Help researching a probably bogus 1970s UFO encounter story

[Graham2001]

Hi all,

I have in my posession a book entitled "Scareforce" (Warner Books, 1995) by an alleged 'retired US Air Force Major' named Charles Hough.

I picked this up shortly after it came out and while I had no high hopes for it, I've found it to be a fine collection of ghost stories, despite the blurb trying to paint it as X-files like revelations.

As fiction it's a good scary read. However its cover proclaims that the USAF would ban the book if they could and it was marketed as non-fiction...

There is no table of contents, index or any references and the authors introduction states that some names/locations have been changed to protect the innocent...

There are 18 stories in the book, 14 are straight ghost stories, 1 story is about a deadly co-incidence, 1 covers an alleged UFO encounter at Davis–Monthan AFB sometime in the 1970's, another is a tale of the USAF verses witches and the remaining non-ghost story features a good luck charm having the busiest day of its existance.

Most of the stories are third person accounts, one ("Student Ghost") is constructed from four anonymous first person accounts, another ("Never Surrender") is claimed to be the authors personal experience and a third ("The Welcoming Committee") is, strangely, written in the second person.

It's the UFO encounter story that I'm concerned with here, as it seems to be the easiest one to tackle (Two stories cannot be pinned down to specific locations.). What follows is a summary of the story.

The time is the early 1970's (eg 1970-1975), the location is Davis–Monthan AFB. It is late at night and the three man tower crew spot what they think are landing lights over Tuscon.

Believing them to be from a radio-out plane trying to make an emergency landing they give a green light signal to land while summoning both security and rescue services.

The light(s) approaching from the Runway 12 direction fly along the runway and then divert over the AMRC before heading off into the night.

The tower crew askes the pilot of a T-6 Texan used as a base hack to fly out after the light and determine the model of the aircraft.

He does so and reports that the UFO toyed with him for a bit before disappearing and materializing right off his wingtip at which point he headed for base as quick as he could. When asked what it looked like he describes it as being 'full of eyes'.

Three questions that need to be answered.

1. Is it possible to see the AMRC from the control tower as one of the characters is described as doing at the start of the story?

2. During the approach the light is described as drowning out the flashers at the 12 end of the runway. When I did a cursory data search I found that the flashers were at the 30 end of the runway, have they been moved between the 1970's and the 2010's, or are they at both ends?

3. If the UFO was as bright as described surely others would have noticed, especially as Tuscon is much closer to Davis–Monthan AFB than I realised (Or the author of Scareforce implies.)

This last one is probably the most important question to answer as I strongly believe that the entire contents of the book are fictional.

 

[Stray Cat]

... I strongly believe that the entire contents of the book are fictional.

I strongly suspect you are correct.

Certainly without any verifiable evidence that the event actually took place, it can safely be dismissed as such.

As for your questions, I don't mean to be to dismissive of them but it is entirely possible for the locations to be described accurately even if the event placed at those locations is not.

However, in the interests of curiosity (and the fact that we haven't had a good UFO story to look into since the Canadian Firefly incident) A quick Google map search reveals that the AMRC military plane boneyard is a part of the AFB and even if the control tower couldn't see it, it would be possible to say that a near object was flying over in that direction. If I have identified the control tower correctly, it is due West of the bone yard and there appears to be a clear view of it with few to no building between the two.

If the observers first spotted the lights over Tuscon it would have been approaching from North West(ish). I'm not familiar with the term "12 end" or "30 end", again looking on Google maps, the runway looks to me as if it is often used both directions for landings and would think that flashers would be at both ends. However, looking in close up at the runway, it looks like several rows of strobes are only placed at the South End end. At the North West end, there appears to be only a single row of red lights.

As for other people seeing the lights... yup, I would have thought that such bright lights would be seen by other people, but I've got no idea how much of a 24 hour place Tuscon is (or was back then). What I would question is that an AFB would light up its runway for a mystery aircraft that had not made radio contact to identify itself and if the control tower crew thought they were seeing landing lights, how could they be brighter than landing lights. The story is internally inconsistent.

 

[Pope130]

The tower crew askes the pilot of a T-6 Texan used as a base hack to fly out after the light and determine the model of the aircraft.

This is a problem if the story is set in the early '70s. The T-6 went out of use by the USAF in the late '50s. A T-28 or T-34 would make a better story.

 

[Hellbound]

Just an aside regarding the "if it wasn't listed as fiction" bit.

I've been in the militayr, and I've dealt with information security, and I've had a security clearance, along with the various training and briefings that entails.

If I were to release some sort of classified information, even if I pretended it was fiction, and ESPECIALLY if I put to lie the fiction claim with a blurb like that, I'd be in Leavenworth.

So an explanation of why it's fiction that pretty much makes the direct claim that it isn't, fails at every level. Just labelling it "fiction" wouldn't prevent it from being a breach, and lebelling it "fiction-wink, wink, nudge, nudge" even more so.

 

[Libra]

Hi all,

. . .
1. Is it possible to see the AMRC from the control tower as one of the characters is described as doing at the start of the story?

If you could make the GPS co-ords of the two points in question known, one could do a quick, indicative line-of-sight check using a typical topo kmz file in Google Earth.

 

[SezMe]

I hate to be thick, but what is "the AMRC"?

 

[Stray Cat]

I hate to be thick, but what is "the AMRC"?

I've got no idea what the letters stand for but I believe it refers to the military plane scrap yard on the eastern side of the air base.

 

[Stray Cat]

If you could make the GPS co-ords of the two points in question known, one could do a quick, indicative line-of-sight check using a typical topo kmz file in Google Earth.

From what I can figure given the information available:

 

[Pope130]

I hate to be thick, but what is "the AMRC"?

Aircraft Maintenance and Regeneration Center. Commonly called "The Boneyard". Not primarily a scrapyard, it functions as a storage facility for aircraft and aerospace equipment for which there is an anticipated future need. Some aircraft are put back into flying condition after quite long times in storage. I was involved in recovering a KC-97 and two C-123's from AMARC (plus a WB-50 from across the runway).

 

[Hellbound]

The only military acronym I can find for AMRC is Army Mathematics Research Center. That's probably not what he meant.

MARC is Military Airlift Command ALCE reactions communications, and Military Airlift Command (MAC) used to be AMC (change was made in the 90's, I think), so that may be a possibility as well. Considering the location and that the story is supposedly Air Force, I'd go with that being the case.

ETA: Or what Pope130 said

ETA2: And now that I think of it, did they go from MAC to AMC or AMC to MAC? Dangit, only been out a year or two and I'm already forgetting everything

 

[Pope130]

ETA2: And now that I think of it, did they go from MAC to AMC or AMC to MAC? Dangit, only been out a year or two and I'm already forgetting everything

Well, going back a ways, we went from TC (Transport Command), to MATS (Military Air Transport Service), to MAC (Military Airlift Command), to AMC (Air Mobility Command). In addition, being on Herks I also shifted back and forth between MajComs. I started at Pope in MAC, we switched to TAC, which became ACC, and then we were sent back to AMC, all while flying the same missions, out of the same base, in the same aircraft.

 

[Hellbound]

I hate to be thick, but what is "the AMRC"?

Well, going back a ways, we went from TC (Transport Command), to MATS (Military Air Transport Service), to MAC (Military Airlift Command), to AMC (Air Mobility Command). In addition, being on Herks I also shifted back and forth between MajComs. I started at Pope in MAC, we switched to TAC, which became ACC, and then we were sent back to AMC, all while flying the same missions, out of the same base, in the same aircraft.

Ah, good, so I was right the first time. The MAC to AMC changeover is the one I remember.

I was Army, so I was only ever cargo for the flights

 

[Pope130]

Ah, good, so I was right the first time. The MAC to AMC changeover is the one I remember.

I was Army, so I was only ever cargo for the flights

Flight Engineer, the views much better up front (unless you're one of those 82nd types that tries to leave the bus before it comes to a complete stop).

 

[Hellbound]

Flight Engineer, the views much better up front (unless you're one of those 82nd types that tries to leave the bus before it comes to a complete stop).

Nope. Thought about it, but never scheduled the lobotomy I was a medic, combat engineer, and computer operator. Or, as I like to say it, I did bits, bombs, and band-aids.

 

[Biscuit]

I tried to research the author but I can't get any where with that. I tried to find other accounts of UFO's at DM but all that comes up is the story from the 50's.

I have to conclude this is either a made up story, a combination of stories/bases, or occurred somewhere else.

FWIW I have lived in Tucson all my life and never heard this story.

 

[dlorde]

Just by-the-bye, the Davis–Monthan AFB is one of those places in Google maps that have hi-res images, so you can zoom right in to the max, until a single aircraft almost fills the screen. Worth a look if you like old war planes. Interestingly, there are more planes in the boneyard in the hi-res photos (more recent, I guess)...

 

[Libra]

From what I can figure given the information available:

[qimg]http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg117/ThePsychoClown/DMAFB_zps5ba7055b.jpg[/qimg]

Clear line of sight from the Control Tower to the extreme elevation in the AMRC is only possible with a 47m high Control Tower and would attract a 4.8 sec response time for visual aircraft detection, when using Civil Aviation Safety Authority (Aus) guidelines and principles for control towers.

Judging from the ratio of the typical single story building to it's casted shadow and looking at the control tower's shadow, the towers seems about 25m high.

About a 3rd of that marked AMRC area located in the NW extreme of the area could be visible from a 25m high control tower.

 

[Stray Cat]

Clear line of sight from the Control Tower to the extreme elevation in the AMRC is only possible with a 47m high Control Tower and would attract a 4.8 sec response time for visual aircraft detection, when using Civil Aviation Safety Authority (Aus) guidelines and principles for control towers.

Judging from the ratio of the typical single story building to it's casted shadow and looking at the control tower's shadow, the towers seems about 25m high.

About a 3rd of that marked AMRC area located in the NW extreme of the area could be visible from a 25m high control tower.

I don't think you'd have to be able to see to know if an object was flying over the AMRC (from the control tower position).
The main problem here is; was there ever an object to see?

Like I said earlier, the physical/geographical facts can all be fine and the story can still be made up.

Why would a military base light up it's runway for an unidentified aircraft?
No radio contact, no transponder and presumably no radar trace (certainly non mentioned in the OP). Do military bases just leave their runway lights on all the time?

 

[Libra]

StrayCat, the OP's first question :

"1. Is it possible to see the AMRC from the control tower as one of the characters is described as doing at the start of the story?"


makes no mention of a flying object, but rather the area itself. That's what was attempted to answer. I do not know the details of what this character reported.




On the question of if an UFO was seen there, I'd say it's a NO.

 

[Stray Cat]

StrayCat, the OP's first question :

"1. Is it possible to see the AMRC from the control tower as one of the characters is described as doing at the start of the story?"


makes no mention of a flying object, but rather the area itself. That's what was attempted to answer. I do not know the details of what this character reported.

All the details we have about the story are in the OP.
Despite question 1 says, Whether you can see the AMRC is irrelevant as in the OP, the story states:

"The light(s) approaching from the Runway 12 direction fly along the runway and then divert over the AMRC* before heading off into the night."

*emphasis added by me

If you can see it or not, it wouldn't be difficult to judge where it was as it covers nearly 180° East of the Tower. Buildings in line of sight are a bit irrelevant (as the object, or "lights" as they are described in the story are flying presumably over any buildings and not through them), Also, it was night time anyway so the night darkness would be enough to stop anyone from actually being able to see the AMRC.

On the question of if an UFO was seen there, I'd say it's a NO.

The lack of verification would certainly make it look that way.