August 2010
It was that story on the History Channel about the “rods” found by cameras. It was 1994 and Jose Escamilla's story was big news. While filming parachutists jumping into a deep, vertical cave near San Luis Potosi, Mexico, Mark Lichtle who is a professional cameraman noticed the rods when playing back his film in slow motion. Lichtle saw numerous rods darting in and out of the frame and flying around the base jumpers as they fell through the air. Articles you may read will say the rods have been found in every country, in different geological areas from swamps to deserts, and I know they are in Idaho. If you read anything that says they do not exist, just ignore those people.
Not too long ago a local business caught fire. It was a pallet refurbishing company so the fire was great. We heard the sirens and went out on the porch looking south. Using Google Earth ™, the distance from our house to the wall of smoke was 920 feet. The burning pallets were just to the right (or west) of our line of sight. The wind was blowing due east at about 15 mph. Since it was late evening and dark, the smoke was well lighted from the burning wood. While we watched, something plowed through the burning embers and smoke from the west at a great speed and vanished once it was out of the smoke to the east. The object was traveling fast, but not so fast that we couldn’t see it.
Once again, using Google Earth ™ to make angular measurements, determine distances, and where the travel of the object was located, I came up with these facts. The Rod was traveling from west to east at a distance from us of 920 feet. We saw it for three seconds. It was traveling at about 50 mph. . My guess is, and it makes sense, the rods travel much faster in the sunlight than in the dark. The Rod was about 10 feet long and was a cylinder at about one foot diameter and with rounded blunt ends. It clearly had three sets of fins. They were not wings but had more the appearance of vibrating fins, one set within a foot of each end and one set in the middle. The Rod appeared from the right side of our view and on the left side of our view the smoke dimmed and was rising more vertically. The Rod was clearly distorting the smoke as it passed through it, and staying level at about 40 feet off the ground. The Rod exited the smoke and vanished. Without the smoke it was entirely invisible. It flew level and with a constant speed. My wife and I spend many nights in our chairs outside looking at the stars. At no time have we ever seen a Rod, but I think now they are there.
Sighting location: 43º 43’ 16” N , 116º 42’ 43.5 W or 4.6 miles NNW of Caldwell, ID.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
ODD STUFF FOUND
Some people will not like this because it is true.
There are many inconsistencies that I have found on your planet. On one side of the information reality I find that a lie or removing detail allows people to accept a story. On the other side of the reality would be the things I found which, although complicated are actually factual.
This may upset someone, but if you do not believe what I found you are more than welcome to follow each step for yourself. It starts with my first visit to Bethlehem. Going there in January meant it was not the tourist season, so getting there was a bit tough. Bethlehem sits just four miles southwest of Jerusalem, but really in a whole different world. There is an elevation difference and although Jerusalem is in Israel, Bethlehem is in an area called the West Bank. The weather in Jerusalem in January 1978 was sunny and fairly warm; however, just traveling the ten ground miles uphill (four air miles) to Bethlehem changed everything. The night before had covered Bethlehem with 14 inches of snow. Even though it was melting fast, the roads were definitely a mess.
Every tourist going to Bethlehem used to go to only one place, and that would be the Church of the Nativity built in the 4th Century. Going there, I already knew that the church was not built over the “spot” that Jesus was born. That knowledge was lost to normal people. In the 4th Century that space was a small meadow where the local pagans worshiped. To stop the Pagans, the Catholic Church, as it was at that time, built the Church of the Nativity over the meadow. The Pagans just moved four hundred feet due east of Manger Square to the next meadow, which is a Pagan Park now. When I entered the Church of the Nativity through the low arched door, four feet from the entrance there was a bronze plaque on the floor that said in several languages “This is the Spot.” Well, it actually said “This is the birthplace of Jesus and (such.)” To the right of the spot was an alter set up and to the left of the spot against the far wall there were stacked wooden folding chairs. I mentioned the low arched door. At the time the church was built, if you were five feet tall (the top of the arch) you were considered to be extraordinarily tall. The average height of people then was about four foot four for women and around four foot six for men. When you think of Jesus accurately, you must realize that is how tall he really was; about four foot six and he had olive colored skin, just like everyone else in the area. Also you may want to keep in mind that clothing was expensive and the average person wore just a single gown (long shirt with a rope at the waist) and wore no other garments.
I had the opportunity to visit Bethlehem just one year later in January 1979. That time there was only about three inches of snow on the ground and once again I entered the Church of the Nativity. (A side note here: Due to earth warming, since the mid-80’s it has only rarely snowed in Bethlehem; however, from the 70’s and before, snow was common at least once in the winter.) When I entered the church the entire interior was torn up. The Bronze “spot” was leaned up against the back wall, no chairs around, and the alter was pushed against the far right wall. Nearly all the original floorboards were torn up revealing dirt and in an area along the left wall a new floor was being placed, and tiles on top of that. Some of the back wall was knocked out revealing other rooms not usually seen by the public.
[At this point I would like to inject another experience that is more telling about modern humans and height. Like I have mentioned, I do not usually do just what tourist do. I get out, get dangerous, and learn more. In Naples Italy most tourists stick to the downtown region or take tourism busses to special sites. I hiked a lot, rode trains or busses and met lots of people. One really telling moment was early afternoon far away from any tourist traps. The street was filled with mostly women going to market. I am 5 feet 5 inches tall and at this time I noticed that I was a full head above a great majority of the people around me. The average height of the Italian women over the age of 40 would have been about 4 foot 10 inches. Just thought I would mention that.]
I returned to Bethlehem a third time just six months later, in June 1979 and the tourist busses were running and getting there was a lot easier. The buses made two stops in Bethlehem. The traditional stop at the Church of the Nativity was used and another stop at the newly commissioned Lutheran Christmas Church. The expanded church was part of an effort by the Palestinian National Authority to increase tourism, and there was a rumor of opening the Monastery to tourists. When I approached the Church of the Nativity, I saw that some stone blocks had been inserted under the arch and it was now at six feet in height making entry by modern humans a bit easier. When I entered the church I saw an all new tiled floor, the bronze plaque “spot” was moved towards a new back wall so it was about fifteen feet from the door and an all new and larger alter was installed on the right. On the left was a small curio shop.
Since it was not winter, I did not have to worry about a cabbie waiting for me to finish being a tourist. Busses were going to be running hourly all day long. So I decided to explore the area. Being the “West Bank,” Americans were being told to stay with the buses, but I always explored on my own. In fact, I found all the people I met were both friendly and spoke perfect English. I ate a meal with one family, but I have no idea what any of it was. In Panama I would eat from the street vendors selling monkey meat, but also noticed there were no stray dogs around. Well, back to the West Bank. I asked this family if there were any traditional buildings around, some that would fit in the area as easily two thousand years ago as they do now. To my amazement, they said in the next valley, leading into the Judean Desert were many traditional homes. So after the meal, that is where we hiked to.
Each traditional home was on a lot about thirty feet wide against the street and about fifty feet deep. Fencing around the lot was made up of anything the owners could gather to make a fence that livestock would not go through. Most of the animals were goats with a couple of chickens and rabbits. Centered against the street was the house at about twelve feet wide and centered on the ground floor of the house was a five foot doorway with a gate. The ground floor was the animal’s shelter along with a feeding trough with edges raised about six inches above the ground. The trough was about 4 feet long. In the traditional Christmas story, this would have been the manger. The walls were mud brick and plaster and about eight inches thick. At six feet above the ground was the underside of the first floor of the house. A ladder of sorts nailed against the wall on the right of the entrance led to a trap door. The man that I walked over with said his cousin lived there, and he knocked. The trap door opened and after a lengthy exchange of greetings, we were invited up. The bottom floor of the home had a five foot ceiling and in the back was another tacked ladder, two boards, leading to another trap door. The man I was with interpreted for me and all my questions. The house had been in the family for a few hundred years and constantly maintained. It was the tenth or twelfth house built on the same spot over many hundreds of years. He said it originally was an Inn. People would knock on the first trap door, be in out of the weather, and lay a blanket down to sleep on. When the floor was full, then no more people could stay. Above this area was the real home which was a one room living space for the family; or, about six people. There lived three adults (parents and one grandparent) and three kids. A bathroom was a bucket which was poured out the rear window with the livestock manure. So, back to the Christmas Story, when there was no room at the inn it meant that the first floor had all the sleeping people it could handle. Also, it would be one of the sleepers who would roll over and answer any knocks on the trap door.
There is only one more thing I would like to say about the Christmas Story. There is a lot more information of accuracy that you can find, but not this: Three wise men came to the birth from the East. The story says they were following a star that guided them to Bethlehem. There is very little accuracy to that part of the story. The three “wise men” were court astrologers, probably from Ur, a remnant of the Sumerian empire. In their training as astrologers they would have been very familiar with the third eye chakra meditation. The third eye, our pineal gland is the seat of the soul. It is shaped like a pinecone and is filled with vitreous humor the same as the eyes. All ancient religions and early christian religions used the pinecone symbol. Even the Pope’s staff today is topped with the pinecone symbol of the pineal gland. Learning to access your third eye vision allows you to see more than the other two eyes. In this case, the Astrologers would have at some time been meditating in the third eye and saw that as they moved their heads, a bright point of light would keep showing up. Knowing that only something very spiritual would be happening, they prepared for the trip and left about a month before the birth. That is where the guiding star was, and still is. Faint though it may be, it still exists in a valley half way between Bethlehem and Bayt Sahur. To learn more about the third eye, YouTube is full of excellent information. The development of the third eye is responsible for Indigo Adults and Crystal Children; in other words, more to look up in YouTube. This is real. Following a star in the sky is not.
If ever you get to Rome, there is one very interesting thing you can do. It is not a tourist thing. In fact, when you ride the tourist bus to any of the oldest churches, go inside and look around, but exit quickly. The churches are indeed old, but most of what is inside are copies of originals so that the originals can be protected in an underground vault. Instead, squeeze through the fences and walk around the outside of the churches. At the very lowest layer of stones that were laid as a base for the church itself, take some pictures. What you will find on those stones, kept out of public view, are images of people who are not quite like we are, images of warriors clearly fighting off what we would call dinosaurs, and many other things that are part of mythology. At least we are taught they are myth. After looking at the base stones of the oldest Christian churches, I have pause to wonder if they are mythology, or a religion purging the world of anyone not like them, and writing out of history such things as wood sprites and elves. If they did not exist except in lore, why take the trouble to engrave hard stone with their defeat fifteen centuries ago and then not allow people to see the engravings? Interestingly, the phrase knock on wood comes from the beginning of human time and referred to knocking on the wood of a tree while talking if you did not want the wood sprites living at that tree to hear what you say. Then you have the church base engravings of the Christian warriors killing the wood sprites, but the expression lived on.
In the old world I have seen several trilithons. A trilithon is a quarried stone of great weight and often placed over piers so that it could be easily 20 feet above the original ground level. They can also be used as a base for a temple. The one I saw in Malta was in a location called Flagar Qin and is the one that is 57 tons and placed 20 feet above the ground to make an entrance to a special place. Supposedly, it was built by giants (local lore) and has been dated to about 5000 B.C. or 7,000 years ago when the strongest metal made by humans was copper. When you see these stones in person it is easier to believe that giants moved the stones rather than a cave dwelling human that woke up one day and said “let’s quarry stones from 50 to 90 tons each and build a place of prayer. It will only take 10 generations to complete.” Modern tests have shown that modern humans do not have the ability to move these stones with cranes, D-9 Cats or anything else.
Another trilithon that I saw was in Lebanon at Baalbek. These three stones are cut with perfect edges, perfectly rectangular, and are over 30,000 tons each. They are the top caps of dozens of stones that are 25 tons each. So the small 25 ton stones were laid, then the three trilithons were placed on top of them to make the outer floor of a temple complex. Although the temple complex was built by the Romans, they did not put the trilithons there. That was a much older work by several thousand years. I will agree with any model of moving them other than Neolithic Humans. But, there was a way then that is nearly lost to us now. Even the Giants that lived then would be too weak for the job.
The Inca of Peru did a lot of stone work and what they used was a plant. The juice of the plant would melt rock. Since the plants were used during monolithic times for building, all the plants were used up from their sources for Europe, Asia and Africa. Some still do exist in the mountains south of the Inca city of Machu Picchu. Explorers of the early 1900’s told stories of finding this odd plant but were laughed at. Local Peruvians told of ancient stories about the plant being used to soften stone to build walls and making perfect seams. The plant stood about one foot above the ground, spread by root only so it grew in patches. The leaves, reddish in appearance, looked similar to maple leaves.
So, I believe in the plant, and I believe the monolithic period was over when humans could no longer find the plant. Just like Easter Island and the natives cut down all the trees to move their statues and then the island could no longer support life; so too, with the loss of the plant then no more monothiths. Hmmm, aren’t we cutting down too many trees too? To read more about strange things and the plant that melts rock, Google “[PDF] Earths Forbidden Secrets Part One-Maxwell Igan.pdf” and you will find the "Welcome to the Crowhouse" entry. Download and use is free. Read to approximately Figure 60, and you will learn all about the plant. Many things in this document I have seen. Many, many more I have not seen. I wonder if I have also seen the plants on my hikes to remote locations.
There are many inconsistencies that I have found on your planet. On one side of the information reality I find that a lie or removing detail allows people to accept a story. On the other side of the reality would be the things I found which, although complicated are actually factual.
This may upset someone, but if you do not believe what I found you are more than welcome to follow each step for yourself. It starts with my first visit to Bethlehem. Going there in January meant it was not the tourist season, so getting there was a bit tough. Bethlehem sits just four miles southwest of Jerusalem, but really in a whole different world. There is an elevation difference and although Jerusalem is in Israel, Bethlehem is in an area called the West Bank. The weather in Jerusalem in January 1978 was sunny and fairly warm; however, just traveling the ten ground miles uphill (four air miles) to Bethlehem changed everything. The night before had covered Bethlehem with 14 inches of snow. Even though it was melting fast, the roads were definitely a mess.
Every tourist going to Bethlehem used to go to only one place, and that would be the Church of the Nativity built in the 4th Century. Going there, I already knew that the church was not built over the “spot” that Jesus was born. That knowledge was lost to normal people. In the 4th Century that space was a small meadow where the local pagans worshiped. To stop the Pagans, the Catholic Church, as it was at that time, built the Church of the Nativity over the meadow. The Pagans just moved four hundred feet due east of Manger Square to the next meadow, which is a Pagan Park now. When I entered the Church of the Nativity through the low arched door, four feet from the entrance there was a bronze plaque on the floor that said in several languages “This is the Spot.” Well, it actually said “This is the birthplace of Jesus and (such.)” To the right of the spot was an alter set up and to the left of the spot against the far wall there were stacked wooden folding chairs. I mentioned the low arched door. At the time the church was built, if you were five feet tall (the top of the arch) you were considered to be extraordinarily tall. The average height of people then was about four foot four for women and around four foot six for men. When you think of Jesus accurately, you must realize that is how tall he really was; about four foot six and he had olive colored skin, just like everyone else in the area. Also you may want to keep in mind that clothing was expensive and the average person wore just a single gown (long shirt with a rope at the waist) and wore no other garments.
I had the opportunity to visit Bethlehem just one year later in January 1979. That time there was only about three inches of snow on the ground and once again I entered the Church of the Nativity. (A side note here: Due to earth warming, since the mid-80’s it has only rarely snowed in Bethlehem; however, from the 70’s and before, snow was common at least once in the winter.) When I entered the church the entire interior was torn up. The Bronze “spot” was leaned up against the back wall, no chairs around, and the alter was pushed against the far right wall. Nearly all the original floorboards were torn up revealing dirt and in an area along the left wall a new floor was being placed, and tiles on top of that. Some of the back wall was knocked out revealing other rooms not usually seen by the public.
[At this point I would like to inject another experience that is more telling about modern humans and height. Like I have mentioned, I do not usually do just what tourist do. I get out, get dangerous, and learn more. In Naples Italy most tourists stick to the downtown region or take tourism busses to special sites. I hiked a lot, rode trains or busses and met lots of people. One really telling moment was early afternoon far away from any tourist traps. The street was filled with mostly women going to market. I am 5 feet 5 inches tall and at this time I noticed that I was a full head above a great majority of the people around me. The average height of the Italian women over the age of 40 would have been about 4 foot 10 inches. Just thought I would mention that.]
I returned to Bethlehem a third time just six months later, in June 1979 and the tourist busses were running and getting there was a lot easier. The buses made two stops in Bethlehem. The traditional stop at the Church of the Nativity was used and another stop at the newly commissioned Lutheran Christmas Church. The expanded church was part of an effort by the Palestinian National Authority to increase tourism, and there was a rumor of opening the Monastery to tourists. When I approached the Church of the Nativity, I saw that some stone blocks had been inserted under the arch and it was now at six feet in height making entry by modern humans a bit easier. When I entered the church I saw an all new tiled floor, the bronze plaque “spot” was moved towards a new back wall so it was about fifteen feet from the door and an all new and larger alter was installed on the right. On the left was a small curio shop.
Since it was not winter, I did not have to worry about a cabbie waiting for me to finish being a tourist. Busses were going to be running hourly all day long. So I decided to explore the area. Being the “West Bank,” Americans were being told to stay with the buses, but I always explored on my own. In fact, I found all the people I met were both friendly and spoke perfect English. I ate a meal with one family, but I have no idea what any of it was. In Panama I would eat from the street vendors selling monkey meat, but also noticed there were no stray dogs around. Well, back to the West Bank. I asked this family if there were any traditional buildings around, some that would fit in the area as easily two thousand years ago as they do now. To my amazement, they said in the next valley, leading into the Judean Desert were many traditional homes. So after the meal, that is where we hiked to.
Each traditional home was on a lot about thirty feet wide against the street and about fifty feet deep. Fencing around the lot was made up of anything the owners could gather to make a fence that livestock would not go through. Most of the animals were goats with a couple of chickens and rabbits. Centered against the street was the house at about twelve feet wide and centered on the ground floor of the house was a five foot doorway with a gate. The ground floor was the animal’s shelter along with a feeding trough with edges raised about six inches above the ground. The trough was about 4 feet long. In the traditional Christmas story, this would have been the manger. The walls were mud brick and plaster and about eight inches thick. At six feet above the ground was the underside of the first floor of the house. A ladder of sorts nailed against the wall on the right of the entrance led to a trap door. The man that I walked over with said his cousin lived there, and he knocked. The trap door opened and after a lengthy exchange of greetings, we were invited up. The bottom floor of the home had a five foot ceiling and in the back was another tacked ladder, two boards, leading to another trap door. The man I was with interpreted for me and all my questions. The house had been in the family for a few hundred years and constantly maintained. It was the tenth or twelfth house built on the same spot over many hundreds of years. He said it originally was an Inn. People would knock on the first trap door, be in out of the weather, and lay a blanket down to sleep on. When the floor was full, then no more people could stay. Above this area was the real home which was a one room living space for the family; or, about six people. There lived three adults (parents and one grandparent) and three kids. A bathroom was a bucket which was poured out the rear window with the livestock manure. So, back to the Christmas Story, when there was no room at the inn it meant that the first floor had all the sleeping people it could handle. Also, it would be one of the sleepers who would roll over and answer any knocks on the trap door.
There is only one more thing I would like to say about the Christmas Story. There is a lot more information of accuracy that you can find, but not this: Three wise men came to the birth from the East. The story says they were following a star that guided them to Bethlehem. There is very little accuracy to that part of the story. The three “wise men” were court astrologers, probably from Ur, a remnant of the Sumerian empire. In their training as astrologers they would have been very familiar with the third eye chakra meditation. The third eye, our pineal gland is the seat of the soul. It is shaped like a pinecone and is filled with vitreous humor the same as the eyes. All ancient religions and early christian religions used the pinecone symbol. Even the Pope’s staff today is topped with the pinecone symbol of the pineal gland. Learning to access your third eye vision allows you to see more than the other two eyes. In this case, the Astrologers would have at some time been meditating in the third eye and saw that as they moved their heads, a bright point of light would keep showing up. Knowing that only something very spiritual would be happening, they prepared for the trip and left about a month before the birth. That is where the guiding star was, and still is. Faint though it may be, it still exists in a valley half way between Bethlehem and Bayt Sahur. To learn more about the third eye, YouTube is full of excellent information. The development of the third eye is responsible for Indigo Adults and Crystal Children; in other words, more to look up in YouTube. This is real. Following a star in the sky is not.
If ever you get to Rome, there is one very interesting thing you can do. It is not a tourist thing. In fact, when you ride the tourist bus to any of the oldest churches, go inside and look around, but exit quickly. The churches are indeed old, but most of what is inside are copies of originals so that the originals can be protected in an underground vault. Instead, squeeze through the fences and walk around the outside of the churches. At the very lowest layer of stones that were laid as a base for the church itself, take some pictures. What you will find on those stones, kept out of public view, are images of people who are not quite like we are, images of warriors clearly fighting off what we would call dinosaurs, and many other things that are part of mythology. At least we are taught they are myth. After looking at the base stones of the oldest Christian churches, I have pause to wonder if they are mythology, or a religion purging the world of anyone not like them, and writing out of history such things as wood sprites and elves. If they did not exist except in lore, why take the trouble to engrave hard stone with their defeat fifteen centuries ago and then not allow people to see the engravings? Interestingly, the phrase knock on wood comes from the beginning of human time and referred to knocking on the wood of a tree while talking if you did not want the wood sprites living at that tree to hear what you say. Then you have the church base engravings of the Christian warriors killing the wood sprites, but the expression lived on.
In the old world I have seen several trilithons. A trilithon is a quarried stone of great weight and often placed over piers so that it could be easily 20 feet above the original ground level. They can also be used as a base for a temple. The one I saw in Malta was in a location called Flagar Qin and is the one that is 57 tons and placed 20 feet above the ground to make an entrance to a special place. Supposedly, it was built by giants (local lore) and has been dated to about 5000 B.C. or 7,000 years ago when the strongest metal made by humans was copper. When you see these stones in person it is easier to believe that giants moved the stones rather than a cave dwelling human that woke up one day and said “let’s quarry stones from 50 to 90 tons each and build a place of prayer. It will only take 10 generations to complete.” Modern tests have shown that modern humans do not have the ability to move these stones with cranes, D-9 Cats or anything else.
Another trilithon that I saw was in Lebanon at Baalbek. These three stones are cut with perfect edges, perfectly rectangular, and are over 30,000 tons each. They are the top caps of dozens of stones that are 25 tons each. So the small 25 ton stones were laid, then the three trilithons were placed on top of them to make the outer floor of a temple complex. Although the temple complex was built by the Romans, they did not put the trilithons there. That was a much older work by several thousand years. I will agree with any model of moving them other than Neolithic Humans. But, there was a way then that is nearly lost to us now. Even the Giants that lived then would be too weak for the job.
The Inca of Peru did a lot of stone work and what they used was a plant. The juice of the plant would melt rock. Since the plants were used during monolithic times for building, all the plants were used up from their sources for Europe, Asia and Africa. Some still do exist in the mountains south of the Inca city of Machu Picchu. Explorers of the early 1900’s told stories of finding this odd plant but were laughed at. Local Peruvians told of ancient stories about the plant being used to soften stone to build walls and making perfect seams. The plant stood about one foot above the ground, spread by root only so it grew in patches. The leaves, reddish in appearance, looked similar to maple leaves.
So, I believe in the plant, and I believe the monolithic period was over when humans could no longer find the plant. Just like Easter Island and the natives cut down all the trees to move their statues and then the island could no longer support life; so too, with the loss of the plant then no more monothiths. Hmmm, aren’t we cutting down too many trees too? To read more about strange things and the plant that melts rock, Google “[PDF] Earths Forbidden Secrets Part One-Maxwell Igan.pdf” and you will find the "Welcome to the Crowhouse" entry. Download and use is free. Read to approximately Figure 60, and you will learn all about the plant. Many things in this document I have seen. Many, many more I have not seen. I wonder if I have also seen the plants on my hikes to remote locations.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Of Airplanes and Triangles
There has been so much published in so many ways about the Bermuda Triangle that I will not go into any of that. Losses of both people and their conveyances throughout the greater Triangle area are well documented. It is not a condition just seen off the East Coast of the U.S., but also the same circumstance exists off the coast of Japan in the Dragon’s Triangle. However, even with so much documentation there are still many who doubt that it is a real force. Personally, I have no doubts at all. Early in the year of 1969 I was in the Marines on a sea cruise with the USS Guadalcanal. This was a small helicopter aircraft carrier on which my squadron HMM-365 with about eight CH-46D aircraft was attached. I guess our purpose was to travel throughout the Caribbean Sea to insure everybody was being nice. Usually the common Marine was not told where we were or where we were going. Sometimes we would pull into a port and be allowed to check out the natives. We would test the local food and beverage just to insure all was OK. It was a tough job but someone had to do it. In fact, I made three trips to the Caribbean this way and did not miss very many ports of call in the island chains, South America, or Central America. I transferred between three squadrons just for the trips. HMM-162, HMM-261 and HMM-365. I had a great advantage in knowing just where we were. I was the primary electronics technician for the squadron and had my own shop on the ship and a special large white unit about 10 feet by 20 feet in floor space and tall enough to stand in. Came with its’ own power generator and air conditioner. If we off-loaded on to some hot and sweaty island for war games, my little hut was very popular. Usually, when at sea, I stayed in my office fixing all the electronic aviation equipment that others would test and pass/fail on the aircraft. Once in a while I would have a problem with a piece of equipment wherein it would work on my bench but not in the helicopter. In a case like that I would put it in the plane myself and check all the systems working together. I was fully checked out on the CH-46D and was one of the rare Avionics Crew Chiefs. Most Crew Chiefs were from the metal shop. I could get in the Helicopter, pump the hydraulics, start the APU, bring all the systems on line and work on anything. On one evening this is exactly what I was doing. The piece of equipment I was working on that evening was an ARN-52(v) TACAN. Tacan stands for Tactical Air Navigation. In civilian aircraft the same type of equipment is called a VOR-TAC Variable Omni Ranging for the VOR. All the tacans could communicate with each other and tell each operator what direction and how far away the other airplane was. I was testing the channels and hit a response. I locked into an aircraft that was 50 miles away to our north and headed right for us. At that time we were off the north side of the island of Saint Thomas slowly headed westward towards San Juan, PR. Since the system was working, I shut everything down and went outside to find out if I could see the airplane headed in. It was late in the day just before sundown and quite warm. Once on the flight deck and all was quiet, I looked to the north and could make out the plane headed for us. It had four props and a fairly good size. The aircraft seemed to be going slow and I wondered how close to stall speed they were; in other words, every aircraft has a minimum speed for flying. If under the minimum speed it would not stay in the air and would then glide like a falling rock. Since I was on the starboard side of the ship looking up, several others stopped to watch whatever it was I was looking at. The plane was close enough now, maybe just a mile away and we could hear the engines. Then the plane vanished! Within a half mile of where I was standing, looking overhead, the airplane vanished and no more sound of the engines. Soon the sun set, it was a bit darker, and on the public address system for the ship called the 1MC, came the order for “All hands on deck” and all the ships spot lights came on. We turned towards the location where the aircraft vanished and nothing was found. Several of us were interviewed concerning what we saw. What I saw was a verified contact (via my TACAN) and a visual of the plane at an altitude of maybe 1000 feet. It was less than a half mile away and just vanished. The incident was hushed up and I heard no more. When on the internet a few years ago I remembered the incident. I tried to discover more about it but the entry was very cryptic. Vanished: 1969, March 8: big Douglas DC-4 in cargo service; after leaving the Azores. Crew: 3. N3821 They left the Azores and flew towards San Juan, PR, and almost made it. I wonder where they went. Trust me; considering the evidence, I do not want to follow them to find out. Vanishing in the Bermuda Triangle is far too real to me. You are just reading about it, and I lived it.
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