WEBVTT - S05 Episode 4: How the End Always Is 0:00:10.760 --> 0:00:15.120 Considering the amount of high strangeness that residents of Golf Breeze, Florida, 0:00:15.320 --> 0:00:18.520 had become accustomed to over the previous few months, a 0:00:18.640 --> 0:00:23.000 nineteen seventy one VW van with busted tail lights was 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:27.920 hardly unusual. It was back in nineteen eighty seven that 0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:31.080 the quiet town of Golf Breeze, nestled at the tip 0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:34.960 of Pensacola Bay in the northwest of Florida, became, for 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:39.920 a brief moment, a hotbed of apparent UFO activity. In 0:00:40.040 --> 0:00:44.320 late November of that year, local resident Ed Walters brought 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:48.120 a series of photographs he'd taken of an unidentified flying 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:52.760 object to the attention of Dwayne Cook, editor of local newspaper, 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:58.480 The Golf Breeze Sentinel. The pictures, evocatively lit, dark and 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:03.840 grainy polaroids showing the same, almost comically saucer shaped object 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:08.280 hanging in the sky, did little to convince Cook, until 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:11.800 that was he showed them to his parents later that night, 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:16.480 who recognized it instantly as the same strange object they'd 0:01:16.520 --> 0:01:19.960 seen only a few days earlier, and they weren't the 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:23.960 only ones. Over the next six months, one hundred and 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:29.520 thirty five people reported eighty different sightings. Many had congregated 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:34.360 together at UFO watching parties held at Shoreline Park, where 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:37.399 they gazed out across the Gulf of Mexico and up 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:42.399 toward the heavens in excited anticipation of just what might be. 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:46.880 The sightings were lent a further air of credibility when, 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:52.120 in February nineteen eighty eight, city councilwoman Brenda Pollack revealed 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:56.440 that she too had witnessed something inexplicable while driving across 0:01:56.480 --> 0:02:00.760 Pensacola Bay Bridge. It was there that she caught sight 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:04.320 of a strange orange light hanging low over the town. 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:08.720 The light appeared to bob up and down behind distant trees, 0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:14.080 pulsating with no discernible rhythm. It was like nothing she'd 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:18.600 ever seen before. It was perhaps fitting that such an 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:21.440 occurrence would take place in this part of the world, 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:25.519 only ten kilometers across the bay from the pioneering US 0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:31.240 Naval Training School Naval Air Station Pensacola. Since its founding 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:35.839 in nineteen fourteen, the station has trained thousands of naval aviators, 0:02:36.160 --> 0:02:39.799 and among its most distinguished alumni was none other than 0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:44.240 the first Man on the Moon, Neil Armstrong. But let's 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:54.640 get back to that VW van. It was sometime around 0:02:54.760 --> 0:02:58.600 three am in the early morning of Saturday, July fourteenth, 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:03.840 nineteen ninety that Golfbree's police officer Don Stephens cruised on 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:07.120 to U S Highway ninety eight and spotted the errant 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:12.760 v W. Perhaps intrigued by its Tennessee license plate. Stephens 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:15.280 was already trailing the vehicle when it drew to a 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:19.120 stop at a set of lights. Seeing then that the 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:22.720 tail lights were broken, the officer flashed his own lights 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:28.240 and pulled the van over. Officer Stephens stepped out into 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:32.359 the warm, humid air, and under that vast blanket of stars, 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:36.960 cautiously made his way over to the vehicle. Shining his 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:40.200 torch into the driver's side window, he picked out the 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:44.760 nervous looking man inside his hands gripped uneasily around the 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:48.880 top of the steering wheel. Stephens knocked on the window 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:53.880 and motioned for the driver to wind it down. Good evening, officer, 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:59.520 said the man. Squinting into the torchlight, Stephens noted his 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:05.000 accent was some way off of Florida, Wyoming. Perhaps maybe 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:07.360 he was one of the eight hundred out of towners 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:11.520 who turned up the previous weekend for the annual Mouffon conference. 0:04:11.600 --> 0:04:16.200 He thought the mutual UFO network had elected to have 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:19.479 its conference there that year on account of the recent 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:24.800 spate of sightings in the region license and Registration, said 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:30.160 the officer. The driver visibly tensed up. I'm afraid I 0:04:30.200 --> 0:04:34.640 don't have any idea on me, he said. Officer Stephens 0:04:34.680 --> 0:04:37.720 stood for a moment, looking the driver up and down 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:43.159 as the occasional car wushed past behind. He angled the 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:45.919 torch toward the back of the van, but found no 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:51.599 one else inside. Name then, he said, the driver seemed 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:58.760 to hesitate. Michael Huckstead, he replied. Finally, Stephens told Michael 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:01.560 to sit tight while he get the station to run 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:06.280 his name through the database. Please don't, pleaded Michael, suddenly 0:05:06.680 --> 0:05:11.919 catching Stephens off guard. Back in his squad car, Stephens 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:15.480 waited on his colleagues at the station until finally they 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:21.760 found a match. Michael Huckstead, nineteen years old from Farsen, Wyoming, 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:27.960 or rather private first Class Michael Huckstead of the US Army. 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:32.719 Michael's name had come up because only a few days 0:05:32.720 --> 0:05:36.680 before the United States Army had put out a worldwide 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:39.960 plea to be on the lookout for him and five 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:43.839 of his colleagues, all of whom had, for reasons unknown, 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:54.440 gone a wall. Officer Stephens made its way back to 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:57.440 the van and ordered Michael to step out of it. 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:01.320 You don't know what you've done, said Michael in despair. 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:06.400 You just signed my death warrant. Mike pleaded again with 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:09.440 the officer, even offering a bribe to let him go, 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:13.679 but Stevens had no intention of doing so. After making 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:17.000 a quick search of the vehicle, Officer Stephens found a 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:20.480 cash of food enough to last for months, as well 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:23.680 as camping gear and a hambook on how to survive 0:06:23.760 --> 0:06:28.599 in the wild packed in the back. Offering no further resistance, 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:32.320 Mike was arrested and taken to Golf Breeze Police Station 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:37.000 while station Sheriff Jerry Brown waited on word from the 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:41.160 nearby Pensacola Naval Air Station on what to do next. 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:45.760 It wasn't long before the call came in. You need 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:48.560 to call Washington, said the official on the other end 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:52.600 of the line. As in the Pentagon. They want this 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:58.120 guy bad, real bad. Brown was asked if Mike had 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:00.280 told him where the rest of the deserters were were 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:05.280 but he was refusing to cooperate. After making the appropriate calls, 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:08.039 Brown was told only to keep an eye on the 0:07:08.080 --> 0:07:13.360 prisoner and that under no circumstances should he speak to him. 0:07:13.800 --> 0:07:17.440 That six soldiers would simultaneously go a war from the 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:22.320 United States Military was unusual enough in itself, but as 0:07:22.440 --> 0:07:25.880 more and more scraps of information began to filter through, 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:31.280 the story only got more and more strange. By the 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:33.920 time it broke in the press, it could well be 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:37.400 said to be the most bizarre case of desertion in 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:43.080 the United States military's entire history. You're listening to Unexplained, 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:55.880 and I'm Richard McLean Smith. What hadn't been revealed to 0:07:55.960 --> 0:07:59.000 Sheriff Brown at his colleagues was that nineteen year old 0:07:59.120 --> 0:08:03.480 Michael Huckstad was no ordinary foot soldier. He was an 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:08.800 information specialist trained at Cory Station, the US Navy's Center 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:15.280 for Information Warfare UKSTETT, had been instructed on cryptology, coding, 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:19.040 and decoding communication, and for the past few months had 0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:22.320 been stationed in Augsburg, Germany, where he worked as an 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:29.560 intelligence analyst, intercepting and identifying non Morse coded communications. There 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:32.760 he was assigned to the seven hundred and first Military 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:37.560 Intelligence Brigade as part of US Army Intelligence and Security 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:41.760 Command on what at the time was the largest national 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:45.760 security agency base in the world outside the United States. 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:50.720 In Augsburg, Mike became friends with twenty year old William 0:08:50.840 --> 0:08:55.360 Setterberg through a mutual interest in meditation. At some point, 0:08:55.600 --> 0:08:59.880 the pair then became friendly with Varce Davis and Ken Beeson, 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:05.040 two older colleagues with intriguing ideas about the capabilities of 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:10.920 human beings. All four of them were fundamentalist Christians, utterly 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:15.559 committed to the beliefs of their church. Ken Advance, both 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:18.400 twenty six years old at the time, had got to 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:21.120 know each other during their studies on the way to 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:25.120 working for the U. S Army. Drawn together by their 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:29.440 shared interests and Christian faith, they gradually began to open 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:33.280 up to each other about their somewhat more unusual beliefs 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:37.960 and experiences. When Ken was five years old, he was 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:42.200 convinced he'd witnessed a ghost in his bedroom. A few 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:46.760 years later, he began suffering continual night terrors due to 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:51.839 what he believed were visions of an impending armageddon. He 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:55.760 also became convinced that he lived a previous life and 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:59.800 had even once been sacrificed as an offering to the gods. 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:05.560 As a teenager, Fans Davis became convinced that the mind 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:09.600 was an untapped resource of mystical power, and had even 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:13.319 enrolled on a Silver Mind control course in New York. 0:10:14.200 --> 0:10:18.880 The controversial course, developed by Jose Silver in the nineteen sixties, 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:22.040 was designed to help focus the mind in order to 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:26.959 improve memory, but also, as some believe, to help develop 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:32.760 the power of extrasensory perception. After taking the course, Fans 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:37.800 claimed to have mastered the ability to hypnotize himself. One day, 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:42.400 after placing himself in a deep trance, Fans believed he 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:46.640 made contact with an alien entity who proceeded to explain 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:49.840 to him that the human race was in grave danger 0:10:50.559 --> 0:11:00.000 and that an intergalactic war was raging throughout the galaxy. 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:06.800 Shortly after joining the military and completing his intelligence training Vance, 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:10.640 Davis claims he was posted to Fort Meade on account 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:15.920 of his proficiency of the Silver mind control technique. While there, 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:21.160 he was apparently tasked with conducting psychic research. Not a 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:24.440 great deal is known about Davis's time at Fort Meade, 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:28.480 or if he really was stationed there at all. However, 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:32.959 as improbable as his story may sound, fort Meade may 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:36.640 be familiar to some listeners as the headquarters of just 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:42.720 exactly that kind of research. Established in nineteen seventy seven 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:46.760 as the Gondola Wish Program, what would later become known 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:50.679 as the Stargate Project was a fully funded, twenty year 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:54.840 effort to establish the potential for the use of psychic 0:11:54.920 --> 0:12:00.360 phenomena in warfare. The project's primary focus was so searching 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:03.480 the use of remote viewing, the idea that it was 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:07.760 possible to spy on people and events from great distances 0:12:08.160 --> 0:12:12.000 using only the power of the mind. The unit had 0:12:12.040 --> 0:12:15.640 been established in response to an insistent rumor that the 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:20.800 Soviet Union had been investing heavily in psychotronic research, the 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:24.959 study of whether it was possible to destabilize people's minds 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:29.559 with the power of thought. Back in the early nineteen seventies, 0:12:30.040 --> 0:12:34.880 research conducted by physicist Russell Targ and engineer Harold put 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:38.959 Off at the Stamford Research Institute hinted at a startling 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:44.920 possibility that telepathy might be real. Their experiments were so 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:48.840 provocative they soon drew the attention of the United States 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:54.040 Department of Defense. These experiments would form the foundation of 0:12:54.080 --> 0:13:00.240 the Stargate project. One prominent individual involved in Stargate was 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:05.000 Major Albert Stubblebin, who, as portrayed in the John Ronson 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:08.520 book The Men Who Stare at Goats, had ambitions to 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:14.480 create an entire army of soldiers trained in psychic warfare. Stubblebyn, 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:18.680 as it happens, had also spent time in Augsburg, Germany, 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:25.040 where Vance Davis ken Beeson, Bill Setterberg, and Michael Huckstet 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:31.520 were stationed. Shortly before moving to Augsburg, ken Beeson was 0:13:31.559 --> 0:13:36.080 reminded of those terrifying dreams he'd experienced as a child. 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:40.080 Fearful that they might in fact be genuine visions of 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:45.280 an approaching apocalypse, he began researching ways to investigate them. 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:49.559 It was sometime in April nineteen ninety that Ken purchased 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:53.959 at Wigiboort. Intrigued by the possibility of seeking his answers 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:58.080 from the spirit world, he then invited Vance, Bill and 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:09.520 Mike to join him. One night, Vance, Bill, and Mike 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:12.800 were gathered together in a private room in their barracks 0:14:13.200 --> 0:14:17.400 as Ken laid out the wigiboard before them. Then Vance 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:19.560 lit a candle and placed it in the middle of 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:23.720 the table and switched out the light. Mike took charge 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:27.080 of the audio recorder as Bill readied himself with a 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:31.240 paper and pencil to jot down whatever messages might come through. 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:38.880 Wait said, Vance, shouldn't we protect ourselves first? As fundamentalists Christians, 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:42.240 the four men were wary of the inherent dangers in 0:14:42.280 --> 0:14:47.160 the wigiboard should they actually find themselves contacting someone or 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:51.640 something from the other side. For protection, the men said 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:55.040 a short prayer together, asking Jesus to give them a 0:14:55.120 --> 0:14:59.160 sign if they should not proceed. Getting nothing in response, 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:04.840 the men continued. Ken Advance placed their fingers on the planchet. 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:10.960 Then Ken asked softly if anybody was there. Mike gasped 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:16.240 as the planchet began to slide slowly burt inexorably toward 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:21.560 the word yes, stop messing about, yelled Vance. I'm not, 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:27.240 replied Ken. Vance glanced around the room with the sudden 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:32.960 feeling that they were no longer alone. Stealing himself, he 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:38.280 asked for the present to introduce themselves. The planchet began 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:42.880 to move again. Ken spoke the letters out loud as 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:49.160 it moved from one to the other s A F I, 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:57.360 R E Sapphire, he said, with confusion as Bill furiously 0:15:57.440 --> 0:16:00.960 tried to keep up taking notes. The plant had spelled 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:05.520 out that Sapphire once lived in a town in Georgia, USA, 0:16:05.880 --> 0:16:08.680 and had died in the nineteen sixties at the age 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:14.480 of eighty two. Her attention then turned to Ken. Why 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:18.440 had he stopped believing in his visions? She asked. Ken 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:23.200 looked troubled. Why do you ask? He said back in return, 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:35.160 Because they are true, came the response. The first Weija 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:38.480 session lasted three and a half hours, in which the 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:44.440 apparent entity Sapphire elaborated on her shocking revelation. A cosmic 0:16:44.520 --> 0:16:49.040 battle between two alien species was being raged over Earth, 0:16:49.400 --> 0:16:53.240 in which the human race were mere pawns. Only those 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:57.640 with the correct knowledge, she insisted, would survive the resulting destruction. 0:16:59.240 --> 0:17:02.800 With the men thoroughly spooked by their first session, it 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:06.040 was another two weeks until they gathered round the board 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:11.640 for a second time, but this time Sapphire was not alone. 0:17:11.840 --> 0:17:15.000 Over the course of eight hours, the men claimed to 0:17:15.040 --> 0:17:20.720 have communicated with numerous entities, calling themselves everything from Tannic 0:17:20.800 --> 0:17:25.440 prophet Zechariah to Mark and Timothy of the Christian Bible 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:30.200 and the blessed Virgin Mary herself, all of whom attested 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:35.240 to the approaching apocalypse. While the men struggled to process 0:17:35.320 --> 0:17:40.560 what was happening, Ken grew increasingly troubled. Needing more proof, 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:44.960 he demanded that Sapphire provide some concrete evidence that she 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:49.160 was who she said she was. She duly informed them 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:53.520 that Ken's grandfather was with her, So what's his name? 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:59.040 Then snapped Ken, but there was no reply. Then, after 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:03.439 a five minute, the planchete began to move, once again, 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:09.200 spelling out the name John. Ken jumped from his seat, 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:12.439 pulling the board from the table. He tore it in 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:15.440 half and threw it across the room as the other 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:19.359 men looked on in terror. Before they could ask what 0:18:19.400 --> 0:18:23.879 he was doing, Ken was already out the door. It 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:27.240 was three days later when Vance had an opportunity to 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:31.000 check in on his friend. He found Ken alone in 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:34.639 his room in a somber mood. It was true, he 0:18:34.720 --> 0:18:39.960 told him his grandfather's name was John. It was clear 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:42.440 then to both of them that they needed to learn 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:53.040 more from Sapphire. Over the next few weeks, the men 0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:57.240 gathered a further six times to commune with the apparent Sapphire, 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:01.200 and were eventually joined by twenty year old Private first 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:06.399 Class Chris Purlock and twenty two year old Sergeant Annette Eggleston, 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:10.040 who having heard rumors of what had been going on, 0:19:10.560 --> 0:19:15.760 were eager to see it for themselves. During the subsequent sessions, 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:20.120 Sapphire explained further that while one of the alien races 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:23.920 battling for Earth were trying to save humanity, the other 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:28.040 was trying to destroy it. They had apparently even made 0:19:28.040 --> 0:19:30.879 a deal with members of the U. S Government to 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:34.840 give them power in return for the opportunity to carry 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:39.840 out a mass abduction of the Earth's human population. This 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:43.760 would be preceded by a series of cataclysmic events that 0:19:43.880 --> 0:19:47.360 would effectively bring about the end of the world as 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:51.159 they knew it. If the group took her advice, however, 0:19:51.560 --> 0:19:54.440 they would be taken off the planet and saved from 0:19:54.480 --> 0:20:00.520 this fate. Viewed through the prism of their fundamentalist Christian 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:03.840 belief system, the group came to the conclusion that what 0:20:04.000 --> 0:20:09.560 Sapphire was detailing was, in actuality, the rapture which would 0:20:09.560 --> 0:20:14.320 make the impending destruction. She spoke of the Tribulation, a 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:18.280 period of worldwide suffering and pain, which is said in 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:22.520 the Bible to proceed or in fact mark the end times, 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:26.360 which would then be followed by the arrival of the 0:20:26.400 --> 0:20:33.240 second Coming of Jesus. It was claimed that Sapphire gave 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:36.760 the group a series of predictions, a list of violent 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:40.919 events and cataclysms that would take place over the next decade, 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:44.160 in an effort to convince them further of her warnings. 0:20:45.240 --> 0:20:49.400 The first prediction, an earthquake in Iran that would supposedly 0:20:49.560 --> 0:20:53.240 result in tens of thousands being killed or injured, would 0:20:53.320 --> 0:20:57.560 take place imminently. Another was that sometime in the not 0:20:57.720 --> 0:21:01.639 too distant future, a war breakout in the Middle East 0:21:01.840 --> 0:21:06.680 between the United States and Iraq. The group finally had 0:21:06.680 --> 0:21:10.879 what they were looking for, something concrete to lend credibility 0:21:11.000 --> 0:21:15.600 to the apparent entities improbable claims. All they had to 0:21:15.640 --> 0:21:26.480 do then was weight. It had just gone past midnight 0:21:26.600 --> 0:21:29.800 local time in the early morning of June twenty first, 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:35.880 nineteen twenty, when two hundred kilometers northwest of the Iranian capital, Tehran, 0:21:36.480 --> 0:21:41.280 the ground shook with devastating fury, with the initial shake 0:21:41.560 --> 0:21:46.119 lasting sixty seconds. An earthquake measuring seven point four on 0:21:46.160 --> 0:21:50.040 the Richter scale ruptured a dam, tore off chunks of 0:21:50.119 --> 0:21:54.439 mountainside and raised more than one hundred townsand villages to 0:21:54.520 --> 0:21:58.240 the ground in an earth shattering hail of bricks and water, 0:21:59.080 --> 0:22:04.200 burying thousands in its wake. In total, up to forty 0:22:04.280 --> 0:22:07.880 thousand people were thought to have been killed and upwards 0:22:07.880 --> 0:22:13.320 of one hundred thousand injured. Sapphire's prediction, it seemed, had 0:22:13.400 --> 0:22:18.280 come true. It was a few days later when Stan Johnson, 0:22:18.640 --> 0:22:21.400 a friend of Ken Beeson's, was at home in by 0:22:21.520 --> 0:22:26.359 B Tennessee, when he received an unexpected phone call. It 0:22:26.560 --> 0:22:31.120 was Ken calling from Germany. The pair had become friends 0:22:31.440 --> 0:22:34.679 not long after Ken finished his army training in nineteen 0:22:34.720 --> 0:22:37.520 eighty seven, but had not spoken a great deal in 0:22:37.600 --> 0:22:41.920 recent months. Without wanting to go into too much detail 0:22:42.000 --> 0:22:45.800 about why, Ken asked Stan to find him a van 0:22:46.160 --> 0:22:49.960 big enough to fit six people in it. When Stan 0:22:50.119 --> 0:22:52.680 got back to him to let him know he'd found one, 0:22:53.119 --> 0:22:56.360 Ken then told his confused friend to meet him at 0:22:56.359 --> 0:23:02.840 the nearby Knoxville's McGee Tyson Airport on July sixth. Sure Enough, 0:23:03.200 --> 0:23:08.359 on July sixth, Ken arrived at Knoxville accompanied by Michael Huckstead, 0:23:09.400 --> 0:23:12.439 with Stand there to meet them. They drove together to 0:23:12.520 --> 0:23:17.560 the home of Bill grant in nearby Morristown. Bill thought 0:23:17.680 --> 0:23:20.639 little of the men when they assembled on his driveway 0:23:20.800 --> 0:23:23.560 to inspect the van he was selling them and was 0:23:23.600 --> 0:23:26.760 happy to accept their money for it. It was only 0:23:26.840 --> 0:23:29.920 when he asked them shortly before they left what they 0:23:29.960 --> 0:23:32.919 planned to use it for that he was given pause 0:23:32.960 --> 0:23:37.919 for thought. Ken explained matter of factly that they needed 0:23:37.960 --> 0:23:41.560 the van to drive to Pensacola Beach to prepare for 0:23:41.640 --> 0:23:45.240 the end of the world and the second coming of Jesus, 0:23:45.720 --> 0:23:47.879 and if they didn't make it in time, he said, 0:23:48.440 --> 0:23:51.280 they would not be taken into the Kingdom of Heaven, 0:23:52.280 --> 0:24:02.440 and with that they were gone. Back at their barracks 0:24:02.440 --> 0:24:06.800 in Haughtsburg, Ken Beeson and Mike Huckstet's, superiors of the 0:24:06.880 --> 0:24:12.480 seven hundred first Military Intelligence Brigade, were growing concerned. Though 0:24:12.480 --> 0:24:15.560 the pair had signed off on leave, a letter left 0:24:15.600 --> 0:24:19.439 behind by Ken seemed to suggest that something unusual was 0:24:19.480 --> 0:24:24.480 going on to whom it concerns. It began, we are 0:24:24.520 --> 0:24:28.080 of sound mind and spirit. You will want to hide 0:24:28.080 --> 0:24:31.199 this letter, but we recommend that it be forwarded to 0:24:31.240 --> 0:24:36.240 the highest possible command. The following letter may sound wild, 0:24:36.720 --> 0:24:39.879 but what was said about the apostles in Christ's time, 0:24:40.560 --> 0:24:44.080 For it is said in the end, young men will 0:24:44.080 --> 0:24:47.639 see visions of that to come and hide themselves away 0:24:47.720 --> 0:24:51.520 for the battle. May you take warning in this time 0:24:51.560 --> 0:24:54.320 has come for a decision to be made, and they 0:24:54.400 --> 0:24:58.320 made theirs. Their works will be known throughout the lands, 0:24:58.720 --> 0:25:02.000 and many will be murder for knowing them. You will 0:25:02.040 --> 0:25:05.000 search for these and thousands more like them, but you 0:25:05.000 --> 0:25:08.399 will be searching for naught. God takes care of his 0:25:08.480 --> 0:25:13.400 elect and those that follow them. It went on. If 0:25:13.440 --> 0:25:16.280 you listen to this letter, you who claim to be 0:25:16.320 --> 0:25:19.480 of Christ, our Lord, those of you who know of 0:25:19.520 --> 0:25:23.399 the truth and feel its pull, then leave all and 0:25:23.480 --> 0:25:26.720 search for the Elect and their followers, as they are 0:25:26.880 --> 0:25:31.200 of God's chosen leaders. You of the world, listen carefully. 0:25:31.800 --> 0:25:34.560 The time is now to wake up your spirits and 0:25:34.680 --> 0:25:38.480 heed the warning. I'm the last to speak to you ever. 0:25:39.520 --> 0:25:43.240 Now the Elect take over the mission of the apostles. 0:25:44.680 --> 0:25:48.840 Further searches around Ken and Mike's barracks uncovered the term 0:25:49.080 --> 0:25:53.719 end of world written on various pieces of paper. A 0:25:53.760 --> 0:25:58.719 short time later, it was realized that Vance Davis, William Setterberg, 0:25:59.200 --> 0:26:04.240 Chris Perlock, and Annette eccleston had also disappeared from the base, 0:26:05.440 --> 0:26:09.280 and so it was that on July ninth, a worldwide 0:26:09.280 --> 0:26:19.840 alert was issued to bring them back back. At that 0:26:19.960 --> 0:26:23.840 police station in Golf Breeze, Mike was still refusing to 0:26:23.880 --> 0:26:26.800 give up the whereabouts of the others, whose some had 0:26:26.840 --> 0:26:31.160 begun referring to as the end of the World group. Meanwhile, 0:26:31.200 --> 0:26:34.399 at the home of Anna Foster, a few minutes drive away, 0:26:34.760 --> 0:26:38.639 there was a knock at the door. Foster, a self 0:26:38.680 --> 0:26:43.480 described psychic, had befriended Chris Purlock and later Ken Beeson 0:26:43.760 --> 0:26:47.960 while they were stationed in Pensacola. She opened the door 0:26:48.200 --> 0:26:54.200 to find two FBI officers waiting outside, Bursting into the property, 0:26:54.600 --> 0:26:58.280 the officers quickly located the rest of the group, who 0:26:58.320 --> 0:27:01.560 had all been hiding out at foss apartment, with the 0:27:01.600 --> 0:27:04.560 exception of a net who was picked up soon after 0:27:04.800 --> 0:27:09.880 from a local camping site. The group's possessions, including four 0:27:09.880 --> 0:27:15.720 thousand dollars worth of cash, suitcases, Foster's computer, and floppy discs, 0:27:15.880 --> 0:27:20.919 were all confiscated. Vance Davis alleged later that all the 0:27:21.000 --> 0:27:24.800 papers and notes pertaining to the Wija board sessions were 0:27:24.840 --> 0:27:31.040 also confiscated. Strangely, the officers were under orders not to 0:27:31.119 --> 0:27:35.280 ask any questions, merely to arrest the deserters and have 0:27:35.440 --> 0:27:38.960 them delivered to the brig at Pensacola Naval Air Station, 0:27:39.280 --> 0:27:43.800 where they were joined soon after by Michael Huckstadt. The 0:27:43.840 --> 0:27:47.320 following day, the group were flown two hundred odd miles 0:27:47.359 --> 0:27:51.919 to Fort Benning in Georgia for interrogation before being taken 0:27:52.000 --> 0:27:56.960 to Fort Knox in Kentucky for further questioning. With the 0:27:56.960 --> 0:28:00.720 press picking up the story soon after, speculation was rife 0:28:00.800 --> 0:28:03.800 about just who the group were and what they were 0:28:03.840 --> 0:28:07.960 intending to do, as the public waited with bated breath 0:28:08.119 --> 0:28:12.359 to learn their fate, With the group having been in 0:28:12.440 --> 0:28:17.360 custody since July fourteenth, The Pentagon gave an official briefing 0:28:17.440 --> 0:28:21.520 on the incident on the seventeenth, describing the six as 0:28:21.560 --> 0:28:25.080 being part of an end of the World cult. Two 0:28:25.200 --> 0:28:29.080 days later, a relative told the press the group had 0:28:29.119 --> 0:28:32.520 in fact been heading to Florida to expose a government 0:28:32.680 --> 0:28:39.200 cover up of UFOs. Soon after, the Pentagon retracted their statement. 0:28:46.400 --> 0:28:50.240 With no more information forthcoming, relatives of the group grew 0:28:50.280 --> 0:28:55.600 increasingly concerned about their well being. In response, Chris Purlock's 0:28:55.640 --> 0:28:59.360 mother began a public media campaign to help get them 0:28:59.400 --> 0:29:04.640 released on July nineteenth, They were formally charged with desertion, 0:29:05.320 --> 0:29:08.440 a crime that ordinarily would lead to at the very 0:29:08.520 --> 0:29:12.560 least a dishonorable discharge from the Army and a period 0:29:12.640 --> 0:29:17.680 of confinement for up to three years. But then something 0:29:17.760 --> 0:29:23.040 strange occurred. On July twenty fifth, ten days after the 0:29:23.080 --> 0:29:28.000 group were apprehended, a strange message was sent to local newspaper, 0:29:28.200 --> 0:29:36.360 The Golf Breeze Sentinel, and other news agencies. It read, ABC, NBC, CBS, 0:29:36.760 --> 0:29:42.160 AP UPI U S Army free the Golf Breeze six. 0:29:43.040 --> 0:29:46.760 We have the missing plans, the box of five hundred 0:29:46.800 --> 0:29:50.680 plus photos and the plans you want back. Here is 0:29:50.760 --> 0:29:54.200 proof with close ups cut out. Next we send the 0:29:54.240 --> 0:30:00.280 close ups and then everything unless they are released. The 0:30:00.360 --> 0:30:04.960 note was apparently accompanied by two photographs purporting to show 0:30:05.040 --> 0:30:10.960 two unidentified flying objects. The following day, all six of 0:30:11.000 --> 0:30:17.680 the group, dubbed the Golf Breeze six, were released without charge. 0:30:18.320 --> 0:30:21.320 Not only were they spared a trial by court martial, 0:30:21.600 --> 0:30:26.040 but they were also discharged with full honors. This was 0:30:26.120 --> 0:30:30.360 upgraded soon after, however, when Colin Powell, who was Chairman 0:30:30.440 --> 0:30:33.120 of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time, felt 0:30:33.240 --> 0:30:37.520 duty bound intervene. As if to draw attention away from 0:30:37.560 --> 0:30:42.240 the unusually lenient punishment, Powell removed their discharge with full 0:30:42.280 --> 0:30:46.240 honors and instead had them discharged with a loss of 0:30:46.360 --> 0:30:51.240