Hudson River Radio dot com. This is Travis Walton and you are listening to
UFO Headquarters, Futiful Headquarters, and welcome everybody near and far, whether you're
here in the United States or one of our listeners and the far away countries
in Europe all over the world. Thank you for joining us. I am
Michael Wharton with Linda Zimmerman. This is UFO Headquarters, and we have a
great program tonight. We're gonna be um no pun intended diving into the Wanagu
Reservoir exactly. I really didn't mean to set that up that way, but
but first I wanted to ask um. I was unable to make it this
past weekend, but the Pine Bush UFO Fair I know Linda and Brian were
both there. I was it amazing. It was the biggest turnout I've been
going since twenty twelve, and it was the biggest turnout I've seen, and
so many people it was it was so gratifying. Came up and the first
thing they said was I'm binging your show. I love your podcast, and
so I want to thank everybody, and in particular I said I would give
a shout out to Mackenzie. Hello, Mackenzie, thank you for stopping by
to say how much you enjoy the podcast. Obviously we couldn't do what we
do without listeners, so appreciate the feedback. And Brian, you were running
the sound system. Yeah, yeah, Linda. Linda had her own booth
with her books and stuff, and then some of the other people from Hudson
River Radio we were running. They have a new pavilion there where a couple
of bands performed and speakers, including Linda. We're presenting, so we provided
the sound for them. So gayl from Paranormally Yours was there, Barbara from
Shaving Cream was there, Christine from grew Harmony Alley was there, and then
John and Jessica from from Rock and Roll History Show with me. We're all
there, so we got to do some meet and greets and give away some
goodies and meet a lot of great people and it was a lot of fun.
Yeah, it was. And there are plans for next year already correct.
Uh, yeah, yeah, they're in the works, you know,
nothing set in stone yet. And the people who organized it, especially Joan
and Lance, did a phenomenal job, and I figured we give him a
couple of weeks to recoup before we jump back in with next year's plans.
Yeah, so yeah, it was fabulous, Mike, we need you there
next year. I was gonna ask, did they schedule next year yet,
like when they're going to do it? Not that I know of, Okay,
because I'll minute it comes out, I'll put it in the schedule of
me. I can absolutely. I had a great time a few years ago
when I was there. Y yeah, so yeah, it's probably going to
be early June again. But yeah, so if you weren't there, plan
on it for next year because speakers, there was a speaker conference. There
were just fun in games. There was books to be had and inflatable aliens.
So as I always say, it's as serious as you want it to
be, and it's as if you don't want to be serious at all and
just have fun. And I'll have to tell you there was a Keepsie Cafe
there with Bob said the absolute best Shishka bab on the planet, So give
a shout out to them. So even if you were just there for street
food and a nice walk, it's definitely worth going to. So we have
a topic we've been mentioning on off for I don't know a couple of episodes
the Wantaque Mass Sightings Wanaque Reservoir in New Jersey. And this is really a
no pulling punches. This is a mind blowing series of sightings. And it's
it's so close to us, right, it's so close to the Hudson Valley
right northern New Jersey. I was going to mention that that it's relatively within
that Hudson Valley region, you know, even though it's outside of it,
it's it's not that far. Yeah, as the UFO flies just minutes away.
So we're going back to the nineteen sixties. So Mike, you're going
to start us off correct. Yes, this is July first, nineteen sixty
five, and I'm going to read this account. I was about six or
so years old. Several of my brothers and sisters were with me when mother
brought us food shopping. She had been driving one of those old station wagons
that had the back seat facing out the back window. It was summertime,
I remember, because the back window was wide open. We were on our
way home, and I don't remember which of us were sitting back there,
but as Mom made a right turn, we were facing the Wanaque Reservoir.
All of a sudden, as Mom made that turn, we were staring straight
at a silver disk hovering not more than thirty feet above the water, only
about a fifty feet away from us. I remember all of the kids screaming
at Mom to stop the car. I just remember all of us screaming,
But it wasn't really fear more excitement, I believe. Well. Mom had
to drive up the road a short way so that she could turn the car
around, but by the time we got back there, it was gone.
Mom did see it in the rearview mirror when she heard all the commotion we
were making. The disc was about fifty feet long, shining silver and silent
as it hovered. I nor any of my family reported it. I'm not
really sure why. For some strange reason, maybe because we're all so young.
I'm the second youngest of six. None of us discussed the sighting for
years. I've talked to a couple of my siblings about it when we got
older. We all remember it the same way. I went to the Ringwood
Library to see if they had any information or old news clippings about that event.
As it turns out, many people saw the same thing. UFOs seemed
to make an appearance that entire weekend. People from all over would park their
cars around the reservoir day and night, and many reported night sightings. My
mother, who has since passed, remembered men in dark suits, but she
wasn't sure what they were doing there or how they knew what was going on
that weekend. She was never approached by these men I read a few years
ago. A few years ago, I read a book Above Top Secret by
mister Good, and sure enough he had reports in his book about the Wantaque
Reservoir sightings. Since then, I have spoken to a few old ringwoodites about
whether they had ever had sightings, and to my surprise, many had,
but none had seen a daylight sighting, only the night sightings. Wow,
there's a lot to unpack in that one account. First of all, we
always had a family station wagon. I just love that account. I was
the littlest so I always sat in the back, so I know exactly what
they're talking about. The tailgate window down my knowledge, no kid ever fell
out of the back of the station wagon. But you know you can't have
those now. But yeah, to be fifty feet away from that's very close.
That's a great distance to be at for a witness. Yeah, very
hard. It's hard to mistake what you're seeing at that close range. Yeah.
And you can just picture a carload of you know, six kids and
the poor mother all screaming, uh, seeing this. And how many times
have we talked about that you have this? You know, this group of
people of family have this incredible sighting and they don't talk about it. Yes,
that is extremely common and it's the opposite of what everyone would expect to
happen. But it's very common threat or common theme that we see with these
sightings. Yeah. And then the little hint of the men in dark suits,
which we will be getting it. Let me tell you everyone, this
case has has it all, all the all the aspects that people are drawn
to uphology for. So we have a lot more to get in. This
was the This was the hors d'oeuvre to the to the series of sightings.
So why let me just let me add one thing real Quicklynda Here he talks
about when he finds out that so many other people had been having sightings that
weekend, and talks about how they were parking around the reservoir day and night.
It just that brings me right to the Hudson Value. Yeah, it's
like people just going out looking to see what they can find. Yeah,
it's Pine Bush thirty years before Pine Bush, you know, twenty five years
before everyone was parking in Pine And there's a lot more similarities to come and
you people should take a look at if you're not familiar with this area,
you know, go to Google Maps and look at the Wanaque Reservoir area and
realize how close it is to everything we've been talking about Hudson Valley. Wise,
so let us take our first break and come back for the main course.
Hudson River Radio dot com. Hudson River Radio dot com, a subsidiary
of Glacier Entertainment All LC, blasting the competition in New York's Hudson Valley.
Well, Linda, the appetizer we had was quite quite good, but I
think I'm I'm gonna have to have the main course in foot. Well we
have it all right. It's just remarkable. We're going back to Tuesday,
January eleventh, nineteen sixty six. So the other one was July of sixty
five, and the big night, one of the big nights was just what
is that? Six seven months later, it's six thirty pm, it's cold,
and of course in January, by six thirty it's dark. Police Officer
Joseph Cisco gets a call from the Pompton Lakes dispatcher that there's a glowing light,
possibly a fire. So you know, you're probably concerned that something's burning,
maybe a plane crash, whatever. But then the dispatcher goes on to
say that people in Oakland, Ringwood, Patterson, Totowa, and Butler claim
there's a flying saucer. Okay, and again, if you go to Google
Maps, you can see you see all of these towns. So this was
not somebody saw it on main street or standing next to the reservoir. This
craft or whatever it was, was seen all around the area. So Cisco
pulls over into an open space by the reservoir and he sees a pulsating light
and kind of like the size of a softball at arm's length. So it's
not a tiny little pinprick star. This is a large object. It turns
white, then red words somehow spreads, you know, and nobody had the
internet. Nobody was texting one another. People were actually hearing about it,
calling other people. You know, you had to pick up the phone and
dial it. Actually have human interaction, right, right, But people start
coming to the reservoir. Some of the people that joined Cisco were the mayor
Harry Wolf, Wolf's fourteen year old son, Billy, local councilman Warren Hagstrom,
and Arthur Barton. So one of the things with this sighting is the
quality of the or the caliber of the witnesses. Not that I'm saying you
know that because you're a mayor or a councilman you're a better person, but
you have some credentials and you really don't if you want to ever get elected
again, you probably don't want to talk about this stuff unless it's really made
an impression on you. Yeah, your motivation to lie is very low when
you have like a public title like that, right, you're more likely to
hide the truth than just but bleatly make up. Especially at the time period
the nineteen sixties. It's not like today where it would be more acceptable.
So that would definitely to me enhances their credibility, not because again they are
councilman or mayors, but because they have a lot to lose in those capacities
exactly. So, all right, so we already have police and mayor and
councilman. So they're all standing near the Raymond Dam, which if you look
on a map, the Wantaque Reservoir is quite extensive, and I've been there
a couple of times. There's a dam kind of I think it's near the
middle. So they're looking at they're all looking at this object going from white
to red to green. They are very soon joined by Chief of Police,
Floyd Elson. So we're not just having you know, a no name police
officers. We have the chief of police himself, another police officer, ed
Nestor, And here we go the mother superior of the local convent. And
I defy any of you Catholics out there to contradict the mother superior. Yeah,
my parents attended Catholic school. I've heard the stories. I'm pretty sure
no one was going to be contradicting. Yeah, you would have gotten a
ruler on your knuckles in a heartbeat. So the mother Superior again, so
we've got mayor's chief of police, the mother superior. The mayor described the
object as terribly strange. From his perspective, kind of looked like an oval
from two to nine feet. So hals start pouring into all the police departments,
all over the area, and they said, quote, the radios were
jammed up, so this was not an isolated event. And I you know,
when your radios are jammed up in the sixties, it's not like,
well, let's switch to cell phones so we can communicate. So then another
police officer, George Dykman, said he had never seen anything like it in
his life. Civil Defense Director Bentley Spencer and another member of the Civil Defense
remember back then Cold War there were Civil Defense people with their little white helmets
and their bomb shelters because we were all worried of nuclear war. So we
have the Civil Defense director, another member. They all watched it. People
were gathering at the damn and again words spread and photos were taken. You
know, people say, well, why didn't somebody take a photo? Well,
Dell publishing in there. I'm trying to find this publication. The nineteen
sixty seven UFO reports by Dell published five photos. They didn't say who took
them. You know, you can't exactly corroborate, but witnesses who saw the
photos and saw the event said that's what we've seen. I did find there
is one photo available online. You can look it up. I do have
it in my book. But what was unusual about this craft? Soon came
over the police radio. Somebody started shouting, essentially over the radio, something's
burning a hole in the ice. Something with a bright light on it,
going up and down, burning a hole in the ice. Comments, Well,
it goes back to the theme of water and how often are these objects
associated with bodies of water or even swimming pools. So I've never heard one
actually burning through the ice or cutting through the ice with some type of I
can only speculate what it is. A beam, some sort of beam,
so it had to be hot, and they had apparently the ice at the
time was about two inches thick, so you know, if you've ever tried
to clear ice from your driveway, you know it takes a lot so to
burn. It burned more than one hole. But there was also reports that
the craft had landed in front of the dam. So everybody starts piling up
on the top of the dam. The first ones up there is the civil
defense director and reservoir employee, Fred Steins. They're the first to the climb
to the top of the dam, and they saw the craft and it said
it had like a bolt of light shoot down as if attracted to the water
like a beam emitted from a port hole, so very specific they're not seeing
kind of looked like a little bit of a light coming out of you know,
a beam out of a port hole. And there were more beams of
light that were coming down. So everyone goes to the top of the dam.
Now they're hearing this, and they watched this burning, you know,
just this light burning holes through the ice and that Councilman Hagstrom said, we
got goose bumps all over when we saw the hole that was there. You
know, you're reading these are these are visceral reactions. These people experienced something.
Yeah, when I read that, that that quote, you know again
the credibility, that's not something people make up, you know, that's very
that happened. Yeah, yep, physical trace evidence holes in the ice where
where there previously wasn't. So other Another witness was police officer Cisco's wife,
who I guess they lived nearby. She saw a silver cigar shaped type object.
Um, so we're getting kind of different shapes. But again you see
a disc or an ellipse on edge may look like a cigar shape. So
there could have been multiple craft, could have been one. Um the reservoir
itself had its own police department. That's how big. I mean, that's
kind of unusual, right, Oh yeah, absolutely, yeah. So that's
how big this place was. The reservoir police Lieutenant George Destito said, people
were coming out of the woodwork, filling the streets. Tons of people were
coming through the gates of the reservoir and they had to close the main gate.
So this is a mass size and in nineteen sixty five that area not
really heavily populated, not that populated today, just typical suburbs for those who
don't, you know, not familiar. We're not talking about Manhattan here,
we're talking about New Jersey suburbs. So this if you saw a UFO burning
a hole in the ice for twenty thirty seconds, it would be life altering.
They watched this craft for thirty minutes. That's mine bongling. I mean,
it's just amazing that. Yeah. So when it finally took basically it
was hovering and moving little bits as it was burning. I mean, what
is it looking for something? Did it just need access to the water?
Um? Was it pissed off? I don't know so, But when it
took off, it took off fast, and it was seen by many,
many more people in its path. It paused briefly in a sand pit in
Haskell, New Jersey. I I've come across these sand pits and murder cases,
and you, I guess sand pits were a big thing. I don't
what do you use a sand pit for bodies fighting bodies? I don't know,
because, yeah, you're right, likes to happen, yeah, putting
on. Yeah, nothing good ever happened, I must yeah, yeah,
yeah, something like that. Okay, And you're wondering, Okay, why
the hell would it pause in a sand pit in hash Skel, New Jersey.
Because now we're a couple of weeks after This is January eleventh, a
little couple weeks after Christmas. People are getting rid of their Christmas trees.
And what the volunteer fireman had done was gathered them in this fire pit and
set them on fire. So this object was very interested in what must have
been like a beacon, what's going on down here? So the craft paused
to take a look at these burning Christmas trees, and then it continued on
to the southeast toward Wayne, New Jersey. Um, but wait, there's
more that in itself correct. Is is just an amazing night? Absolutely?
Can I just add something here to anybody who's any listeners who maybe has family,
maybe you experienced this, but maybe you have family. It was your
grandparents, your parents as when they're growing up. All I can think of
is eight millimeter movie cameras were so popular for people to have in their homes,
especially around holidays. They would have I mean I got tons of when
I was a kid. Pother was a kid. It was always like holidays,
Christmas, you know, parties. So please, if you have these
movies, look through them, because there's a good chance exciting point, yeah,
that if for thirty minutes this object is visible, there's a good chance
somebody somebody got somebody's got it on film somewhere. Yeah or O, they're
still photos even anything. So look, if you even if you live down
in that area and you're out yard sailing or flea marketing and you see someone
selling eight millimeter stuff, please buy it. You know, you never know
what you're gonna find, because there's someone probably did get out there with the
camera. Maybe they didn't get out there in time. Maybe they got the
footage wasn't great, Those weren't necessarily Hollywood quality cameras, but imagine someone having
even ten second clip, yeah, to see the movement, to see the
beam shooting down. Yeah. I mean, look at how the Pruder film.
How vital that eight millimeter film was to the Kennedy assassination, to someone
there with the camera recording it. So please, someone may have the life
altering eight millimeter film when it comes to UFOs, the Pruder film of the
Wanaque Reservoir. That's right, you could you could be sitting on a gold
mine possibly. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's a great point. So we
hear by deputize all of the listeners to be junior investigators and get out there
and see what you can find. So we still have a lot of cases
that want a queue to talk about, So why don't we take our second
break, BECO, before we completely forget. We will be right back.
This is Hudson River Radio dot com, your local Rockland County station. This
is Hudson River Radio dot Com, and we're back with this intriguing story from
the wanta Que Reservoir in New Jersey. Linda, I just wanted to mention
at the words you know, we talked, you talked about the fire sort
of being of interest to this craft. The firemen are out there burning,
you know, I've read where fire is a very unique phenomenon to Earth because
you have to have oxygen for the rapid chemical reactions that produce fire. So
if there's no oxygen present another planet, there'd be no fire that we that
we know of. So is this something from a planet where oxygen isn't There
isn't what they necessarily have or breathe and they see fire as what is this?
What magic? I never thought of that. I mean that just kind
of yapped in my head that because scientists have always thought that one of the
indications a planet may have life is if they find fire on a planet,
it'll suggest there's oxygen. That'll suggest that there's enough oxygen for life. But
what if the assumption that life has to have oxygen is just an assumption that's
not correct. Yeah, just a thought, you know, the good that's
what we're here. My mind, My mind going off, I'll keep it
going off. That's that's very intriguing idea. So before we get on to
the next mass sighting at the Wantaque Reservoir, I did come upon that same
date January eleventh, nineteen sixty six, at seven forty five pm, about
two hundred miles away in Myerstown, Pennsylvania. So probably if this first mass
sighting in Wanaque was basically six thirty to seven and then it took off,
could have this been the same craft. I don't know, but a NYECAP
report by John Pagano said that there was again a lot of witnesses, one
of them including a nurse, who described a luminous disc like one saucer inverted
on top of another. It was very very close to the witnesses, hovered
for five minutes, shot off intensely bright. So there were things going on
in the northeast that night. Would be interesting to try to find other accounts
from January eleventh, then yeah, that would be yeah, so you'd think,
wow, that's a once in a lifetime thing. Except about twenty four
hours later, on January twelfth, nineteen sixty six, again about six thirty,
police officer Jack ward Law saw a disc shaped object that looked disc shaped
at certain angles and then at others egg shaped, which is what we were
kind of talking about. Before you're looking up and seeing a craft and if
it's moving tilting, it may appear. You know, I'm not saying this
one was changing its appearance, but depending on the perspective may have changed of
the viewer. Okay. And then there was police sergeant David Cisco, not
related to the original witness Cisco. It spelled differently. I mean, what
are the chances of two Cisco's at the Wannaque reservoir. He said that the
object he saw was silent and quote lighted, then streaked faster than a jet
straight up. Okay, not a lot of aircraft can do that today.
Then there was a former police officer, Charles Theodora. He saw a cylinder
shaped object over the reservoir, and he said it was moving in a rocking
motion. Now that reminds me. I don't know if anybody's going to remember
this, or if I even mentioned it when we were talking about the mysterious
airships, or in nineteen o nine here in people in Newburgh, we're looking
across the river seeing an object that seemed to be rocking back and forth as
it rose up. Um, just that just came to mind. So Theodora
was quoted in the newspapers saying, I didn't even believe in UFOs. I
thought they were a lot of bull, and then I saw it. It
was a breathtaking site, something I'll never forget. So again, one night
of this would have been phenomenal. And then it happened the next night.
Yeah, and again, so many witnesses with something to lose, right,
so their their reliability. It's just amazing. And you know, I love
the thing. I didn't believe in UFOs. I thought it was a lot
of bull. That's a I could I could see that as a cop attitude
today, a former cop in the sixties. And then to saying, you
know that I saw it right, you know, I have to see it
to believe it, and then there it is. That's that's a moment.
Right. So this was January, and of course a lot of people kept
looking and maybe there was the occasional sighting. But we go ahead to October
tenth, nineteen sixty six, so I should look, what's the difference.
January October's about nine ten months the other the other one July to January,
so not not exactly the same time frame. But I'm on my mind is
wandering, so so unfortunately writing about this event, which I'll get to the
details. The local newspaper The Star Ledger wrote that the Wanaque Ringwood area of
Passaic County is to Ufo buffs what Coney Island is too hot dogs. Well,
there's taking the high road guy. That's a great great journalism there,
great journalism. I couldn't believe it, but they did have some excellent information.
So again, if you're looking on googling this, if you look at
Westbrook and Stonetown Roads near Ringwood in Ringwood, Ringwood, New Jersey, near
the reservoir. Around this time, they said every night from sundown to six
am, cars lined the streets. People came from as far as fifty miles
away to watch for UFOs. Does that ring a bell like Pine Bush?
Maybe? Yeah, and just decades earlier. I mean it's amazing. The
similarities are just very You could have changed the dates and this could have been,
you know, the one of the reservoirs, you know, serving New
York City, or one of the other lakes, the Dudson River. I
mean, it's just erie close. They aren't. It was pine Bush decades
before pine Bush. Now there's a mountain overlooking the reservoir. I love the
name of this wind Beam Mountain. And people saw bright light or craft directly
over the peak of wind Beam Mountain, about just about seventy five feet above
it, which of course makes me want to put on my hiking boots and
go to the top. There are hiking trails to go to the top of
Windbeam Mountain. What a great place that would be to stake out looking,
let me know. So then we have another, yet another police officer,
Robert Gordon, saw the object hovering over at TV transmission tower. It moved
away, it moved back, and it kept doing this for seven to eight
minutes. So again rather that's a prolonged sighting. And then this really caught
my attention, he said, the craft it admitted a light, he said,
like a flashbulb going off. It occurred several times. That is classic
Pine Bush. In fact, I had that happened to me and Bob and
Sea Burns. We were part of that flashbulb effect. I don't know what
it is, but here again we had. It happened probably twenty fifteen,
so we're talking fifty years later, same type of effect. His wife was
with them and described the craft as a saucer shaped object about the size of
an automobile, glowing with a white brilliance. So the Gordons, the police
officer and his wife, we're near dead Man's Curve. I don't know exactly
where that is, but i'd be careful if you go looking for it.
Yeah, probably a reason it's called that. And their neighbors saw this object
moving towards the Wanaque Reservoir, where on patrol at the time was Sergeant Ben
Thompson, yet another police officer. I've lost count I don't even know how
many, because so police departments from so many different towns we're out seeing this.
This craft went straight over him at an altitude of only about one hundred
and fifty feet that's extremely low. When it went over him, it stopped
backed up, and not too many aircraft can do that. Let's stop back
up, came back and then started zig zagging quote, making acute angular turns.
So he's out of his patrol car watching this for five minutes. And
this is a new one on me, he said. Quote. It was
the shape of a basketball with the center scooped out and a football thrust through
it. So that's an interesting description, very interesting. I'd like to basketball
with a football stuck in it. I guess this guy like sports. But
that's a very good way, very descriptive. Okay, And this gives me
goosebumps every time I read this. The craft made no noise, but he
said, but it raised the water beneath it as it moved over the reservoir,
and when it moved over the tree tops, it pulled them together.
Can you imagine seeing the top of this huge reservoir lift up? Yeah?
That's what now? You can that can be either extremely low pressure pulling it
up, or is it some sort of gravitational feel or is it something I've
never studied in physics? Right? Yeah, that's I couldn't even begin to
imagine. I can't imagine what he thought. And how do you go back
and tell that to the guys at the station? Yeah, you don't.
You just go back at that point and be like, yeah, I'm just
gonna go. We'll have a cup of coffee and go home undone, because
no one's gonna believe you. No. Wouldn't you love to see this animated
circular craft with a football shape in it, pulling the water up as it
moves over. I love that description. I have never we've covered things where
they like a beam sucks a column of water out, but not pulling the
entire surface of a body of water up beneath it, right, because normally
when we talk about UFOs and water, it's it's like intentional they're taking the
water, right, This seems like it's just incidental to whatever the craft is
doing. So, like you said, is it low pressure? Are they
creating some type of a gravitational force which is pulling it? I mean that's
got to be pretty significant to pull that much water up, as well as
to make trees bend. Yeah, yeah, making the trees come together as
they're being pulled towards whatever force. This was so like once again, people
are stopping their cars all along whop Westbrook Road getting out typical wave of the
eighties, Typical Pine Bush, typical Route eighty four, Taconic Parkway in the
in the eighties, people stopping where you really shouldn't be stopping in your car.
But this is like, you know, a once in a lifetime thing.
So Sergeant Thompson, he's kind of freaking out in the way. He's
afraid there's going to be an accident because these are not safe. It's never
safe to pull it, you know, stop your car in the dark and
get out, but let alone on these roads there, and so he decides
to warn cars. You know, he's just doing this for the cars,
for safety's sake. He flips on the red flashing light on his patrol car.
Well, apparently this craft didn't like that, didn't take that as a
friendly sign. And as soon as he puts on his flashing light, the
craft takes off. They must have had must have had a suspended license and
bible. But obviously shows there's an intelligence there. Right, I'll cause and
here we go again, mind blowing point number. What are we up to?
Fifty eight? He said, it seemed as if it had gone right
into the mountain that's the Ramapo Mountains there. He said, I was dumbfounded.
It was more than a little frightening. And again this has pine Bush
area all over at the mountains that are there, people claim to seecraft going
right into the side of a mountain. So again we should have called this
episode pine Bush before Pine Bush about pine Bush. So once again, all
over the area, police switchboards were jammed, so if you had a legitimate
call, an accident or robbery, you were not getting through. You were
not getting police help anytime soon. So police officer Thompson said that now here
we go, we're getting into we we have other levels to explore here.
Within fifteen to twenty minutes after we sighted this thing, there were at least
six helicopters and I would say twenty thirty forty planes or military jets flying over
the same area where I had said on the radio it had disappeared. So
this police officers talking to dispatch saying, I just saw this craft. It
went that direction, and what a coincidence that the military bloods the area with
aircraft. Someone was listening, right, I mean, if that's a coincidence,
that's a really, really good one. I just think like you said,
I mean, I'm sure that they can. I mean radio waves,
it's easy to monitor if you have the frequencies. Sure they have the capabilities
now. I'm sure they had it back then. Yeah. And so five
days later the Reservoir police chief again another chief of police, John Cassaza,
with a friend Bob Dexter, at ten forty pm they were near the hills
by that dam again saw an ellipse, flatter on the bottom, more round
on the top. It appeared to be three times the size of the moon.
So that's you know, when you figure a full moon three times that
that's pretty big. And it was silent, and it was white. So
getting back to the military and possible other bad players in this case, witnesses
were being intimidated by people in uniforms looking like they were Air Force uniforms or
other military witnesses. They were being told to keep their mouth shut. And
I have a really interesting case at the end here, but this went all
the way up to Pentagon spokesman Colonel George Freeman. People journalists then we're doing
their job. They're saying, what do you guys intimidating witnesses? Why do
you need them to keep silent? And I'm not saying he's telling the truth,
but this is people were claiming they were military impostors, and his statement
kind of corroborated that he acknowledged men dressed in uniforms or bearing credentials from government
agencies have been silencing witnesses to the UFO at wanaque, these men are not
connected to the Air Force in any way. What. Yeah, that's that's
a chilling statement from a Pentagon colonel. If it's true. If it's true,
you know, taken on its face, that really has a lot of
implication. He's at the very least admitting, yes, people with credentials and
uniforms are trying to silence witnesses. So he acknowledged this was absolutely going on,
whether he's lying about whether he knew who did it or not. So
if it wasn't the WIT the Air Force, then who right, So he
may not maybe they weren't air Force. Maybe they were Air Force personnel but
another government agency, So he's not lying technically, Well, they weren't air
Force personnel. Yeah, you know, maybe they could be another branch,
you know, but and why would you want to silence witnesses? Right?
For what purpose you're gonna Yeah, I would love to see one of these
guys go to mother Superior and say you're gonna keep your trap shut. Yeah.
They never saw that guy again, he quit period, got through with
them. But so here are two Knights of Mass sightings January and October sixty
six. Probably I think it's safe to say thousands of witnesses in total,
which is remarkable, many many credible people. Two huge events, burning beams
of light, burning holes in the ice craft, going into the sides of
mountains, military impostors, the only thing we need is men in black.
But wait, I may have a story somebody. Yes, yes, this
is the dessert, the cherry on top of the Wanacue sightings. For my
very first book, I interviewed a UFO witness Leon and you can see all
of his stories, but his you know, he had sightings years later,
but not coincidentally, as we keep finding families have generational sightings. His aunt
and uncle were living in Pompton Lakes, which is town right close to remember,
the original dispatcher was a Pompton Lakes dispatcher to Officer Cisco, So his
aunt and uncle lived in Pompton Lakes. They were witnesses to that craft.
And not only were they witnesses, she photographed it going over her house.
She showed the picture to her neighbors, and you know thought, well,
you know, she wasn't trying to publicize it. She wasn't giving it to
the newspapers. She took the picture showing family and friends. But then something
strange started happening. Right away, A black Lincoln Continental content let me say
that again without running over my own tongue. A black Lincoln Continental kept driving
back and forth in front of their house. Then the occupants of said car,
two men in black suits, black fedoras, and dark sunglasses, got
out of the car and just stood in front of their house staring at the
house. Then they'd get back in their car, drive away, and they'd
come back the next day and do this. This went on for a couple
of weeks. Obviously you're going to get rather nervous. What the hell is
going on? Leon said. Even his uncle, who was a big tough
man, said he was getting the heebie geebs by a clear intimidation. Yeah,
I can see that. So Chet didn't want this in her house anymore,
so she gave the photo to a family member. And what you were
mentioning early on, maybe there are photos or film out there. It's just
possible. Hopefully nobody threw out this photo that maybe in his family somewhere someone
still has that photo. So definitely want to, you know, reiterate,
check your photos, ask your grandparents, anybody who lived in that area.
So we can't have a stunning, amazing case without ridiculous skeptics, of course,
So here we go, try not to bust out laughing. McGuire Air
Force Base suggested it was all all a weather balloon, those pesky weather balloons,
Yes, with deadly plasma weapons to burn holes in ice. Clearly,
the Pentagon said, I can't keep a straight face. It could have been
an alignment of Venus and Jupiter, because Venus and Jupiter often land in the
Wannaque Reservoir, so I could see where people would get. Yeah, it's
easy to mistake a planet for a spaceship patterns all the time. Yeah.
Yeah. Stuart Air Force Base here in the Hudson Valley chimed in and said
it could have been a helicopter with a searchlight. It's a pretty powerful searchlight
to burn a hole in the ice. And funny, everyone said, even
those who were fifty feet away, it was completely silent and shaped like an
egg or a saucer. So they had some unique helicopters apparently. Then,
yeah, silent helicopters, because anybody that's ever been near a helicopter knows how
loud they are. Yes. And last, and certainly not least, professional
skeptic, Philip Class, the bane of our existence, said it was ball
lightning. So ball lightning that lasted thirty minutes and was seen over numerous townships
and came back again in multiple days, yes, which is which is interesting.
Yes, the greatest award winning ball lightning in history. So talk about
Bully it may come on. So you know what, Linda, I'm thinking
it's interesting the Men in Black issue with the intimidation and the time period being
nineteen sixty six. It was the same exact time period that point Pleasant West
Virginia was experiencing the wave of on a identified creatures unidentified flying saucers that John
Kiell eventually investigated. And that's one of the first instances too, where the
Men in Black show up and write about the fact. I think they often
credit him with coming up with that term. If that's true or not,
okay, but I'm just thinking it's Is it a coincidence? You know,
it's a very close time frame, yes, so Men in Black sightings,
a lot of people seeing it, people staking out trying to see it.
Um and then you have you know this with the Men in Black. So
I don't know, Yeah, but does this case have it all? It
really does? I mean it's it checked off every box. Yes, the
UFO Bingo cards, we got it. Oh, I think we have an
idea for next year's there. Yeah. Absolutely credit Mike Warden's ufo bingo,
I have an abduction bingo. Yeah, yeah, this case fascinated me from
the time I was a little kid, and I'm really glad we did an
entire episode on it. I mean, I have lost all track of the
time. I don't know how long we've been going. No, but this
is it's fascinating. Yeah, you have to tell this story, and you
have to tell all the details. And it's unique, not just for the
how much is involved in it, how it includes so much, but it
stands out to me as a retired law enforcement officer, how many law enforcement
witnesses are involved from multiple police agencies. It's not like they're all from one
agency where you can say, well, yeah, they're all kind of in
on it. It's a joke. Yeah, No, they're all from different
agencies seeing these things, being willing to tell their story at a time when
that was something to be ridicule, not something that got you on TV or
got you in the newspaper in a positive way. That's the one paper mentioned,
you know, And just so people understand, you know, police officers
are always observing there. We were always you're always looking when you're driving.
You're not just looking at the roads, You're looking at everything going on around
you because that's what you're paid to do, and you're you have to know
what's normal what's not normal in your patrol area. So that's what makes police
officers exceptionally good witnesses. Same with correction officers. They professional observers. You
sit and observe all day, become very keen at that. Yeah, when
your life depends on being aware of what's going on around you. So to
me, when you know, when you see people that have this background and
a lot to lose, the credibility to me is just so much more enhanced.
It doesn't mean that everybody else is lying, doesn't mean that the their
stories are questionable, but it means that when you see these people, it's
like, Okay, you know what, maybe there is some thing to this.
I can discount all of these people. But how do I discount these
What do they have to gain? Yeah? Yeah, So my last question
is, once these Canadian this Canadian wildfire smokes clears the air, when are
we doing a steakout at the Wannaque Reservoir. I think that's what we're going
to have to do. I mean, yeah, yeah, it sounds like
it would be a good night once the smoke clears, Once the smoke clears.
Yeah, yeah, so that is it. Um, love to hear
people who saw this or family members saw it and scour your photos and everything.
In fact, while you're listening to this podcast, you should have been
starting to dig through the photos the reels. Please, and if you do
come across anything you're not sure if, reach out to us, reach out
to Linda will be more than happy to meet you and look at it.
And you know we have I have a bunch of eight millimeter project there is
and I have a hand crank one. I'm sure you have got them too,
And yes, between the two of us, we can help you see
what's on there. Yeah, I guarantee it definitely and we will be very
eager to do that. Absolutely. So take us away. Well, thank
you everybody for tuning in this evening, this afternoon, this morning, wherever
it may be, where you are. Michael Warren and Linda Zimmerman with UFO
Headquarters. Until next time, keep your eyes on the sky. What Radio
dot com a favorite among shut ins and dogs