TYB
Hybrid warfare alert in Italy: Russian-made drone over EU centre
1 April 2025
Expert Matteo Pugliese of Debunk.org noted that such Russian activities are common around military bases, highlighting Italy’s increased vigilance against hybrid warfare tactics and potential pro-Russian espionage
Investigation underway. No one saw the drone over the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Ispra, Northern Italy.
Yet, according to investigative sources cited by ANSA news agency, the facility’s radio wave detectors recorded frequencies linked to a Russian-made device. These sources report that the drone carried out five recent overflights within five to six days.
Espionage probe opened. On Monday, the Milan Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation into “political or military espionage” – a charge carrying penalties ranging from 15 years in prison to life, aggravated by terrorist intent and the potential for “serious harm” to Italy.
Investigators suspect the involvement of an Italian, pro-Russian operative – reminiscent of the case involving two businessmen from Monza accused last November of spying for Moscow.
The pair allegedly approached Russian intelligence via an official email, offering information on Milan in exchange for Bitcoin.
Government’s response. “Inquiries are ongoing, and the competent judicial authorities are conducting further checks,” Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said on Monday.
He noted that while no classified information appears compromised, the matter remains under close scrutiny.
Defence Minister Guido Crosetto framed the incident within the broader context of hybrid warfare:
“It is as dangerous as it is covert, relentless, and suffocating,” he stated.
“It involves a mix of targeted cyberattacks, recruitment of operatives – people on foreign payrolls – mass disinformation campaigns, and the theft of military and industrial technology, among other hostile actions carried out by state and non-state actors.”
Analyst’s view. “The exact dynamics of the drone’s flight remain unclear, but Russian activities of this kind are frequent in Germany and other countries, particularly around military bases, so this is a realistic hypothesis,” said Matteo Pugliese, an analyst at Debunk.org.
Speaking to our sister website Formiche.net, he added, “I wouldn’t be surprised if the drone originated from nearby Switzerland.”
“In any case, this highlights the need to increase vigilance against Russian hybrid warfare, which combines sabotage and kinetic actions with information manipulation,” he concluded.
https://decode39.com/10340/hybrid-warfare-alert-in-italy-russian-made-drone-over-eu-centre/
https://www.afcea.org/signal-media/emerging-edge/national-guard-showcase-new-medical-drone
https://www.nationalguard.mil/News/Article-View/Article/4056060/oregon-guard-combat-medics-test-drone-delivery-of-supplies/
National Guard To Showcase New Medical Drone
Apr 01, 2025
This month, public and private sector personnel are scheduled to demonstrate a new method of sending help to soldiers on the battlefield.
Oregon National Guard officials, in conjunction with Legionair Tactical and Dufour Aerospace, will display their drone’s ability to deliver medical supplies without risking additional lives.
At the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International’s Cascade 2025 Spring Symposium, crews will put their new Dufour Aero 2.3 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) on display.
They will use the aircraft to deliver blood and other medical supplies to a high-intensity, emergency situation that is yet to be determined, according to Tyler Kennedy, co-founder/managing director, Legionair Tactical—a new company that Kennedy helped start in September 2024 that specializes in medical transportation within the military.
Kennedy and other officials envision the drone being used for several use cases, such as transporting medical supplies to emergency situations on the battlefield and surveillance in commercial space.
The Dufour Aero 2.3 features a 19.7-foot wingspan and an efficient cruise speed of 150 km/h, according to Dufour Aerospace’s website.
The 2025 Spring Symposium will offer crews the opportunity to showcase and prove the Dufour Aero 2.3’s abstract features, including its ability to fly up to three hours while carrying 88 pounds of equipment or 10.5 hours while transporting 22 pounds of contents, according to Dufour Aerospace’s website.
This event will follow the 68W Combat Medic sustainment course that Oregon Army National Guard officials participated in earlier this year.
At this event at Camp Rilea near Warrenton, Oregon, blueflite teams displayed their drone and successfully demonstrated its abilities through several operations.
The blueflite drone was able to carry 7-10 pounds of equipment for about 10 minutes of flight, according to Kennedy, who attended and helped support military officials during the event.
He summarized blueflite’s accomplishments during an interview with SIGNAL Media.
“We just had a container that held the fake blood, and we flew that around, and we did two different operations,” Kennedy said.
“We actually flew and dropped it when it was hovering with the bomb bay doors [open]. And then we also landed so you can get the products out.
[The drone] can drop it as it hovers, or it can land, and you can take the cover off. There’s a lid on the top with hinges that you open up, and you can pick the blood out, so we did it both ways.”
Furthermore, the drone contains insulation equipment that ensures the blood stays cool enough to use while also keeping it warm enough to prevent the person receiving it from getting sick.
“[The blood] was in a container that had insulation in it, and it would be cooled,” Kennedy added. “It’d come over with frozen gel packs to keep the blood cold.
On the medical side, you want to keep the blood refrigerated until you get to the wound, and then you need to heat the blood up so that you don’t cause hypothermia.
If you put refrigerated blood into somebody, they’re going to go hypothermic on you, so you want to warm that [blood] up. And so, our partners have the capability of warming the blood up.”
Oregon National Guard officials also attended the exercise.
“We’re transitioning from the way we did combat in the global war on terror,” Sgt. 1st Class John Lee said in a press release.
“We’re not going to always have medevac one hour away. We might have to travel to it or use ground transport to get to an ambulance exchange point before we can get the casualty to a higher level of care.”
“This technology lets us monitor the effectiveness of tourniquet application, wound care and other critical battlefield medical procedures,” Lee added.
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The novel method of dropping off medical supplies via unmanned drones solves a plethora of problems that officials face on the battlefield.
Firstly, the new system would not expose additional soldiers and health professionals to danger. Warfighters have traditionally helped those in need on the battlefield by loading a team onto a Black Hawk helicopter.
Then, the group would fly to the wounded soldier and administer help, a procedure that put several more lives in danger. Instead, delivering medical supplies via UAVs eliminates this avoidable risk, according to Kennedy.
“You have pilots, medics, all these people; there are a lot of assets that are at stake,” Kennedy said.
“But if you bring a drone in, there are zero people—there’s a drone and there’s some blood on board—so if it did get hit, potentially you don’t get the blood to the wounded personnel out there, but it’s not another eight, nine or six people, or however many people support that aircraft.”
Furthermore, military leaders can be more aggressive in their decision-making when the weather might be too rough to send help.
Once again, since there are no lives at stake onboard the UAV, officials can deploy the drone more liberally during bad weather, which could lead to more lives being saved, according to Kennedy.
Additionally, sending a drone rather than a Black Hawk helicopter would be significantly more time- and cost-efficient.
Crews having the ability to launch the drone toward the battlefield instead of prepping, packing and boarding the helicopter would save precious seconds in the rescue process.
This could be the difference between a soldier living and dying, according to the golden hour rule, which states that the faster a wounded individual receives blood or help of any kind, the more likely they are to survive.
Moreover, the helicopter costs about $3,000 per hour, which is much more expensive than sending the drone, according to Kennedy.
He also noted that the team members who take care of and maintain the chopper are not cheap either and that using the drone would avoid these issues altogether.
As for a timeline, Kennedy could not predict when military officials might start seeing the new method of delivering medical supplies to those in need, even if future tests and exercises are successful.
He credits the uncertainty mostly to the challenging process of achieving “blue list” status.
“Your aircraft has to meet all these qualifications to get on that list,” Kennedy said. “Then you can go to the military, and they can buy, and so that’s the process that we’re not educated on.
We’re going through that process in terms of figuring out how you deal with the military, how you do the right type of contracting.”
“We have a little bit of time,” Kennedy added. “We’re really new to the game, and you have to start somewhere.”
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New U.S. sanctions target a network allegedly involved in Iran’s drone program
Apr 1, 2025, 7:50 PM
New York, IRNA –The U.S. Department of the Treasury has imposed sanctions targeting a network of entities and individuals it accused of being involved in procuring components for Iran’s drone program.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), in collaboration with the Department of Justice, announced the new sanctions on Tuesday.
The Treasury accused the network of six entities and two individuals – operating in Iran, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and China – of being involved in procuring unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) components on behalf of Iran-based Qods Aviation Industries (QAI)— a subsidiary of the Iran Aviation Industries Organization (IAIO) and a leading manufacturer of Iranian drones.
This marks the second round of sanctions allegedly targeting an Iranian weapons procurement network since U.S. President Donald Trump issued National Security Presidential Memorandum 2 on February 4 as part of a broader “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran.
The memorandum outlines measures to restrict Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs and curb its support for regional resistance groups.
On Tuesday, the Department of Justice also unsealed criminal charges against two Iranian nationals, Hossein Akbari, 63, and Reza Amidi, 62, along with the Iranian company Rah Roshd Company.
The charges, filed in the Eastern District of New York, allege that the defendants attempted to supply material support to Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and tried to acquire U.S. technology for Iranian drones.
Both Akbari and Amidi are currently at large.
https://en.irna.ir/news/85792379/New-U-S-sanctions-target-a-network-allegedly-involved-in-Iran-s
https://defensescoop.com/2025/03/31/uap-ufo-disclosure-advocates-transparency-drone-incursions/
UAP disclosure advocates call for transparency on drone incursions
March 31, 2025
Two former defense officials who helped spur major efforts during previous congressional sessions to drive government transparency on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) returned to the Hill last week for closed-door discussions with several lawmakers about that issue and emerging challenges associated with drones.
“I’m confident that next steps are not only going to follow, but I think we’re going to see potentially even more progress this year than we have in the last seven,” Lue Elizondo told DefenseScoop on Thursday in an interview shortly after departing from those meetings.
Elizondo spent much of his early career in the shadows, working as a career intelligence officer and counterintelligence special agent all over the world on counternarcotics, counter-espionage, counter-insurgency and other covert operations.
In the early to mid-2000s, he led the Pentagon’s now disbanded, secretive task force that was then studying sky-based anomalies, dubbed the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP).
That hub was essentially a precursor to the Defense Department’s nascent All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), which was established via the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act following mounting pressure from the public and high-profile proponents like Elizondo and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Christopher Mellon.
Under AARO, the Pentagon’s scope has expanded to investigate not just UFOs, but also other types of “unidentified anomalous phenomena” — a broader term that also encompasses undersea objects and those that transition between mediums.
Elizondo said his team for the series of meetings last week included Mellon, two attorneys and a security representative. They met in-person with lawmakers and staff from multiple offices including at least one senator, as well as Reps. Anna Luna, Tim Burchett and Eric Burlison.
Officials from several of those offices acknowledged the meetings but declined to provide comments regarding specific discussions.
“The purpose was twofold. One, was to offer our assistance in helping them find the information they’re looking for and help to, I think, increase transparency [on the UAP] topic that is often misunderstood and not very well-appreciated.
And we are now seeing with drone incidents that it is becoming increasingly more difficult to differentiate between the typical or classic UAP-type incursions and signatures, and those of drones, especially now with the proliferation and the fact that the technology is continuing to get better and better,” Elizondo said.
They discussed how, as he put it, “drones can do now what in 2017 we could only dream of.”
Elizondo noted that cutting-edge battery technologies now allow unmanned aerial systems to deploy on longer flights with better power options.
New and lighter materials, such as carbon fiber, are more accessible and affordable to use. And innovation in motors is reducing wear and tear on modern systems.
“Drones are now being used like never before. And in fact, we’re seeing in Ukraine the lethality of these drones is to the point now where there are more casualties caused by drones now than there are by artillery.
So this is changing warfare. Now, if there’s one thing we haven’t learned since 9/11 it’s that we don’t seem to be taking these emerging technologies very seriously.
It is a matter of time — not if, but when — an adversary, whether it’s a state or a non-state actor, decides to deploy these capabilities in a hostile manner” against the U.S. homeland, he said.
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One simple difference between UAP and drones, according to Elizondo, comes down to attribution.
“Our hope is that drones are attributable — to country X, country Y, company XYZ, right? This rebel group, that rebel group, that non-state actor, this non-state actor.
UAP is a little bit different. Both have very unique signatures. In some cases, no signature at all. So ultimately, you don’t know what you don’t know,” he said.
However, “it may turn out that some of these UAP are indeed new drones, [or] some sort of adversarial technology that is flying completely unchallenged, like we saw over Langley Air Force Base,” which disrupted U.S. military flights, Elizondo added.
Roughly a year after that incident happened, the Pentagon confirmed that for 17 days in December 2023, officials reported incursions of unauthorized unmanned aerial systems in restricted airspace over Langley, where highly advanced military assets are housed.
More recently, military officials expressed uncertainty and frustration regarding a series of baffling incidents where mystery drones were repeatedly reported maneuvering over at least two defense installations and elsewhere in New Jersey late last year.
The Trump administration suggested in late January that most of those drones were approved by the Federal Aviation Administration and were not perceived as threats.
“People will tell you, ‘Well, these are all attributable drones.’ Why is it we haven’t recovered a single one? Why is it we haven’t found a single source, a single person [on the record] that is actually flying one of these things?
Why is it we don’t have the electromagnetic signature, right?” Elizondo said. In the meetings with members of Congress last week, his team called for more public transparency on what the government knows about those recent incursions — and for AARO experts to investigate them.
“Everything is unidentified until it becomes identified. You can’t have a conversation about drones of unknown origin without having a conversation about UAP.
You have to think of it as a large umbrella of the UAP issue, and then drones is a smaller umbrella, underneath that bigger umbrella. Drones are a subset of a bigger problem,” Elizondo noted.
Participants in the exchanges also explored possibilities around new legislation to further push the government’s UAP records-release campaigns and information-sharing this year.
“We also discussed the need for certain administrative tools and mechanisms to be implemented, which Congress has the authority to implement, to force elements within the intelligence community and the defense community to be more forthcoming, not only with unclassified information, but with classified information,” Elizondo said.
The lawmakers were also keen to connect on some of their “biggest concerns about expectations management,” in the context of their constituents’ demands for government documentation and oversight for UAP-related projects and materials, according to Elizondo.
“I’ve said before that disclosure and transparency is a process — it’s not an event — meaning you’re going to be sadly disappointed if you think all the revelations are going to be provided all at once.
Congress is very concerned. They want to make sure that the American people know this is just step one in a multi-step process to give the American people what they want and what they deserve,” he told DefenseScoop.
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This is NOT a Joke: UFO Sighting Over Duck Pond
April 1st, 2025
Madison, WI – The date (April 1) would suggest this is a joke, but this is no laughing matter. In 1987, Dane County had the highest concentration of UFO sightings in the United States.
Strange lights, eerie formations, and unexplainable disappearances left residents searching for answers. Decades later, it’s happening again.
Early Tuesday morning, multiple witnesses reported an unidentified flying object (UFO) hovering over the Duck Pond — home of the Madison Mallards.
Described as glowing and eerily silent, the craft defied explanation. Some claim they saw beams of light scanning the field. Others insist they heard the distant sound of… mooing?
Regardless, one of the front office staff captured a picture as it was flying away.
The Madison Mallards are fully cooperating with local authorities as they investigate this unusual event. While no official explanations have been provided, the team is taking the matter seriously.
“Of course, this happens on April Fools Day, I promise this is not funny.” said Mallards General Manager Sam Rubin. “Whatever it was, it took one of our staff members with them.
We’re working closely with officials to figure out what exactly happened here.”
City officials have also acknowledged the reports. “We are aware of the incident and are gathering information,” said a spokesperson for the city.
“At this time, we cannot confirm the nature of the event, but we encourage residents to remain calm.”
As the investigation continues, one thing is certain—history is repeating itself, and the truth may be closer than we think.
Stay tuned for further updates as we uncover more about this out-of-this-world event.
https://northwoodsleague.com/madison-mallards/2025/04/01/ufosighting/
Not to be confused with the space potatoes
Watch eerie 'UFOs' and a solar 'cyclone' take shape in stunning new ESA video of the sun
April 1, 2025
A newly released video has revealed a gigantic plume of solar wind towering above the sun in a never-before-seen, "cyclone-like" configuration that emerged in the wake of a massive solar explosion.
The striking timelapse footage also captured strange lines streaking across the fiery scene like pixelated UFOs — but are actually distant stars.
The video, which was released March 26 by the European Space Agency (ESA), is sped-up footage originally taken over an eight-hour period on Oct. 12, 2022, by ESA's Solar Orbiter.
The spacecraft captured the scene by blocking out the main disk of the sun, which enabled the probe's camera to focus on the extremely faint light given off by the flow of superfast charged particles, or solar wind, that streams out of our home star nearly constantly.
This is the first time solar wind has been recorded "flying out from the sun in a twisting, whirling motion," ESA representatives wrote in a statement.
"The solar wind particles spiral outwards as if caught in a cyclone that extends millions of kilometres from the sun."
The striking video also shows around a dozen perfectly flat, half-dark, half-light lines that creep across the screen like the UFOs and aliens in arcade games such as "Space Invaders."
These features are actually stars that are moving across the background as the orbiter circles the sun, which show up thanks to an editing technique used to make the video, ESA representatives wrote.
Solar ‘pseudostreamer’
In a new study of the video, released March 26 in The Astrophysical Journal, researchers described the giant solar corkscrew as a "large pseudostreamer" that erupted near the sun's north pole in the wake of a solar flare that launched a cloud of plasma, or coronal mass ejection (CME), into space.
The pseudostreamer reached up to 1.5 times as long as the sun is wide and lasted for around three hours.
The "helix" structure of the wind jet is likely the result of Alfvénic fluctuations triggered by waves of ions that oscillate in response to magnetic field disturbances that occurred during the flare, the researchers wrote.
They noted that the unique shape may also be tied to the streamer's position near one of the sun's polar regions, where magnetic fields are usually much stronger than near the sun's equator.
The sun is currently experiencing the peak in its roughly 11-year cycle of activity, known as solar maximum, which officially began in early 2024.
During this phase, powerful solar flares explode more frequently from the sun and solar wind intensifies. However, this video was captured before solar activity started ramping up, which surprised the scientists.
Until recently, the origin and complex behaviors of solar wind have remained largely elusive. But a new generation of spacecraft is helping to unravel these mysteries.
When the video was recorded, ESA's Solar Orbiter was the only probe capable of capturing solar wind in such great detail.
However, ESA's Proba-3 mission, which launched in December 2024, is also capable of viewing solar wind thanks to its ability to create artificial solar eclipses in space.
NASA's Parker Solar Probe, meanwhile, was launched in 2018 and has helped to capture important solar wind data during its recent super-close flybys of our home star.
Solar wind is expected to become more extreme over the next few years as we enter the solar "battle zone" — a period after solar maximum when magnetic instabilities on the sun cause large coronal holes to open up on the sun's surface and shoot out extreme solar gusts.
These solar events will be much like a dark patch that showered Earth with charged particles last week, triggering significant aurora activity.
https://www.livescience.com/space/the-sun/watch-eerie-ufos-and-a-solar-cyclone-take-shape-in-stunning-new-esa-video-of-the-sun
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2025/03/Watch_wind_whirl_from_the_Sun
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/adb1da
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vHfzgw8jms
Alien Panic in Cyprus!
01/04/2025
Two beings that do not resemble human form and were spotted in front of the Near East University Faculty of Communications brought the question "Have aliens come to Cyprus?" to the agenda.
Cyprus continues to be shaken by a mysterious incident that took place on the Near East University campus.
Two beings that do not resemble human form and were spotted in front of the Near East University Faculty of Communications have brought the question of “Have aliens come to Cyprus?” to the agenda.
It is a striking detail that these extraordinary beings, who wait motionless in the same spot throughout the day and observe the surroundings, first appeared in front of the Faculty of Communication.
Experts assess that this is not a coincidence and may be some kind of communication effort.
Why was the first contact established at the Near East University Faculty of Communication?
Throughout human history, communication has evolved continuously, from drawings on cave walls to smoke signals, from alphabets to printing, from telegraph to digital messaging.
The effort to transfer information and ideas has guided the development of civilizations throughout the ages.
Today, communication has been taken to an advanced level with artificial intelligence-supported systems, satellite connections and global networks.
At this point, the fact that extraterrestrial beings chose a university campus, and especially in front of a Faculty of Communication, to make first contact is considered a detail that needs to be emphasized. There is a curious and cautious wait on campus.
While students and academic staff are following what is happening with astonishment, the Near East University administration announced that detailed statements on the subject will be made in the coming days.
In today's world where the possibility of extraterrestrial life is being talked about more and more every day, this extraordinary development at the Near East University is being followed carefully in scientific circles.
Now all eyes are on Cyprus, and the curious questions have one common answer: Is this just the beginning?
https://www.raillynews.com/2025/04/Cyprus-alien-panic/
https://dailyreckoning.com/your-government-at-work-confiscated-gold-and-stashed-alien-tech/
Your Government at Work: Confiscated Gold and Stashed Alien Tech
April 1, 2025
Today, of all days, we’ll discuss confiscated gold and space alien technology, because both are an ongoing source of public mystery.
Some years ago, in the mid-2000s, I visited the Pentagon to meet with several high-level Air Force officials and staff.
We discussed with something mundane, namely aviation fuel and related issues that concern U.S. military supply chains.
I had been writing about oil and energy issues, and a friend of a friend referred me to his friend, and…
Well, here’s what happened.
Begin at the Pentagon
There’s an old saying, that amateurs discuss tactics and professionals discuss logistics.
So, there I was on the top floor of the inner ring of the Pentagon, in a wood-paneled conference room with a stunning view of the courtyard.
I was across the table from an Assistant Secretary of the Air Force and seated adjacent to a Deputy Assistant. Plus, we had two full-bird colonels, both subject matter experts, and two lieutenant colonels taking notes.
We discussed the U.S. oil complex, from prospects through drill pads, pipelines and downstream refineries. The Air Force people explained their fuel issues and, as the only geologist in the room, I told them things about finding oil and refining it into useful products.
The idea of our get-together was to learn from each other, and brainstorm industrial and logistic bottlenecks faced by the Air Force. The goal was to help secure future fuel supplies and keep the airplanes gassed up and flying.
At one point, the discussion drifted towards operational matters, and aircraft types the Air Force used on various missions. And one of the colonels chimed in and said, “Excuse me, sorry. We’re about to get classified here, Byron, and you’re not cleared to go there.”
I nodded affirmatively. Roger that, colonel, because, as an old Navy guy I understood that when they tell you not to touch a particular topic, you don’t touch that topic. That is, stay legal. Let’s not go to jail.
But also, as an old Navy guy, I kind of wanted to push the envelope. So I said, “No, we won’t discuss classified operations here. But really, when you boil it all down, the government only has two real secrets, right?”
Everyone in the room looked at me with a quizzical appearance… And I added, “You know what I mean. About how we’ve recovered all that exotic technology from space aliens, out in Nevada, down in those special caves. And how there’s no gold in Fort Knox.”
The room went totally silent, except for the soft hum of ventilation. Then the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force said, “Wow, you mean there’s really no gold in Fort Knox?”
Yes, we skipped the space aliens and captured tech out in Nevada. And before we returned to the subject of aviation fuel and logistics, we spent a few minutes discussing whether or not there’s still gold in Fort Knox.
The Gold in Fort Knox (or not)
In a quick digression, I explained to the Air Force people what many Americans seem not to know about U.S. history. It’s a story lost to time and generations. That is, in 1933 newly inaugurated President Franklin Roosevelt confiscated the nation’s private gold.
Roosevelt used a World War I-era espionage law to justify an executive order that required everyone to turn in their gold coins, bullion and certificates.
And of interest, no federal judge back then issued a restraining order, unlike today with President Trump and everything he wants to do.
In due course, the government melted those confiscated gold coins into 400-ounce bars, which made it slightly harder to steal them. Then in 1937, the bars found a home in a hastily constructed repository at Fort Knox, Kentucky.
Later, during World War II, Fort Knox also became home to quite a bit of British gold from the Bank of England, as well as gold from India and South Africa. And Fort Knox also even housed gold from the Soviet Union.
That part about “no gold in Fort Knox” has to do with the lack of an audit trail over the years. Is there gold in Fort Knox or not? Yes, the place is extremely well guarded. But is any of the gold missing?
Where are the records? Has the U.S. government somehow leased the gold out to third parties? Or perhaps even transferred the gold?
Nobody knows the answer to those questions, and to many others about the gold in Fort Knox. Or rather, the public doesn’t know, although I suspect that a few people in the dark shadows of the Treasury Department could fill us in.
And that was that, except for what happened next…
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A Guy in a Dark Suit
When we finished discussing Air Force fuel issues, as well as the gold that might or might not be in Fort Knox, the Assistant Secretary asked me to stay.
We chatted a bit, and after a few minutes a guy walked in, wearing a dark suit. He was from some office of “special investigations” in the Department of Defense; I don’t recall the exact name.
Quickly, I was informed that my casual reference to alien technology in an official meeting had consequences.
The Air Force people were required to report my comment to a particular arm of the Department of Defense, and now it was time for a debrief to find out if I was just kidding or if I actually knew something.
Uh-oh… It would have been easy for me to fold like a cheap suit and say that I was just making stuff up. Except that an answer like that would not be true.
Which led to a discussion of something that occurred in 1986, when I was on active duty in the Navy.
A Mission of National Importance
At the time I was a naval flight officer assigned to an antisubmarine aircraft squadron, stationed at Naval Air Station North Island, just across the bay from San Diego; and by the way, just across the ship channel from Naval Submarine Base San Diego (hold that thought).
Among other Navy jobs, I flew an airplane called the S-3 “Viking,” designed to find submarines, conduct surveillance and tracking, and carry ordnance when required (hold that thought, too).
Not to get too deep into the weeds, but my aircraft and squadron had a nuclear weapons mission, and I was fully trained, signed-off and certified as both a “courier” and “delivery aircrew.”
Along these foregoing lines, one day I received an urgent summons to the commanding officer’s office, along with several other of my flying colleagues, all of whom were on the nuclear-qualified list.
And there, in that humble room, we were introduced to two three-star admirals; namely, Commander, Naval Air Forces Pacific and Commander, Submarine Forces Pacific.
In the Navy, it’s highly unusual for an admiral to show up at a squadron, let alone two of them, let alone two admirals with three-stars each.
The long and short is that a U.S. submarine was returning to port with an item of interest that it recovered somewhere, and “national authorities” wanted this curiosity immediately hauled up to a site in Nevada.
As I noted before, amateurs talk tactics and professionals talk logistics.
Apparently after a scrub of transportation options, some august group of wise heads determined that the best way to move this cargo was, first, to ferry it over the ship channel from the submarine base to a pier at North Island.
Then, hang this object inside the bomb bay of an S-3 and fly it up to destination. We didn’t get many details, but my impression was that, absolutely, the big shots of American decision-making did not want to transport this particular thing on public roadways.
And they didn’t want it inside the relatively open cargo space of a large aircraft like a C-130.
At any rate, we had our tasking and over a very short period of time staged two S-3 aircraft for the mission; a “go-bird” and a spare, in case the first airplane had a problem.
Each plane had an assigned pilot and copilot. That, and a weapons loading team was standing by. My colleagues and I hung around the main aircraft hangar with our assigned airplanes, and eventually a truck arrived with a cannister, guarded by U.S. Marines.
It turned out that this cannister was almost exactly the shape of a standard aerial torpedo that the S-3 was certified to carry. Definitely, though, it was not a torpedo. Still, the shape was much the same, particularly the placement of loading hooks and electrical connections.
As for what was inside the cannister? We were not privy to that, except that when we filed our flight plan, we declared that inside was “U.S. Department of Transportation, Class A-1.1 Material.”
In other words, we were hauling something with high explosives inside.
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Quickly and crisply, the ordnance team loaded this device. Then we hooked it up to the cockpit armament control panel (ACP). Our instructions were that as long as the little ACP light stayed green, everything was okay.
If the light went orange, head out to sea and jettison. If the light turned red, jettison it really fast but not on land.
If you’re getting the impression that this was kind of a hasty, pickup team event, without extensive prior planning, you are on the right track. Sometimes, you just do what you must do.
As for the flight plan, we took off from North Island and immediately headed out to sea and an offshore military operating area around San Clemente Island.
The instructions were to stay over the Pacific Ocean and inside military-controlled airspace until we were about as far north as Lompoc, California, just south of Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Basically, the idea was not to fly over anything approaching populated areas, certainly not the San Diego environs or Los Angeles to the north.
Then when we made it far enough north, our orders and flight plan called for turning east to go as fast as possible to the Nevada site. Oh, and note that I am NOT saying the exact name of the place.
I’ll skip a lot of details and just say that eventually, we hit the right latitude and turned inland. Then seemingly out of nowhere, two Air Force F-16s joined up in a loose formation, trailing behind us.
I could see that they were armed with Sidewinder missiles on the wingtips and doubtless had ammunition in their 20mm guns. Umm… yes, it’s what you might be thinking.
On that particular day, the sky was ours. Air traffic controllers cleared the airspace in front of us and ensured we knew it. It was a fairly fast, straight shot across Southern California and the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains, with a standard approach and landing at the Nevada locale.
At the end of the runway, a bunch of guys with guns were waiting, and a ground handler directed us to a de-arming area. And there, a remarkably well-trained group of people who appeared to be civilians unloaded our trophy from the bomb bay.
They placed it onto a truck and drove away towards the nearby hills.
A very polite gentleman walked up, thanked us for our efforts, and announced that a refueling truck would be there in a moment. Meanwhile, our return flight plan was already filed. Then he offered us box lunches.
From what I could discern, that cannister of ours wound up in a cave somewhere out there in the hills and mountains of Nevada, and whatever became of it is beyond my ken.
Only on April 1st…
It’s been 39 years since this particular event occurred, and I admit that a few details are hazy. Still, on a day like today and only today – April 1st – I’m in the mood to open up a bit and (sort of) tell the tale.
That is, most of what I just related is true, and perhaps a little bit isn’t quite 100%. Because while I can legally write historical fiction, even many years later I still can’t tell you which is which on some points. So, make of it what you will.
And tomorrow, April 2nd, it’s back to straight facts and analysis of all things gold, silver, mines and minerals, energy, exotic materials, technology and more.
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