UFO Landing Near Kirtland Air Force Base: Welcome to the Cosmic Watergate


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Postscript A

After I had completed this paper I sent copies of Parts 1 through 5 to Noah Lawrence in order to give him a chance to comment on, criticize or correct my statements about his involvement. I also asked him, "If you still say there is no follow-on report, then what do you think that Doty did with the information he obtained by interviewing the witnesses and with the statements of the Sandia Guards (the existence of which were confirmed by Russ Curtis).

Several weeks later I received a letter from Lawrence who stated "We do not wish to critique your report, which is returned herewith. Our responses to your previous requests have provided to you all the information we have regarding the Kirtland AFB incident." At the bottom of the letterhead paper on which all of Lawrence's letters have been written is the statment:"HELPING TO PROTECT A GREAT WAY OF LIFE." I do not doubt the accuracy of this statement. However, I sometimes wonder what ELSE the AFOSI is helping to protect.

Postscript B

I won one from the AFOSI! As part of my investigation I requested documents which describe how the AOSI is authorized to carry out investigations. Lawrence responded that the documents required two hours of professional search time and one hour of clerical search time, and, accordingly, I would be charged $43.70 for the documents (which includes $0.10 per page for copy fees). In his letter Lawrence indicated that if I decided to appeal the decision I should write to the Secretary of the Air Force via AFOSI headquarters. (This way he would know if I actually wrote to the Secretary!) I sent a check for the full amount to AFOSI in order to expedite the shipment of the documents. I also took his advice and wrote a letter to the Secretary as follows: "As part of a research and public information project I have requested information concerning official policy of the AFOSI. Inasmuch as the release of this information is in the public interest and inasmuch as I personally have to bear the expense, I protest the charges for search and copying. However, to decrease the amount of time I have to wait for the information I have paid the requested fees. I hope that you will agree that it was inappropriate for the AFOSI/DADF to charge me for this information and will direct that the money be returned.

About a month later (after I had received the information and after I had mailed a copy of the report to Lawrence) I received a letter in which Lawrence said "We have reconsidered our decision to charge you $43.70 for search and reproduction fees. Accordingly your check, in that amount is returned." HOORAY!

Appendix

Contained in this Appendix is a summary of William Moore's investigation. Moore's summary shows that he preceded me on a number of points, including the emphasis that Doty put on the accuracy of the Landing Document, Doty's claim that he had personnally investigated, and that there "were 'most likely' other documents as well." Moore also talked to Russ Curtis and Curtis did not deny that the landing took place but rather remembered that "unusual lights" had been reported in the area.

Notes Pertinent To "Welcome To The Cosmic Watergate"
by Bill Moore (1985)

(1) I was leaked a copy of the Kirtland document by a contact in the Washington, DC area in late January, 1982. The comment was "This is something you might be interested in". During the summer of 1982, I served for a brief period as a consultant to KPIX-TV, San Francisco, CA, while they were engaged in making a special on UFOs which at the time was intended to run only locally. (It was subsequently syndicated to a number of other stations around the country.) In my capacity as consultant, I made the Kirtland document available to KPIX who then agreed to send me to New Mexico to see what more could be learned about it, As a result of all of the above, a short clip on the Kirtland incident was used in the KPIX special, a part of which pictured the document I had made available to the station. It was as a result of seeing this special that Barry Greenwood filed his FOIA request with AFOSI and obtained his copy of the document more than a year after I had obtained mine. Although I was not able to learn much about the incident while in New Mexico, I did manage to obtain the following.

(2) Doty confirmed to me that the report was entirely accurate, that he had investigated thoroughly and that there were "most likely" other documents as well, although he would not confirm or deny officially. This was on June 16, 1982 over coffee in Albuquerque. The next day, in a subsequent discussion, he made an unclassified map of the area available to me and indicated on it the location of the area and structures involved. The map was dated 1 January 1975.

(3) An interview (brief) with Russ Curtis at 3:30 PM on June 21st, 1982, produced a gruff comment that he remembered some talk about lights in the area, but couldn't comment specifically because "Manzano is strictly military; not, my department at all. He readily admitted he knew Doty and confirmed that there are 'alarmed structures' in the Coyote Canyon area, but balked at discussing the nature of these structures or the contents of them. I asked if this information was classified, to which he replied "As far as I'm concerned, it is.' His final comment concerning the "unusual lights" was that information of this nature is not normally handled through his office". He refused to elaborate.

(4) An effort to locate the other military personnel mentioned in the document produced the followin results: (A) A1C Martin W. Rist was listed in the phone book as living at 139 Gen. Arnold St. NE. The listed phone number produced a "no longer in service" recording when dialed. A physical check of the address revealed a family named Chavez living there. Subsequent checking with the AFB revealed that Rist had been transferred out several months earlier. Efforts to determine where he had been transferred to produced a dead end. (B) AMN Anthony D. Frazier had apparently been gone from the base for some time. (C) SSgt Stephen Ferenz was still listed in the phone directory as living at 2202 1vy Pl. NE. When I dialed the number given, I was informed that the number had been changed and that the new number was unlisted. A physical check of the address revealed (curiously) that there was no such address. I then obtained a number for him through the Base Locator and made several calls before I was able to speak with him. The conversation was brief and to the point. He had been told not to discuss the matter." Click.

(5) An interview with Jerry Miller (mentioned in the Bennewitz material) on June 21,1982 at 7 PM at his home, produced a "recollection" of having heard of such an event, along with a statement that he had had no "direct involvement with it" and hence "couldn't discuss it". Miller seemed more interested in asking me questions about UFOs than in put to him. He admitted he had been "consulted" concerning Bennewitz and that he had "met with him" and viewed his "set-up', but would not commit himself beyond that.


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