Speaker 1: Considering the amount of high strangeness that residents of Golf Breeze, Florida,
Speaker 1: had become accustomed to over the previous few months, a
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy one VW van with busted tail lights was
Speaker 1: hardly unusual. It was back in nineteen eighty seven that
Speaker 1: the quiet town of Golf Breeze, nestled at the tip
Speaker 1: of Pensacola Bay in the northwest of Florida, became, for
Speaker 1: a brief moment, a hotbed of apparent UFO activity. In
Speaker 1: late November of that year, local resident Ed Walters brought
Speaker 1: a series of photographs he'd taken of an unidentified flying
Speaker 1: object to the attention of Dwayne Cook, editor of local newspaper,
Speaker 1: The Golf Breeze Sentinel. The pictures, evocatively lit, dark and
Speaker 1: grainy polaroids showing the same, almost comically saucer shaped object
Speaker 1: hanging in the sky, did little to convince Cook, until
Speaker 1: that was he showed them to his parents later that night,
Speaker 1: who recognized it instantly as the same strange object they'd
Speaker 1: seen only a few days earlier, and they weren't the
Speaker 1: only ones. Over the next six months, one hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty five people reported eighty different sightings. Many had congregated
Speaker 1: together at UFO watching parties held at Shoreline Park, where
Speaker 1: they gazed out across the Gulf of Mexico and up
Speaker 1: toward the heavens in excited anticipation of just what might be.
Speaker 1: The sightings were lent a further air of credibility when,
Speaker 1: in February nineteen eighty eight, city councilwoman Brenda Pollack revealed
Speaker 1: that she too had witnessed something inexplicable while driving across
Speaker 1: Pensacola Bay Bridge. It was there that she caught sight
Speaker 1: 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'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 am in the early morning of Saturday, July fourteenth,
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety that Golfbree's police officer Don Stephens cruised on
Speaker 1: to U S Highway ninety eight and spotted the errant
Speaker 1: v W. Perhaps intrigued by its Tennessee license plate. Stephens
Speaker 1: was already trailing the vehicle when it drew to a
Speaker 1: stop at a set of lights. Seeing then that the
Speaker 1: tail lights were broken, the officer flashed his own lights
Speaker 1: and pulled the van over. Officer Stephens stepped out into
Speaker 1: the warm, humid air, and under that vast blanket of stars,
Speaker 1: cautiously made his way over to the vehicle. Shining his
Speaker 1: torch into the driver's side window, he picked out the
Speaker 1: nervous looking man inside his hands gripped uneasily around the
Speaker 1: top of the steering wheel. Stephens knocked on the window
Speaker 1: and 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 UFO network had elected to have
Speaker 1: its conference there that year on account of the recent
Speaker 1: spate of sightings in the region license and Registration, said
Speaker 1: the officer. The driver visibly tensed up. I'm afraid I
Speaker 1: don't have any idea on me, he said. Officer Stephens
Speaker 1: stood for a moment, looking the driver up and down
Speaker 1: as the occasional car wushed past behind. He angled the
Speaker 1: torch toward the back of the van, but found no
Speaker 1: one else inside. Name then, he said, the driver seemed
Speaker 1: to hesitate. Michael Huckstead, he replied. Finally, Stephens told Michael
Speaker 1: to sit tight while he get the station to run
Speaker 1: his name through the database. Please don't, pleaded Michael, suddenly
Speaker 1: catching Stephens off guard. Back in his squad car, Stephens
Speaker 1: waited on his colleagues at the station until finally they
Speaker 1: found a match. Michael Huckstead, nineteen years old from Farsen, Wyoming,
Speaker 1: or rather private first Class Michael Huckstead of the US Army.
Speaker 1: Michael'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 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 Stevens 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: nearby Pensacola Naval Air Station on 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 had
Speaker 1: told him where the rest of the deserters were were
Speaker 1: but he was refusing to cooperate. After making the appropriate calls,
Speaker 1: Brown was told only to keep an eye on the
Speaker 1: prisoner 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 that nineteen year old
Speaker 1: Michael Huckstad 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 UKSTETT, 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 and first Military
Speaker 1: Intelligence Brigade as part of US Army Intelligence and Security
Speaker 1: Command on what at the time was the largest national
Speaker 1: security agency base in the world outside the United States.
Speaker 1: In Augsburg, Mike became friends with twenty year old William
Speaker 1: Setterberg through a mutual interest in meditation. At some point,
Speaker 1: the pair then became friendly with Varce 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 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 sixties,
Speaker 1: was designed to help focus the mind in order to
Speaker 1: improve memory, but also, as some believe, to help develop
Speaker 1: the power of extrasensory perception. After taking the course, Fans
Speaker 1: claimed to have mastered the ability to hypnotize himself. One day,
Speaker 1: after placing himself in a deep trance, Fans believed he
Speaker 1: made contact with an alien entity who proceeded to explain
Speaker 1: to him that the human race was in grave danger
Speaker 1: and that an intergalactic war was raging throughout the galaxy.
Speaker 1: Shortly after joining the military and completing his intelligence training Vance,
Speaker 1: Davis claims he was posted to Fort Meade on account
Speaker 1: of his proficiency of the Silver mind control technique. While there,
Speaker 1: he was apparently tasked with conducting psychic research. Not a
Speaker 1: great deal is known about Davis's time at Fort Meade,
Speaker 1: or if he really was stationed there at all. However,
Speaker 1: as improbable as his story may sound, fort Meade 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 so searching
Speaker 1: the use of remote viewing, the idea that it was
Speaker 1: possible to spy on people and events from great distances
Speaker 1: using only the power of the mind. The unit had
Speaker 1: been established in response to an insistent rumor that the
Speaker 1: Soviet Union had been investing heavily in psychotronic research, the
Speaker 1: study of whether it was possible to destabilize people's minds
Speaker 1: with the power of thought. Back in the early nineteen seventies,
Speaker 1: research conducted by physicist Russell Targ and engineer Harold put
Speaker 1: Off at the Stamford Research Institute hinted at a startling
Speaker 1: possibility that telepathy might be real. Their experiments were so
Speaker 1: provocative they soon drew the attention of the United States
Speaker 1: Department of Defense. These experiments would form the foundation of
Speaker 1: the Stargate project. One prominent individual involved in Stargate was
Speaker 1: Major Albert Stubblebin, who, as portrayed in the John Ronson
Speaker 1: book The Men Who Stare at Goats, had ambitions to
Speaker 1: create an entire army of soldiers trained in psychic warfare. Stubblebyn,
Speaker 1: as it happens, had also spent time in Augsburg, Germany,
Speaker 1: where Vance Davis ken Beeson, Bill Setterberg, and Michael Huckstet
Speaker 1: were stationed. Shortly before moving to Augsburg, 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 genuine 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: at Wigiboort. Intrigued by the possibility of seeking his answers
Speaker 1: from the spirit world, he then invited Vance, Bill and
Speaker 1: Mike to join him. One night, Vance, Bill, and Mike
Speaker 1: were gathered together in a private room in their barracks
Speaker 1: as Ken laid out the wigiboard before them. Then Vance
Speaker 1: lit a candle and placed it in the middle of
Speaker 1: the table and switched out the light. Mike took charge
Speaker 1: of the audio recorder as Bill readied himself with a
Speaker 1: paper and pencil to jot down whatever messages might come through.
Speaker 1: Wait said, Vance, shouldn't we protect ourselves first? As fundamentalists Christians,
Speaker 1: the four men were wary of the inherent dangers in
Speaker 1: the wigiboard should they actually find themselves contacting someone or
Speaker 1: something from the other side. For protection, the men said
Speaker 1: a short prayer together, asking Jesus to give them a
Speaker 1: sign if they should not proceed. Getting nothing in response,
Speaker 1: the men continued. Ken Advance placed their fingers on the planchet.
Speaker 1: Then Ken asked softly if anybody was there. Mike gasped
Speaker 1: as the planchet began to slide slowly burt inexorably toward
Speaker 1: the word yes, stop messing about, yelled Vance. I'm not,
Speaker 1: replied Ken. Vance glanced around the room with the sudden
Speaker 1: feeling that they were no longer alone. Stealing himself, he
Speaker 1: asked for the present to introduce themselves. The planchet began
Speaker 1: to move again. Ken spoke the letters out loud as
Speaker 1: it moved from one to the other s A F I,
Speaker 1: R E Sapphire, he said, with confusion as Bill furiously
Speaker 1: tried to keep up taking notes. The plant had spelled
Speaker 1: out that Sapphire once lived in a town in Georgia, USA,
Speaker 1: and had died in the nineteen sixties at the age
Speaker 1: of eighty two. Her attention then turned to Ken. Why
Speaker 1: had he stopped believing in his visions? She asked. Ken
Speaker 1: looked troubled. Why do you ask? He said back in return,
Speaker 1: Because they are true, came the response. The first Weija
Speaker 1: session lasted three and a half hours, in which the
Speaker 1: apparent entity Sapphire elaborated on her shocking revelation. A cosmic
Speaker 1: battle between two alien species was being raged over Earth,
Speaker 1: in which the human race were mere pawns. Only those
Speaker 1: with the correct knowledge, she insisted, would survive the resulting destruction.
Speaker 1: With the men thoroughly spooked by their first session, it
Speaker 1: was another two weeks until they gathered round the board
Speaker 1: for a second time, but this time Sapphire was not alone.
Speaker 1: Over the course of eight hours, the men claimed to
Speaker 1: have communicated with numerous entities, calling themselves everything from Tannic
Speaker 1: prophet Zechariah to Mark and Timothy of the Christian Bible
Speaker 1: and the blessed Virgin Mary herself, all of whom attested
Speaker 1: to the approaching apocalypse. While the men struggled to process
Speaker 1: what was happening, Ken grew increasingly troubled. Needing more proof,
Speaker 1: he demanded that Sapphire provide some concrete evidence that she
Speaker 1: was who she said she was. She duly informed them
Speaker 1: that Ken's grandfather was with her, So what's his name?
Speaker 1: Then snapped Ken, but there was no reply. Then, after
Speaker 1: a five minute, the planchete began to move, once again,
Speaker 1: spelling out the name John. Ken jumped from his seat,
Speaker 1: pulling the board from the table. He tore it in
Speaker 1: half and threw it across the room as the other
Speaker 1: men looked on in terror. Before they could ask what
Speaker 1: he was doing, Ken was already out the door. It
Speaker 1: was three days later when Vance had an opportunity to
Speaker 1: check in on his friend. He found Ken alone in
Speaker 1: his room in a somber mood. It was true, he
Speaker 1: told him his grandfather's name was John. It was clear
Speaker 1: then to both of them that they needed to learn
Speaker 1: more from Sapphire. Over the next few weeks, the men
Speaker 1: gathered a further six times to commune with the apparent Sapphire,
Speaker 1: and were eventually joined by twenty year old Private first
Speaker 1: Class Chris Purlock and twenty two year old Sergeant Annette Eggleston,
Speaker 1: who having heard rumors of what had been going on,
Speaker 1: were eager to see it for themselves. During the subsequent sessions,
Speaker 1: Sapphire explained further that while one of the alien races
Speaker 1: battling for Earth were trying to save humanity, the other
Speaker 1: was trying to destroy it. They had apparently even made
Speaker 1: a deal with members of the U. S Government to
Speaker 1: give them power in return for the opportunity to carry
Speaker 1: out a mass abduction of the Earth's human population. This
Speaker 1: would be preceded by a series of cataclysmic events that
Speaker 1: would effectively bring about the end of the world as
Speaker 1: they knew it. If the group took her advice, however,
Speaker 1: they would be taken off the planet and saved from
Speaker 1: this fate. Viewed through the prism of their fundamentalist 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, which is said in
Speaker 1: the Bible to proceed or in fact mark the end times,
Speaker 1: which would then be followed by the arrival of the
Speaker 1: second Coming of Jesus. It was claimed that Sapphire gave
Speaker 1: the group a series of predictions, a list of violent
Speaker 1: events and cataclysms that would take place over the next decade,
Speaker 1: in an effort to convince them further of her warnings.
Speaker 1: The first prediction, an earthquake in Iran that would supposedly
Speaker 1: result in tens of thousands being killed or injured, would
Speaker 1: take place imminently. Another was that sometime in the not
Speaker 1: too distant future, a war breakout in the Middle East
Speaker 1: between the United States and Iraq. The group finally had
Speaker 1: what they were looking for, something concrete to lend credibility
Speaker 1: to the apparent entities improbable claims. All they had to
Speaker 1: do then was weight. It had just gone past midnight
Speaker 1: local time in the early morning of June twenty first,
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty, when two hundred kilometers northwest of the Iranian capital, Tehran,
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: mountainside and raised more than one hundred townsand villages to
Speaker 1: the ground in an earth shattering hail of bricks and water,
Speaker 1: burying thousands in its wake. In total, up to forty
Speaker 1: thousand people were thought to have been killed and upwards
Speaker 1: of one hundred thousand injured. Sapphire's prediction, it seemed, had
Speaker 1: come true. It was a few days later when Stan Johnson,
Speaker 1: a friend of Ken Beeson's, was at home in by
Speaker 1: B Tennessee, when he received an unexpected phone call. It
Speaker 1: was Ken calling from Germany. The pair had become friends
Speaker 1: not long after Ken 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: got back to him to let him know he'd found one,
Speaker 1: Ken then told his confused friend to meet him at
Speaker 1: the nearby Knoxville's McGee Tyson Airport on July sixth. Sure Enough,
Speaker 1: on 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 Haughtsburg, Ken Beeson and Mike Huckstet's, superiors of the
Speaker 1: seven hundred first Military Intelligence Brigade, were growing concerned. Though
Speaker 1: the pair had signed off on leave, a letter left
Speaker 1: behind by Ken seemed to suggest that something unusual was
Speaker 1: going on to whom it concerns. It began, we are
Speaker 1: of sound mind and spirit. You will want to hide
Speaker 1: this letter, but we recommend that it be forwarded to
Speaker 1: 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 lands,
Speaker 1: and many will be murder 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'm the last to speak to you ever.
Speaker 1: Now the Elect take over the mission of the apostles.
Speaker 1: Further searches around Ken and Mike's barracks uncovered the term
Speaker 1: end of world written on various pieces of paper. A
Speaker 1: short time later, it was realized that Vance Davis, William Setterberg,
Speaker 1: Chris Perlock, and Annette eccleston had also disappeared from the base,
Speaker 1: and so it was that on July ninth, a worldwide
Speaker 1: alert was issued to bring them back back. At that
Speaker 1: police station in Golf Breeze, Mike was still refusing to
Speaker 1: give up the whereabouts of the others, whose some had
Speaker 1: begun referring to as the end of the World group. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: at the home of Anna Foster, a few minutes drive away,
Speaker 1: there was a knock at the door. Foster, a self
Speaker 1: described psychic, had befriended Chris Purlock and later Ken Beeson
Speaker 1: while they were stationed in Pensacola. She opened the door
Speaker 1: to find two FBI officers waiting outside, Bursting into the property,
Speaker 1: the officers quickly located the rest of the group, who
Speaker 1: had all been hiding out at foss apartment, with the
Speaker 1: exception of a net who was picked up soon after
Speaker 1: from a local camping site. The group's possessions, including four
Speaker 1: thousand dollars worth of cash, suitcases, Foster's computer, and floppy discs,
Speaker 1: were all confiscated. Vance Davis alleged later that all the
Speaker 1: papers and notes pertaining to the Wija board sessions were
Speaker 1: also confiscated. Strangely, the officers were under orders not to
Speaker 1: ask any questions, merely to arrest the deserters and have
Speaker 1: them delivered to the brig at Pensacola Naval Air Station,
Speaker 1: where they were joined soon after by Michael Huckstadt. The
Speaker 1: following day, the group were flown two hundred odd miles
Speaker 1: to Fort Benning in Georgia for interrogation before being taken
Speaker 1: to Fort Knox in Kentucky for further questioning. With the
Speaker 1: press picking up the story soon after, speculation was rife
Speaker 1: about just who the group were and what they were
Speaker 1: intending to do, as the public waited with bated breath
Speaker 1: to learn their fate, With the group having been in
Speaker 1: custody since July fourteenth, The Pentagon gave an official briefing
Speaker 1: on the incident on the seventeenth, describing the six as
Speaker 1: being part of an end of the World cult. Two
Speaker 1: days later, a relative told the press the group had
Speaker 1: in fact been heading to Florida to expose a government
Speaker 1: cover up of UFOs. Soon after, the Pentagon retracted their statement.
Speaker 1: With no more information forthcoming, relatives of the group grew
Speaker 1: increasingly concerned about their well being. In response, Chris Purlock's
Speaker 1: mother began a public media campaign to help get them
Speaker 1: released on July nineteenth, They were formally charged with desertion,
Speaker 1: a crime that ordinarily would lead to at the very
Speaker 1: least a dishonorable discharge from the Army and a period
Speaker 1: of confinement for up to three years. But then something
Speaker 1: strange occurred. On July twenty fifth, ten days after the
Speaker 1: group were apprehended, a strange message was sent to local newspaper,
Speaker 1: The Golf Breeze Sentinel, and other news agencies. It read, ABC, NBC, CBS,
Speaker 1: AP UPI U S Army free the Golf 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. The
Speaker 1: note was apparently accompanied by two photographs purporting to show
Speaker 1: two unidentified flying objects. The following day, all six of
Speaker 1: the group, dubbed the Golf Breeze six, were released without charge.
Speaker 1: Not only were they spared a trial by court martial,
Speaker 1: but they were also discharged with full honors. This was
Speaker 1: upgraded soon after, however, when Colin Powell, who was Chairman
Speaker 1: of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time, felt
Speaker 1: duty bound intervene. As if to draw attention away from
Speaker 1: the unusually lenient punishment, Powell removed their discharge with full
Speaker 1: honors and instead had them discharged with a loss of
Speaker 1: rank and one month's pay. Many have questioned the unusually
Speaker 1: soft outcome, with the suggestion that perhaps the group, in
Speaker 1: their capacity as intelligence analysts, had stumbled upon some genuine
Speaker 1: albeit through rather unorthodox methods. Some have also suggested that
Speaker 1: perhaps the golf Breeze six had unwittingly been used as
Speaker 1: guinea pigs in a dummy psychic operation that ended up
Speaker 1: going a little further than intended. In nineteen ninety one,
Speaker 1: the seven hundred and first Military Intelligence Brigade were awarded
Speaker 1: the agency's Travis Trophy for being the nation's top performing
Speaker 1: signals intelligence unit that year. That this was the unit
Speaker 1: the group belonged to suggests that whatever we might think
Speaker 1: about this bizarre escapade, the individuals involved were certainly thought
Speaker 1: more than capable enough by the US Army to be
Speaker 1: employed alongside their best intelligence analysts. The documents relating to
Speaker 1: the case were eventually declassified. They included some of the
Speaker 1: group's personal records of the WIJA sessions they'd can do did. However,
Speaker 1: it has been reported that fourteen hundred pages out of
Speaker 1: sixteen hundred relating to the case remain classified. Thank you
Speaker 1: as ever for listening Unexplained as an AV Club Productions
Speaker 1: podcast created by Richard McLain Smith. All other elements of
Speaker 1: the podcast, including the music, are also produced by me
Speaker 1: Richard McLain Smith. Unexplained. The book and audiobook is now
Speaker 1: available to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon, Barnes
Speaker 1: and Noble, Waterstones and other bookstores. Please subscribe to and
Speaker 1: rate the show wherever you get your 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 or a story of your own you'd
Speaker 1: like to share. You can find out more at Unexplained
Speaker 1: podcast dot com and reaches online through x and Blue
Speaker 1: Sky at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at Facebook dot com,
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