we could see all three stages of Powered flight as they burned out and
Dropped away And then of course to our naked eye all We saw was a con smoke trail going off Into Subspace as it headed off toward its Target which was annie weetawk island Any we talk atol So we whoopies and shouted and heard the Film wrap off in the in the The bu telescope and figured well that Was our First big deal we got it we sent the Film back down to To vandenberg and i don’t know exactly How long it was after the The the event it might have been a day Or two I was called into major major mans man’s Office at the first strategic aerospace Division headquarters And i walked into his office and they Had a screen and a 16 millimeter Projector set up There was a couch and major management Said sit down and there were two guys as I recall Two guys in gray suits civilian clothes Which was fairly unusual And a major advancement said watch this And turned on the film projector and i Watched the screen and There was the launch from the day or two Before at Big sur it was quite exciting because
Of the length of the telescope as the Atlas missile Entered the frame we could see the whole Third stage which is which has two Uh rocket nozzles like this and one in The center a gimbaled one in the center Fill in our frame from a hundred and About 160 miles those pretty exciting Optics we watched that stage burn out we Watched the second stage burn out we Watched the third stage burn out And into the frame came something else It flew into the frame like this And it shot a beam of light at the Warhead which is represented by my thumb Here Now remember all this stuff is flying at Several thousand miles an hour So this thing fires a beam of light at The warhead hits it And then this thing flies up like this Meanwhile we’re all going like this Fires another beam of light goes around Like this We’re going like this fires another beam Of light goes down like this fires Another beam of light and then flies out The way it came in And the warhead tumbles out of the outer Space Now i saw that i don’t give a god Damn what anybody else says about it i Saw that on film Phil class can kiss my ass he wasn’t
There i was Now when the lights came on major Mansman turned around and looked at me And said Were you guys screwing around up there And i said no sir And he said what was that And i said it looks to me like we got a Ufo Now the thing that we saw this object That flew in Was circular was shaped like a two Saucers Cupped like this with a ping pong ball On top the beam of light came out of the Ping pong ball That’s what i saw on film now major Mansman Said to me after some Discussion about it and He said you are never to speak of this Again As far as you’re concerned this never Happened And i said well and he said i don’t need To To emphasize the the the Dire consequences of a security breach Do i I said no sir and he said fine this Never happened So i started for the door he said wait a Minute he said years from now If you’re ever forced by someone to talk
About this You are to tell them it was laser Strikes laser tracking strikes Well in 1964 we didn’t have any laser Tracking strikes we didn’t have any Laser tracking at all lasers were In their infancy in 1964 they were Little playthings in laboratories So i said yes sir and walked out and That was the last i talked about it for 18 years I didn’t talk about it to anybody at Vandenberg air force base Nobody in my squadron knew about it Nobody saw the film but me My commanding officer major lewis s Clement jr didn’t see it My operations officer captain kenneth r Callahan didn’t see it His assistant lieutenant ronaldo baylor Didn’t see it Their assistant chief warrant officer Guy m spooner Didn’t see it nobody in my squadron saw It and i didn’t talk about it to anybody Under direct orders from major florence J Mansman jr Consequently no one at vandenberg that i Know of knows anything about this That sounds real suspicious doesn’t it Somebody should have seen it somebody Should have talked about it well They didn’t because in those days
I didn’t talk about top secret things That i was told not to talk about There are things that i know about that I did in the service that i won’t talk About to you now because they’re top Secret and i could get my ass in trouble For talking about them After 18 years it occurred to me that i Could talk about this one incident Because nobody ever told me it was Classified top secret If you parse what major mansman said he Said you are to say This never happened well that’s not Classifying it top secret is it Didn’t happen to anybody else it’s not a Second hand story this Happened to me and i was a part of a United states air force cover-up for 18 Years The object the points of light That we saw the warhead and so forth Were traveling through subspace About 60 miles straight up and they were Going somewhere in the neighborhood of 11 to 14 000 miles an hour when this Thing caught up to them flew in Flew around and went like this and flew Back out everything was going about 211 and 14 000 miles an hour that way It was saucer shaped it was circular And rounded on the top and bottom and it Had a little dome in the In right straight in the center of it
From which this beam emitted After that article hit the hit the Fan I started being harassed at work i Started By odd telephone calls it would come During the day At night at my house i would get Telephone calls All night long sometimes three o’clock In the morning four o’clock in the Morning Midnight 10 o’clock people would call And start screaming at me You’re going down you’re Going down And that’s all they’d say and they keep Screaming that until i finally hung up The phone One night somebody blew up my mailbox by Putting A big load of skyrockets in it The mailbox went up in flames and that Night at one o’clock in the morning the Phone rang i picked it up and somebody Said Skyrockets in your box at night oh what A beautiful sight And things like that have happened on And off for Since 1982 i told You that since this History channel thing came up and since
You’ve started asking questions and Obviously this This thing is in the wind again i’m Starting to get telephone calls again My wife and i get phone calls out here In nowhere illinois where we’ve We’ve retreated out to our farm and what Are some of the recent calls been what Have they done they don’t say anything They simply You pick up the phone and say hello Hello and there’s a Click It’s disconcerting yeah but i’ve learned To not give a flip I just don’t care anymore what are they Going to do kill me Are they gonna do discredit me are they Gonna do any more than philip class has Already done to me are they gonna make Me look foolish That’s about all they can do i i believe It’s a belief system of mine that that This nutty fringe around ufos Is part of the the the sort of concerted Effort to keep serious study of it down Anytime anybody tries to To to study this subject seriously or Subject to ridicule Um i’m a full professor at a relatively Major university And i’m certain that my colleagues at The university Laugh at me and hoot and holler behind
My back when they hear that i have an Interest in studying Unidentified flying objects and that’s Just one of the things that we have to Live with Was i in the air force the air force Denied it Was i ever at vandenberg well of course I couldn’t because i wasn’t the air Force how could i have been at Vandenberg Did i put a tracking site at big sur California no there was no tracking side Of big sur california Which is a crock the tracking side of Big sur california Is still there right where i put it and They use it to show you every time the The space shuttle lands in california That’s where you first see it from And they’re still photographing missiles From vandenberg from that tracking site Any rate uh to corroborate my story Lee graham tracked down florence j Mansman jr the same major who had Ordered me to shut up about it He was now a phd uh from stanford in Nuclear physics i think i’m not sure What his what his background was but it Was it was a phd from From stanford and a rancher in fresno California And he wrote to lee back saying Everything bob said in his story is
Absolutely true he corroborated my story And he continued to do that year after Year every time somebody brought it up Every time somebody would contact him he Corroborated my story by saying yes That’s exactly what happened it takes a Lot of guts to do that I became a fan of sonny’s he’s a he’s Now deceased he was my hero for a while I wasn’t in the room at the time but What happened to the film is an Interesting story in itself As major mansman told me and other People Sometime after i had gone the Guys in civilian clothes and he said There were three of them i remembered Two He said there were three people from This agency and i thought it was the cia He said no it wasn’t the cia it was Somebody else and i never did find out Who it was He said what happened is this they took The film And they spooled off the part that had The ufo on it and they took a pair of Scissors and cut it off they put that on A separate reel they put in their Briefcase They handed major mansman back the rest Of the film and said here I don’t need to remind you major mansman Of this
The severity of the security breach will Consider this Incident closed and they walked off with The film Major mansman never saw it again and as Far as i’m concerned or Nobody else ever saw it again certainly Not at vanderburgh i’m certain that it Left vandenberg and went somewhere else The major mansman who was a a very good Reader of film said that the Feeling at the time was that it must Have been extraterrestrial That they assumed that the beam of light That struck the warhead the dummy Warhead Was some sort of plasma beam because it Looked like a plasma beam And they were assuming it was something Like that Major florence j mansman was a man of Great honor And great scientific standing in in in The in the community For him to corroborate it is good enough For me Even if i didn’t believe myself i would Believe major mansprings Now there were there were two of us who Were air force officers at the time And we saw something and we have both Corroborated with each other that we saw That That’s what we we recall from from the
Incident And what i have to ask skeptics for People who disbelieve what i’m saying is Why would i make this up Why would major florence j mansman dr Major g Florence j manson why would he make it Up why what what have we to gain I’ve made no money from this i’ve got Nothing but Pain and suffering out of it out of Talking about it i’ve been harassed at My home This was used against me partially and Losing a job once and teaching I’ve had a hell of a time after i’ve Told this story but i continue to tell The story because i think it’s important For people to understand that this sort Of goes on In the government that the government Covers up Information that we are entitled to know About as citizens in this country That’s why i tell my story it’s why i’m Telling it to you and i’ll continue to Tell it as long as i’m alive And i’ll always tell it the same way Because it only happened one way I never vary the story because i can’t It’s the truth And i’ve been the subject of humiliating Letters and phone calls from From skeptics like james oberg at nasa
And philip j class is an idiot paid Informative the united states government Who persistent in belittling me and That’s fine if they want to belittle Belittle me but don’t belittle sonny Mansman The things that were denied specifically First of all was that i was ever in the Air force they had no record of me I was at vandenberg no he had no record Of that once we found oh he wasn’t Vandenberg well He was never a big sir because we don’t Have a tracking side of big sur well we Proved that Um that that’s the nature of Bureaucratic idiocy the air force’s Position right now is there was no such Incident and there was no film of it The thing that’s important to me about This whole operation Is very simply The biggest event in the history of Humankind is the discovery that we are Not alone That there are other living entities Intelligent entities In this universe or other universes and That we aren’t here alone That’s a huge enormous discovery It’s the discovery of the of the of the Lifetime Of humankind isn’t it to find out that We’re not here alone
That’s why i think it’s important to Talk about these things i think that’s Exciting And i think that it’s important for us As as humans to to To come to term to grow up uh arthur c Clark’s childhood’s end to grow up and Recognize that We may not be the paragon of animals After all That there may be something out there That’s bigger and more exciting than we Are And that just maybe just maybe They’re telling us something now What i saw that day was something Shooting down a dummy nuclear warhead What message would i interpret from that Don’t mess with nuclear warheads That’s probably the message i would Interpret from from that i’d say oh Maybe somebody doesn’t want us Annihilating moscow maybe we should stop Doing that i’m not sure that’s that’s What went on But ronald reagan one night one on Television did the most astonishing Thing Most astonishing he stood up in front of America and said We’re going to build a defensive Shield we’re going to call it sdi The strategic defense initiative and its Mission is going to be
To protect us to protect all of us He said ronald reagan said we’re going To share this With everybody we’re going to share it With the russians Who our enemies the guys that only a few Years ago we were throwing We were pretending to annihilate oh Suddenly we’re going to protect them With a shield From whom are we going to protect them i Just find some interesting patterns in In life and that’s one of the patterns That i thought might be Important perhaps that was the first Shot across the bow First warning shot from somebody saying Knock this off kids it’s time to grow up You don’t want to annihilate this planet Do you Could be my take on what happened there Is based on Not only my own speculation but having Read other things and talked to other People over the intervening years that Maybe The whole thing had something to do with A preview of the strategic defense Initiative For star wars it’s another possibility i Suppose If you if you agree that perhaps Our paranoia is unfounded and if we Encounter
Beings with superior technologies maybe We should embrace them and be nice to Them because they might be showing us How to survive Something turned those missiles off and So they could not be put In a mode of launching when i was a Commander of a radar squadron up in Maine at caswell air force station Maine we were right next door to lauren Air force base was where that launched The b-52s and the Casey tankers and things like that i had A lot of security friends over there on Lauren Who told me about and i have
