Speaker 1: Hello, this is Richard mc cleinsmith here unexplained. Season seven
Speaker 1: has now finished, but will be back on Friday, September
Speaker 1: sixth to begin season eight. In the meantime, I'm replaying
Speaker 1: some of my favorite episodes from the archives. In the
Speaker 1: early hours of Saturday, July fourteenth, nineteen ninety, in Gulf Breeze, Florida,
Speaker 1: a young man is pulled over for a routine traffic stop.
Speaker 1: Little could anyone have predicted it would begin the unraveling
Speaker 1: of one of the most bizarre cases of desertion in
Speaker 1: the United States militaries entire history. The title of this
Speaker 1: episode is taken from a song by the Cure. It
Speaker 1: wasn't so much the lyric that reflected the themes of
Speaker 1: the episode, but more the title of the song. It
Speaker 1: was taken from Disintegration And so this is unexplained Season five,
Speaker 1: episode four. How the end or ways? Considering the amount
Speaker 1: of high strangeness that residents of Golf Breeze, Florida had
Speaker 1: become accustomed to over the previous few months, a nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy one VW van with busted tail lights was hardly unusual.
Speaker 1: It was back in nineteen eighty seven that the quiet
Speaker 1: town of Golf Breeze, nestled at the tip of Pensacola
Speaker 1: Bay in the northwest of Florida, became for a brief moment,
Speaker 1: a hotbed of apparent UFO activity. In late November of
Speaker 1: that year, local resident Ed Walters brought a series of
Speaker 1: photographs he'd taken of an unidentified flying object to the
Speaker 1: attention of Dwayne Cook, editor of local newspaper, The Golf
Speaker 1: Breeze Sentinel. The pictures, evocatively lit, dark and grainy polaroids
Speaker 1: showing the same, almost comically saucer shaped object hanging in
Speaker 1: the sky, did little to convince Cook, until that was
Speaker 1: he showed them to his parents later that night, who
Speaker 1: recognized it instantly as the same strange object they'd seen
Speaker 1: only a few days earlier. And they weren't the only ones.
Speaker 1: Over the next six months, one hundred and thirty five
Speaker 1: people reported eighty different sightings. Many had congregated together at
Speaker 1: UFO watching parties held at Shoreline Park, where they gazed
Speaker 1: out across the Gulf of Mexico and up toward the
Speaker 1: heavens in excited anticipation of just what might be. The
Speaker 1: sightings were lent a further air of credibility when in
Speaker 1: February nineteen eighty eight, City councilwoman Brenda Pollack revealed that
Speaker 1: she too had witnessed something inexplicable while driving across Pensacola
Speaker 1: Bay Bridge. It was there that she caught sight of
Speaker 1: a strange orange light hanging low over the town. The
Speaker 1: light appeared to bob up and down behind distant trees,
Speaker 1: pulsating with no discernible rhythm. It was like nothing she'd
Speaker 1: ever seen before. It was perhaps fitting that such an
Speaker 1: occurrence would take place in this part of the world,
Speaker 1: only ten kilometers across the bay from the pioneering US
Speaker 1: Naval Training School Naval Air Station Pensacola. Since its founding
Speaker 1: in nineteen fourteen, the station has trained thousands of naval aviators,
Speaker 1: and among its most distinguished alumni was none other than
Speaker 1: the first Man on the Moon, Neil Armstrong. But let's
Speaker 1: get back to that VW van. It was sometime around
Speaker 1: three a m. In the early morning of Saturday, July fourteenth,
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety that Golf Breeze police officer Don Stephens cruised
Speaker 1: on to US Highway ninety eight and spotted the errant
Speaker 1: VW Perhaps intrigued by its Tennessee license plate. Stephens was
Speaker 1: already trailing the vehicle when it drew to a stop
Speaker 1: at a set of lights. Seeing then that the tail
Speaker 1: lights were broken, the officer flashed his own lights and
Speaker 1: pulled the van over. Officer Stephens stepped out into the warm,
Speaker 1: humid air, and under that vast blanket of stars, cautiously
Speaker 1: made his way over to the vehicle. Shining his torch
Speaker 1: into the driver's side window, he picked out the nervous
Speaker 1: looking man inside his hands gripped uneasily around the top
Speaker 1: of the steering wheel. Stephens knocked on the window and
Speaker 1: motioned for the driver to wind it down. Good evening, officer,
Speaker 1: said the man. Squinting into the torchlight, Stephens noted his
Speaker 1: accent was some way off of Florida, Wyoming. Perhaps maybe
Speaker 1: he was one of the eight hundred out of towners
Speaker 1: who turned up the previous weekend for the annual Mouffon conference.
Speaker 1: He thought the mutual U f O network had elected
Speaker 1: to have its conference there that year on account of
Speaker 1: the recent spate of sightings in the region. License and Registration,
Speaker 1: said the officer. The driver visibly tensed up. I'm afraid
Speaker 1: I don't have any idea on me, he said. Officer
Speaker 1: Stephens stood for a moment, looking the driver up and
Speaker 1: down as the occasional car wushed past behind. He angled
Speaker 1: the torch toward the back of the van, but found
Speaker 1: no one else inside. Name then, he said, the driver
Speaker 1: seemed to hesitate. Michael Huckstead, he replied. Finally, Stephen's told
Speaker 1: Michael to sit tight while he get the station to
Speaker 1: run his name through the database. Please don't, pleaded Michael,
Speaker 1: suddenly catching Stephens off guard. Back in his squad car,
Speaker 1: Stephens waited on his colleagues at the station until finally
Speaker 1: they found a match Michael Huckstead, nineteen years old from Farsen, Wyoming,
Speaker 1: or rather Private first Class Michael Huckstead of the U. S. Army.
Speaker 1: Michael's name had come up because only a few days before,
Speaker 1: the United States Army had put out a world wide
Speaker 1: plea to be on the lookout for him and five
Speaker 1: of his colleagues, all of whom had, for reasons unknown,
Speaker 1: gone a wall. Officer Stephens made its way back to
Speaker 1: the van and ordered Michael to step out of it.
Speaker 1: You don't know what you've done, said Michael in despair.
Speaker 1: You just signed my death warrant. Mike pleaded again with
Speaker 1: the officer, even offering a bribe to let him go,
Speaker 1: but Stephens had no intention of doing so. After making
Speaker 1: a quick search of the vehicle, officer Stephens found a
Speaker 1: cash of food enough to last for months, as well
Speaker 1: as camping gear and a hambook on how to survive
Speaker 1: in the wild packed in the back. Offering no further resistance,
Speaker 1: Mike was arrested and taken to Golf Breeze Police Station.
Speaker 1: While station Sheriff Jerry Brown waited on word from the
Speaker 1: near by Pensacola Naval Air Station and what to do next.
Speaker 1: It wasn't long before the call came in. You need
Speaker 1: to call Washington, said the official on the other end
Speaker 1: of the line, as in the Pentagon. They want this
Speaker 1: guy bad, real bad. Brown was asked if Mike told
Speaker 1: him where the rest of the deserters were, but he
Speaker 1: was refusing to cooperate. After making the appropriate calls, Brown
Speaker 1: was told only to keep an eye on the prisoner
Speaker 1: and that under no circumstances should he speak to him.
Speaker 1: That six soldiers would simultaneously go a war from the
Speaker 1: United States military was unusual enough in itself, but as
Speaker 1: more and more scraps of information began to filter through.
Speaker 1: The story only got more and more strange. By the
Speaker 1: time it broke in the press. It could well be
Speaker 1: said to be the most bizarre case of desertion in
Speaker 1: the United States Military's entire history. You're listening to Unexplained,
Speaker 1: and I'm Richard McLean Smith. What hadn't been revealed to
Speaker 1: Sheriff Brown at his colleagues was a nineteen year old
Speaker 1: Michael Huckstett was no ordinary foot soldier. He was an
Speaker 1: information specialist trained at Cory Station, the US Navy's Center
Speaker 1: for Information Warfare. Huckstett had been instructed on cryptology, coding
Speaker 1: and decoding communication, and for the past few months had
Speaker 1: been stationed in Augsburg, Germany, where he worked as an
Speaker 1: intelligence analyst, intercepting and identifying non Morse coded communications. There,
Speaker 1: he was assigned to the seven hundred first Military Intelligence
Speaker 1: Brigade as part of US Army Intelligence and Security Command
Speaker 1: on what at the time was the largest national security
Speaker 1: agency base in the world outside the United States. In Augsburg,
Speaker 1: Mike became friends with twenty year old William Setterberg through
Speaker 1: a mutual interest in meditation. At some point the pair
Speaker 1: then became friendly with varm s Davis and Ken Beeson,
Speaker 1: two older colleagues with intriguing ideas about the capabilities of
Speaker 1: human beings. All four of them were Fundamentalist Christians, utterly
Speaker 1: committed to the beliefs of their church. Ken Advance, both
Speaker 1: twenty six years old at the time, had got to
Speaker 1: know each other during their studies on the way to
Speaker 1: working for the U. S. Army. Drawn together by their
Speaker 1: shared interests and Christian faith, they gradually began to open
Speaker 1: up to each other about their somewhat more unusual beliefs
Speaker 1: and experiences. When Ken was five years old, he was
Speaker 1: convinced he'd witnessed a ghost in his bedroom. A few
Speaker 1: years later, he began suffering continual night terrors due to
Speaker 1: what he believed were visions of an impending armageddon. He
Speaker 1: also became convinced that he'd lived a previous life and
Speaker 1: had even once been sacrificed as an offering to the gods.
Speaker 1: As a teenager, fans Davis became convinced that the mind
Speaker 1: was an untapped resource of mystical power, and had even
Speaker 1: enrolled on a silver Mind control course in New York.
Speaker 1: The controversial course developed by Jose Silver in the nineteen
Speaker 1: sixties was designed to help focus the mind in order
Speaker 1: to improve memory, but also, as some believe, to help
Speaker 1: develop the power of extrasensory perception. After taking the course,
Speaker 1: Fans claimed to have mastered the ability to hypnotize himself.
Speaker 1: One day after placing himself in a deep trance, Fans
Speaker 1: believed he made contact with an alien entity who proceeded
Speaker 1: to explain to him that the human race was in
Speaker 1: grave danger and that an intergalactic war was raging throughout
Speaker 1: the galaxy. Shortly after joining the military and completing his
Speaker 1: intelligence training, Vance Davis claims he was posted to Fort
Speaker 1: Mead on account of his proficiency of the Silver mind
Speaker 1: control technique. While there, he was apparently tasked with conducting
Speaker 1: psychic research. Not a great deal is known about Davis's
Speaker 1: time at Fort Meade, or if he really was stationed
Speaker 1: there at all. However, as improbable as his story may sound,
Speaker 1: Fort Meade may be familiar to some listeners as the
Speaker 1: headquarters of just exactly that kind of research. Established in
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven as the Gondola Wish Program, what would
Speaker 1: later become known as the Stargate Project was a fully
Speaker 1: funded twenty year effort to establish the potential for the
Speaker 1: use of psychic phenomena in warfare. The Project X primary
Speaker 1: focus was researching the use of remote viewing, the idea
Speaker 1: that it was possible to spy on people and events
Speaker 1: from great distances using only the power of the mind.
Speaker 1: The unit had been established in response to an insistent
Speaker 1: rumor that the Soviet Union had been investing heavily in
Speaker 1: psychotronic research, the study of whether it was possible to
Speaker 1: destabilize people's minds with the power of thought. Back in
Speaker 1: the early nineteen seventies, research conducted by physicist Russell Targ
Speaker 1: and engineer Harold put Off at the Stamford Research Institute
Speaker 1: hinted at a startling possibility that telepathy might be real.
Speaker 1: Their experiments were so provocative they soon drew the attention
Speaker 1: of the United States Department of Defense. These experiments would
Speaker 1: form the foundation of the Stargate project. One prominent individual
Speaker 1: involved in Stargate was Major Albert Stubblebin, who, as portrayed
Speaker 1: in the John Ronson book The Men Who Stare at Goats,
Speaker 1: had ambitions to create an entire army of soldiers trained
Speaker 1: in psychic warfare Stubblebyn, as it happens, had also spent
Speaker 1: time in Augsburg, Germany, where Vance Davis, Ken Beeson, Bill Setterberg,
Speaker 1: and Michael Huckstet were stationed. Shortly before moving to Augsburg,
Speaker 1: Ken Beeson was reminded of those terrifying dreams he'd experienced
Speaker 1: as a child. Fearful that they might in fact be
Speaker 1: genuine visions of an approaching apocalypse, he began researching ways
Speaker 1: to investigate them. It was sometime in April nineteen ninety
Speaker 1: that Ken purchased at Wigiboort. Intrigued by the possibility of
Speaker 1: seeking his answers from the spirit world, he then invited Vance,
Speaker 1: Bill and Mike to join him. One night, Vance, Bill
Speaker 1: and Mike were gathered together in a private room in
Speaker 1: their barracks as Ken laid out the wigiboard before them.
Speaker 1: Then Vance lit a candle and placed it in the
Speaker 1: middle of the table and switched out the light. Mike
Speaker 1: took charge of the audio recorder as Bill readied himself
Speaker 1: with a paper and pencil to jot down whatever messages
Speaker 1: might come through. Wait said Vance, shouldn't we protect ourselves first?
Speaker 1: As fundamentalists Christians? The four men were wary of the
Speaker 1: inherent dangers in the wigiboard should they actually find themselves
Speaker 1: contacting someone or something from the other side. For protection,
Speaker 1: the men said a short prayer together, asking Jesus to
Speaker 1: give them a sign if they should not proceed. Getting
Speaker 1: nothing in response, the men continued. Ken Advance placed their
Speaker 1: fingers on the planchette. Then Ken asked softly if anybody
Speaker 1: was there. Mike gasped as the planchet began to slide
Speaker 1: slowly burt inexorably toward the word yes, stop messing about,
Speaker 1: yelled Vance. I'm not, replied Ken. Vance glanced around the
Speaker 1: room with the sudden feeling that they were no longer alone.
Speaker 1: Stealing himself, he asked for the present to introduce themselves.
Speaker 1: The planchet began to move again. Ken spoke the letters
Speaker 1: out loud as it moved from one to the other s.
Speaker 1: A F I R E. Sapphire, he said, with confusion,
Speaker 1: as Bill furiously tried to keep parp taking notes. The
Speaker 1: planchet had spelled out that Sapphire once lived in a
Speaker 1: town in Georgia, USA, and had died in the nineteen
Speaker 1: sixties at the age of eighty two. Her attention then
Speaker 1: turned to Ken, Why had he stopped believing in his visions,
Speaker 1: she asked. Ken looked troubled. Why do you ask? He
Speaker 1: said back in return, because they are true, came the response.
Speaker 1: The first Weija session lasted three and a half hours,
Speaker 1: in which the apparent entity Sapphire elaborated on her shocking revelation.
Speaker 1: A cosmic battle between two alien species was being raged
Speaker 1: over Earth, in which the human race were mere pawns.
Speaker 1: Only those with the correct knowledge, she insisted, would survive
Speaker 1: the resulting destruction. With the men thoroughly spooked by their
Speaker 1: first session, it was another two weeks until they gathered
Speaker 1: round the board for a second time, but this time
Speaker 1: Sapphire was not alone. Over the course of eight hours,
Speaker 1: the men claimed to have communicated with numerous entities, calling
Speaker 1: themselves everything from Tannic prophet Zechariah to Mark and Timothy
Speaker 1: of the Christian Bible, and the blessed Virgin Mary herself,
Speaker 1: all of whom attested to the approaching apocalypse. While the
Speaker 1: men struggled to process what was happening, Ken grew increasingly troubled.
Speaker 1: Needing more proof, he demanded that Sapphire provide some concrete
Speaker 1: evidence that she was who she said she was. She
Speaker 1: duly informed them that Ken's grandfather was with her, So
Speaker 1: what's his name? Then snapped Ken, but there was no reply. Then,
Speaker 1: after a five minute pause, the planchete began to move,
Speaker 1: once again, spelling out the name John. Ken jumped from
Speaker 1: his seat, pulling the board from the table. He tore
Speaker 1: it in half and threw it across the room as
Speaker 1: the other men looked on in terror. Before they could
Speaker 1: ask what he was doing, Ken was already out the door.
Speaker 1: It was three days later when Vance had an opportunity
Speaker 1: to check in on his friend. He found Ken alone
Speaker 1: in his room in a somber mood. It was true,
Speaker 1: he told him his grandfather's name was John. It was
Speaker 1: clear then to both of them that they needed to
Speaker 1: learn more from Sapphire. Over the next few weeks, the
Speaker 1: men gathered a further six times to commune with the
Speaker 1: apparent Sapphire, and were eventually joined by twenty year old
Speaker 1: Private first Class Chris Purlock and twenty two year old
Speaker 1: Sergeant Annette Eggleston, who, having heard rumors of what had
Speaker 1: been going on, were eager to see it for themselves.
Speaker 1: During the subsequent sessions, Sapphire explained further that while one
Speaker 1: of the alien races battling for Earth were trying to
Speaker 1: save humanity, the other was trying to destroy it. They
Speaker 1: had apparently even made a deal with members of the
Speaker 1: US government to give them power in return for the
Speaker 1: opportunity to carry out a mass abduction of the Earth's
Speaker 1: human population. This would be preceded by a series of
Speaker 1: cataclysmic events that would effectively bring about the end of
Speaker 1: the world as they knew it. If the group took
Speaker 1: her advice, however, they would be taken off the planet
Speaker 1: and saved from this fate through the prism of their
Speaker 1: fundamentalist Christian belief system. The group came to the conclusion
Speaker 1: that what Sapphire was detailing was, in actuality, the rapture
Speaker 1: which would make the impending destruction. She spoke of the Tribulation,
Speaker 1: a period of worldwide suffering and pain which is said
Speaker 1: in the Bible to proceed or in fact mark the
Speaker 1: end times, which would then be followed by the arrival
Speaker 1: of the second Coming of Jesus. It was claimed that
Speaker 1: Sapphire gave the group a series of predictions, a list
Speaker 1: of violent events and cataclysms that would take place over
Speaker 1: the next decade in an effort to convince them further
Speaker 1: of her warnings. The first prediction, an earthquake in Iran
Speaker 1: that would supposedly result in tens of thousands being killed
Speaker 1: or injured, would take place imminently. Another was that sometime
Speaker 1: in the not too distant future, a war would break
Speaker 1: out in the Middle East between the United States and Iraq.
Speaker 1: The group finally had what they were looking for, something
Speaker 1: concrete to lend credibility to the apparent entities improbable claims.
Speaker 1: All they had to do then was weight. It had
Speaker 1: just gone past midnight local time in the early morning
Speaker 1: of June twenty first, nineteen twenty, when, two hundred kilometers
Speaker 1: northwest of the Iranian capital, Tehran, the ground shook with
Speaker 1: devastating fury, with the initial shake lasting sixty seconds. An
Speaker 1: earthquake measuring seven point four on the Richter scale ruptured
Speaker 1: a dam, tore off chunks of mountainside, and raised more
Speaker 1: than one hundred townsand villages to the ground in an
Speaker 1: earth shattering hail of bricks and water, burying thousands in
Speaker 1: its wake. In total, up to forty thousand people were
Speaker 1: thought to have been killed, and upwards of one hundred
Speaker 1: thousand injured. Sapphire's prediction, it seemed, had come true. It
Speaker 1: was a few days later when Stan Johnson, a friend
Speaker 1: of Ken Beeson's, was at home in byb Tennessee when
Speaker 1: he received an unexpected phone call. It was Ken calling
Speaker 1: from Germany. The pair had become friends not long after
Speaker 1: Ken finished his army training in nineteen eighty seven, but
Speaker 1: had not spoken a great deal in recent months. Without
Speaker 1: wanting to go into too much detail about why, Ken
Speaker 1: asked Stan to find him a van big enough to
Speaker 1: fit six people in it. When Stan got back to
Speaker 1: him to let him know he'd found one, Ken then
Speaker 1: told his confused friend to meet him at the nearby
Speaker 1: Knoxville McGee Tyson Airport on July sixth. Sure enough, on
Speaker 1: July sixth, Ken arrived at Knoxville accompanied by Michael Huckstead,
Speaker 1: with Stand there to meet them. They drove together to
Speaker 1: the home of Bill Grant in nearby Morristown. Bill thought
Speaker 1: little of the men when they assembled on his driveway
Speaker 1: to inspect the van he was selling them and was
Speaker 1: happy to accept their money for it. It was only
Speaker 1: when he asked them shortly before they left what they
Speaker 1: planned to use it for that he was given pause
Speaker 1: for thought, Ken explained matter of factly that they needed
Speaker 1: the van to drive to Pensacola Beach to prepare for
Speaker 1: the end of the world and the second coming of Jesus,
Speaker 1: and if they didn't make it in time, he said,
Speaker 1: they would not be taken into the Kingdom of Heaven,
Speaker 1: and with that they were gone. Back at their barracks
Speaker 1: in Aortsburg, Ken Beeson and Mike Huckstet's, superiors of the
Speaker 1: seven hundred and first Military Intelligence Brigade, were growing concerned.
Speaker 1: Though the pair had signed off on leave, A letter
Speaker 1: left behind by Ken seemed to suggest that something unusual
Speaker 1: was going on to whom it concerns. It began, we
Speaker 1: are of sound mind and spirit. You will want to
Speaker 1: hide this letter, but we recommend that it be forwarded
Speaker 1: to the highest possible command. The following letter may sound wild,
Speaker 1: but what was said about the apostles in Christ's time?
Speaker 1: For it is said in the end young men will
Speaker 1: see visions of that to come and hide themselves away
Speaker 1: for the battle. May you take warning in this time
Speaker 1: has come for a decision to be made, and they
Speaker 1: made theirs. Their works will be known throughout the land,
Speaker 1: and many will be murdered for knowing them. You will
Speaker 1: search for these and thousands more like them, but you
Speaker 1: will be searching for naught. God takes care of his
Speaker 1: elect and those that follow them. It went on. If
Speaker 1: you listen to this letter, you who claim to be
Speaker 1: of Christ, our Lord, those of you who know of
Speaker 1: the truth and feel its pull, then leave all and
Speaker 1: search for the Elect and their followers, as they are
Speaker 1: of God's chosen leaders. You of the world, listen carefully.
Speaker 1: The time is now to wake up your spirits and
Speaker 1: heed the warning. I am the last to speak to
Speaker 1: you ever. Now the Elect take over the mission of
Speaker 1: the apostles. Further searches around Ken and Mike's barracks uncovered
Speaker 1: the term end of world written on various pieces of paper.
Speaker 1: A short time later, it was realized that Vance Davis,
Speaker 1: William Setterberg, Chris Purlock, and Annette eccleston had also disappeared
Speaker 1: from the base, and so it was that on July ninth,
Speaker 1: a worldwide alert was issued to bring them back back.
Speaker 1: At that police station in Golf Breeze, Mike was still
Speaker 1: refusing to give up the whereabouts of the others whose
Speaker 1: some had begun, referring to as the end of the
Speaker 1: world group. Meanwhile, at the home of Anna Foster, a
Speaker 1: few minutes drive away, there was a knock at the door. Foster,
Speaker 1: a self described psychic, had befriended Chris Purlock and later
Speaker 1: Ken Beeson while they were stationed in Pensacola. She opened
Speaker 1: the door to find two FBI officers waiting outside. Bursting
Speaker 1: into the property, the officers quickly located the rest of
Speaker 1: the group, who had all been hiding out at Foster's apartment,
Speaker 1: with the exception of a net who was picked up
Speaker 1: soon after from a local camping site. The group's possessions,
Speaker 1: including four thousand dollars worth of cash, suit cases, Foster's computer,
Speaker 1: and floppy discs, were all confiscated. Vance Davis alleged later
Speaker 1: that all the papers and notes pertaining to the Wigia
Speaker 1: board sessions were also confiscated. Strangely, the officers were under
Speaker 1: orders not to ask any questions, merely to arrest the
Speaker 1: deserters and have them delivered to the brig at Pensacola
Speaker 1: Naval Air Station, where they were joined soon after by
Speaker 1: Michael Huckstadt. The following day, the group were flown two
Speaker 1: hundred odd miles to Fort Benning in Georgia for interrogation
Speaker 1: before being taken to Fort Knox in Kentucky for further questioning.
Speaker 1: With the press picking up the story soon after. Speculation
Speaker 1: was rife about just who the group were and what
Speaker 1: they were intending to do, as the public waited with
Speaker 1: bated breath to learn their fate, with the group having
Speaker 1: been in custody since July fourteenth, The Pentagon gave an
Speaker 1: official briefing on the incident on the seventeenth, describing the
Speaker 1: six as being part of an end of the World cult.
Speaker 1: Two days later, a relative told the press the group
Speaker 1: had in fact been heading to Florida to expose a
Speaker 1: government cover up of UFOs. Soon after, the Pentagon retracted
Speaker 1: their statement. With no more information forthcoming, relatives of the
Speaker 1: group grew increasingly concerned about their well being. In response,
Speaker 1: Chris Purlock's mother began a public media campaign to help
Speaker 1: get them released. On July nineteenth, they were formally charged
Speaker 1: with desertion, a crime that ordinarily would lead to at
Speaker 1: the very least a dishonorable discharge from the Army and
Speaker 1: a period of confinement for up to three years. But
Speaker 1: then something strange occurred. On July twenty fifth, ten days
Speaker 1: after the group were apprehended, a strange message was sent
Speaker 1: to local newspaper, The Golf Breeze Sentinel, and other news agencies.
Speaker 1: It read, ABC, NBC, CBS, ap UPI, US Army free
Speaker 1: the Golf Breeze six. We have the missing plans, the
Speaker 1: box of five hundred plus photos and the plans you
Speaker 1: want back. Here is proof with close ups cut out.
Speaker 1: Next we send the close ups and then everything unless
Speaker 1: they are released. The note was apparently accompanied by two
Speaker 1: photographs purporting to show two unidentified flying objects. The following day,
Speaker 1: all six of the group, dubbed the Golf Breeze six,
Speaker 1: were released without charge. Not only were they spared a
Speaker 1: trial by court martial, but they were also discharged with
Speaker 1: full honors. This was upgraded soon after, however, when Colin Powell,
Speaker 1: who was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at
Speaker 1: the time, felt duty bound intervene as if to draw
Speaker 1: attention away from the unusually lenient punishment, Powell removed their
Speaker 1: discharge with full honors and instead had them discharged with
Speaker 1: a loss of rank and one month's pay. Many have
Speaker 1: questioned the unusually soft outcome, with the suggestion that perhaps
Speaker 1: the group, in their capacity as intelligence analysts, had stumbled
Speaker 1: upon something genuine, orbeit through rather unorthodox methods. Some have
Speaker 1: also suggested that perhaps the Golf Breeze six had unwittingly
Speaker 1: been used as guinea pigs in a dummy psychic operation
Speaker 1: that ended up going a little further than intended. In
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one, the seven hundred and first Military Intelligence
Speaker 1: Brigade were awarded the agency's Travis Trophy for being the
Speaker 1: nation's top performing signals intelligence unit that year. That this
Speaker 1: was the unit the group belonged to suggests that whatever
Speaker 1: we might think about this bizarre escapade, the individuals involved
Speaker 1: were certainly thought more than capable enough by the US
Speaker 1: Army to be employed alongside their best intelligence analysts. The
Speaker 1: documents relating to the case were eventually declassified. They included
Speaker 1: some of the group's personal record of the WEIJA sessions
Speaker 1: they'd conducted. However, it has been reported that fourteen hundred
Speaker 1: pages out of sixteen hundred relating to the case remain classified.
Speaker 1: Thank You as ever for listening unexplained as an Avy
Speaker 1: Club Productions podcast created by Richard McLain Smith. All other
Speaker 1: elements of the podcast, including the music are also produced
Speaker 1: by me Richard McLain Smith. Unexplained. The book and audiobook
Speaker 1: is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon,
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Speaker 1: and rate the show wherever you get your podcasts, and
Speaker 1: feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or
Speaker 1: ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps
Speaker 1: you have an explanation or a story of your own
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