Speaker 1: Considering the amount of high strangeness that residents of Golf
Speaker 1: Breeze in Florida had become accustomed to over the past
Speaker 1: few months, a nineteen seventy one VW van with busted
Speaker 1: tail lights was some way from unusual. It was back
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty seven that the quiet town of Golf Breeze,
Speaker 1: nestled at the tip of Pensacola Bay in the northwest
Speaker 1: of Florida, became, for a brief moment, to hotbed of
Speaker 1: apparent UFO activity. In late November of that year, local
Speaker 1: resident Ed Walters brought a series of photographs he'd taken
Speaker 1: of an unidentified flying object to the attention of Dwayne Cook,
Speaker 1: then editor of the Golf Breeze Sentinel. The pictures, evocatively lit, dark,
Speaker 1: grainy polaroids, each with the same, almost comically also shaped
Speaker 1: object hanging in the sky, did little to convince Cook
Speaker 1: until that was he showed them to his parents later
Speaker 1: that night, who recognized it instantly as the strange object
Speaker 1: they'd seen in the sky a few days earlier. And
Speaker 1: they weren't the only ones. Over the next six months,
Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty five people reported eighty different sightings
Speaker 1: many congregating together in UFO watching parties at Shoreline Park
Speaker 1: to gaze out across the Gulf of Mexico and up
Speaker 1: toward the heavens, an excited anticipation of just what might
Speaker 1: be The sightings were lent a further air of credibility
Speaker 1: when in February nineteen eighty eight, city councilwoman Brenda Pollack
Speaker 1: revealed she too had witnessed something inexplicable while driving across
Speaker 1: Pensacola Bay Bridge. It was there that she'd suddenly caught
Speaker 1: sight of a strange orange light hanging low over the town.
Speaker 1: The light appeared to bob up and down behind distant trees,
Speaker 1: pulsating with no discernible rhythm. It was like nothing she
Speaker 1: had ever seen before. It was perhaps fitting that such
Speaker 1: an occurrence had taken place in this part of the world,
Speaker 1: being only ten kilometers across the bay from the pioneering
Speaker 1: US Naval Training School Naval Air Station Pensacola, having trained
Speaker 1: thousands of naval aviators in the years since its establishment
Speaker 1: in nineteen fourteen, it could count one Neil Armstrong among
Speaker 1: its most illustrative alumni. But let's get back to that van.
Speaker 1: It was sometime around three am in the early morning
Speaker 1: of Saturday, July fourteenth, nineteen ninety that Gulf Breeze Police
Speaker 1: officer Don Stevens cruised onto US Highway ninety eight and
Speaker 1: spotted the errant VW perhaps in Tregue by its Tennessee
Speaker 1: number plate. Stevens had been keeping a close eye on
Speaker 1: the vehicle when it drew to a stop at a
Speaker 1: set of lights. Seeing then that the tail lights were broken,
Speaker 1: the officer flashed his own lights and pulled the van over.
Speaker 1: Stevens stepped out into the warm, humid air, and under
Speaker 1: that vast blanket of stars, cautiously made his way over
Speaker 1: to the vehicle. Shining his torch into the driver's side window,
Speaker 1: he picked out the nervous looking young man inside his hands,
Speaker 1: gripped uneasily around the top of the steering wheel. Stevens
Speaker 1: knocked on the window and motioned for the driver to
Speaker 1: wind it down. Evening, officer said the man. Squinting into
Speaker 1: the torchlight, Stevens noted the accent was some way off Florida, Wyoming.
Speaker 1: Perhaps maybe he was one of the eight hundred out
Speaker 1: of towners who had turned up the previous weekend for
Speaker 1: the annual moufon fence. He thought the mutual UFO network
Speaker 1: having elected to have its conference there that year on
Speaker 1: account of the recent spate of sightings. License of registration,
Speaker 1: said the officer. The driver tensed, I'm afraid I don't
Speaker 1: have any idea on me, he said. Stevens stood for
Speaker 1: a moment, looking the driver up and down, as the
Speaker 1: occasional car bushed past behind. He pointed the torch into
Speaker 1: the back of the van, but saw no one else inside. Name, then,
Speaker 1: he said. The driver seemed to hesitate. Michael Hoikstat, he replied. Finally,
Speaker 1: Stevens told Michael to sit tight while he get the
Speaker 1: station to run his name through the database. Please don't,
Speaker 1: pleaded Michael. Catching Stevens off guard. Back in his squad car,
Speaker 1: Stevens waited on his colleagues at the station until finally
Speaker 1: they found a match Michael Hoikstat, nineteen years old from Fasten, Wyoming,
Speaker 1: or rather private first class Michael Hoikstat of the US Army.
Speaker 1: Mike's name had come up because only a few days
Speaker 1: before the United States Army had put out a worldwide
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 warn. Stephens returned to the van and ordered
Speaker 1: Mike to step out. You don't know what you've done,
Speaker 1: said Mike in despair. You've just signed my death warrant.
Speaker 1: Mike pleaded again with the officer, even offering a bribe
Speaker 1: to let him go, but Stevens had no intention of
Speaker 1: doing so. After conducting a quick search of the vehicle,
Speaker 1: Stevens found a cachet of food enough to last for months,
Speaker 1: as well as camping gear and a hamburg on how
Speaker 1: to survive in the wild packed in the back. Offering
Speaker 1: no further resistance, Mike was arrested and taken to Gulf
Speaker 1: Breeze Police Station while station Sheriff Jerry Browne waited on
Speaker 1: word from the nearby Pensacola Naval Air Station on what
Speaker 1: to do next. It wasn't long before the call came in.
Speaker 1: You need to call Washington, said the official on the
Speaker 1: other end. As in the Pentagon. They want this guy bad,
Speaker 1: real bad. Browne was asked if Mike had told him
Speaker 1: where the rest of the deserters were, but he was
Speaker 1: refusing to co operate. After making the appropriate cause, Browne
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 go a wall from the United
Speaker 1: States Military was unusual enough in itself, but as the
Speaker 1: tiny scraps of information began to filter through, the story
Speaker 1: only got more and more strange. By the time it
Speaker 1: broke in the press, it could well be said to
Speaker 1: be the most bizarre case of desertion in the United
Speaker 1: States Military's entire history. You're listening to Unexplained, and I'm
Speaker 1: Richard McClean Smith. What hadn't been revealed to Sheriff Brown
Speaker 1: at his colleagues was that nineteen year old Michael Hoikstat
Speaker 1: was no ordinary foot soldier, but an information specialist. Trained
Speaker 1: at Corey Station, the US Navy's Center for Information Warfare.
Speaker 1: Hoikstat had been instructed on cryptology, coding and decoding communication,
Speaker 1: and for the past few months had been stationed in Auksburg, Germany,
Speaker 1: working as an intelligence analyst, intercepting and identifying non Morse
Speaker 1: coded communications. There he was assigned to the seven hundred
Speaker 1: and first Military Intelligence Brigade as part of US Army
Speaker 1: Intelligence and Security Command on what at the time was
Speaker 1: the largest national security agency. Base in the world outside
Speaker 1: the United States. In Aukesburg, Mike became friends with twenty
Speaker 1: year old William Setterberg through a mutual interest in meditation.
Speaker 1: At some point, the pair then became friendly with Vance
Speaker 1: Davis and Ken Beeson, too, older colleague with intriguing ideas
Speaker 1: about the capabilities of human beings. All four of the
Speaker 1: United States military employees were fundamentalists Christians committed to the
Speaker 1: beliefs of their church. Ken and Vance, both twenty six
Speaker 1: years old at the time, had got to know each
Speaker 1: other during their studies en route to working for the U. S. Army.
Speaker 1: Drawn together by their shared interests and Christian faith, they
Speaker 1: had then begun to open up to each other about
Speaker 1: their somewhat more unusual beliefs and experiences. When Ken was
Speaker 1: five years old, he was convinced he'd witnessed a ghost
Speaker 1: in his bedroom. A few years later, he started suffering
Speaker 1: continual night terrors due to what he believed were visions
Speaker 1: of an impending armor geddon. He also became convinced that
Speaker 1: he'd lived in a previous life and had even once
Speaker 1: been sacrificed as an offering to the gods. As a teenager,
Speaker 1: Vans started to believe that the mind was an untapped
Speaker 1: resource of mystical power, and had even enrolled on a
Speaker 1: Silver Mind control course in New York. The controversial course,
Speaker 1: developed by Jose Silver in the nineteen sixties, was designed
Speaker 1: to help focus the mind in order to improve memory,
Speaker 1: but also, as some belief, to help develop the power
Speaker 1: of extrasensory perception. After taking the course, Vance claimed he'd
Speaker 1: mastered the ability to hypnotize himself. One day, while placing
Speaker 1: himself and a deep trance, fans believed he'd made contact
Speaker 1: with an alien entity who proceeded to explain to him
Speaker 1: that the human race was in grave danger and that
Speaker 1: an intergalactic war was raging throughout the galaxy. Green Chef
Speaker 1: is a USDER certified organic company that makes eating well
Speaker 1: easy and affordable, with plans to fit every kind of lifestyle.
Speaker 1: With Green Chef, it's easy to eat well and discover
Speaker 1: new recipes every week that you'll love to cook with
Speaker 1: meal plans that include paleo, plant powered keto, and balanced living.
Speaker 1: One of the things I often struggle with is finding
Speaker 1: the time and energy after a long day of work
Speaker 1: to put together a meal that is genuinely part of
Speaker 1: a healthy, balanced diet. With green Chef, I don't have
Speaker 1: to worry. Green Chef's expert chef's design quick and easy,
Speaker 1: flavorful recipes with step by step instructions, chef tips and
Speaker 1: photos to guide you along. Green Chef is also the
Speaker 1: most sustainable meal kit of sete hundred percent of its
Speaker 1: direct carbon emissions and plastic packaging in every box, so
Speaker 1: not only can you enjoy what you're eating, but you
Speaker 1: can also feel good about how it got to your table.
Speaker 1: Use code unexplained eight zero to get eighty dollars off
Speaker 1: across four boxes, including free shipping on your first box.
Speaker 1: Go to greenschef dot com. Forward slash unexplained eight zero
Speaker 1: to redeem and for more details. Once again, that's unexplained
Speaker 1: eight zero to get eighty dollars off across four boxes,
Speaker 1: including free shipping on your first box, Go to greenchef
Speaker 1: dot com. Forward slash unexplained eight zero to redeem and
Speaker 1: for more details. Shortly after joining the military and completing
Speaker 1: his intelligence training, fans claimed he was posted to Fort
Speaker 1: Meade on account of his proficiency of the silver mind
Speaker 1: control technique, and there he was tasked with conducting psychic research.
Speaker 1: Not a great deal is known about Davis's time at
Speaker 1: Fort Meade, nor if he was stationed there or not. However,
Speaker 1: as improbable as his story may sound, Fought Mead may
Speaker 1: be familiar to some listeners as the headquarters of just
Speaker 1: exactly that kind of research. Established in nineteen seventy seven
Speaker 1: as the Gondola Wish Program, what would later become known
Speaker 1: as the Stargate Project was a fully funded, twenty year
Speaker 1: effort to establish the potential for the use of psychic
Speaker 1: phenomena in warfare. The project's primary focus was in researching
Speaker 1: the use of remote viewing, with all the potential that
Speaker 1: offered for spying on people and events from great distances
Speaker 1: without the use of technology. The unit had been established
Speaker 1: in response to an insistent rumor that the government of
Speaker 1: the Soviet Union had been investing heavily in psychatronic research,
Speaker 1: researching whether it was possible to destabilize people's minds with
Speaker 1: the power of thought alone. After a series of staring
Speaker 1: results at the Stamford Research Institute under the guidance of
Speaker 1: physicist Russell Targ and engineer Harold put Off, the team's
Speaker 1: research was soon brought to the attention of the US
Speaker 1: Department of Defense. One prominent individual involved in the Stargate
Speaker 1: project was Major Stubblebein, who, as portrayed in the John
Speaker 1: Ronson book The Men Who Stare at Goats, had ambitions
Speaker 1: to create an entire army of soldiers trained in psychic warfare.
Speaker 1: As it happens, Stubblebeyn had also spent time in Augsburg, Germany,
Speaker 1: where Vance, Davis ken Beeson, Bill Setterberg, and Michael Hougstadt
Speaker 1: were stationed. Shortly before moving to Auksburg, ken Beeson was
Speaker 1: reminded of those terrifying dreams he'd experienced as a child.
Speaker 1: Fearful that they might in fact be real visions of
Speaker 1: an approaching apocalypse, he began researching ways to investigate them.
Speaker 1: It was sometime in April nineteen ninety that ken purchased
Speaker 1: a wija board, intrigued by the possibility of seeking answers
Speaker 1: from the spirit world. After suggesting he and Vance try
Speaker 1: it out, they then asked Bill and Mike to join them,
Speaker 1: and so it was one night with the men gathered
Speaker 1: around the wija board in a private room in their barracks.
Speaker 1: Vance lit a candle and placed it in the middle
Speaker 1: of the table, then switched out the light Mike took
Speaker 1: charge of an audio recorder as Bill readied himself with
Speaker 1: a paper and pencil to jot down whatever messages might come.
Speaker 1: As fundamentalist Christians, the four men were wary about the
Speaker 1: dangers inherent in the weija board should they actually find
Speaker 1: themselves 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 recede. Getting
Speaker 1: nothing in response, the men continued. Ken and Advance placed
Speaker 1: their fingers on the planchet Then Ken asked softly if
Speaker 1: anybody was there. Mike gasped as the planchet began to
Speaker 1: slide slowly but inexorably toward the word. Yes, stop messing about,
Speaker 1: yelled Vance. I'm not, said Ken. Vance shot a glance
Speaker 1: around the room, suddenly feeling as though there was someone
Speaker 1: else in there with them, stealing himself. He asked for
Speaker 1: the presents to introduce themselves. The planchette began to move again.
Speaker 1: S A F I R E. Sapphire, said Ken out loud.
Speaker 1: Within minutes, as Bill furiously tried to keep up taking notes,
Speaker 1: the planchet had spelled out the sapphire had once lived
Speaker 1: in a town in Georgia, USA, and had died in
Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties at the age of eighty two. Her
Speaker 1: attention then turned to Ken. Why had he stopped believing
Speaker 1: in his visions? She asked, Ken looked troubled. Why they
Speaker 1: said back in return, because they are true, came the response.
Speaker 1: The first session lasted three and a half hours, in
Speaker 1: 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, she said, in which the human race were
Speaker 1: mere pawns. Only those with the correct knowledge, she insisted,
Speaker 1: would survive the resulting destruction. With the men thoroughly spooked
Speaker 1: by their first session, it was another two weeks until
Speaker 1: they could reconvene around the board once more, but this
Speaker 1: time 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 Tannach prophet Secchariah, 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 is his name? Then snapped Ken, but there was
Speaker 1: no reply. Then, after a five minute pause, the planchet
Speaker 1: began to move once more, spelling out the name John.
Speaker 1: Ken jumped from his seat, pulling the board from the table.
Speaker 1: He tore it in half and threw it across the
Speaker 1: room as the other men looked on in terror. Before
Speaker 1: they could ask what he was doing, Ken was already
Speaker 1: running out the door. It was three days later when
Speaker 1: Vance had an opportunity to check in on his friend.
Speaker 1: He found Ken alone in his room in a somber mood.
Speaker 1: It's true, he told him his grandfather's name was John.
Speaker 1: It was clear to both of them that they needed
Speaker 1: to learn more from Sapphire. Over the next few weeks,
Speaker 1: the men gathered a further six times to commune with
Speaker 1: the apparent Sapphire, and were eventually joined by twenty year
Speaker 1: old Private first Class Chris Purlock and twenty two year
Speaker 1: old Sergeant Annette Eccleston, who, having heard rumors of what
Speaker 1: had been going on, were eager to see it all
Speaker 1: for themselves. During the sessions, Sapphire explained further that one
Speaker 1: of the alien races battling for Earth were trying to
Speaker 1: save humanity, the other were trying to destroy it, and
Speaker 1: had even made a deal with members of the US
Speaker 1: government to give them power in return for the opportunity
Speaker 1: to carry out a mass abduction of the Earth's human population.
Speaker 1: This would be preceded by a series of cataclysmic events
Speaker 1: that would effectively bring about the end of the world
Speaker 1: as they knew it. If the group to occur advice, however,
Speaker 1: they could be taken off the planet and saved from
Speaker 1: this fate. Viewed through the prism of their fundamental Christian
Speaker 1: belief system, the group came to the conclusion that what
Speaker 1: Sapphire was detailing was, in actuality, the rapture which would
Speaker 1: make the impending destruction. She spoke of the Tribulation, a
Speaker 1: period of worldwide suffering and pain said to proceed or
Speaker 1: in fact mark the end times, which would then be
Speaker 1: followed by the arrival of the Second Coming of Jesus.
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 result in tens of thousands being killed or injured,
Speaker 1: would take place imminently. The group finally had what they
Speaker 1: were looking for, something concrete to lend credibility to the
Speaker 1: apparent entities improbable claims. All they needed to do then
Speaker 1: was wait. It had just gone past midnight local time
Speaker 1: in the early morning of June twenty first, nineteen ninety, when,
Speaker 1: two hundred kilometers west of the Iranian capital to Iran,
Speaker 1: the ground shook with devastating fury, with the initial shake
Speaker 1: lasting sixty seconds. An earthquake measuring seven point four on
Speaker 1: the Richter scale ruptured a dam, tore off chunks of
Speaker 1: mountain side, and raised more than one hundred towns and
Speaker 1: villages to the ground in an earth shattering hail of
Speaker 1: bricks and mortar, burying thousands in its wake. In total,
Speaker 1: up to forty thousand people were thought to have been
Speaker 1: killed and upwards of one hundred thousand injured. Sapphire's prediction
Speaker 1: had come true. It was a few days later when
Speaker 1: Stan Johnson, a friend of Ken Beeson's, was at home
Speaker 1: in Bybee, Tennessee, when he received an unexpected phone calls.
Speaker 1: It was Ken calling from Germany. The pair became friends
Speaker 1: shortly after. Ken had finished his army training in nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty seven, but had not spoken a great deal in
Speaker 1: recent months. Without wanting to go into too much detail
Speaker 1: about why, Ken asked Stan to find him a van
Speaker 1: big enough to fit six people in it. When Stan
Speaker 1: let him know he'd found one, Ken then told him
Speaker 1: to meet him at nearby McGee Tyson Airport in Knoxville
Speaker 1: on July sixth. Sure enough, on July sixth, Ken arrived
Speaker 1: in Knoxville accompanied by Mike Hoigstadt, with Stan there to
Speaker 1: meet them. Together, they drove to the home of Bill
Speaker 1: Grant in nearby Morristown. Bill thought little of the men
Speaker 1: when they assembled on his driveway to inspect the van
Speaker 1: he was selling them and was happy to accept their
Speaker 1: money for it. It was only when he asked them
Speaker 1: shortly before they left what they planned to use it
Speaker 1: for that he was given pause for thought. Ken explained,
Speaker 1: matter of factly that they needed the van to drive
Speaker 1: to Pensacola Beach to prepare for the end of the
Speaker 1: world and the second coming of Jesus, and if they
Speaker 1: didn't make it in time, they would not be taken
Speaker 1: into the Kingdom of Heaven, and with that they were gone.
Speaker 1: Care Of is a wellness brand that makes it easy
Speaker 1: to maintain your health goals with the customized vitamin plan
Speaker 1: that helps you feel your best today and supports you
Speaker 1: long term. Using their hassle free service, care Of will
Speaker 1: make taking your vitamins and supporting your health goals attainable
Speaker 1: with products that are formulated with good for you, clean
Speaker 1: ingredients that are backed by science. If like me, you're
Speaker 1: easily confused about just what vitamins you might be lacking
Speaker 1: in your diet, use care of in depth five minute
Speaker 1: online quiz, which asks questions about your diet, lifestyle, and
Speaker 1: health concerns to help address your specific needs. Care Of
Speaker 1: is super transparent about the research and sourcing behind every
Speaker 1: one of their products, with extensive info available on their
Speaker 1: website and fun informative intent on their social pages. Follow
Speaker 1: care of expert recommendations or adjust your pack at any time.
Speaker 1: What you receive is totally up to you for fifty
Speaker 1: percent off your first care of order. Go to take
Speaker 1: care of dot com and enter code unexplained five zero.
Speaker 1: Once again, that's take care of dot com and enter
Speaker 1: code unexplained five zero for fifty percent off your first order.
Speaker 1: Back at their barracks in Aukesburg, Ken Beeson and Mike Hoistat,
Speaker 1: superiors of the seven hundred first Military Intelligence Brigade, were
Speaker 1: getting concerned. Though the pair had signed off on leave,
Speaker 1: A letter left behind by Ken seemed to suggest something
Speaker 1: unusual was going on to whom it concerns. It began,
Speaker 1: we are of sound mind and spirit. You will want
Speaker 1: to hide this letter, but we recommend that it be
Speaker 1: forwarded to the highest possible command. The following letter may
Speaker 1: sound wild, but what was said about the apostles in
Speaker 1: Christ's time? For it is said in the end young
Speaker 1: men will see visions of that to come and hide
Speaker 1: themselves away for the battle. May you take warning? In
Speaker 1: this time has come for a decision to be made,
Speaker 1: and they made theirs. Their works will be known throughout
Speaker 1: the lands, and many will be murdered for knowing them.
Speaker 1: You will search for these and thousands more like them,
Speaker 1: but you will be searching for nought for God takes
Speaker 1: care of his elect and those that follow them. It
Speaker 1: went on those of you who know of the truth
Speaker 1: and feel its pull, then leave all and search for
Speaker 1: the Elect and their followers, as they are of God's
Speaker 1: chosen leaders. You of the world, listen carefully. The time
Speaker 1: is now to wake up your spirits and heed the warning.
Speaker 1: I'm the last to speak to you ever. Now the
Speaker 1: Elect take over the mission of the apostles. Further, she
Speaker 1: has uncovered the term end of World written on bits
Speaker 1: of paper belonging to one of the group. Realizing that
Speaker 1: fans Davis, William Setterberg, Chris Purlock, and Annette Eggleston were
Speaker 1: also absent from the base, some of them without even
Speaker 1: the pretense of authorized leave, the army sounded the alarm.
Speaker 1: On July ninth, they issued a worldwide alert to ascertain
Speaker 1: their whereabouts. Back at that police station, engulfed breeze, Mike
Speaker 1: was still refusing to give up the whereabouts of the
Speaker 1: others in the group, who some had begun referring to
Speaker 1: as the end of the world group. Meanwhile, at the
Speaker 1: home of Anna Foster, a few minutes drive away, there
Speaker 1: was a knock at the door. Foster, a self described
Speaker 1: psychic had befriended Chris Purlock and later Ken Beeson while
Speaker 1: they were stationed in Pensacola. Opening the door, she found
Speaker 1: two FBI officers waiting outside. Bursting into the property, the
Speaker 1: officers quickly located the rest of the group who'd been
Speaker 1: hiding out at Foster's apartment, with the exception of Annette,
Speaker 1: who was picked up soon after from a local campsite.
Speaker 1: The group's possessions, including four thousand dollars worth of cash, suitcases, briefcases,
Speaker 1: Foster's computer, and floppy discs, were all confiscated. Vans Davis
Speaker 1: alleged later that all the papers and notes pertaining to
Speaker 1: the Wuija board sessions were also confiscated. Strangely, the officers
Speaker 1: were under orders not to ask any questions, merely to
Speaker 1: arrest the deserters and have them delivered to the brig
Speaker 1: at Pensacola Naval Air Station, where they were joined soon
Speaker 1: after by Mike Hoigstadt. The following day, the group were
Speaker 1: flown two hundred miles to Fort Benning in Georgia for
Speaker 1: in terror gastion before being taken to Fort Knox in
Speaker 1: Kentucky for further questioning with the press. Picking up the
Speaker 1: story soon after, Speculation was rife about just who the
Speaker 1: group were and what they were intending to do, as
Speaker 1: the public waited with bated breath to learn their fate.
Speaker 1: With the group having been in custody since July fourteenth,
Speaker 1: The Pentagon gave a briefing on the incident on the seventeenth,
Speaker 1: describing the six as being part of an end of
Speaker 1: the World cult. Two days later, a relative of the
Speaker 1: group told the press they were actually heading to Florida
Speaker 1: to expose a government cover up of UFOs. Soon after,
Speaker 1: the Pentagon retracted their statement. With no more information forthcoming,
Speaker 1: relatives of the group grew increasingly concerned about their well being.
Speaker 1: In response, Chris Purlock's mother began a public media campaign
Speaker 1: to help get them released on July nineteenth. They were
Speaker 1: formerly charged with desertion, a crime that ordinarily would lead
Speaker 1: to it the very least a dishonorable discharge from the
Speaker 1: army and a period of confinement for up to as
Speaker 1: much as three years. But then something strange occurred. On
Speaker 1: July twenty fifth, ten days after the group were apprehended,
Speaker 1: a strange message was sent to the Gulf Breeze Sentinel,
Speaker 1: the local newspaper and other news agencies. It read ABC, NBC, CBS,
Speaker 1: AP UP, I, U S Army free the Gulf Breeze six.
Speaker 1: We have the missing plans, the box of five hundred
Speaker 1: plus photos and the plans you want back. Here is
Speaker 1: proof with close ups cut out. Next we send the
Speaker 1: close ups and then everything unless they are released. Answer
Speaker 1: code A U G S B B three C M.
Speaker 1: The note was apparently accompanied by two photographs purporting to
Speaker 1: show two unidentified flying objects. The following day, all of
Speaker 1: the Gulf Breeze six were released without charge. Not only
Speaker 1: were they spared a trial by court martial, but they
Speaker 1: were also discharged with full honors. This was changed soon after, however,
Speaker 1: when Colin Powell, who was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
Speaker 1: of Staff at the time, felt duty bound to intervene,
Speaker 1: as if to draw attention away from the unusually lenient punishment,
Speaker 1: Powell removed their discharge with full honors, deciding instead to
Speaker 1: have them discharged with the loss of rank and one
Speaker 1: month's pay. Many have questioned the unusually soft outcome, suggesting
Speaker 1: that perhaps the group, in their capacity as intelligence analysts,
Speaker 1: had stumbled upon something genuine, albeit through rather unorthodox methods.
Speaker 1: Some have also suggested that perhaps the six were unwittingly
Speaker 1: being used as guinea pigs in a dummy psychic operation
Speaker 1: that ended up going a little further than intended. The
Speaker 1: following year, the seven hundred and first Military Intelligence Brigade
Speaker 1: were awarded the agency's Travis Trophy for being the nation's
Speaker 1: top performing signals intelligence unit that year. That this was
Speaker 1: the unit the group belonged to suggest that whatever we
Speaker 1: might think about this bizarre escapade, they were certainly thought
Speaker 1: more than capable enough by the US Army to be
Speaker 1: employed alongside their best intelligence analysts. Documents relating to the
Speaker 1: case were eventually declassified, including some of the group's personal
Speaker 1: records of the Wiger sessions they conducted. However, it has
Speaker 1: been reported that fourteen hundred pages out of the sixteen
Speaker 1: hundred relating to the case remain classified. I'd like to
Speaker 1: thank Patricia Cortez for introducing me to this week's story.
Speaker 1: If you enjoy Unexplained and would like to help supporters,
Speaker 1: you can now do so via Patreon to receive access
Speaker 1: to add three episodes, discount or merchandise, as well as
Speaker 1: brand new video and audio content exclusive to Patreon members.
Speaker 1: Just go to patron dot com, Forward Slash Unexplained Pod
Speaker 1: to sign up, or if you'd like to make a
Speaker 1: one time donation, you can go to Unexplained podcast dot
Speaker 1: com Forward Slash Support. All donations, no matter how large
Speaker 1: or small, are greatly appreciated. Unexplained, the book and audiobook,
Speaker 1: featuring ten stories that have never before been covered on
Speaker 1: the show, is now available to buy worldwide. You can
Speaker 1: purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Waterstones, among other
Speaker 1: books doors. All elements of Unexplained, including the show's music,
Speaker 1: are produced by me Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and
Speaker 1: rate the show wherever you listen to podcasts, and feel
Speaker 1: free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas
Speaker 1: regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you
Speaker 1: have an explanation of your own you'd like to share.
Speaker 1: You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com,
Speaker 1: or Twitter at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at Facebook dot com,
Speaker 1: Forward Slash Unexplained Podcast