It's Not Easy Being a Military Police Officer

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Covering an area of 481 square miles in Southern California, Edwards Air Force Base is the second largest base in the United States Air Force.

If you asked one of its enlisted residents to offer their thoughts about this particular duty station, they might affectionately refer to the base as the Mogadishu of the United States, or repeat a common mantra of middle of nowhere, one and a half to three hours from everywhere.

Sure enough, nestled in the vast expanse of the northwestern Mojave Desert, the base's own webpage refers to its surrounding environment as a parched and forbidding wilderness to those who first see it.

Edwards is the home of the Air Force Test Center, the Air Force Test Pilot School, and NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center.

In short, it is a highly trafficked base whose primary purpose is playing host to the research and testing of various aerospace systems and experimental aircraft.

And for those living near the base, the skies above the installation are always buzzing with the latest high-tech models.

Perhaps not so unexpectedly, Edwards Air Force Base also has a rather long history of unexplained UFO sightings, some of which I've received even recently from your fellow viewers.

But you didn't come here to hear those stories. No, as a matter of fact, if our attention was directed at the sky above the base, we might miss seeing what's happening on the ground.

Because it would seem that the sparse landscape is home to more than just the usual desert fauna.

This is the smoke pit. And these are true stories from Air Force service members about large, hairy, human-like creatures they have witnessed in the vicinity of Edwards Air Force Base.

I'm Luke Lamana,

and this is Wartime Stories.

Let's go, let's go. Project Site Lima, let's go.

I'm out of the launching section. Better patrol, quick.
There's a huge smoke coming toward me. Hey!

Get away!

This first collection of stories was derived from the files of Bobby Ann Slate.

A bit of background on Bobby, she happens to have been a native of California herself and spent over 20 years researching paranormal phenomena.

She is considered one of the world's foremost cryptozoological authorities.

These stories from Edwards Air Force Base seem to be just a few among the many shared with her by those who had encountered the creature. Here's how she explains the first story.

It was a routine night at the Edwards Air Force Base Air Security Police Desk until the frantic call came in from the patrol on duty at the restricted site known as Project Logic.

The man's voice was urgent and high-pitched with fear. Send a patrol, quick.
There is this huge form coming toward me. Hurry.

His voice trailed off and the sounds of gunshots could be heard through the receiver. Then there was nothing but an ominous silence.

When the patrol arrived, the guard was found in a dazed, incoherent state after having fired the full magazine in his gun. The Office of Special Investigation was called in.

According to one military source, the patrol vehicle was found overturned, the patrolman's rifle snapped in two, and huge, five-toed, bare, human-like footprints crisscrossed the area.

The patrolman had not been injured, but was terrified.

While no official report of this incident can be found in the archives of the BASE's historical department, the rumor circulated throughout the Air Force police that the man at Project Logic was deeply affected by his encounter that night.

They said he was placed in a military hospital and eventually sent to an overseas base.

The second story from Bobby Slate's files goes as follows.

In the spring of 1974, Edwards Air Force Base security policeman Sergeant Michael House was on night patrol on the outskirts of the powerful communications site known as Mars Station, which maintains radio contact with other military installations around the globe.

A nearby microwave tower, looming like a lonely sentinel in the darkness, stood surrounded by a wooden fence posted with signs advising that explosive devices, electrically operated or magnetically charged, would detonate within a certain radius.

Sergeant House was patrolling in the area of the abandoned sled track, once used for testing G-forces, when he saw it.

I gotten a new spotlight and was trying it out.

Heading back to the main base, I noticed maybe 200 to 300 yards to my left, these

large blue eyes.

I do a lot of night hunting, and it was strange.

They were larger than anything I'd ever seen before. Their diameter had to be about four inches apart and seven feet off of the ground.

I stopped the truck, and I sat there watching them.

It was too dark to see any kind of body or shape to the thing. The blue glows proceeded toward my truck at a right angle for about 100 yards and then stopped.

The hair bristled on the back of the patrolman's neck as the larger-than-human eyes began circling and again moving closer to his vehicle. A rank smell, like something rotten, permeated the air.

The thing moved closer again, now coming within 50 yards of the truck. But still its shape could not be discerned through the brush in the desert.

Just at that moment, the truck radio advised Sergeant House that he should proceed directly back to the main base, and he quickly left the area.

He returned three hours later, but there was no trace of the blue eyes. Rain washed out the possibility of locating any tracks the following day.

The movement of the eyes was extremely fast.

And another thing that bothered me was that they didn't bob up and down.

It was like two lights on a wire

moving from one point to another.

He was ribbed a good deal by his fellow airmen while making out this official report on the incident, which was to set the standard of non-reporting from other patrols that encountered strange things in subsequent months.

The commanding officer wanted to believe his men were simply overly imaginative.

After all, the desert could produce some eerie effects at night, and reports of fantastic creatures in and around restricted areas didn't look good in the official log.

You're only hearing the wind, he told the men staffing the Mars station on the midnight shift, who said they'd been hearing some unusual sounds, as well as seeing the dark form of something walk past a building.

A figure which would have had to be almost eight feet tall to be seen through the high windows, something which had also stepped on and pulverized a glass soda bottle in its path.

In several instances, calls to the air police about creatures moving in the desert did turn out to be wild burrows moving silently through the sage at night.

While the eyes of some burrows are blue, there is almost no reflection due to limited pigmentation.

If there were official investigations by the OSI, the men on patrol seldom heard the outcome unless there was some natural explanation.

Thus, they wondered about the rumor circulating that three men on duty at a complex near the bombing range had called in for help.

As the story went, when the patrol arrived, they found the security guards unconscious.

The door leading into the building was ripped off its hinges, and the sophisticated electronic equipment within had been demolished. Just a tale?

It was told to an air policeman by a member of the patrol who had responded to that call for help.

The Rocket Propulsion Lab lies on the eastern edge of Edwards Air Force Base and utilizes a vast area of the facility.

It contains installations ranging from gigantic multi-million-pound thrust rocket stands to smaller, highly specialized test equipment which can capture and instantaneously analyze the exhaust gas produced by a rocket engine.

It is here that the rockets and similar hardware are tested. for the study of propulsion equipment under conditions of long-term exposure to the environment.

It is also here that weapon systems are developed and tested. Certain areas are off-limits to civilians, and signs warn to keep out of the potentially toxic areas.

Hey, three toes, huh?

What do you make of it, Whitaker? The hell if I know.

These footprints are the damnedest thing I've ever seen.

How about you, Barton? Uh oh. You said you saw some kind of blue lights out here? Well,

if you two promise you won't laugh, I'll tell you.

Okay.

Deal.

Momo. Huh? Come again?

Momo.

We got him back home in Missouri. Big, ugly things.
Hairy, maybe

seven, eight feet tall.

Never seen one myself, but I got family that's seen them.

Shot at one once that came onto our property looking to steal.

Okay, then what about the blue lights? Eyeshine. Eyeshine? You mean the Momo?

Yep.

These things see pretty well in the dark. Probably caught my headlights from a distance.
Thought it was a car at first, but

these are not tire tracks.

Best we get in the vehicle soon.

Air Force Police Sergeant Barton had an open mind about creatures. His relatives in Missouri had seen and shot at the mammoth Bigfoot-like monster known as Momo.

And though he trusted their accounts of the incident, he also realized the doubt and ridicule they were subjected to when they talked about it.

As a result, no formal report was made to the air security police concerning what happened in the winter of 1974.

Barton was on patrol in the vicinity of the Rocket Propulsion Laboratory and saw what he described as strange blue lights in the nearby mountains.

Assuming the lights to be from a car, Barton drove toward them in order to intercept any unauthorized trespassers. The lights vanished when he arrived at the site where he had last seen them.

but now he found his vehicle mired in the soft desert sand. Walking approximately two miles back to base, the sergeant intercepted a patrol and they radioed for a tow truck.

When the truck arrived and everyone returned to the sergeant's vehicle, they found three towed tracks measuring 14 inches long with what appeared to be a clawed digit at the heel.

The wind was blowing soft sand and the footprints were filling in rapidly. making any precise identifications difficult.

But whatever it was had completely circled the truck as if inspecting it, and then walked off on two legs into the desert.

HQ, come in over.

This is HQ, send it.

This is Sergeant Jones.

Could you tell the replacement to hurry up? I might need some help. Over.

What in blue blazes is that? You're patrolling the rocket testing site, correctly?

That is affirmative. I'm not sure what I'm seeing out here, but whatever it is, it's big, and I might need some help.

Over.

Roger that.

Three weeks later, and also on patrol, Air Force Sergeant Jones was parked in the region of the rocket site. It was close to midnight.

The moon was up when suddenly Jones noticed a shape moving across the skyline of a nearby hill. While he couldn't estimate its height, the trunk area or girth was described as immense.

The sergeant quickly grabbed his radio microphone and called HQ.

Tell the replacement to hurry up. I might need some help, he urged.
As Jones looked back again to the hill, Two large, luminescent green-blue orbs, like eyes, were moving towards him.

They didn't really seem to me like they were bouncing the way a person would when walking, he said.

They kind of floated or were moving on an easy glide.

Car lights appeared down the road, and the patrolman lost no time in getting out of his truck and walking to meet the vehicle.

At that moment, he was extremely grateful that the men had responded so quickly to his call for help. But that was not actually so.

The other vehicle had been ordered into the area in response to a report about strange lights being observed in the hills.

Yet, no unauthorized cars had been located, and now the glowing eyes had disappeared. All that remained in the vicinity were unusual marks on the ground.

Two rounded depressions measuring six inches and two inches in diameter, respectively. There were foot tracks as well.

They were all over the place, Jones said. There were so many many of them that I couldn't follow any trail.

Barton, who had found tracks around his truck a few weeks earlier, said that they were similar to what he had seen. The other man along in the patrol didn't even get out of the car.

He said he didn't want anything to do with it.

Can anybody blame him?

I should first point out that Edwards Air Force Base is not at all the only location, let alone the only military base in California, that stories of these kinds of creatures have been reported.

There just isn't enough room to cover all of these in one episode.

According to the website Bigfootencounters.com, hundreds of people have reported seeing a large, hairy, human-like creature lurking in the remote regions of California.

This website hosts many of these reported encounters, including those procured by Bobby Ann Slate, later published by Peter Catilla, which are shared in this episode.

Having been cited by so many individuals, the creature has taken on different names, the Mojave Bigfoot, the Sierra Highway Devil, and more affectionately, Marvin of the Mojave.

Still further, these creatures evidently have a much longer history in the area, being cited to appear in various oral histories of the native Tongva peoples, referred to by them as hairy devils.

Sasquatch and the Edwards Air Force Base Surveillance

This second series of accounts was provided to BigfootEncounters.com in the late 90s by a man named Doug, living in Dallas, Texas at the time this letter was sent.

Like Bobby, he made an effort to provide a more vivid written account of his experiences, combined with the testimonies he collected during his research into the reports of strange creatures coming from Edwards Air Force Base.

He writes,

The sun dropped quickly behind the desert rock piles, revealing a deep red glow to to the western sky as my friend Corey and I made camp to the east end of Avenue J in Palmdale one spring night in 1977.

We had been visiting the area as often as possible in response to several credible Bigfoot reports in this California desert.

To the east was nothing but dark black sky with thousands of stars and periodic meteors whizzing by.

Our objective was twofold. One, to observe all we could during the night, and two, to get away from the Los Angeles rat race.

We had been driving through the areas north of the mountains separating the Los Angeles area from the desert in search of clues and people to interview who claimed to have encountered a desert Sasquatch.

Through the next three years, Corey and I, sometimes it was just me and my faithful red-tailed hawk, Nixon, We gathered as much information on desert Sasquatch activity as we could.

In many cases, the witnesses told very similar tales of large, hair-covered, man-like apes observed crossing the highway or looking in their windows of their homes, usually after midnight.

Through these witnesses, we slowly became aware that the military, just north of Lancaster, California, at Edwards Air Force Base, had been witness to these desert man-beasts for several years.

We finally made contact with three different military security officers, all of which did not know each other, who provided us with information relating to what the Air Force knew about these animals.

Before I continue with this, I must inform the reader that these three men were willing to discuss this with us only because we promised to never reveal their names or ranks, and if we did, they would deny everything.

Because I believe in keeping promises, I will comply with their request.

but will refer to them only by their rank, since I do not believe that their status at the time would indicate or reveal their true identity, thereby keeping my promise.

I will also add that I have spoken to five additional ex-military officers who were once stationed at Edwards Air Force Base, and they all claim that what the first three revealed was accurate, and that not much has changed there since the 1970s.

The first I interviewed was a lieutenant in charge of security in the sector of Edwards Air Force Base near Rogers Dry Lake.

He was primarily responsible for supervising the surveillance activity from sunset to sundown from 1972 to 1975, when he was then transferred to Germany, then retired.

This gentleman explained to me that the base security was primarily involved with monitoring for unauthorized entry to the base by curiosity seekers.

The base was highly involved with classified secret aircraft testing at the time. and there were many curious people trying to take photos or just see these things.

In addition, the base had a very high level of UFO activity, or, as he put it, alien spacecraft.

In fact, he made it clear that these craft were not from Earth, and that the Air Force knew very little about them.

When any unauthorized people or alien craft entered his perimeter, he was to report to the higher command and observe.

All of his personnel had top-secret security clearances and were to discuss nothing of what they saw. He further described some of these craft to me, but I was not very interested at the time.

While they were conducting surveillance one night, always using starlight scopes, what we would know as night vision scopes, and motion detectors spread throughout the base, one of the guards reported an infiltration in his perimeter.

When the lieutenant asked for details, the guard described a very tall man, but not really a man.

Perplexed by such a report, he decided to drive to the location and talk to the guard, perhaps thinking the man had lost his marbles. When he arrived, a wide-eyed guard met him and repeated his story.

The lieutenant began to scan the desert for the intruder and soon spied him, or it.

Through the starlight scope, he could clearly see that this was not a man.

It was a very tall, hair-covered, ape-like man walking through the desert.

He said the animal appeared to be looking at the desert floor in search of something.

The animal was about 500 yards distant, but the scope was very powerful and tripod-mounted, so it could be observed clearly.

Both men continued to observe the animal as it wandered around almost aimlessly. He then reported to his superiors of the activity and was told to keep the animal in sight.

This was no problem, as the animal remained in the area. About five minutes later, a helicopter was heard approaching the area.
Then it was seen coming in fast from the east.

They continued to observe the animal, which continued its activity. The helicopter came in over a rock pile.
Then the animal spooked.

It looked at the helicopter, turned, and ran like a deer around a rock pile and out of sight. The helicopter searched the area, but never found the animal.

The two men could hardly believe what they had seen. The next day, the lieutenant reported to the command post of the previous night's activity.

The command told him that these animals had been seen on the base before, and the public knew them as Bigfoot or Sasquatch.

The command explained that they were concerned that these animals may be related to the alien craft, and that all such reports must remain top secret.

He was told to continue to observe and report, but not to intervene or disturb the animals until the command determined what they were.

The lieutenant lieutenant had heard of Bigfoot before, but not in the desert. He had always thought that this was some sort of fable or hoax.
But he knew what he saw and now knew that they were real.

Throughout the following years, he and his crew observed the Sasquatches on the base several times.

By 1975, they had sophisticated equipment, including video surveillance cameras, mounted in key areas.

He then explained to me that they had videotaped these animals several times, but the tapes were classified and held under top security at all times.

By the time he left Edwards, they had learned very little about these creatures, but his feeling was that they were not UFO-related, but biological living beings.

The second officer I interviewed was a major before he similarly retired.

He had served at Edwards Air Force Base from 1970 through 1978 and was in charge of one of the command posts on the north end of the base.

He too explained that they were primarily interested in UFOs and aliens. In fact, it was through his words that I first heard the term EBE,

which is apparently the military term for aliens or extraterrestrial biological entities.

It is only in recent years that this term has been coined in UFO books relating to the military UFO cover-up.

In any case, the major confirmed what the lieutenant had told me, but added that these creatures also found their way into the secret underground tunnels that run under the base.

Although the use and existence of these tunnels was classified, he told me about them, knowing that their importance was a moot subject to me.

He said that they had surveillance cameras in the tunnels and had, in fact, videotaped the Sasquatches as they wandered through them.

He said that they were not concerned with the Sasquatches on base because they had learned that they were not related to EBE activity and that they were certain that they were simply undiscovered animals.

When I asked why they had not captured or killed one in order to prove the existence to the

he responded that they could not reveal anything that happened on the base.

He said that if they were to admit that these creatures often wandered around the base, the public would lose confidence in their ability to keep the base secure.

This in turn would give people the idea that they could do the same.

Since there was so much secret work continuing on the base, it was not in their interest to discuss the Sasquatches with the public.

They wanted to keep people out, not encourage them to visit in search of Sasquatches. They already had enough problems with UFO seekers or those wanting to get a peek at secret aircraft.

The third man was a security grunt. That is what he termed himself.
He claimed to have seen these desert Sasquatches through starlight scopes on scores of occasions.

This man was only about 19 years old, but extremely military in his self-presence. He called me sir until I asked him not to.

He told me that he had seen a couple of Sasquatches that stood over 10 feet high, had seen obvious females, one with a young one walking with her, and once saw a group of five Sasquatches walking together, all over six feet tall, with the tallest about eight feet tall.

They were fully hair-covered except the palms of their hands, the base of their feet, and and their face. He said their face resembled an ape with very small eyes, a flat nose, and ape-like lips.

Their arms were long and slung down to the knees. He said their feet were like ours without an arch, as they had tracked them through the desert several times.

When I asked him about the surveillance videos, he told me that he knew of them but was not involved in that. He said only officers were allowed to videotape the creatures or UFOs.

Cameras were not allowed on the base in the hands of the grunts.

He said that he felt very privileged to have seen these animals with such clarity because he knew that there were several like myself who would do anything to see one.

However, he suggested that these animals were not as rare as people assumed, but they are very shy and almost strictly nocturnal.

They could be photographed given the right opportunity, but these opportunities were rare because these creatures are very good at remaining concealed, even in the desert.

He told me that the reason they were on the base was that they knew they would not be harmed. He thought that somehow they could feel danger or even pick up on human thoughts.

Since the officers and grunts on Edwards were ordered not to harm or intervene with the creatures, they could sense this vibe and felt protected.

Some of these animals, of course, wander around outside the base, but these these animals are always watching their backs, he explained.

To conclude this report, I should advise that several sources have told me in recent years that the desert Sasquatches are still being watched at Edwards Air Force Base.

In fact, one officer recently told me that the base security actually appreciates the presence of the Sasquatch there since they give the officers some needed entertainment.

Then a question came to mind. Could the EBEs be just as interested in the Sasquatches as they are of other base activities? The officer stopped for a moment thinking, then said simply,

perhaps.

A comment about Edwards Air Force Base, California

This final account was listed as being more of a comment comment from a reader who had reviewed the previous accounts from Edwards Air Force Base and then contacted the Bigfootencounters.com moderator to share his own experience.

He writes,

My name is Jay Brooks. When I came across the articles about the sightings on Edwards Air Force Base, my jaw dropped.
I never imagined that someone would post these stories, but I'm glad you did.

I used to work at Edwards Air Force Base as a contract security police officer from October 1988 to March of 1993.

I grew up in Victorville, California before entering the Air Force as a security police officer in 1983.

I can't even begin to relate to you some of the things still going on out there at the rocket site or North Base, but your article was right on the nose.

The stories are still being told to new people about the sightings when they start to work there, and I know of several people that have had sightings recently from keeping in touch with friends still employed there.

Thanks for posting your article. I personally feel better after reading it.
Also, by chance, did you ever come across any eyewitness reports of sightings down by 90th East and Avenue E?

I used to live out there and would be very interested to hear of any reports in that area.

Well, Mr. Brooks, I have to agree.
If anyone out there listening has their own encounter stories to back up these claims we would love to hear them

wartime stories is created and hosted by me luke la mana executive produced by mr ballin nick witters and zach levitt Written by Jake Howard and myself.

Audio editing and sound design by me, Cole Acascio, and Lacascio. Additional editing by Davin Intag and Jordan Stiddum.
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Artwork by Jessica Cloxen Kiner, Robin Vane, and Picada. If you'd like to get in touch or share your own story, you can email me at info at wartime stories.com.

Thank you so much for listening to Wartime Stories.