Somewhere in the Skies - The Missing Time Incident at Ellsworth Air Force Base

Episode Date: January 9, 2023

On episode 299 of SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES, we are joined by former USAF Sergeant, Mario Woods. In 1977, Woods was assigned to the surveillance and protection of weapons and nuclear materials at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota. Woods and his partner responded to a Security-4 alert one night when the missile site and the underground storage area had been penetrated by something. Whatever that something was, he would come face-to-face with. And it would change his life forever. You'll hear the incredible story from Mario himself. And you'll never guess who was present at his debriefing of the incident. This and so much more as we explore how this event affected Mario and what possibly happened during those terrifying moments of what can only be described as "missing time." You can reach Mario Woods via email at: [e-mail] Patreon: www.patreon.com/somewhereskies Website: www.somewhereintheskies.com YouTube Channel: CLICK HERE Book your Cameo video with Ryan at: https://bit.ly/3kwz3DO Official Store: CLICK HERE Buy Somewhere in the Skies coffee! Use promo code: SOMEWHERESKIES10 to get 10% off your order: https://bit.ly/3rmXuap Order Ryan’s book in paperback, ebook, or audiobook: https://amzn.to/3PmydYC Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryansprague51 Twitter: @SomewhereSkies Instagram: @SomewhereSkiesPod Read Ryan’s Articles by CLICKING HERE Watch Mysteries Decoded for free at: https://bit.ly/3rJpbd7 Opening Theme Song, "Ephemeral Reign" by Per Kiilstofte Copyright © 2023 Ryan Sprague. All rights reserved. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/somewhere-in-the-skies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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It's calling your name. Save on the stay. Oh, and free waffles are yours to claim. Well, I hope you like my little song. Book Direct at Choiceotails.com. This is Somewhere in the Skies with Ryan Sprague. Ryan Sprag here from Somewhere in the Skies. And I am coming to you from a undisclosed location for top secret reasons.

But I am making this interview happen tonight because I've been waiting for a while to talk to this gentleman. Now, I first heard about him through the television show Unidentified, which aired in the U.S. on the history channel. It aired here in the UK on Sky TV as well. And it was part of one of the, I would say, most explosive two episodes of Unidentified, actually. This gentleman was in two different episodes about UFO events that happened over nuclear installations, a topic that we have covered here in the past, but not as in depth as we will tonight. As you guys know, I'm all about the human side of U.S. UFO experiences. And ever since I saw this gentleman on the television show and have seen him

in past interviews, it's very clear that this event has affected him greatly, like it has many other military personnel and civilians as well. So we're going to talk all about the event that happened to him at Ellsworth Air Force Base in 1977. But without further ado, let's bring him in to talk all about the event that happened to him at Ellsworth Air Force Base. And that is none other than Mario Woods. Mario, welcome to somewhere in the skies. Hello, Ryan. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. You know, we have been trying to make this happen for a while now. We've been emailing back and forth for, I'd say, a little under a year now. Yeah. And we finally made it happen. So we're going to make it worth it tonight for sure. We're good. I'm looking forward to it.

Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, for those who may not be familiar with the show Unidentified, I know you did another special on Discovery Plus sort of recently as well. Can you tell us a little about who you are? You know, we'll get to the military career aspect. But yeah, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself to our audience who may not be familiar with you, if you don't mind. Okay, well, my name's Mario Woods. I'm 67 years old. I live in Brunswick, Georgia. I work for a paper company now, Georgia Pacific. My hobbies are radio control car racing, tactical shooting, physical fitness, just taking care of my property and just do everything I can to continue onward in this journey. Right. Right. Well, I don't know how far you want me to expound on that or anything, or just is that good enough?

Oh, no, no, no, no. That's perfect, man. journey is definitely what we're going to be talking about tonight. Well, let's start with your journey into the military. What made you, what compelled you to want to join the Air Force, if you don't mind? Well, honestly, I just always had a thing about aircraft and airplanes. But living in Tampa, Florida, for as long as we did, you used to always see the launches from NASA across the state, you know, in Cocoa Beach. And you just always, You know, it just always enthused me, you know, aerial superiority, you know, superiority, that kind of thing, and rockets and missiles and stuff like that.

But my father was a merchant seaman and lost him. My first day, I'm a senior high school year. So I should have probably gone in Navy. And instead, I just didn't want anything to have to do with the sea any longer. So even though I used to go to sea with him sometimes. So I decided to go in the Air Force. and I went into security police and went on the security side of it, which was kind of like the security forces as is today, and went through all the training, we even did some Ranger training down in the Philippines and so forth.

That was like 79 when they were trying to integrate Air Force into better modes and more secure modules of training. So it gave us a better laid to stand on. I don't regret the journey. It was really, really great, and I'd do it again today if they'd have me. Gotcha. Well, I guess what was your first station stationing at Ellsworth Air Force Base? Oh, yeah. Or had you work?

After basic training in technical school, right, Air Base Ground Defense Training, yeah, that was my first base was Ellsworth Air Force Base. And it was really different, you know, here, you know, here I'm a, you know, an 18-year-old from Tampa, Florida, and all of a sudden I'm in a missile complex in the middle of nowhere in South Dakota. So it was really different, but really eye-opening, not really knowing what the global threat was only, you know, as a student hearing about it, you know, the Cold War or what have you. And then all of a sudden you're thrust into the middle of it where you, you know, there were times where I got to actually go down inside of a silo and put my hands on a missile, you know, and just, I think, wow, I wanted to write something on it, but that's a federal offense. So you can't do it, you know, but I learned a great deal there.

Wow. I can't even imagine, you know, the pressure that you and so many of the people on base had to deal with day to day. And first of all, thank you for your service before we go any further. My first question would be, what does the typical day of a security police officer, look like at a base like Ellsworth. I'm sure it would change day to day. But yeah, what was kind of the protocol of a day to day there? First of all, you know, even though Ellsworth was where you're assigned, that's just your support base. And these missile sites are, you know, are spread throughout the northwestern side of South Dakota, as in Montana, as in Wyoming, as in North Dakota.

And anyway, our base had 150 missiles as the other base. As the other base. bases did also. And then you live on these launch control facilities for three days at a time, then you're off for three days. But you live there and your hours rotate per shift or per tour of duty, we used to call it, were like 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. And there, you know, staffing-wise on a launch control facility, you have six security police officers, four which are response personnel, two or flight security controllers. You have a facility manager, a cook, and you have a have four officers there and two of which are underground at all times, you manning the capsule, the launch control capsule.

And then you monitor based on their dispatches, you know, and you do LF checks, launch facility checks to any and all missile sites and, of course, address any and all security-related alarms that go off, and they do go off. So in terms of going off, now we're going to get to the main event that we, will be the crux of the conversation tonight. But had you ever had any other incidents occur non-UFO related on the base during your time there? Not on the base, no. I mean, of course, you're hearsay.

My first experience of anything that flying, which was with my mother and my sister, was in Port Arthur, Texas being taken to my elementary school, De Queen Elementary, where my mother pointed out, along with about 1,500 other people, I'd say, well, maybe not that many, maybe 800. All the kids in the playground, all the teachers hanging out of windows. It was a one, it was a building where you went to school from kindergarten to 12th grade. And I'd say that was probably right around 61, 62. I was just, that was my first year or going to school, kindergarten or first grade, I can't quite remember. but there were three objects sitting over top of a church, only about 50 feet in the air,

and they were in a white silver and had a lower circulating light. And my mother pointed them out. She said, look, Anthony, there's flying saucers. That's my middle name. And we were just so astonished. All the cars in front of us were stopped, which was probably six or eight cars. And then the playground area, which was directly across the street from the school itself, was fenced off, so it was an entire playground area.

It's still there today. I saw it just back in 08. And I just stood there and thought about that. The church is no longer there and the school's been redesigned, but that morning was really, really unbelievable, because we just couldn't believe what we saw and how fast they vanished straight up, all three. Same time, you know, they were probably 75, 80 foot in diameter.

And this is a five, six-year-old kid telling you this. So I don't know if it leaves much, room for imagination when you've never seen something like that before. So it's pretty much, that's pretty factual exactly what we saw. And, you know, and once they were gone, this is the weirdest thing. Robert Hastings even said this to me that a lot of times, you know, people witness something. And as soon as it's gone, it's like, okay, it's all normal. It's okay. And that's the way that day went, exactly the way it went. Interesting. You do hear that a lot, you know, particularly, I did a investigation recently for a TV show on the Phoenix Lights incident.

Oh, yeah. And a lot of those witnesses claimed the same thing after what they saw. It was like something in their brain just shut down and they didn't want to talk about it or they had some sort of like instant amnesia. Or there was something that just compelled them to move on and not react to what it just occurred. It's fascinating. I do wonder often, you know, is that some sort of, as Jacques Valet would say, a control mechanism of the craft you're actually seeing or what? Yeah. Yeah, I really think so.

I do. I spoke with one guy out there, and I don't want his name mentioned or anything, but by email. And he said, you know, he witnessed that and he was there and he had some pictures. I tried to get him to send me the pictures, but he didn't want to send me pictures over the Internet. that, you know, people are strange about that. But anyway, he said they were having a party in his backyard. And I don't know, birthday party or something for his daughter. And that happened.

And why he elected to tell me about that, I don't know. He had seen one of the podcasts, I think, with someone. And he just thought my email was there. And he thought he would get in touch with me. And he did. But he said it was as if, okay, it's over. Everybody goes back to the party. Nobody even discussed it, which I found extremely.

extremely strange, but that's the way it is. Yeah, right. I know. I've come across hundreds of those at this point. And speaking to emails, you're probably going to get a bunch after this interview. I'm already warning you. I try to answer everybody I can. You know, I have nothing to hide. I'm too old to worry about any of this other mess. I don't have any clearances any longer. So, you know, if you can ask anything you want. Well, we appreciate that. Yeah. You know, the more military personnel that come forward. I think it really elevates the conversation. It does make people stop and listen, you know, you are trained observers. Your jobs are literally to look for threats

at these installations and they're happening at an alarming rate and they cannot be explained. So let's, I guess let's just dive into it. You know, let's rip the Band-Aid off, Mario. This event that happened to you. 1977 Ellsworth Air Force Base. I want to give you a time to just tell it as you'd like.

I know you've done it before, but this is your time to kind of just run us through it, you know, from I guess start to finish. There's kind of a tangential aspect to your story in terms of the missing time,

which I'd like to cover separately if that's okay with you. Sure. But yeah, Maybe just run us through what happened in 1977 at the base. At first, I didn't think it was real. I woke up to this blinding light, and I was transported to another place. Pluto TV!

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Okay. Well, first of all, it was our first day out, being taken from the main base of Ellsworth out to November 1, which is where I was assigned at the time. And I was working with a new partner named Michael Johnson, and he was working vacation relief for my normal partner. And being that he outranked me, he was the team leader by like two months. So anyway, it was nice to meet him.

Real nice fellow. And I believe he said he said he was from Chicago, Illinois. But I'm not positive. Hopefully, we'll make contact with him in the future. And we've been trying for years. Anyhow, it was maybe 915, 920 at night. I just stepped outside. You know, this site is in the middle of a prairie.

The closest town is Newell, South Dakota. And it's about eight and a half miles away to the south. And more south of that is Sturgis, which many people are familiar with. And that's a launch control facility right there where we lived. That looks like November 1. Of course, they all look alike. I hope it is November 1. I believe it is if I did my research.

Yeah. And I was out there last year in September, which was, no, July, which was really cool. I'd be before that. But anyway, so I walked out in the front of this building, which is just standing outside. and the only town north of that is Bellefouch about 29 miles to the north. And then you have the North Dakota state border on beyond that. But anyway, over to the east, which would be to the right side of this picture, I stepped out in the parking lot to smoke a cigarette and just to stretch my legs.

I smoked in. And I saw an object at about a 30 degree elevation in the sky. And I was kind of confused by it because it was so large and it was so bright, but it was a different intensity of light that I've ever seen before. I honestly thought it was two B-52 bombers, which we supported a strategic bomber squadron at Ellsworth Air Force Base. They're already ready to go. I mean, that's what they do,

and that's what Ellsworth was, that in missiles. And I honestly thought that's what they were, because sometimes they'll fly these sorties, you know, where they're training flights, but they get really, really low, like three, four hundred feet off the ground, and they're just ripping. And, you know, I mean, they have some really big lights on them. I've never seen that kind of light, but that's what I thought they were.

Maybe they were in tandem behind each other or something. It was so strange that it kept my attention. The other thing was I didn't know if it was coming directly toward me or moving. It wasn't moving away from me. So I really couldn't see that it wasn't stationary even. That's why I thought it was coming toward me and I couldn't really detect that, you know, visually. And I'd say it was probably, you know, seven, eight miles away. way, maybe more.

But it was very large. In relationship to large, I'd say it's like looking at a quarter of a moon, a diameter of a moon or something, you know. Yeah, it was bright like that. And anyway, I don't even know what came over me. It was up there for such a period of time. I thought, well, I'll just try what they do at sea. My father taught me and showed me how they used to use the ship's light. to, you know, to flash other lights, other ships for communication.

So I ran inside my buddy, Bill Holloman. He was on the phone. He was talking to his wife and back at Ellsworth. And I said, Bill, there's something out here. I wish you'd take a look at. And he just kind of waved me off. And so I just walked up to the panel. And it was just one switch control, 12 to 14 lights around the facility.

And they were all these two-foot diameter can lights, you know, that illuminate the perimeter. and the building. And I flipped them off, flipped them on, no sequence, no SOS or anything like that, just for fun, just flip, blip, blip, blip. I went back outside, and it flipped it.

It flipped off and flipped back on. Now, yeah, and I went, well, that's different. You know, immediately then I thought helicopters, you know, because there's a lot of times, we had helicopters doing trips that come out to the sites or to LCL. or to the LFs, dropping off people or bringing a maintenance team or something,

emergency configuration or anything. But anyway, so I ran back inside, excited. And as I went back in, I told Michael Johnson, my team leader at the time, I said, Hey, Michael, come here and check this out, man. I said, I flipped lights at this object, at this thing, and it flipped the lights back. He didn't even really pay any mind to me. And he was watching the TV on our three channels that we had there in 77, so you can imagine went down on much TV.

So I did it again and went back outside. And it went off and came back on. And I thought, what is this? And when it went back off, it moved. And I couldn't say, I didn't know that at the time. So I got Michael Johnson. I said, you got to come out there and see this. So he came outside and he sees the light or he sees it, the object, the light.

the light. And it had moved a little bit further north, but I think it had gotten a little bit closer compared to where it was. And so I went back inside again. I said, hold on the minute. I flashed the lights at it. Again, same sequence.

Ran back outside. Nothing happened. All of a sudden it went off. And it didn't come back on. So that was three times and now it was about five minutes or so to ten. And he just said, you know, like whatever. you know, he didn't really make a comment or anything.

And as I said, we didn't really know each other. So, you know, I'm inquisitive anyway. And it just seemed that really sparked my interest for some reason. And anyway, I like flying on helicopters. And I thought, well, that's really a new ploy there with these helicopters. They're doing that way. So anyway, go back inside. I said, well, I guess it shows over.

And went back inside, sat down, picked up a book or something, started reading. in and watching some TV. Remember, it used to go off at midnight, and you'd get those really strange characters and everything on your TV. So I guess it was about 1230, somewhere right in that time, and the MCC phone or LCC phone went off in the flight security controller's office,

and it's a direct line between the flight security controller and the missile combat crew down below. And when it went off, it just, it's a phone it doesn't ring like a normal phone. It just says, answer me now. It won't stop until you pick it up. So you have to pick it up. And anyway, I heard the officer there telling Bill Holloman, he says,

it's a sit four at November 5. And I thought, well, that's weird. We hardly ever got those. That was an outer and inner zone alarm. And they're different, you know, than the standard thing we go out when there's a bird or something flying through the antenna array or something like that. So, anyway, we got our briefing and everything from the capsule crew, and whenever it's that level of alarm, back at Ellsworth, you have a communication center there

that really oversees SWSC wing security control. They like monitor any and all alarms going on or anything on base, too, so they have a dual-per-per- was, but anyway, they were aware of it, and they, of course, gave us a safety briefing as well. So we got all of our stuff together, our codes and our weapons and loaded up everything. And it was about 9 to 13 degrees outside. And, yeah, we had F-154 pickup trucks, and they were just two-wheel drive trucks. And we had, of course, we had a front-in loader, a caterpillar front-inloader on the site in case, you know, we needed to dig out of there, which did happen a few times. but not all the time.

But anyway, so we responded after our safety briefing and everything. Our travel time was probably about 12 or 14 minutes from November 1 to November 5. And so we got in the vehicle, and he's operating the vehicle. He's a driver. And we pull out of the gate, go down to the first intersection, which all these are clay roads out there that are just as, they're some better than highway, roads, you know, I mean, they really maintain the roads and these clay roads. So we take a left, go to the next intersection of left and go off the highway 79, which is about four and a half miles away.

And as you're traveling 70, as you're traveling the dirt road or the clay road up to highway 79, the road beds are elevated for snow runoff and water and what have you. And mind you, you know, you're at a mile high. This is, this is nothing but pure prairie land there. And so as we've rolled up to 79. I just looked over to my right, which would have been about the four o'clock position now, as we rolled up on the highway. As we did,

I looked to my right and I see this really strange glow miles away, but from that area on November 5th. And I thought, you've got to be kidding me. How strange is that? You know, you know what's going on out by these missile sites normally because you traverse them so much.

You check them so often. And as soon as we made that right turn on the Highway 79, which goes downhill toward Newell, I told Michael, I said, dude, I said, just like that, I said, that's that object sitting on November 5. And he just says, oh, whatever, man, he didn't, he just, it just went right over him. He didn't believe me. So from that 4 o'clock position, and now moved to about the 2 o'clock position visually, and it was just pulsating. Well, the further we went down toward Newell, it was downhill.

So I lost the sight of that pulsation. And we came to the stop sign in Newell on Ormond Road, still there today. And there's one stop sign and there's one stoplight in Newell. And the stoplight is straight ahead and you take a ride on Orman Road toward November 5. And population today, 624 or something. Population then was 234 in the 177. Yeah. So it's a real small town, but it's really nice people there.

And so we turn right. And as we went out, it was paved road. And about a mile and a half into it, it drops back off on the clay. But at dog legs to the left, which is important, I really couldn't see it until then. But we dropped off of that pavement back onto the dirt and they went to the left. And there sat this object on top of November 5 that dwarfed the site, 10 feet in the air, no noise, no hard edges, no protrusions, no insurm. engines, nothing that I can even explain aeronautically how it could be doing what it's doing. And we pulled up directly in front of that site and that object, probably, I guess the

cattle gate, which ranchers have to keep their cows from coming out onto the highway to the roads. That's where we stopped at a 45-degree angle, which was a tactical position for the pickup truck. So it's laughable today, but that's what we did then. But this object was so large that if you can picture a ball over a square area, the diameter was so large, really, that the pickup truck was somewhat not covered by it, but the edges of that diameter were just not far away. at all, just 50-so feet, I guess. I don't know. I mean, it was just so large.

You couldn't see the top, obviously. You know, from far away, you can see the top or the full circumference of it, but underneath it, you couldn't. And I don't know what came over me, but it seemed as if I looked at Michael Johnson, and he was like in some kind of a, he was bathed in some kind of a light, like a bluish glow, bluish white glow behind him.

and he was on the steering wheel just like this, just stuck to that steering wheel. And I, for some reason I knew that we had, we needed help. And, you know, we're in full parkas,

flat pants, mittens. I had my mittens on. I had one on and the other one off. And, uh, anyway, the only thing I knew to do,

I had to ask for relief. We couldn't breathe. It was as if the interior of that vehicle is being vacuumed out, and we were in it. And I can smell the air. Every time I talk about this thing, I can smell the air right now. Someone is like electrified or something like ionized. I don't know what else to say about that. But anyway, we had those old Western mirrors on these vehicles, those big aluminum mirrors.

And so with my mitt and off on my right hand, I pull myself out up onto the window seal. Now, you know, I'm 22 years old and I'm in some of the best shape of my life. And why I didn't get out, I was literally afraid. And my partner wouldn't say anything. And I pulled myself out onto that window sill and I took my maglight and I held onto the bubble with my right mitten, my left mitten. And I flash this thing. I just flashed my maglight at it. Now, what, what difference or what really did that mean that little, that decal maglight to this object that's size of a Walmart building. I flash that light in no sequence again,

three or four times, and I slithered back down in that seat, and I put my M-16 between my legs, and I just remember putting my head down, and all of a sudden I could breathe again. Just that way, I could breathe again, but it was labored, but I could breathe. And it seemed as if tunnel vision came upon me,

and I was just going in like this. And as I did, I turned to my right. I felt such fear to my right. Because all you have is a piece of glass, right? I roll the window up. And as I did, I see these shadowy figures on my right side approaching me. And what got my attention was in the midsection of the one being, and they're not creatures, they're beings.

and these these are beings this is no they're that there are beings there was something in the waistband or some kind of a band that had a a yellowish glowing tip on it and then the tall there was a tall one it was four total the tall one in the back was substantially taller and had a different feature now I couldn't see it real clear I mean I don't know how to describe this kind of vision but the three in the front looked identical or their shadows were the same or their the way they looked were the same but the one in the back he had this thing right here on his chest but it was at a really strange shape and it glowed and it stuck out it wasn't just in him it me it stuck out and then I closed my eyes I guess I did everything just

went black I don't know what happened to Michael Johnson I don't know if anything was on that side of the vehicle or he saw anything. He never indicated that he did. He never spoke. The last time that he spoke during all this up at this point was when he said, whatever man, up on Highway 79 when we first arrived on 79. I don't remember the radio going off or anything like that. And just as that happened, I opened my eyes and I'm in total blackness.

It was as if you walk into a, um, I don't know. I don't know. Just total blackness. And I was trying to gather myself as to really what happened and where I was I and just everything about me and just being, I guess. And I reached down and I popped the door open. And I stepped out.

And when I stepped out, my vision started to come to me. And I had on bunny boots, which are an inflatable. boot that you use in wintertime to keep your feet warm, especially in temperatures, you know, well below zero and use them on aircraft carriers, and it's an issued item. Anyway, I stepped out in mud and I couldn't figure out, well, the ground's frozen. It's been, you know, below freezing for, what, a week and a half or something, two weeks. I don't really know.

And it was just a very strange step out in mud. And now, as I look, all of a sudden, this white wall comes into focus. it wasn't a wall like straight up and down you know like the ground and it straight up and down it was at an angle and as i as i looked to my right which would have been i would have been looking north it was as far as i could see when i looked the opposite direction to the south it was as far as i could see i still didn't know where that was and all of a sudden the radio cracked the life and i just kind of looked over just shaking in my hand, I said, where's November 5? And then I said, Michael, you're going to get that? He didn't answer me. He was locked on to that steering wheel like he was paralyzed on that steering wheel. And his eyes were just huge. His eye, he was breathing.

But he had nothing coming out of him as far as talking. He just, he wouldn't even, he wouldn't even utter. I mean, he would nothing. I couldn't get anything out of him. I moved him. I pushed him. I did. everything I could do to try to, hey, man, what's wrong with you? What's wrong with you? And I couldn't get anything out of him. I answered the radio and I was a senior airman at the time. You know, called WSC was calling us and I said, senior airman Woods. I said, it's November 1. I said, go ahead, CSC like that. And they said, what's your location? And I just said, sir, I don't know. and I said my team leader I said he is not responding he's asked me if he's conscious

and I said yes I was wide open and you know we went through that for a second because I need you to do one minute security checks with me until we find you we're triangulating you know your location and of course I wasn't familiar with that I'd heard about it in and you know

in security police but I'd never done it before him like I said I was just 22 years old. But anyway, so they were looking for us. So I did just what he said. In the meantime, I tried to wake up. Michael Johnson is still trying to figure out where we were, why I wasn't standing in this mud, which I'd gone around the vehicle now, and the vehicle was pointing to the south. And what was strange was that just outside that driver's side door, maybe four feet directly away from it, was a great big downhill into another lake or something. I didn't know where we were to start with it,

but it was a big huge lake, but it was frozen. And I thought, what are we? How do we get here? What are we doing here? And so I kept doing the security checks. And finally, I see these lights come over the horizon. How they found us, I still don't know how to do all that today. But there was a Sergeant Garza that approached me and that approached us first.

and there were two other vehicles. So they had three backup alert teams looking for us. And so that's six security policemen. And anyway, as he pulled up, he pulled maybe 20 yards somewhere we're located. And he got out and he walked these lights and I saw him coming. And our lights, I can't even mean, our lights were off. I mean, our vehicle was off. And I said, hey, Sergeant Garza.

I said, what's going on? You know, I mean, you almost make you feel like you've done something wrong. That's what they always try to do to make you, you did something wrong. Well, I knew something was wrong because I dangone sure didn't go. I didn't strike that site as I was supposed to. And it was a set forward, which was a serious alarm. Strike means respond and find out what the cause was. I never got to go on the site.

I never left the vehicle. And my job was to go on to the facility, do an internal, you know, patrol around the inside of the fence, go down below ground on a soft support building and see if anybody's there or what happened. But the alarm was in another plug that goes down to the missile, which we don't have. We have access to just one part of it. Nobody has access to all of it. And anyway, he approached me. He said, Mario, he says, he goes, he just sit there. He said, I can't talk to you about it. We're here to take you back November 1. I said, oh, okay. I said, well, man, I said, I don't even know what happened. He said, he wouldn't even say anything. So, and at this point, this is

where unidentified said they relieved us of our weapons. That never happened. They never took our weapons. And I found that as an insult. Be honest with you, you know. But I guess that's production of some kind that I didn't agree with. Should have asked me that first. But that's TV, unfortunately. Yeah. Yeah, that's just bull or crap, man. but I, that, that, never mind. I won't see anymore. But anyway, I asked him, I said, I need some help with Michael Johnson. I said, I don't know.

He's in a catatonic state. And I didn't know what the word truly meant back then, but I do now. And we unbelted him. We didn't have shoulder harnesses. We just had seat belts at that time in 77, and he's F-150 boards, slid him over to the passenger side, belted him back in, got in the vehicle. And to this day, I didn't know exactly where we were, you know.

And at that time, and about 15 minutes later, we pulled up November 1. And we were driving through areas that I just, I didn't even know about, you know. And that was part of my area. And I just never been in it before. There's no missile sites where we were. Let's put it that way. And so we get to November 1, and they're the flight chief, the assistant flight chief, and others are there. It's questioning us and I immediately had to have helped.

of Michael Johnson. They immediately separated us. And they off-duty council crew, they were upstairs. And they were assisting and talking, trying to talk to Michael Johnson. And they took me into the dayroom, took him in a back bedroom because he was non-responsive verbally. I mean, they just, he would walk, but they just let him to where he was going. I remember watching him walk through the gallery, through the kitchen area, you know, where our dining area went back in the back hallway.

And so I sat down and they started asking me questions and I, you know, and I said, well, I said, that object that I saw last night. I said, that was that November 5. I don't remember saying that. And of course, that went right over everybody's heads. You know, the only person I really knew about it was Bill Holloman and he was a flight security controller. And he didn't come out and see it. But anyway, so they started asking me questions. I answered a question for probably 25.

30 minutes. My flight chief was there. The assistant flight chief was back with Michael. And I just told them everything that I saw and what I experienced. And then, you know, what I did with the lights and how I did that and and never responded to the, never went on to the site as I was supposed to, which had to create a problem. That had to be, that had to be a problem. So they had, they had to go find out what caused that at that facility to somewhere else. And I never found out who did it. Somebody had to go strike that site. And so I just had to get away from, I just, I just said, hey, I need to go to the restroom. And I didn't. I just, I just needed to get away from everybody for a minute because they were just pounding me with questions. And I couldn't

think fast enough. And I was just, just in disarray, I think. I wasn't myself. And I went into the restroom, which was really strange because I, I was, I was, I went in this one stall. It was two stalls in this restroom, and I was just out there, and I couldn't believe it. The first thing I did when I got to the site was I went in that stall. I went, well, it's all torn up right now, but I just had to walk in that bathroom because, I mean,

that was a really strange time. But I went in there and sat down on top of the toilet. I just sat there, fully uniformed, everything, and just held my head in my hands. And all of a sudden, I felt as if I was leaving my body. and I was leaving it going going I thought I was dying I guess and I went I was going out the top of my head down through my stomach and out of my feet literally I mean I knew the path I was taken and how I've never heard of anything like that before anything like that before I didn't complete whatever whatever was happening to me because I opened my eyes and I see these four furry feet walking and buy the stall door.

It was a German Shepherd drug dog. And I said, I said, hey, man. I said, hey, boy, or whatever. And then the law enforcement guy, which is the other side of security police is law enforcement, L.E, L.E and SPs. He goes, hey, Mario. I said, man, my bag's out there in a day room. He said, we already checked it.

And he said, it's all good. I just want to come check on you. How are you doing? you know and I said I don't even know and I didn't relate to him what you know I was feeling right then but I was glad he came in there because I don't know how far that could have taken me you know because really I honestly felt as if I was leaving my body and I mean even my vision changed things got super super light I mean bright and light you know but that was a really strange thing but so anyway we were there probably another hour hour and 15 minutes and they had they had another arm response team come out I guess from Ellsworth they relieve us because you know it has to be staff no matter what mission one right so you know you have to have six security police you can't just send two away and so without replacement so our relief came and we were escorted back to the base uh he rode with the assistant flight chief

and I rode with uh Sergeant Gray Matt Sergeant Gray back to Ellsworth and uh moving out to Ellsworth, he went to the Sataf building, which was our security operations building, and CSC worked out of that building in a hardened facility, and directly to Colonel Spraker's office, which he was my

squadron commander at the time. Base commander was there, and there was a flight chief there of another flight and from a different area. Because it wasn't just my incident. There were other incidents out there

too, but anyway, I guess they wanted a full debrief on all it was going on. But anyway, OSI was there, and there was also another man in a suit with a hat. And I didn't, I wouldn't introduce to any of these people, just the military people I knew, but there was a young OSI trainee there named Richard Doty. And he's appeared on several of these shows, and I've been trying to conventing. contact Richard Doty because he was in my interview. And not only was he in my interview, but he also went to the flight surgeon's office after I arrived there. So medically he was there. And in the very beginning, he was there,

just as an observer, I guess. I don't know. But he had an officer that was, you know, over him. And so I've tried emailing him. I've tried texting him. I've tried calling this guy. Everything possible, I've tried to go through Linda Moulton Howe. Everybody that I've come in contact with us, I need to speak with Richard Doty. I can't get him anywhere. Wow, that name is infamous in the year for a world. That really took me by surprise, Mario.

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He was there by God. He's one person that was there. And then there was some other incidents later, which he talked about. But he knows of my incident in 77. of mine and Michael Johnson's. Wow. And I would really like to have that backup because we can't find Michael Johnson anywhere.

And there's been substantial monies spent investigations, just trying to find him. I thought he said he was from Chicago, Illinois, but we haven't had any luck locating him. No. In any media, you know, I mean, every platform there is, I've joined them to get it out there,

even together we served and other friends mine that may have known him that I served with. Two questions for you, Mario, before we move on, if that's all right. I know, so after this debriefing, which that is quite a room of individuals to be debriefing to. There were a few more there, too. Okay. My first question for that is, were you told to be quiet about this? We always hear about that. And my second question, I believe it was unidentified that said that you did speak to Mario, or excuse me, you spoke to yourself. You did speak to Michael Johnson one time after the event? Two weeks later.

Okay. So first question, were you told to be silent about this? And second, what was said between you and Michael after the event, if you don't mind me? Well, there's a two-week span in there. And if I can go from the commander's office when that was finished talking about, per se, I had to write a preliminary report on a security police blotter, which, you know, back then, there was, you know, we didn't have any computers or anything like that. Everything was done by typewriter, but I hand wrote on this form, and it was three pages.

And, of course, it makes three copies. So you have to use a number two skill craft pins. It may mandate a number two skill craft pin. Of course, you can take part your M16. with it and everything else, but that's the number two skill craft in black that I had to use for that report. So it was about three pages. And then from that point, then I went to the flight surgeon's office. And then that examination took about an hour, hour and 50 minutes maybe.

And Richard Doty was there for that too, as was the guy in the hat and the suit and a couple of other officers and a nurse. I think there were five people there total. But Richard Doty was there for that also. And during the ears, nose, nose, eyes, throat, you know, normal stuff checked. They didn't take blood from me, which I was kind of surprised. But I guess it was no reason to. But they did take, the flight surgeon said, he goes, I need to take a couple of skin samples. And that just totally took me by, you know, by surprise.

I said, what do you mean skin samples? He said, well, your face is burned on the right side. Well, that made sense because, you know, my parade comes down in a certain way, you know, so, but it makes sense. And then my right, the back of my right hand was burned where I didn't have a mitten on. So right above my right eye, he, uh, he took a skin sample from up here. I think he took more than one for a small band-aid up there. And then he took some off the back of my right hand around these knuckle areas right here. And I don't even know how sunburned.

Now, I felt that the next day in the next couple days, but of course, being. from Tampa, Florida. I hadn't been to the beach in a long time. So, you know, when you're living in South Dakota, you just seem to lose that resiliency. And you will some burn. So anyway, so they took those skin samples and, or he did, put him in, put him into two separate files. And then they released me to go back to the commander's office, which I had a further debrief. And then I was told, you know, could not discuss this with anybody. And at the time, I was working on November 1 and had been there for several years. The other thing was they moved me from November 1 to Kilo 1, which was further out to the west

toward almost to the Wyoming border. And November was still part of that configuration, of course. But that was all the 68th, 67th, and 66th area all the way down to the badlands. But anyway, so I worked there with a guy named Mark Wade, but he's a good friend of mine. But two weeks later, I'm in an apartment in Rapid City, is where I lived. And Michael Johnson, as I said, I've never known before, he knocked on my door. I didn't, I had no idea. And open the door, I said, Michael, I said, man, it's good to see you because I hadn't seen him since that happened and hadn't talked to him.

And I think he lived in the barracks on base. and he said man I just have to come talk to you about what we saw and I said by all means come on in so he sat down and right away the first thing it is I gave him some paper you know just nine by 11 or eight by 11 note sheet and I said here's a pencil or pencil or you want a pen I said you sit here and I'm going to go sit over there and the dining room table and I said let's draw what we saw and we both drew basically the same thing

and he said he didn't know what happened to him, but whatever it was, it just took him over. You know, he didn't say if he saw anyone, he didn't say or saw a being or anything. He never said that to me, but he said he had never seen anything like that and he was scared literally to death. And I said, did you hear me talking to you? He said, no. So, you know, that's the way that went, basically.

And he visited for about an hour and then he left. And that's the last time I ever saw him or heard from him again. Now, I did have his address where he was from. That's why I came up with Chicago, Illinois. And I thought I'd placed it in my Bible. But I have moved probably several hundred times since 1977 and gone overseas and everything else. And I took my Bible with me, so I don't know where I could have lost it at, you know.

But I sure wish I could contact him today because it would, I would feel complete if, you know, right now I just feel as if I'm out here. And, you know, I mean, it's incredible what happened. And there's a lot more to it. I don't even know what else to say. But I wish that we were sitting side by side discussing it in front of anybody. Yeah. Right.

I know it would give you a clear picture. And, you know, I know these fractured sort of memories here, you're searching for answers. You're trying to find closure on this very traumatic event that happened to. you. If I can just say this, going back to, you know, when they discovered us where we were, unbeknownst to me, we were on the backside of the Newell Lake Reservoir Dam, completely opposite where November 5 was. And when I plotted that on the entire journey on a map from November 1, November 5 to New Lake Reservoir Dam, then back to November 1, it's a Pythagorean triangle. It's really

amazing. It really is. And you know, from November 5 to where we were was about 11 miles. From November 5 to New Lake Reservoir was about 11 miles. And then from November, from New Lake Reservoir to November 1

was about 8 miles. And so it was, it's really a strange configuration. But what is it with water? And I originally think, standing out in that parking lot when I went back with Discovery Plus, knowing what I know now, that craft or that object was over top of that reservoir.

So we're talking, you know, originally over the nuclear installation and then over water. Originally saw it over water, then a nuclear site, and then drop me off where the water was. You're so right, Mario. I mean, so many of these cases happen over bodies of water. I've got hundreds of them reports in my files. And my own personal UFO sighting happened over a lake. So I can definitely relate in any aspects. Well, okay. Wow. There's so much to unpack. But I do want to move to the missing time aspect. Now, you're talking. 11 mile distance hours of missing time. Now we're not talking a couple minutes like some people have claimed.

Five hours. Five hours. Incredible. You know, we should have arrived there right around 1 a.m. Okay. Our travel time wasn't about 15 minutes from 1230, you know. And so,

yeah, when Sergeant Garza got to me, I just looked to the east and the sun was rising. I mean, it was getting light. And I was like, where am I? What happened?

Let's talk about that. What happened? Now, many years passed, and I know you really wanted to know what happened in that gap of time. And like many who have had UFO experiences, you know, there's different ways to try to retrieve those memories. But a very popular approach is hypnosis. Some people believe in it. Some think it's a complete bunk. but this is what you decided to do.

I would love to know what compelled you to finally want to retrieve these memories and who was the one to put you under hypnosis, unless that's confidential. Yeah, I'd like to ask. I mean, I'd be happy to give it to you, but I prefer him tell me that would be okay. He's a Mufon investigator and very well known. but actually Robert Hastings suggested him.

And he came to my home and we did this. And I'd never been hypnotized before. And I'm thinking I even could be. But somehow he got me there. And it was really a strange experience because some things did come to light that I had no idea of. And maybe it harbors some of the feelings that I've had every since then about certain things. such as lights in my room or lights that I can see at night. I can't, I can't, I don't know what it is,

but if there's some, a little LED light or some kind of small light coming off of something, I got to cover it. I can't, I don't like any small lights at all. I don't know where that comes from, but yeah, I had to deal with a few things, things that I saw. This is where I really got a good, look at what these beings were and how they looked. And also a couple of areas either in the craft or wherever I was that I was taken to.

And some of the stuff that was done. And the most, I don't say scariest, but the most misunderstanding that I have is about being in something, not knowing if I'm clothed or not. And that's a real strange feeling. I don't know if you got your clothes on or not, but I was in a like a, like a, a gel of some kind that was black. Or to me it was black, maybe it was just because I was in the dark. I don't know. But it was a super thick kind of gelatin that was everywhere.

I don't know if I was, my head was under it or what, but my body was submerged in it. and I just had a feeling of complete unalowness and dread and I've never experienced that in my life and it bothers me about it. It bothers me thinking about that today. The only other time that happened, I was on top of a mountain in Mexico

on a motorcycle one time and I was all by myself and I was above the clouds and all of a sudden I think there's some kind of phobia about being completely alone with no other human contact. So I probably wouldn't be a good astronaut. I'd like to try it, but I don't think I could. But yeah. Yeah, but that fear made me think about that because it was,

and I felt a lot of pain in my right wrist. Something was being done in my right wrist, but I think the most rememberable feeling was it, I don't know if I was freaking out. I don't know if I don't really know exactly what my actions were, but one of these beings laid their hand on my shoulder, right here. And it came, I don't know how long the fingers were, but it came down about right here on me. I just felt this hand that was super light. It was, it didn't feel like a human hand. You know how that

feels as I do, but it felt completely different. And it's, I can feel that. I can put my hand on there sometimes and I can, I swear I think I can feel it, you know. And I was going away from my vehicle and I was on my back. And when the door, the door was closed on the pastor's side of our vehicle and I felt as if I was about four foot in the air, but I pulled my head up

and I see U.S. security, U.S. Air Force on the side of our vehicle. And these are dark blue vehicles, but gold letters on the side of them. And when I did, that's when this hand touched me here. And I laid my head back down.

And I kept, I kept hearing inside of me, not verbally, do not fear. Do not fear. And that was, that was something that was said throughout the entire experience. I don't know what else was said, but I'm, but I remember that quite well. Do not fear. Well, and you know, I, I'm going to be honest, Mario, in the past, I don't know, maybe eight, ten years, the idea of, hypnosis has been something that I have struggled with when it comes to achieving memories on these types of experiences. However, I have watched the available video of your hypnosis session, what has been made available, whether it's in documentary or whatnot.

And it is clear, A, by the person conducting the hypnosis. they were not leading. They were extremely, what's the word, caring of the state you were in, which was clearly traumatic, you can tell, in the hypnosis. And they weren't leading you at all. And to me, my gut reaction is you were completely genuine in what you were remembering and feeling. So that being said, I mean, the fact that these are the memories that came forward of these beings, of these sort of telepathic messages you are given, how do you deal with that? I'm just going to ask straight up, like, how do you wrestle with the notion that within that missing time at this military installation and this event, that this, what we're staring at right now, these images of these beings,

might have been the cause of all of this. How do you cope with that every day? It never goes away. I'll tell you that right now. There's no time when I'm not looking up. I get up really early for work. And I just watch the skies and living right here on the East Coast, you know, you see a few things every now, I'm in.

But it just never goes away. That feeling, my shoulder, the do not fear. I mean, literally, when I stood on November, stood at November 5 when I was there with the discovery, it broke me completely down, man. I was under the impression that at any moment, all of a sudden they could just materialize right there on top of that side again.

And now there's a cattle processing facility built on top of November 5. When the government, when they mothball the whole area, they let the fences up. which was the sites were built upward, so no water or anything would collect on them. And so the ranchers used that property because the property was leased, you know, where these missile sites are located for 99 years. And so I guess they gave it to the ranchers at that time, but they, this guy chose to build on top of it. And, but that, I have no words for that.

It's, uh, there's, we just don't, we just can't comprehend that yet. I don't care what the military is doing or what we may have in crash retrievals or any kind of technology. We have the normal human being to confront something like this. And I had a weapon, I knew. I had no intention of bearing that weapon. I don't even think I could, I don't even think I could pull a trigger. That's how incapacitated you literally are for your very being, your very survival of what's happening to you because it's completely out of your realm of all possibilities, something that

people we can say, oh, I'd go right up and I'd knock on the door. Yeah, you'd probably crawl out of your skin and go the other way like a jellyfish. I mean, there's just no way around it. You know, the technology gap is just something that we're not even prepared for yet. And I do wrestle with it quite a bit. And, and, you know, that's been four. 44 years ago, 43, 44 years ago now. And it never goes away. It's as clear today as it was then when it occurred. I just wish you could find Michael Johnson, you know.

Yeah. Hey, we're going to keep trying. You know, the more interviews he do, the more this gets out there. Hopefully, he, like many others, will feel compelled to come forward. I can't tell you how many military pilots, ground personnel, intelligence officers have come forward to me. You know, just a civilian to tell their stories after hearing. stories like yours or we had Jeremy McGowan or the Tick-Tac witness. Oh yeah.

It's crazy. Sorry. Go ahead. We had, no, we had, when I first arrived out there, you know, people even say, you know, the other security policemen who say, yeah, a missile feels really strange, you know, because you have missile sites sitting right outside the badlands down to our wall, South Dakota. So as I said, again, these sites, you know, are strung from the badlands, it will end ball,

all the way up to the Wyoming border. And then the other sites take over from that point, you know. And I was told of an incident that happened with two security policemen that were located something like three miles apart. They were missing overnight. Their vehicle was in one place. Them and their clothing were completely separated and they were sitting in a field out on a prairie. Completely separate from each other and their weapons and everything else completely separated from each other and just strown about.

And that's how they were recovered. I don't know what happened to them, but I know neither of them ever came back to the missile field again. So they have a strange, strange thing, you know. And if I may further, when I got that assignment, well, I should back up a little bit. After it was all said and done and a little bit of time pass, I got promoted to an NCO. I got orders about nine months later, eight and a half, nine months later, to go to Korea, Osan Air Base.

And I was married at the time. And anyway, I went to my commander, Colonel Sprecker, and I said, current, I said, you know, I'm married. And I said, there's any way, you know, can I go ahead and volunteer for two years and I can take my wife with me? Who would let me do that? and that should have been allowed. That was not asking anything out of place or anything like that. That was a normal thing if you received a remote and that was you could take your spouse with you or your family with you,

but you extended for an additional year. Well, I was told I couldn't do that. And so I ended up having to go alone, which, which, it's okay. I had a great time there. It was really good. But just that, it's funny how. they just, they can change or they can do whatever it takes to separate two people that have, that have been through some experience like this together.

And that's what happened with Michael Johnson and can't find them to this day. It was something else I wanted to tell you, too, that, um, that I'm missing right now. But, uh, oh, yeah, no worries. Maybe something will strike your memory here. Yeah, yeah. I've got, Mario, two last questions for you personally. And then I've got some listener questions, if that's okay with you. I know what.

Let me, I just came back. When I got hypnotized, you know, talking about, you know, I know your beliefs, what you're talking about, how you had problems for some of them and not with others, but that put me in AFIB. Really? Yeah. And I'd never had any kind of problems whatsoever before, and I've been in it twice since that time. Well, one other time since that time. but I knew for some reason there's a barrier that you have to break. And that's the only way I can describe it.

There's something about telling these things, and especially under hypnosis, because you're not completely asleep, but you're not awake either. It's that area in between to where dreams make sense, I guess. I don't know. That's the way to say it. but I knew divulging or talking about it. It upset me so much internally. I didn't even know at a time,

but a week later, I was in a cardiologist's office and I was in AFib. But I felt it then because I was just, I wanted to talk and I couldn't talk and I couldn't talk. Wanted to talk and I couldn't talk. And then I did talk. And then when I did it, I kind of, I guess I released whatever.

And then it bothered my heart. Wow. Yeah, clearly. Clearly there is something connected to here and physically that this event just, oh man, talk about physiological effects. It's troubling to say the least. I, well, I hope everything is okay. I hope. Yeah, yeah. I'm not wise. Okay. Well, oh, man, that's pretty heavy. Well, to kind of, I guess, wrap up my personal questions on this event, Mario. Why? That's always my question for people. Why do you think this event happened? I mean, it seemed to start as happenstance, you know? This alarm is set off at the base, and you see this object over the nuclear site.

And then you have these retrieved memories of what. possibly may have happened during the missing time. Why, what was the motivation behind this entire event if you had to venture a guess? I know, I know there's never concrete answers with any of this, but I don't think this happened to you. I honestly believe that Robert Hastings said it the best. He said, they didn't contact you. You contacted them.

And they followed up on that. I see. They knew what missile sites. they knew that missile site was there and it was connected to that launch control facility. I thoroughly believe that. So they went out there and set it off and I dangle and sure how to respond to it.

And they knew I was there. I mean, I felt that. And how else can I say it? But I sincerely felt that when I put that flashlight over the top of that truck and flashed the same sequence of lights out of, or a mag light to that bright object that just looked like the sun sitting there.

one thing further I must add that when I went out there for discovery again as we were filming people are curious there and they ride by you know on this dirt road, Ormond Road looked like an interstate that day. There was about 20

of us there doing the filming and these two guys showed up and one was on a four-wheeler and the other was in a an enclosed kind of four-wheeler and they were landowners and one of them his father, I've got their names,

his father was a state trooper at the time when this happened in 77. And he came up because they stayed over when we completed. He stayed over as at the other guy and said, you were the guy that that happened to in 70th, I said, yes, sir. And he goes, my father was a state trooper. He said, and I remember the call at 2 o'clock in the morning to come look for you guys. And I said, what?

I mean, this totally blindsided me. and the people that were rich emberlin that was with me he was my host and he's really a good guy at this he he just knows the questions to ask and how to get them out and uh anyway uh this fella i think his name was earl and uh not laughing at it because i mean this this guy is a rancher probably 80,000 acres out there or something like that but uh anyway he said he was quite young and his dad, a day trooper, received a call at 2 o'clock in the morning

to come look for two security policemen that have gone missing at November 5 missile site on Orman Road. And his reply that he remembered was his father said, well, why are you going to ask me to go look for him? Those guys were way better than I am, which we were. But he did follow up on that, and he did come out to look for us to know of bail. And then the other fellow that was there,

he was a deputy sheriff in Sturgis, and they sent two patrols. Now, all this was on a request from Central Security Control, back at Ellsworth Air Force Base, to send state law enforcement looking for us as well as our own people. So that's another, you know, I had three backup alert teams to locate us, which finally did, made contact. And then I didn't notice, but there were three law enforcement teams, you know, two from Sturgis and one state trooper looking for us.

But that night, now the state trooper, he said his dad said he saw something in the air. And he didn't say what it was. He said his dad just said he saw something, large in the air, large in the air. So that was completely unknown to me all these years that there was anybody else even looking for us. So a couple of times I've gone on like there's a Newell South Dakota. to site, you know, for the city. And I've asked if anybody remembers 1977 if anything was seen in the month of November,

because I don't know the exact day, but I know it's just two weeks before Thanksgiving. That's why I know it was November in November. And, but I hadn't really got any replies back. I got so people who watched the programs and said, wow, you know, I've heard of this out here, but never, never knew it. But anyway, I just found that to be really kind of cool that these guys came forward. So we do we do have their names. So I don't know if we ever going to go back out there and then maybe do a roundtable or something like that with them. But I would sure

like to. I'd like to find out, you know, what they knew or what they were told. Because what eludes us back during all this time is that being an airman or an NCO, you know, you're not like the guys that were underground in a launch control facility, which are watching, you know, the alarm panels. You know, you're 70 feet under the ground. We're the guys that are actually out there responding to what you sent us to based on the alarm at that facility. So, you know, we don't have the same, I should say the, we don't get the same recognition or the follow-up of paperwork that you can gather from individuals who saw any of this because they get it all.

I got nothing, nothing, anything back, nothing. My medical records don't show anything. I mean, it's just amazing. to how little and how much they can literally do away with if they so want to. And, you know, I'm not a conspiracy theorist or anything. But in this instance, you know, I really see how my buddy was shipped off somewhere else, never saw him again. I get sent to a base.

I'm not allowed to take the two-year option, you know, completely separated from everything that I know and care for, gone. And that's the way they do you. And you got to stay quiet if you want to keep a clearance. You come forward in any of this. And during this time in 77, Linda Molden-Hall was working for that channel in Denver, Colorado. And she was investigating cattle mutilations,

which my partner and I, Mark Wade and I, we saw two. And my vet in Rapid City said he had been to one and did an examination and couldn't believe it. And we just started talking about it one day in Rapid City. So something's going on out there. But yet so much of it is. hushed up. Now, these officers, you know, they have a paper trail because when you shut down a missile site or the other thing is they're not always shut down either. We were dispatched several times, not just in November, but other facilities, Echo, Oscar, Hotel, other sites that I worked at

to where a site would just arbitrarily start a sequence to launch. So the procedure there was to drive your F-154 truck out there with your partner, put it up on top of the blast door, facing the same direction as the cow trail or the cattle rails where it's going to blow off, put it in neutral, and get off the site by one mile. And if it launches, the hopes are the blast door blows out from underneath it, the vehicle falls down on the rocket, and it upsets a gyro and it just goes off and crashes. Wow. So it's not always a sequence of events it's going to launch.

Not always that to shut down. Sometimes it's sequences to launch also. And then it stopped some waves somehow. External, it stopped. Yeah, which is so much more alarming when you're. Yeah, they're literally playing. They're playing with us, you know. And the whole thing, I got to ask a question about somebody on Netflix here just a few weeks ago.

What did I think? What were they looking for? Why do they come to these missile sites? You know, you know what Nikola Tesla did with electricity? We're just coming to grips with today. There's a lot more about electricity that we don't know, especially on the big generator we're sitting on right now under our feet, all of us. There are certain ways, I guess, that you can split an atom.

Maybe there's more ways than what we know of or have ever learned. And I think they perhaps sequence or see our abilities to do that, even though it's weaponized. are other ways that they're waiting for us or either monitoring us that we don't find different ways to split that, or new elements to add with it or whatever. I don't want to be incorrect speaking about it, but that's what I feel. Yeah. And, you know, we're getting closer to, you know, nuclear fusion.

I think it was just a few weeks ago that they discovered that they're able to finally do it. very small amounts, but we're getting there. So, you know, while these things, these ideas of free energy are hopefully going to benefit mankind, there's always the antithesis of that as well. And, you know, again, like these nuclear sites, what you were doing out there is a necessary line of defense, but it can easily be flipped on the offense as well. Yes, you can. So it's troubling when these.

when these instances, these incidents, I should say, are happening at a rapid pace all over. I mean, we just had, and this is kind of my last question for you, Mario, before these couple of listener questions. Robert Seles, another gentleman who worked at a nuclear site, had a now famous incident occur, just announced, yes, at Meldstrom, yes, is going to be speaking to Arrow, this new office within the Department of Defense. He's going to begin to be, testimony about his event that took place, which he's been waiting for for decades, for someone to come to him and be like, what happened? And, you know, recently at these congressional hearings on UFOs, Congresspeople asked the head of the UFO office, this new office, have you ever heard of

the Melsstrom UFO event? And they had absolutely no idea what he was talking about, which was just, you know, that dumbfounded me in many people out there. But now, look, they're taking a proactive stance. They've reached out to Robert Sellers. They're going to talk to him. So my question for you is, if given this opportunity, would you talk about your event in front of Congress or even testify with Arrow, this new UFO office in the Pentagon? If given that opportunity, yeah, would you take it? And what would you tell them?

Yeah, I'm one of the eight that was asked to do that. Really? Okay. Okay. Yeah. I'm looking forward to it. and I'll answer anything they ask, anything that's to the best of my ability. Wow, that's exciting. I did not know that they've reached out to you. So that's going to be

happening. Yes. Okay. I don't know exactly the date, but I mean, I guess it's when they want to contact you. Yeah, you're on their schedule, right? Well, that's very exciting. I did not know that. It's good to hear they're finally reaching out to folks like you who have had these incidents and were told to keep quiet about them. I mean, there's even new language in the National Defense Authorization. If you have had an experience, come forward. You know, there's no repercussion. We know you had cue clearances.

We know you were told to be silent, but we want to know what happened. So, oh, man, I am wishing you all the best with that. I hope something. And maybe you'll even get some answers, you know. I hope so. I don't know. They're pretty stingy about that. They want to know, but they don't want to give.

You know, in 50 years, you know, all this will go away because whatever's out, whoever's out there, they'll make themselves known when they feel it, you know, or if they come from our planet within, however it all works, I don't know. But we will know about them then. It'll be completely different. Can we agree more. Yeah, we're on our timetable. Yes. Awesome. Well, I've got just a couple listener questions if you're willing to stick around. Sure, sure.

Great, great. Thanks, Mario. Well, Casey on Twitter asks, does Mario believe the government has any further or previous information on your incident? Do you think someone truly knows what happened there? Or at least, yeah? It's fully written and documented. I thoroughly believe that. And what I meant earlier by saying, you know, officers are different than NCOs or airmen, is that. for some reason they're more privy to documentation to be able to set up a line of not progression,

but a line of informative information that they can get or gather or can get from their partners and so forth. Whereas we simply submitted our information or underwent an interrogation, really an interrogation, and then told never to speak of it again and sign an NDI and non-disclosure agreement, you know, or something similar to do that because, I mean, you know, when they threaten you, you know, we, you know, we can take your rank away. You can't divulgey secrets. You can't talk about it. You know, nobody in your family can know about this.

It's really quite scary. I mean, it really is. I mean, you know, especially if you're a young airman, young NCO and you've got a family and you're said, well, what's my livelihood if I leave this? You can't discuss it. You can't do anything about it. And it's very hard to gather paperwork. And that's been something that's really, really bothered me.

I mean, from the very beginning, I've been able to run these people down and say, can you write me something? Can you do this? Well, they won't do that. Right. I get it. Yeah. Even DOE, when I first went to work for DOE in 83,

I guess it was 84 because it took eight months from my clearance. Now, I had never had any infraction whatsoever with law enforcement or anything like that ever. Still don't. But it still took eight months for my clearance. And I sat in front of a board three times. They didn't specifically say this, but whatever happened to you in the Air Force when this took place or that took place. because, I mean, they literally, if I had started talking about it, then I'd have divulge something through DOE I shouldn't have. Because I was still under that oath, you know, as compared to what Department of Energy does.

Even though as a subcontractor, still, you can't, to keep your clearance, you just couldn't talk about that. Because, I mean, I've been to Los Alamos, Sandia, Oak Ridge. I've been to quite a few places. I saw one of those coal fusion tests in 80, no. No, 87, I think. Oh, wow. 87, 88. Yeah, I was at S4 there in Los Alamos, the Advanced Nuclear Research Center,

and saw Maricenium, well said, element 114, 115 burst in Akiva. Unbelievable. Yep. We could go down a long road with Bob Lazar in Area 51, but we'll save that for our next year. Yeah, we'll love to. Well, this question came in, actually. this was a super chat by our good friend James Craig. Thank you so much, James, for the super chat here.

He asks, does Mario think the nature of this event was nuts and bolts, atmospheric phenomenon, or paranormal psychological? Yeah, what do you make of the whole event? Do you believe all of this physically happened to you in the reality as we know it, Mario? Yeah. However you want to dissect that question. Yeah, just like you're going to the store and on the way to the store, something happens.

and then all of a sudden you're not at this door here somewhere you didn't even intend on being and then you just have to come to grips with what's left. Yeah, that's a good way to put it. I couldn't put it better myself. Here's one. Christopher on Facebook asks, did you have any synchronicities occur before or after this event? I mean, there's a couple you brought up, I mean, just there knowing you went back to the site for the TV show and you found people who had actually responded to your emergency call to come look for you guys.

That's a synchronicity if I've ever heard one. But yeah, anything else really stick out. I became so interested in pyramids and archaeology that I can't even describe that. Anything of the pyramid structure, I had to find out about it. It's measurements. it's mathematical designs. I don't know why, and I don't know how that happens, but I went to the movie Close Encounters of Third Kind with my wife.

Excuse me. And that part where Roryneurie's sitting in front of the mailboxes with a flashlight in his mouth, and the object is come, I guess, stops directly above his vehicle and shines a light down and illuminates the whole thing. And that whole scene, when I, saw that. I literally got up and had to leave the theater. I couldn't take it.

I mean, that had just happened to me. Literally had just happened. Almost the same thing, but I was with a partner and armed. Yeah, so I'd say those synchronicities, you know, one is pyramids. I don't know what it is even today, but really I'm just kind of like an amateur archaeologist, but I have learned so much about these structures

and they're not what we've been told they are. And I don't know what else to say about that. But yeah, there are definite things that influence my mind in a certain way. But these pyramid structures have really changed me in a lot of ways, just learning about them. Interesting. Yeah, yeah. That's a whole avenue you can go down. Last listener question here for you, Mario.

Stephen on Twitter asks, have you had any other encounters or communications with whatever you think you encountered that night? If so, how and what? No, other than dreams, I keep a dream log, but I dream in color. I can smell in my dreams. And I've had some very strange and. And sometimes unnerving dreams, they're not nightmares. I mean, where it makes me wake up, it's just something that I see and I don't quite understand.

But I guess dreams mean something. I don't know what. But yeah, I guess dreams would be the right answer for that. Just really, really unbelievable dreams. Interesting. Hey, you know, and a lot of this people believe happens in the realm of the subconscious as well. subconscious, excuse me. So yeah, who knows?

It could be another way for them to communicate even. I will expand on one thing in 20, if I can, in 2017, is in December, I think it was December 19th or something like that. In 2017, I work shift work at the time, and I have a back room back here that I keep. So anyway, I can sleep there, not in not. not interfere or bother anybody else in the house, but anyway, it was about 10 after 4. I wake up at these certain times, 11, 313, 4, 10, 411. Just really, I try to keep a little running tab on that. But anyway, I woke up at 10 after 4 on this morning with all these alarms going off.

But I didn't just wake up and sit up in my bed. I opened my eyes and I was standing next to the foot of my bed. One, two, a one, two, three, four. Give me a break. Get off a piece of that. Give me a break. Break me off a piece of that Kid Cat Bar. That chocolate, crispy day is going to make me off a piece of that Kid Cat Bar.

Have a break. Have a Kit Cat. And I was looking at the north wall in this bedroom. And there was a big black hole in the middle of that, in that wall, about six or seven feet in diameter. And as I woke up to it, of course, it was gone. So I don't know if I was dreaming it or what happened, but all of a sudden I hear all these alarms going off and it was in my home.

And it was low voltage alarms like with your stove, your oven, your refrigerator. I didn't know microwaves got one. Anything that's electronic has a low voltage alarm. And I didn't even know those existed. And the lights were flickering. And they were, my son was home. And he, and he gets up and he goes, dad. what's going on?

And I was in kind of shock. I said, I don't know, son. What's happened? I said, the lights won't work. I mean, they were working, but they were extremely low, just like they were being powered by a six-fold battery or something. And I said, the only thing I knew to do, I said, well, I'll just have to wait eight o'clock this morning. I'll call George Power. So I just went back to bed and thought how strange all that was.

And I knew what that hole was in my wall. and so I wake up my son's already up and he goes dad he said Georgia power's out here and I said what he said yeah Georgia power's out here and I said you're kidding me I said I didn't call him so I threw on some clothes real quick and out the door I went and I went out in my front yard and I live on a little bit more than an acre here and they were out next of the street and I introduced myself and the supervisor he goes I said, this is your home. I said, yes, sir. He goes, we can't figure out what happened. I said, what do you mean, camp? I said, I said, he goes, hey, you lost the leg of power to your house. And I didn't really know what that meant. And I said, well, how many of the, I said, the whole neighborhood go out. He goes, oh, no, just you.

And I said, what? And he said, yeah, he says, it lit up our board downtown is a power surge. And then nothing. And then we see, you lost the leg. I said, what, what does that? that even mean, you know? And so he goes, come on, I'll show you. So he takes me to where the meter is and outside of my garage on a little deck there. And they had this, uh, his battery type transformer thing set up on a, on a cart. And they had it plugged, had it wired into my, uh, to my meter. So I would have three legs of power, you know, restoring power to the house fully. And he goes, yeah, we'll come out here and put a new line in next week or so. It took a bit longer than that.

But I got pictures and so forth of it. And I said, well, what makes this happen? He says, we don't know. He says, it's a strange thing. It's never happened here before. And I said, yeah, I can't. I don't know either. And anyway, I went on about my business and didn't think much more about it.

And then about two weeks later, I was out in my front yard. I think I was cutting the grass. And one of the boys from up the street, he came by and goes, hey, Mr. Woods, how are you doing? And I pulled off my respirator. And I say, man, I'm all right. How about you? And he goes, what was that light in your backyard a few weeks ago, Mr. Woods? I said, what are you talking about?

He goes, well, I left for work at 4 o'clock in the morning. He said, it was lit up like it was a sun in your backyard. And I said, what? I said, there's two outdoor lights above the roof line in that room. And that's all there are. Just there's two lights, floodlights. And he goes, oh, no. he goes, it looked like, it looked like a stadium back there.

And I, because I live, I have about 200 trees in the backyard. And he goes, it looked like a stadium in your backyard. And I said, you got to be kidding me. I said, come on, man. I said, it would be joking. He says, no, I'm serious. And that's all we really said about it. And it made me wonder the entire, you know, other than that.

And, um, but anyway, we lost a leg of power to the house and it's highly unusual. and then that happened and he came by and said that and the guy George Power said this never happens. We don't even know how it happened here. So anyway, that was in 2017 and I let Robert Hastings know about that

immediately, you know. I mean, I don't know. You just never know these beings once they can identify you, they know everybody. I think there's nobody they can get away from them. Not really but they monitor, you know, Yeah. Right. And, you know, again, it's like when you have that kind of what a lot of people call the initiation experience, which, you know, I know you had a sighting as a child as well.

But a lot of the time once, a lot of the times once you have these encounters, you know, it does open a door and invites a lot more weirdness into your life. What kind of door is that? Is it? What, what is that? There's a lot of people that haven't seen anything ever. So I totally understand. understand the questioning, you know, and I don't know how else to address that other than that will perhaps you will. When at your time, you're supposed to see it, I guess, you know. Until it's you. Yes. Absolutely.

Absolutely. Well, Mario, you've been very generous with your time. I'm going to, I'm going to let you go here in just a moment. But, you know, again, a lot of people, I'm sure, are going to feel empowered after hearing you tell this story, especially military personnel, to come forward. So my last question for you, of course, is there anywhere people can reach out to you if they'd like? Would you like them to do it through me or is there some sort of email if there's anything you're willing to share? Usually, you know, you can email me.

It's M. Woods 175 at gmail.com. Okay. I'll answer it if I can and, you know, I try to get to everybody, you know, the best I can. Sometimes there's too many, but I still try to answer them, you know. and a lot of people comment on the YouTube portion. I don't know about all this yet on all these platforms, and I guess I should do better than what I'm doing, and maybe I could use your help,

or I wish I knew somebody that would sit down and help me because I honestly don't know at all, you know. I mean, I go on YouTube, I subscribe to your channel, and, you know, I don't know how I can do that on my own. I don't know if I want to, but, you know, any comments that they put place on, you know, after this interview, I'll be happy to answer. in any way, the best of my ability. So just throw that out there.

Or they can email me. You know, I don't mind that a bit. Great. Thank you. And I'll go ahead and put your email address. Sure. Show notes here as well. Yeah.

And I'd be more than happy to help you out to getting anything. Yeah. That's great. I've got the equipment, you know, pretty much. You know, I don't have a lot of it. I got good enough stuff, you know. Absolutely. We're working off the same cameras as we talked about there.

Well, Mario, this is, thank you. Thank you. sharing this. Thank you for your service. I know your search for answers only just begun, but I think it's very telling that you're going to be speaking in front of the Pentagon UFO office, hopefully soon about your event. And maybe that'll put one more puzzle piece into place. So I'm going to wish you the best with that. And I'm going to let you go here and debrief with our audience for just a little bit. Sure. So, you, Yeah, I'll say good night here.

And once again, thank you so much for joining me on Somewhere in the Skies. Anytime, Ryan. Thank you very much for having me again. My absolute pleasure. All right. Have a great night. All right. See you a little later.

Bye bye. Bye-bye. And there it is, guys. I have been waiting a long time to have this conversation. So I truly do have to thank Mario for giving us his time. Again, I will put his email address in the show notes for you guys if you want to reach out to him. And the conversations only just began. I can't wait to have him back on to hear how his talk with Arrow goes.

That's incredible. And again, if you are a military, former military or active, and you want to come forward with the UFO event, I'm here, Mario's here, just to hear you out. Sometimes that's all a lot of people need is to just get this stuff off their chest. And I know Mario's, I commend him for doing that. for, you know, risking everything to come forward and tell a story because it's not easy. But it's just going to empower more people to do so.

So my special thanks to him as well. And, yeah, I just wanted to give you guys a little preview of next week's show here. Next week we will be celebrating our 300th episode of Somewhere in the Skies. I never thought I would see the day. But it's here. We've made it to episode 300. So a huge thank you to all of you who've been there from the beginning. beginning, who kind of hopped in along the way. It's been an incredible journey. And I'm going to

have two of my good friends from The Debrief joining me, Mr. Micah Hanks and Christopher Plain, and they're going to be coming on the show to talk all about their favorite UFO stories from 2022 and what's to come this year in 2023 when it comes to UFOs, space exploration, technology science, you name it. We're going to talk about it. It's definitely going to be an exciting year for this topic and for many others as well. So be on the lookout for that next week, live here on YouTube, and then on the podcast as well.

And as always, keep your feet on the ground, but never stop searching somewhere in the skies. Somewhere in the Skies is produced by third kind productions in association with the Entertainment One podcast network.