0:10

Considering the amount of high strangeness

0:12

that residents of Golf Breeze in Florida

0:15

had become accustomed to over the past

0:17

few months, a nineteen seventy

0:20

one VW van with busted

0:22

tail lights was some way from unusual.

0:26

It was back in nineteen eighty seven that

0:28

the quiet town of Golf Breeze, nestled

0:31

at the tip of Pensacola Bay in

0:33

the northwest of Florida, became, for

0:35

a brief moment, to hotbed of apparent

0:37

UFO activity. In

0:40

late November of that year, local

0:42

resident Ed Walters brought a series

0:44

of photographs he'd taken of an unidentified

0:47

flying object to the attention of

0:49

Dwayne Cook, then editor of

0:51

the Golf Breeze Sentinel. The

0:53

pictures, evocatively lit, dark,

0:56

grainy polaroids, each with the

0:58

same, almost comically also shaped

1:00

object hanging in the sky, did

1:02

little to convince Cook until

1:04

that was he showed them to his

1:07

parents later that night, who recognized

1:09

it instantly as the strange object

1:11

they'd seen in the sky a few days earlier.

1:14

And they weren't the only ones. Over

1:17

the next six months, one hundred and thirty

1:20

five people reported eighty different

1:22

sightings many congregating

1:24

together in UFO watching parties

1:26

at Shoreline Park to gaze

1:28

out across the Gulf of Mexico and

1:31

up toward the heavens, an excited anticipation

1:33

of just what might be The

1:36

sightings were lent a further air of credibility

1:39

when in February nineteen eighty eight,

1:42

city councilwoman Brenda Pollack revealed

1:45

she too had witnessed something inexplicable

1:47

while driving across Pensacola Bay

1:49

Bridge. It was there that she'd

1:51

suddenly caught sight of a strange orange

1:54

light hanging low over the town.

1:57

The light appeared to bob up and down

2:00

behind distant trees, pulsating

2:02

with no discernible rhythm.

2:05

It was like nothing she had ever seen

2:07

before. It

2:09

was perhaps fitting that such an occurrence

2:12

had taken place in this part of the world,

2:14

being only ten kilometers across the

2:16

bay from the pioneering US Naval

2:19

Training School Naval Air Station

2:21

Pensacola, having

2:23

trained thousands of naval aviators

2:25

in the years since its establishment in nineteen

2:28

fourteen, it could count one Neil

2:30

Armstrong among its most illustrative

2:32

alumni. But

2:35

let's get back to that van. It

2:44

was sometime around three am

2:46

in the early morning of Saturday, July

2:48

fourteenth, nineteen ninety that

2:50

Gulf Breeze Police officer Don Stevens

2:53

cruised onto US Highway ninety eight

2:56

and spotted the errant VW perhaps

2:59

in Tregue by its Tennessee number plate.

3:02

Stevens had been keeping a close eye on the vehicle

3:04

when it drew to a stop at a set of lights.

3:08

Seeing then that the tail lights were broken,

3:10

the officer flashed his own lights and pulled

3:13

the van over. Stevens

3:16

stepped out into the warm, humid air,

3:19

and under that vast blanket of stars,

3:21

cautiously made his way over to the vehicle.

3:25

Shining his torch into the driver's side

3:27

window, he picked out the nervous

3:30

looking young man inside his

3:32

hands, gripped uneasily around the

3:34

top of the steering wheel. Stevens

3:37

knocked on the window and motioned

3:39

for the driver to wind it down.

3:42

Evening, officer said the man. Squinting

3:45

into the torchlight, Stevens

3:48

noted the accent was some way off Florida,

3:51

Wyoming. Perhaps maybe

3:54

he was one of the eight hundred out of towners

3:56

who had turned up the previous weekend for

3:58

the annual moufon fence. He

4:01

thought the mutual UFO

4:03

network having elected to have its conference

4:05

there that year on account of the recent

4:08

spate of sightings. License

4:11

of registration, said the officer. The

4:13

driver tensed, I'm afraid

4:16

I don't have any idea on me, he said. Stevens

4:19

stood for a moment, looking the driver

4:22

up and down, as the occasional car

4:24

bushed past behind.

4:26

He pointed the torch into the back of the van,

4:29

but saw no one else inside. Name,

4:33

then, he said. The driver

4:35

seemed to hesitate. Michael

4:38

Hoikstat, he replied. Finally,

4:41

Stevens told Michael to sit tight

4:44

while he get the station to run his name through

4:46

the database. Please

4:48

don't, pleaded Michael. Catching

4:50

Stevens off guard. Back

4:54

in his squad car, Stevens waited

4:56

on his colleagues at the station until

4:58

finally they found a match Michael

5:01

Hoikstat, nineteen years old

5:04

from Fasten, Wyoming, or

5:07

rather private first class

5:09

Michael Hoikstat of the US Army.

5:13

Mike's name had come up because

5:15

only a few days before the United

5:18

States Army had put out a worldwide

5:20

plea to be on the lookout for him

5:22

and five of his colleagues, all

5:25

of whom had, for reasons unknown,

5:28

gone a warn. Stephens

5:31

returned to the van and ordered Mike

5:33

to step out. You

5:36

don't know what you've done, said Mike in despair.

5:39

You've just signed my death warrant. Mike

5:42

pleaded again with the officer, even

5:45

offering a bribe to let him go, but

5:47

Stevens had no intention of doing so. After

5:50

conducting a quick search of the vehicle, Stevens

5:53

found a cachet of food enough

5:56

to last for months, as well

5:58

as camping gear and a hamburg on

6:00

how to survive in the wild packed

6:02

in the back. Offering

6:04

no further resistance, Mike was arrested

6:07

and taken to Gulf Breeze Police Station

6:10

while station Sheriff Jerry Browne waited

6:12

on word from the nearby Pensacola

6:15

Naval Air Station on what to do

6:17

next. It wasn't

6:19

long before the call came in. You

6:22

need to call Washington, said the official

6:25

on the other end. As in the Pentagon.

6:27

They want this guy bad, real

6:30

bad. Browne was asked

6:32

if Mike had told him where the rest of the deserters

6:34

were, but he was refusing to co

6:36

operate. After making

6:38

the appropriate cause, Browne was told

6:41

only to keep an eye on the prisoner, and that

6:43

under no circumstances should he speak

6:45

to him. That six

6:47

soldiers would go a wall from the United

6:50

States Military was unusual enough

6:52

in itself, but as the tiny

6:54

scraps of information began to filter

6:56

through, the story only got

6:58

more and more strange. By

7:01

the time it broke in the press, it could

7:03

well be said to be the most bizarre case

7:05

of desertion in the United States

7:07

Military's entire history. You're

7:11

listening to Unexplained, and

7:13

I'm Richard McClean Smith. What

7:22

hadn't been revealed to Sheriff Brown at his

7:24

colleagues was that nineteen year old

7:26

Michael Hoikstat was no ordinary

7:29

foot soldier, but an information

7:31

specialist. Trained at Corey Station,

7:33

the US Navy's Center for Information

7:36

Warfare. Hoikstat

7:38

had been instructed on cryptology,

7:40

coding and decoding communication,

7:43

and for the past few months had been

7:45

stationed in Auksburg, Germany, working

7:48

as an intelligence analyst, intercepting

7:50

and identifying non Morse

7:52

coded communications. There

7:55

he was assigned to the seven hundred and

7:57

first Military Intelligence Brigade

8:00

as part of US Army Intelligence

8:02

and Security Command on what

8:04

at the time was the largest national

8:06

security agency. Base in the world

8:09

outside the United States. In

8:12

Aukesburg, Mike became friends

8:14

with twenty year old William Setterberg through

8:17

a mutual interest in meditation. At

8:20

some point, the pair then became friendly

8:23

with Vance Davis and Ken Beeson,

8:26

too, older colleague with intriguing ideas

8:28

about the capabilities of human beings.

8:31

All four of the United States military

8:34

employees were fundamentalists Christians

8:37

committed to the beliefs of their church.

8:41

Ken and Vance, both twenty six years

8:43

old at the time, had got to know each other

8:45

during their studies en route to working

8:47

for the U. S. Army. Drawn

8:49

together by their shared interests and Christian

8:52

faith, they had then begun to open up

8:54

to each other about their somewhat more unusual

8:56

beliefs and experiences. When

9:00

Ken was five years old, he was convinced

9:03

he'd witnessed a ghost in his bedroom.

9:06

A few years later, he started

9:08

suffering continual night terrors due

9:10

to what he believed were visions of

9:12

an impending armor geddon. He

9:15

also became convinced that he'd lived

9:17

in a previous life and had even

9:19

once been sacrificed as an offering

9:22

to the gods. As

9:24

a teenager, Vans started to believe

9:27

that the mind was an untapped resource

9:29

of mystical power, and had even enrolled

9:32

on a Silver Mind control course in

9:34

New York. The controversial

9:37

course, developed by Jose Silver

9:39

in the nineteen sixties, was designed

9:41

to help focus the mind in order to improve

9:43

memory, but also, as

9:46

some belief, to help develop the

9:48

power of extrasensory perception.

9:52

After taking the course, Vance claimed

9:54

he'd mastered the ability to hypnotize himself.

9:58

One day, while placing himself and

10:00

a deep trance, fans believed he'd

10:02

made contact with an alien entity

10:04

who proceeded to explain to him that the

10:06

human race was in grave danger and

10:09

that an intergalactic war was

10:11

raging throughout the galaxy. Green

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11:40

Shortly after joining the military and completing

11:42

his intelligence training, fans

11:44

claimed he was posted to Fort Meade on

11:46

account of his proficiency of the silver

11:49

mind control technique, and there

11:51

he was tasked with conducting psychic research.

11:55

Not a great deal is known about Davis's

11:57

time at Fort Meade, nor if he was

12:00

stationed there or not. However,

12:03

as improbable as his story may sound,

12:05

Fought Mead may be familiar

12:07

to some listeners as the headquarters

12:09

of just exactly that kind of

12:11

research. Established

12:14

in nineteen seventy seven as the Gondola

12:16

Wish Program, what would later become

12:19

known as the Stargate Project

12:21

was a fully funded, twenty year

12:23

effort to establish the potential for

12:25

the use of psychic phenomena in warfare.

12:29

The project's primary focus was

12:31

in researching the use of remote viewing,

12:33

with all the potential that offered for spying

12:36

on people and events from great distances

12:38

without the use of technology. The

12:41

unit had been established in response to an

12:43

insistent rumor that the government

12:46

of the Soviet Union had been investing

12:48

heavily in psychatronic research, researching

12:51

whether it was possible to destabilize

12:53

people's minds with the power of thought

12:56

alone. After

12:58

a series of staring results at

13:01

the Stamford Research Institute under

13:03

the guidance of physicist Russell Targ

13:05

and engineer Harold put Off, the

13:08

team's research was soon brought to the attention

13:10

of the US Department of Defense. One

13:14

prominent individual involved in the Stargate

13:16

project was Major Stubblebein, who,

13:19

as portrayed in the John Ronson book The

13:21

Men Who Stare at Goats, had

13:23

ambitions to create an entire army of

13:25

soldiers trained in psychic warfare.

13:29

As it happens, Stubblebeyn

13:32

had also spent time in Augsburg, Germany,

13:35

where Vance, Davis ken Beeson,

13:38

Bill Setterberg, and Michael Hougstadt

13:40

were stationed. Shortly

13:44

before moving to Auksburg, ken

13:46

Beeson was reminded of those terrifying

13:48

dreams he'd experienced as a child. Fearful

13:51

that they might in fact be real visions

13:53

of an approaching apocalypse, he began

13:55

researching ways to investigate them.

13:58

It was sometime in April nineteen ninety

14:01

that ken purchased a wija board,

14:03

intrigued by the possibility of seeking

14:05

answers from the spirit world. After

14:08

suggesting he and Vance try it out, they

14:11

then asked Bill and Mike to join

14:13

them,

14:20

and so it was one night with the

14:22

men gathered around the wija board in

14:24

a private room in their barracks. Vance

14:27

lit a candle and placed it in the middle of the table,

14:29

then switched out the light Mike

14:32

took charge of an audio recorder as

14:35

Bill readied himself with a paper and

14:37

pencil to jot down whatever messages

14:39

might come. As

14:42

fundamentalist Christians, the four men

14:44

were wary about the dangers inherent

14:46

in the weija board should they actually find

14:48

themselves contacting someone or

14:50

something from the other side. For

14:54

protection, the men said a short prayer

14:56

together, asking Jesus to give them

14:58

a sign if they should not recede.

15:01

Getting nothing in response, the men

15:03

continued. Ken

15:05

and Advance placed their fingers on the planchet

15:08

Then Ken asked softly if

15:10

anybody was there. Mike

15:13

gasped as the planchet began

15:15

to slide slowly but inexorably

15:19

toward the word. Yes, stop

15:22

messing about, yelled Vance. I'm

15:25

not, said Ken. Vance

15:28

shot a glance around the room, suddenly

15:30

feeling as though there was someone else in

15:32

there with them, stealing

15:35

himself. He asked for the presents to

15:37

introduce themselves. The

15:39

planchette began to move again. S

15:43

A F I

15:47

R E. Sapphire,

15:50

said Ken out loud. Within

15:54

minutes, as Bill furiously tried to

15:56

keep up taking notes, the planchet

15:58

had spelled out the sapphire had

16:01

once lived in a town in Georgia, USA,

16:04

and had died in the nineteen sixties

16:06

at the age of eighty two. Her

16:09

attention then turned to Ken.

16:13

Why had he stopped believing in his visions?

16:15

She asked, Ken

16:17

looked troubled. Why

16:20

they said back in return, because

16:23

they are true, came the response.

16:32

The first session lasted three and a

16:34

half hours, in which the apparent

16:36

entity Sapphire, elaborated

16:38

on her shocking revelation. A

16:41

cosmic battle between two alien

16:43

species was being raged over

16:45

Earth, she said, in which the

16:47

human race were mere pawns. Only

16:51

those with the correct knowledge, she insisted,

16:53

would survive the resulting destruction.

16:57

With the men thoroughly spooked by their first

16:59

session, it was another two weeks until

17:01

they could reconvene around the board once

17:03

more, but this time Sapphire

17:06

was not alone. Over

17:08

the course of eight hours, the men

17:11

claimed to have communicated with numerous

17:13

entities, calling themselves everything

17:15

from Tannach prophet Secchariah,

17:18

to Mark and Timothy of the Christian Bible,

17:20

and the blessed Virgin Mary herself,

17:23

all of whom attested to the approaching

17:26

apocalypse. While

17:28

the men struggled to process what was happening,

17:30

Ken grew increasingly troubled. Needing

17:34

more proof, he demanded that Sapphire

17:36

provide some concrete evidence that she was

17:38

who she said she was. She

17:41

duly informed them that Ken's grandfather

17:43

was with her, So what is

17:45

his name? Then snapped Ken, but

17:48

there was no reply. Then,

17:51

after a five minute pause, the

17:54

planchet began to move once more,

17:56

spelling out the name John.

18:00

Ken jumped from his seat, pulling

18:03

the board from the table. He tore it in half

18:05

and threw it across the room as the other

18:07

men looked on in terror. Before

18:10

they could ask what he was doing, Ken

18:13

was already running out the door. It

18:16

was three days later when Vance had

18:18

an opportunity to check in on his friend.

18:21

He found Ken alone in his room in

18:23

a somber mood. It's

18:26

true, he told him his grandfather's

18:28

name was John. It

18:31

was clear to both of them that they needed

18:33

to learn more from Sapphire. Over

18:42

the next few weeks, the men gathered

18:45

a further six times to commune

18:47

with the apparent Sapphire, and were eventually

18:50

joined by twenty year old Private

18:52

first Class Chris Purlock and

18:54

twenty two year old Sergeant Annette

18:56

Eccleston, who, having

18:59

heard rumors of what had been going on, were

19:01

eager to see it all for themselves. During

19:04

the sessions, Sapphire explained

19:06

further that one of the alien races

19:08

battling for Earth were trying to save

19:11

humanity, the other were

19:13

trying to destroy it, and had even made

19:15

a deal with members of the US government

19:18

to give them power in return for the

19:20

opportunity to carry out a mass

19:22

abduction of the Earth's human population.

19:26

This would be preceded by a series

19:28

of cataclysmic events that would

19:30

effectively bring about the end of the world

19:32

as they knew it. If the

19:34

group to occur advice, however, they

19:36

could be taken off the planet and saved

19:39

from this fate. Viewed

19:42

through the prism of their fundamental Christian

19:44

belief system, the group came

19:46

to the conclusion that what Sapphire

19:48

was detailing was, in actuality, the

19:51

rapture which would make the impending

19:53

destruction. She spoke of the Tribulation,

19:56

a period of worldwide suffering and

19:59

pain said to proceed or

20:01

in fact mark the end

20:03

times, which would then be

20:05

followed by the arrival of the Second

20:08

Coming of Jesus. Sapphire

20:11

gave the group a series of predictions,

20:13

a list of violent events and cataclysms

20:16

that would take place over the next decade,

20:19

in an effort to convince them further of

20:21

her warnings. The first

20:23

prediction, an earthquake in Iran

20:26

that would result in tens of thousands

20:28

being killed or injured, would

20:30

take place imminently. The

20:33

group finally had what they were looking

20:35

for, something concrete to

20:37

lend credibility to the apparent entities

20:39

improbable claims. All

20:42

they needed to do then was wait.

20:51

It had just gone past midnight local

20:53

time in the early morning of June twenty

20:56

first, nineteen ninety, when,

20:58

two hundred kilometers west

21:00

of the Iranian capital to Iran, the

21:03

ground shook with devastating fury,

21:06

with the initial shake lasting sixty

21:08

seconds. An earthquake measuring

21:11

seven point four on the Richter scale

21:13

ruptured a dam, tore off

21:15

chunks of mountain side, and raised

21:17

more than one hundred towns and villages

21:19

to the ground in an earth shattering

21:22

hail of bricks and mortar, burying

21:24

thousands in its wake. In

21:26

total, up to forty thousand

21:29

people were thought to have been killed and

21:31

upwards of one hundred thousand injured.

21:35

Sapphire's prediction had come

21:37

true. It

21:40

was a few days later when Stan Johnson,

21:43

a friend of Ken Beeson's, was at home

21:45

in Bybee, Tennessee, when he

21:47

received an unexpected phone calls. It

21:50

was Ken calling from Germany.

21:52

The pair became friends shortly

21:54

after. Ken had finished his army training

21:56

in nineteen eighty seven, but had not

21:59

spoken a great deal in recent months. Without

22:02

wanting to go into too much detail about

22:04

why, Ken asked Stan to

22:07

find him a van big enough to fit

22:09

six people in it. When

22:11

Stan let him know he'd found one, Ken

22:14

then told him to meet him at nearby

22:16

McGee Tyson Airport in Knoxville

22:19

on July sixth. Sure

22:22

enough, on July sixth, Ken

22:24

arrived in Knoxville accompanied

22:26

by Mike Hoigstadt, with

22:28

Stan there to meet them. Together, they

22:30

drove to the home of Bill Grant in

22:32

nearby Morristown. Bill

22:35

thought little of the men when they assembled on

22:37

his driveway to inspect the van he was selling

22:40

them and was happy to accept their

22:42

money for it. It was only

22:44

when he asked them shortly before they left

22:46

what they planned to use it for that

22:48

he was given pause for thought. Ken

22:52

explained, matter of factly that they

22:54

needed the van to drive to Pensacola

22:56

Beach to prepare for the end of the

22:58

world and the second coming of Jesus,

23:02

and if they didn't make it in time, they

23:04

would not be taken into the Kingdom

23:06

of Heaven, and with

23:08

that they were gone. Care

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24:07

up to you for fifty percent off

24:09

your first care of order. Go to take

24:11

care of dot com and enter code

24:13

unexplained five zero. Once

24:15

again, that's take care of dot

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com and enter code unexplained

24:20

five zero for fifty percent off your

24:22

first order. Back

24:28

at their barracks in Aukesburg, Ken

24:30

Beeson and Mike Hoistat, superiors

24:32

of the seven hundred first Military Intelligence

24:35

Brigade, were getting concerned. Though

24:38

the pair had signed off on leave, A

24:40

letter left behind by Ken seemed

24:43

to suggest something unusual was going

24:45

on to whom

24:47

it concerns. It began, we

24:49

are of sound mind and spirit.

24:52

You will want to hide this letter, but we

24:54

recommend that it be forwarded to the highest

24:56

possible command. The

24:58

following letter may sound wild, but

25:01

what was said about the apostles in Christ's

25:03

time? For it is said in

25:05

the end young men will see visions

25:07

of that to come and hide themselves

25:10

away for the battle. May

25:12

you take warning? In this time

25:14

has come for a decision to be made, and

25:17

they made theirs. Their

25:19

works will be known throughout the lands, and

25:21

many will be murdered for knowing them.

25:24

You will search for these and thousands

25:26

more like them, but you will be searching

25:28

for nought for God takes care of

25:30

his elect and those that follow them.

25:33

It went on those of you who

25:35

know of the truth and feel its pull,

25:38

then leave all and search for

25:40

the Elect and their followers, as

25:42

they are of God's chosen leaders. You

25:45

of the world, listen carefully.

25:47

The time is now to wake up your spirits

25:50

and heed the warning. I'm

25:52

the last to speak to you ever. Now

25:54

the Elect take over the mission of

25:57

the apostles. Further,

26:00

she has uncovered the term end of World

26:02

written on bits of paper belonging to one

26:04

of the group. Realizing

26:07

that fans Davis, William Setterberg,

26:09

Chris Purlock, and Annette Eggleston

26:12

were also absent from the base, some

26:14

of them without even the pretense of authorized

26:17

leave, the army sounded

26:19

the alarm. On July

26:21

ninth, they issued a worldwide

26:24

alert to ascertain their whereabouts.

26:33

Back at that police station, engulfed breeze,

26:36

Mike was still refusing to give up the whereabouts

26:39

of the others in the group, who some had begun

26:41

referring to as the end of the world

26:43

group. Meanwhile,

26:45

at the home of Anna Foster, a few

26:48

minutes drive away, there was a knock

26:50

at the door. Foster,

26:53

a self described psychic had befriended

26:55

Chris Purlock and later Ken Beeson

26:58

while they were stationed in Pensacola. Opening

27:01

the door, she found two FBI

27:04

officers waiting outside.

27:06

Bursting into the property, the officers

27:08

quickly located the rest of the group who'd

27:11

been hiding out at Foster's apartment, with

27:13

the exception of Annette, who was picked

27:16

up soon after from a local campsite.

27:19

The group's possessions, including four thousand

27:22

dollars worth of cash, suitcases,

27:24

briefcases, Foster's computer,

27:27

and floppy discs, were all confiscated.

27:30

Vans Davis alleged later

27:32

that all the papers and notes pertaining

27:35

to the Wuija board sessions were also

27:37

confiscated. Strangely,

27:40

the officers were under orders not to ask

27:42

any questions, merely to arrest

27:44

the deserters and have them delivered

27:47

to the brig at Pensacola Naval

27:49

Air Station, where they were joined

27:51

soon after by Mike Hoigstadt. The

27:54

following day, the group were flown

27:56

two hundred miles to Fort Benning in Georgia

27:59

for in terror gastion before being

28:01

taken to Fort Knox in Kentucky

28:03

for further questioning with

28:06

the press. Picking up the story soon after,

28:09

Speculation was rife about just who

28:11

the group were and what they were intending

28:13

to do, as the public waited

28:15

with bated breath to learn their

28:17

fate. With the

28:19

group having been in custody since July

28:22

fourteenth, The Pentagon gave a briefing

28:24

on the incident on the seventeenth, describing

28:27

the six as being part of an end of the

28:29

World cult. Two

28:31

days later, a relative of the group

28:34

told the press they were actually heading to Florida

28:36

to expose a government cover up of

28:39

UFOs. Soon

28:42

after, the Pentagon retracted

28:44

their statement. With

28:47

no more information forthcoming, relatives

28:50

of the group grew increasingly concerned

28:52

about their well being. In response,

28:55

Chris Purlock's mother began a public

28:57

media campaign to help get them

28:59

released on July nineteenth.

29:02

They were formerly charged with desertion, a

29:04

crime that ordinarily would lead to it the very

29:07

least a dishonorable discharge

29:09

from the army and a period of confinement

29:12

for up to as much as three years.

29:15

But then something strange

29:17

occurred. On

29:25

July twenty fifth, ten days

29:27

after the group were apprehended, a

29:29

strange message was sent to the Gulf Breeze

29:32

Sentinel, the local newspaper and

29:34

other news agencies. It

29:36

read ABC, NBC,

29:40

CBS, AP UP,

29:43

I, U S Army free

29:45

the Gulf Breeze six. We

29:48

have the missing plans, the

29:50

box of five hundred plus photos

29:52

and the plans you want back. Here

29:55

is proof with close ups cut out. Next

29:58

we send the close ups and then everything

30:01

unless they are released. Answer

30:04

code A U G S B

30:06

B three C M.

30:09

The note was apparently accompanied by two

30:11

photographs purporting to show

30:14

two unidentified flying objects.

30:17

The following day, all of

30:19

the Gulf Breeze six were released

30:21

without charge. Not

30:24

only were they spared a trial by court martial,

30:26

but they were also discharged with full

30:29

honors. This was changed

30:31

soon after, however, when Colin

30:34

Powell, who was Chairman of the Joint

30:36

Chiefs of Staff at the time, felt

30:38

duty bound to intervene, as

30:41

if to draw attention away from the unusually

30:43

lenient punishment, Powell removed

30:46

their discharge with full honors,

30:48

deciding instead to have them discharged

30:50

with the loss of rank and one month's

30:53

pay. Many

30:55

have questioned the unusually soft outcome,

30:57

suggesting that perhaps the group, in their

31:00

capacity as intelligence analysts, had

31:02

stumbled upon something genuine, albeit

31:05

through rather unorthodox methods. Some

31:08

have also suggested that perhaps

31:10

the six were unwittingly being used

31:13

as guinea pigs in a dummy psychic

31:15

operation that ended up going

31:17

a little further than intended. The

31:21

following year, the seven hundred

31:23

and first Military Intelligence Brigade

31:25

were awarded the agency's Travis

31:28

Trophy for being the nation's top

31:30

performing signals intelligence unit that

31:32

year. That this was the

31:34

unit the group belonged to suggest

31:37

that whatever we might think about this bizarre

31:39

escapade, they were certainly thought

31:41

more than capable enough by the US

31:43

Army to be employed alongside

31:45

their best intelligence analysts. Documents

31:49

relating to the case were eventually

31:51

declassified, including

31:54

some of the group's personal records of the Wiger

31:56

sessions they conducted. However,

31:59

it has been reported that fourteen hundred

32:02

pages out of the sixteen hundred

32:04

relating to the case remain

32:06

classified. I'd

32:12

like to thank Patricia Cortez for introducing

32:15

me to this week's story. If

32:17

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