...SQUISHED beyond belief! Imagine if you took a can of sardines (go ahead and open one, take a good look!), held it sort of level, then threw it across the room. That was my flight to Phoenix. When did airlines start catering only to jockeys? I admit, I haven't flown since the 80s, but I'm pretty sure you could have fit two of these planes inside the last plane I was on before this, and still have had some leg room. But I digress.
After landing at Sky Harbor in Phoenix, I was met by the head of our STAR Team, Fletcher Gray, and my soon-to-be teammate, Arthur Goodrich. They drove me a group of us out to our hotel in Wickenburg, which was about an hour from Phoenix. We all stayed at the Los Viajeros Inn, which was a very nice place. I have to say that the town of Wickenburg is probably the cleanest little town I've ever seen! Everyone I met there was very nice too, and some were even interested in MUFON! Everyone else arrived over the course of the day, and we all went out to dinner together before retiring to get ready for the first day of boot camp.
Day One - Classroom instruction (Fletcher Gray in front of screen).
Our first day began at 8:00 A.M., with some classroom instruction from Fletcher Gray, Chuck Modlin, and Marc Dantonio. Chuck taught us a little bit about the three different types of radiation we might be likely to encounter on an investigation, and how to safely approach the situation, and collect any evidence. Fletcher showed us some very helpful Apps to use in the course of investigation, and Marc gave us some excellent tips in photo analysis, and different ways to use Google Earth, and Google Street View. Also some great tips on Stellarium, which is an App a lot of us use for determining what is in the night sky. After a full day of classroom instruction, we all went out to dinner again at The 7's Bar & Grill, home of Wickenburg's finest steaks, then off to rest up for our first actual day out in the field.
Day two saw us all meeting in the Lobby of our hotel, where we loaded up into two vans for the long ride out to our top-secret training location. I guess I have to amend the top-secret part since unbeknownst to us, the Air Force had already scrambled a couple of jets to fly over our "mock UFO crash site". I guess it must have looked like the "real deal" to them (snicker, snicker). Since they came in hot at low altitude with afterburners, one can only assume that they were loaded for bear as well, but of course...the Air Force doesn't investigate such things...yeah, right. I think we have first-hand proof that the Air Force DOES investigate "this sort of thing", and apparently very seriously. You can read all about that encounter on my friend Alejandro Rojas' Open Minds website. Alejandro was also out there, and in fact interviewed Fletcher Gray while he was there. Thanks for all your help Alejandro!
So our second day found us all out in the Sonoran Desert, participating in four different scenarios, which we were told fit together somehow. We were divided into four different teams, and each assigned a different scenario to start with. Each team would choose a different leader for each scenario, so that everyone could get some experience as team leader. The team I was on assumed the name "Field Team Six", and was comprised of: Arthur Goodrich, Russell Azbill, Harold Shepard, Roger Moore, Craig Lang, and myself. Our first scenario was a "historical" crash site, that had supposedly occurred 10 years previously. A farmer had seen a bright light, which appeared to come down in his field. When he went to investigate, he found a crashed saucer and it's occupants, who he fired at and thinks he hit one, although he never found any traces of the occupants. We first assessed the scene, took pictures from cardinal coordinates, performed a radiological survey, and then went over the area with a metal detector to see if there was any pieces of the wreckage left behind. All hits were marked with both number cards that had photo scales on them, flagged, and then photographed. A grid was then constructed, and a sub-grid laid out wherever evidence was flagged. Anyone who thinks that what we do is easy should give this exercise a try one afternoon. I guarantee you will have an all new appreciation for just what is involved in an investigation. Each step was carefully noted, evidence tagged and bagged, properly logged and the chain of custody notated. On to the next one.
I should add that the first scenario was by far the hardest, and the most time consuming. By the time we were on our second scenario, it was late in the day so we only had enough time left to assess the site, take our readings, mark out the evidence, take biological samples, and then secure the scene. Little did we know that when we got to town we would be seeing our current scenario in the news!
The now famous "mock UFO crash site".
When we first saw the story on the Open Minds website we of course all had a good chuckle, but then we kind of realized that we had just proved something contrary to the Air Forces public statements. I would really have loved to have been back at that base to hear the debriefing! With smiles on our faces we turned in for the night, exhausted but satisfied.
By day three the desert had taken it's toll. One of the ladies had injured her wrist and so was out for the day, and another person dropped out completely over some personality issues. That's what boot camp was like in the Army too. Being out in the field during training is not for everyone. There is a physical, as well as a mental toll on a person. That is why leaders like to take to their teams out into the field for training...so they can be assessed under the conditions and strains that they are likely to encounter, and can be better prepared for the different problems they could run in to. It is also where the participants learn that all the knowledge in the world won't help you if you can't work together as a team.
Field Team Six finished up our scenario with the mock-crash, then moved on to our next scenario...a landing site complete with burn marks, circular depressions in the soil in a triangle pattern, and detectable levels of radiation! Before anyone gets too excited, we didn't have a nuclear fuel rod or anything like that laying around. For the purposes of training we were able to use a common test source consisting of Alpha radiation, which is the most common and the safest. In fact your household smoke detector has them built in, which is where they were liberated from for the exercise.
In this exercise we had to check for radiation, decide what kind of radiation, find any debris, and take a cast of the landing marks depressed in the soil. Again a very time consuming, painstaking process involving lots of photographs, measurements, and of course a log of every step. My hat is off to Russell Azbill of Arizona, who was our Secretary so to speak, and took notes of everything we did, and filled out all the paperwork for our team. Great job Russ!
Our last scenario involved a car that was abandoned in a field. There were no tire tracks leading in on either the front or rear of the car, the tags were a year out of date, it had a "Military Personnel" sticker on the windshield, a bloody handprint smeared along the right rear quarter panel, and magnetic anomalies on both the trunk and hood...mysterious! Of course by this point I had a few different ideas forming about how all these scenarios fit together, as I'm sure some of you reading this do as well. In either case, it doesn't look good for the humans involved, does it?
The First Annual MUFON Field Investigator Boot Camp Participants
I'd like to thank everyone involved with this fantastic training experience, ESPECIALLY our hosts, Chuck and Vicky...you were the best! Special thanks are due as well to Marc Dantonio for the best skywatch ever, and a lesson in just how deceitful drones can appear! GREAT JOB MY FRIEND!
I hope you all enjoyed this little taste of our adventure. We all had a great time out there, and made some great friendships. I would very much recommend this training to all FI's, as it's an experience you will never forget. Be sure to come back next week for the next installment!
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