Hangar 1: The UFO Files (2014) s02e07 Episode Script
UFOs Over Texas
NARRATOR: January 8, 2008.
Stephenville, Texas.
Three friends are enjoying a crisp, clear winter evening.
The fun will not last for long.
MAN: Steve Allen is a local pilot in Stephenville.
His buddy, Mike, invites him and another friend over and the three of them are hanging around a bonfire just chatting and enjoying the sunset.
( fire crackling ) As a pilot, it's natural for Steve to constantly be scanning the skies.
He's the first person to notice something strange up there.
He immediately points it out to his friends, Mike and Lance.
From the east they see what appears to be a giant object with four lights.
The lights are intensely bright.
Steve compares them to a magnesium flare.
That's how bright they are.
NARRATOR: The lights appear to be moving at an extremely high rate of speed.
Although the object is moving incredibly fast, it makes absolutely no sound.
Suddenly, the lights come to a dead stop over Stephenville.
And this is when some really weird things happen.
The lights change formation several times.
MAN 2: The two columns of light burst into flames.
( explosion roars ) And then, they disappear.
They don't fade in the distance.
They don't streak out of sight.
They simply and completely disappear.
NARRATOR: All three men are amazed and alarmed by what they have just witnessed.
Lance is terrified by what he's just seen.
Without so much as a goodbye, he jumps in his truck and takes off.
( truck engine starts, revs ) Steve and Mike rush into the house to tell Mike's wife, Claudette, what they've witnessed.
Claudette's not sure what to make of the story, so she decides to pick up the phone and call Lance.
When Lance answers the phone, he's driving down the highway.
And he can see the object coming back towards them.
He tells Claudette to run outside.
And this time, the object is closer and lower than the first time they saw it.
It feels up close and personal.
And then, two F-16s fly by, apparently in hot pursuit.
They all watch in amazement as the object and the jets travel out of sight.
NARRATOR: This is just the beginning of what will become one of the most famous UFO flaps in history.
Year after year, these types of sightings consistently appear in the skies over Texas.
What makes the Lone Star State such a lightning rod for these UFO encounters? Hangar 1 looks for answers right now.
The Mutual UFO Network, known as "MUFON," is an independent organization not bound to any government.
They investigate reports of UFO sightings from around the world.
Over the past five decades, they have collected more than 70,000 files.
Stored at a secured location known as "Hangar 1.
" Now, MUFON is granting access to their vast archive.
These are the files of Hangar 1.
NARRATOR: They say everything is bigger in Texas.
The hats, the belt buckles, the cattle.
( lowing ) Even the UFO sightings.
And the Stephenville incident that began with local pilot Steve Allen is no exception.
The day after the sightings, Steve begins a quest to try to figure out what he saw.
He first contacts the local Stephenville airport to see if they have any information.
They reach out to Ft.
Worth, but none of the airports seem to have any answers.
Steve's next step is to reach out to the local newspaper to see if they had anyone else who might've reported the sightings.
A local reporter decides to investigate Steve's story.
And suddenly, witnesses start coming forward.
It turns out, a lot of people in the area witnessed strange lights that night.
NARRATOR: MUFON investigators learn of the sightings.
And launch a full-scale investigation.
The phone of the MUFON Texas State director began ringing off the hook.
Everyone wanted answers.
We set up a team of investigators that began interviewing witnesses.
NARRATOR: Seventeen different witnesses come forward to report sightings.
MAN: What I love about the Stephenville story is multiple eyewitness accounts of the same object, the same scenario, the same descriptions, there's credibility all over it.
These are large, clear sightings that are seen by, you know, police officers and scientists and citizens of all walks of life.
I see these kind of events as displays.
They're displays.
They're like peacocks spreading their feathers.
( explosion ) NARRATOR: Armed with a mountain of eyewitness testimony, MUFON investigators search for hard evidence.
Because multiple witnesses had reported seeing jets chasing after the UFO, investigators reached out to the military to try to get some answers.
MOSS: Stephenville is in the vicinity of three different Air Force bases.
So residents are familiar with how military jets look and sound.
And yet, when the military was initially contacted, they denied having any jets in the area or knowledge of unusual activity.
NARRATOR: Stonewalled by the military, MUFON investigators turn to local radar data.
MUFON investigators were able to collect radar data from the FAA from multiple radar stations in the surrounding area.
And the information they uncovered was astounding.
( beeping ) RAY: Radar data proved there were unidentified objects in the area during the time of the sightings.
But that's not all.
The data also reveals there was a potential target.
NARRATOR: One UFO was headed directly towards restricted airspace.
MOSS: And this isn't just any restricted airspace.
This is the Crawford Ranch, the vacation home of President George W.
Bush.
What was this UFO doing over the area? Was it specifically interested in President Bush? NARRATOR: Radar data from the night of January 8, 2008, also shows an unusually high volume of military aircraft in the area.
Radar data reveals not one, not two, but ten different military jets in the area during the time of the sighting.
When first asked, the military denied having any aircraft in the area, and any knowledge of unusual circumstances.
Now, with indisputable evidence, the military recants their original statement, and claims that they did, in fact, have military aircraft in the area, but were simply running a training operation.
NARRATOR: Were the military aircraft dispatched to protect the President's ranch? Any pilot knows that if you cross over into that restricted airspace, you're either gonna be forced down or shot down.
NICHOLAS: But the object was moving so fast, that it was through the restricted airspace and gone in the blink of an eye.
Was this UFO dangerous? Are all of these military jets launched for defense or was there another reason why this UFO and these jets were in the air around the same time? SPEIGEL: I'm not at all surprised by this encounter.
I know for a fact that jets had been scrambled to try and get them and they could never get close enough to them.
They had free reign over what they did and where they showed up.
As many times as we've scrambled jets, to try and stop them, we've never been able to pin them down.
NARRATOR: The events surrounding the Stephenville sightings remain a mystery.
But as we explore other extraordinary Texas encounters, new pieces of the puzzle emerge.
Up next: UFOs shut down vehicles, leaving motorists terrified and helpless.
They're showing us that they're here.
They want us to know that they're here.
NARRATOR: The remarkable story of the Levelland Landings, when Hangar 1 returns.
NARRATOR: The Lone Star State is no stranger to UFOs.
But why is it such a hotbed of unexplained phenomena? Perhaps, additional clues can be found in another Texas case file.
One where the UFOs prove to be more than just lights in the sky.
Levelland, Texas.
November 2, 1957.
Two immigrant farm workers, Pedro Saucedo and Joe Salaz, call the Levelland police department regarding a UFO sighting.
Officer A.
J.
Fowler is manning the night desk at the police station.
And this is the beginning of what is about to be a very strange night.
EQUITZ: Pedro and Joe are driving four miles west of Levelland when they see a blue flash of light near the road.
Suddenly, their engine dies, and the vehicle rolls to a stop.
At that moment, a strange object approaches them.
( car engine sputtering ) NARRATOR: When the object moves away from the vehicle, the engine restarts.
Saucedo immediately calls the police.
NICHOLAS: Officer Fowler thinks he's dealing with a crank call.
So he ignores it.
But an hour later, he gets another call.
Jim Wheeler is four miles east of Levelland when he reports a brilliantly-lit egg-shaped object sitting in the road, blocking his path.
And like Pedro, he claims his vehicle dies.
As he gets out of the car, the object takes off and at the same time, the object's lights disappear.
( car engine starts ) NARRATOR: Once again, the car restarts after the object is gone.
First, Pedro and Joe.
Then Jim Wheeler, then the calls just start rolling in.
A married couple driving northeast of Levelland.
A motorist 11 miles north of town.
A Texas Tech college student ten miles east of town.
Boom, boom, boom.
The calls keep coming.
All of these motorists have similar stories.
"A strange object in the road.
" Their engines cut out.
When the object flies off, their engines start up again.
NARRATOR: By this time, the Levelland police department is actively investigating the situation.
Officer Fowler alerts on-duty officers to the situation.
The local sheriff and one of his deputies begin monitoring Officer Fowler's reports and tracking the object.
Around 1:30 a.
m.
, they have their own encounter.
A large glowing object passes across the highway in front of them.
The officers claim the entire highway is lit up below the sun-like object.
NICHOLAS: The Levelland police department received a total of 15 calls that night.
And reports would continue to trickle in for the next several days.
HARZAN: The Levelland case is considered by UFOlogists to be one of the most impressive in UFO history.
Mainly because it wasn't just a light in the sky seen by one or two witnesses.
But something that landed, and the object, whatever it was, interacted with the environment.
MATHIESON: This sounds like an EMP to me.
An electromagnetic pulse weapon that shuts down motors.
It doesn't kill the people.
They're showing us that they're here.
They want us to know that they're here.
NARRATOR: The local newspaper runs the story, which is then picked up nationwide.
Project Blue Book then dispatches an Air Force sergeant to investigate.
EQUITZ: The Air Force sergeant heard that there had been thunderstorms in the surrounding area earlier that morning.
He decided to focus on this and announced that a phenomenon called "ball lightning" had occurred.
( lightning sizzles ) So ball lightning is a real phenomenon that exists.
Um, we just don't really understand what it is.
It's one of those interesting atmospheric effects that generally occurs in thunderstorms after lightning strikes.
And it basically is what it sounds like.
It's a glowing ball of light and electrical discharge and energy.
If you've ever seen a plasma ball in the store, that's sort of, I think, a good image of what it is.
NARRATOR: But not everyone is convinced of the Air Force's official findings.
EQUITZ: Dr.
J.
Allen Hynek was an astronomer at Northwestern University, and one of the top scientific consultants to Project Blue Book.
After doing his own investigation, he claimed the sightings could not be attributed to ball lightning.
First of all, ball lightning is not very large.
But in each of the sightings, the object was big enough to block the road.
Second, ball lightning is not known to have the ability to shut off car engines.
Despite what the Air Force sergeant heard, there was no rain or lightning in the vicinity of Levelland at the time of the sightings.
NARRATOR: It appears the military's report does not reflect all the facts.
Despite these omissions, the case is closed.
Up next: the nation takes notice when one of the most famous Texas UFO sightings is caught on film.
When I was a kid, one of the first images of UFOs that I ever saw were the Lubbock Lights.
( camera shutter clicking ) And I thought this was amazing.
NARRATOR: The incredible story when we return.
NARRATOR: Texas is home to some of the most intriguing UFO cases in history.
Do these mass UFO sightings fall within a particular area creating a geographical pattern? One particular case may hold some important clues.
Lubbock, Texas.
August 25, 1951.
Around 9:00 p.
m.
, three professors from Texas Tech University were hanging out in one of the professor's backyards.
There was a chemical engineer, a petroleum engineer and a geologist.
So you have three scientists here.
EQUITZ: The men have actually gotten together to study meteors.
So their eyes are trained on the sky.
Suddenly, they see 20 to 30 bright lights roughly the size of dinner plates, flying in a "U" formation.
The objects are moving fast across the sky.
The men immediately rule out the objects as meteors.
And as they're discussing what the lights might be, another group of lights, similar to the first, flies overhead.
NARRATOR: The professors reach out to the Air Force for answers.
The professors check with Air Force personnel, but there was no traffic in the air that night.
Not sure what to make of this, they shared their story with a local newspaper.
EQUITZ: Once their story's published in the newspaper, multiple witnesses start coming forward with similar stories.
Very bright, very big lights, arranged in a boomerang formation, flying across the sky, and never making a sound.
NARRATOR: Sightings continue from August to November of 1951.
The professors are intrigued.
And decide to investigate further.
GRAY: They formed a watch group and set up a schedule to watch the skies.
Between the original sighting in August, and sometime in November, hundreds of these observers around Lubbock saw as many as three flights in one night.
NARRATOR: Then, on the night of August 30th, new evidence of the Lubbock Lights is captured.
A Texas Tech student by the name of Carl Hart, Jr.
attempts to photograph the lights.
He witnesses two different flights that night.
One at 5:30 p.
m.
, and the other around 10:30 p.
m.
He takes photos both times with his 35mm camera.
( camera shutter clicking ) GRAY: In each of the photos you can see anywhere from 18 to 20 lights arranged in a boomerang formation.
NARRATOR: The local newspaper publishes the photos.
And they begin circulating throughout the country.
When I was a kid, one of the first images of UFOs that I ever saw were the Lubbock Lights.
And I thought this was amazing.
Eventually, the Air Force gets their hands on the photos.
They're actually given to Captain Edward Ruppelt.
Edward J.
Ruppelt was a US Air Force captain.
He's most famous as being the head of Project Blue Book.
The Air Force had had several investigative bodies that investigated UFOs going back to 1947.
The first one being Project Sign, which went up until 1949.
Which was then succeeded by Project Grudge, and then 1952 that became Project Blue Book.
NARRATOR: Captain Ruppelt, now working under Project Grudge, travels to Lubbock to investigate further.
He finds a local man who mentions seeing one night the reflection of the newly installed city streetlights bouncing off the white bellies of a few plover birds flying by.
This gives Ruppelt, and the Air Force, a natural phenomenon to explain away the silence.
And they jump on it.
They issue a statement that the newly installed vapor streetlights were bouncing off the undersides of the birds as they flew overhead.
Case closed.
NARRATOR: In an effort to test this theory, a photographer at the local paper attempts to recreate Hart's photos using plover birds flying over the city at night.
( camera shutter clicks ) His photos are nowhere close to Hart's photos.
The reflection off the birds are way too dim to see anything.
A federal wildlife game warden also rules out the plovers as a cause of the sightings.
He notes that the birds can only fly around 50 miles per hour.
Much slower than the movements of the lights.
Not to mention the fact that you can hear the birds when they fly.
( birds squawking loudly ) NARRATOR: The residents of Lubbock are also not satisfied by the Air Force's findings and demand answers.
When MUFON investigators start digging, they expose shocking revelations.
HARZAN: At MUFON's Midwest UFO Conference in 1971, a presentation was given about the way the government documents UFO cases.
It was discovered that in some instances, Project Grudge created two different reports for the same UFO file.
One secret report and one public report.
And they did this for the Lubbock Lights case.
SPEIGEL: The public report basically said that these lights were nothing more than a flock of birds and that we were seeing reflections off of their bodies reflected off of streetlights below them.
But the secret report was saying other things.
Like we really need to figure out what this thing was.
EQUITZ: The secret report reveals the findings of both the photographer at the paper and the game warden.
And it concludes that the objects in Hart's photographs are definitely not birds.
HARZAN: It's very troubling when you think about it.
The government is flat-out lying to the public about its findings.
Who knows what else they're lying about? NARRATOR: The dots connecting these historic UFO sightings are starting to reveal a pattern.
As MUFON investigators continue to dig deeper into Texas' most unusual UFO cases.
Coming up: Victims of a close encounter with a UFO sue the federal government for damages.
Details of the case when we return.
( music playing ) NARRATOR: Hangar 1 has opened its files to some of Texas' most extraordinary cases.
This next incident may be one of the most shocking yet.
Huffman, Texas.
December 29, 1980.
MOSS: Betty Cash and Vickie Landrum, along with Vickie's seven-year-old grandson Colby are on their way home from dinner.
At about 9:00 p.
m.
, they're in the dense woods of Huffman, Texas, on an isolated two-lane road.
GRAY: They see a light above the trees and initially think it's just an airplane approaching the Houston Intercontinental Airport.
A few minutes later, the same light is now much closer and very bright.
MOSS: This giant, diamond-shaped object is hovering at about treetop level, right in front of them.
It's illuminated in this bright light and flames are flooding out from the bottom of it.
It's giving off significant heat.
Both Cash and Landrum get out of the car to inspect the object.
Colby, however, is terrified.
Landrum quickly has to return to the car to comfort the frantic child.
But Cash remains outside, mesmerized by the bizarre sight.
NARRATOR: The heat coming from the object is intense.
Cash had to use her coat to protect her hand from being burned by the door handle.
( sizzles ) NARRATOR: Suddenly, new aircraft come into view.
MOSS: A group of CH47 Chinook helicopters surround the object in a tight formation.
Cash and Landrum watch as the object and the helicopters fly off into the distance.
It's not just an unidentified flying object, there are some identified flying objects in this same event.
They're right there in the same proximity.
They seem to be escorting it somehow.
I see a blur (sizzles) between what might be completely extraterrestrial, or what might be, perhaps, human and extraterrestrial happening there.
NARRATOR: Unfortunately for the witnesses, the incident doesn't end there.
HARZAN: All three of them suffer from nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, generalized weakness, and a burning sensation in their eyes.
Landrum continues to have intermittent outbreaks throughout her life.
Cash, however, who spent the most amount of time outside the car, her symptoms actually get worse.
MOSS: Cash winds up being hospitalized for several weeks.
She can't walk.
She loses large patches of skin.
She loses her hair.
These large, painful blisters form on her skin.
And her eyes swell shut.
NARRATOR: Landrum and Cash reach out to several UFO organizations, including MUFON, for help.
MUFON submits the witnesses' medical records to a radiologist, who, after examining them, believes there's strong evidence that the patients have suffered secondary damage to ionizing radiation.
And there was possibly an infrared or ultraviolet component as well.
Something like a UFO that's traveled here, presumably, it has a very powerful, strong energy source.
It's probably using something similar to our nuclear reactors, maybe of a different design.
And it could be leaking radiation in a way that would expose people to it and then have severe effects on them.
Suddenly, you're experiencing rapid cell damage, through hair falling out or even something as extreme as cancer.
( deep exhale ) NARRATOR: A few months later, Vickie Landrum and her grandson have a chance encounter with another possible witness.
Landrum and her grandson see a CH47 flying into Dayton.
MOSS: They wind up being able to approach the helicopter and talk with the pilot.
And the pilot makes an interesting comment.
He claims that he was in the area once before in order to check on a UFO that was in trouble near Huffman.
Landrum says she's really glad to run into him, because she had been one of the people burned by that UFO.
When the pilot hears this, he clams up.
He kicks them out of the helicopter and refuses to say another word to them.
NARRATOR: Betty Cash and Vickie Landrum decide it's time to take their case directly to the US government.
HARZAN: The Chinook helicopter suggests at least one branch of the military may somehow be connected to this UFO.
And yet, when the Department of the Army Inspector General interviews Cash and Landrum, he says there's no evidence that the helicopters belonged to the US Armed Forces.
NARRATOR: Eventually, Cash and Landrum hire a lawyer and file a complaint against the US government for $20 million.
There was a lot of effort by investigators to find out where the helicopters came from.
But no bases anywhere near the Houston area claimed to have helicopters in the air that night.
The only base that even acknowledged having a large patrol of helicopters was Gray Army Airfield, located at Fort Hood.
NARRATOR: The lawsuit of Cash and Landrum vs.
the US government proves unsuccessful.
In 1986, the case was dismissed by a US District Court judge, who claimed that there was not enough evidence to prove that the helicopters were associated with the US government.
And military officials had testified that US Armed Forces did not have a large diamond-shaped aircraft in their possession.
NARRATOR: The case was closed, but questions remain.
Could the helicopters have been part of a classified military operation to retrieve UFOs? Perhaps the answers to this mystery can be found at Fort Hood, Texas.
Coming up: Inside the military's elite UFO helicopter unit.
And a look at the extraordinary history of UFOs and Fort Hood when we return.
( music playing ) NARRATOR: Hangar 1 has opened the Lone Star State's most unusual case files.
Searching for clues for what may be attracting UFOs to Texas.
When helicopters are seen escorting a UFO, questions regarding the military's connection emerge.
Does the answer lie within America's largest armored post, Fort Hood, Texas? NARRATOR: The summer of 1975.
A pilot stationed at Fort Hood with an RS2 intelligence aviation unit, is driving on a highway close to a base, with a friend, around 10:00 at night.
EQUITZ: Despite the weather, he can see in the sky above Fort Hood a number of Army helicopters.
They appear to be heading back to the base, but they're not alone.
They're surrounding another object as though they're escorting it.
But it's an aircraft unlike anything he's ever seen.
Now this guy's a helicopter pilot himself, so he's very familiar with what helicopters look like at night.
And he's certain that this large object, a disc-type thing, with a reddish light, is not another helicopter.
The next day when he gets back to the base, he asks his friend who works in the air traffic control tower if he knows anything about what happened.
The friend claims nobody at the tower knows anything.
So he starts asking around among his other pilot buddies.
None of them seem to know anything either.
Now this seems really strange to him.
Usually, if anything happens on the base, it makes its way through the grapevine pretty quickly.
But for some reason, in this case, nobody seems to know anything.
Finally, after asking around for a bit, one of his pilot buddies tells him he'd better stop asking questions if he cares at all about his job.
NARRATOR: Were the helicopters witnessed by Cash and Landrum and the Fort Hood pilot part of a top secret UFO project, operating out of Fort Hood, Texas? Numerous witnesses have reported seeing helicopters escorting UFOs in and around Fort Hood.
Why would this keep happening over and over in this area? At some point you have to ask, "Is the military working in partnership with extraterrestrials?" RAY: A news reporter that has filmed a segment at Fort Hood learned that there was a special helicopter unit involved with UFOs called the "Blue Boys.
" The Blue Boys supposedly operate out of the section of Fort Hood called Gray Army Airfield.
This helicopter unit may be responsible for escorting and transporting UFOs.
They may even be storing them on the base.
EQUITZ: Gray Army Airfield was a top secret facility that was built with numerous underground tunnels, originally designed to store atomic weapons.
These tunnels could be a perfect location for the military to store recovered UFOs.
We have testimony from an individual who worked in an underground bunker at Fort Hood.
He actually stated that "the technology that is being applied in this underground complex would remind someone of a science fiction thriller.
It is unbelievable what they know and can do from this area.
" The question is: is this technology our own or is it extra-terrestrial? I believe that the military had interaction with these beings, as we have heard in the stories.
That might not be the whole picture.
There might be another layer to that onion.
NARRATOR: Does the US military have a secret UFO research facility at Fort Hood? And could it be tied to a history of reoccurring UFO sightings in Texas? Coming up: More than 100 servicemen reported seeing strange, illuminated flying objects in different shapes and configurations buzzing around the area.
NARRATOR: Deep in the heart of Texas one of the most extraordinary UFO flaps on file takes place directly over Fort Hood.
When we return.
Spring, 1949.
The skies over Camp Hood, now known as Fort Hood, are filled with unusual objects.
Fort Hood may have been one of the first times when UFOs have been seen around and above military complexes.
NICHOLAS: In 1949, over the course of four months, March through June, the heavily guarded facility of Camp Hood experiences a record number of UFO sightings.
More than 100 servicemen reported seeing strange, illuminated flying objects in different shapes and configurations buzzing around the area.
In 1949, Camp Hood was one of three national stockpile sites where nuclear weapons were stored.
Security over this whole area was paramount.
The situation was so serious that a very high-level conference was held at Camp Hood to discuss this whole situation.
They brought in the Fourth Army, the Air Force Office of Special Investigation: AFOSI, Office of Naval Intelligence, and the FBI to study what was going on.
NARRATOR: Despite the urgency of the situation, government officials cannot agree on a course of action.
Eventually, the base commander decides to take matters into his own hands.
NICHOLAS: After two weeks of nightly sightings, the commander of Fort Hood devises a plan of action by establishing special UFO patrols.
Each patrol is assigned to specific areas of the base, and each team has four men: an instrument man, a timer, a recorder and a radio operator.
The idea was that when a team would spot a UFO, they would track the exact elevation, the azimuth, of the object.
The radio operator would call out the location of the object and the direction it's going to other teams, which would then know where to look.
EQUITZ: Azimuth is the angle of an object in relation to north.
You combine that with the object's elevation, and you can pinpoint its exact location in the sky.
This kind of data is critical when trying to prove the existence of UFOs.
NICHOLAS: The plan seems foolproof.
And it has the support of every man who's participating.
For the first time in history, everybody wants to get on the patrols.
But since the Air Force has prime responsibility for UFO investigations, the plan has to be coordinated through them.
A copy of the order is rushed to the Air Force, with everyone standing by for the minute they say "Go.
" And they don't.
EQUITZ: These patrols would've provided an excellent opportunity to get some concrete data on at least one type of UFO.
It's something that should have been done from the start.
Speeds, altitudes and sizes that are estimated just by looking at a UFO are miserably inaccurate.
But this plan could have provided us with some real information.
Indisputable evidence.
NARRATOR: So why doesn't the Air Force approve the plan? Some people believe that this is because, realistically, the Air Force did not want lower-level operations confirming the reality of UFOs.
MATHIESON: IRRATOR: Despite ther Force's unwillingness to approve official UFO patrols at Fort Hood, Texas, sighting reports continue to flood in.
NICHOLAS: Because so many sightings are taking place, a standardized form is created.
On one night alone, 50 sightings are reported.
Finally, after four months, the sightings stop.
The Air Force collects all of the reports on sightings, but ultimately sweeps them under the rug, waiting for them to be forgotten.
NARRATOR: Could this event in Texas have been one of the United States' most defining UFO moments? We had mass UFO sightings for an extended period of time over Camp Hood and a base commander willing to authorize a serious investigation.
This could've been the turning point for UFO investigations in America.
If the investigation had been approved, we could have collected indisputable evidence allowing for public awareness that these entities exist.
NARRATOR: Although this event did not lead to national public awareness, it still may have played a significant role in our UFO history.
And be a clue to why UFOs are drawn to Texas.
The sightings at Camp Hood are a major UFO event, and it may be that this event triggered the government's desire to have a secret UFO facility at this location.
EQUITZ: It's possible that the UFOs were originally attracted to Camp Hood because of the nuclear weapons stored there.
What's interesting is that those same underground storage facilities that housed nuclear weapons could now be housing a secret military UFO operation.
NARRATOR: Fort Hood is located directly in the middle of the UFO corridor.
Is Fort Hood the missing link to Texas' unexplained UFO activity? The state of Texas has Texas-sized UFO cases.
Perhaps as UFO groups like MUFON continue to investigate, one day we'll understand what is attracting these UFOs.
NARRATOR: For now, the truth behind the strange objects that light up the Texas skies remains elusive.
But keep your eyes peeled when traveling through the Lone Star State because you may become a witness
Stephenville, Texas.
Three friends are enjoying a crisp, clear winter evening.
The fun will not last for long.
MAN: Steve Allen is a local pilot in Stephenville.
His buddy, Mike, invites him and another friend over and the three of them are hanging around a bonfire just chatting and enjoying the sunset.
( fire crackling ) As a pilot, it's natural for Steve to constantly be scanning the skies.
He's the first person to notice something strange up there.
He immediately points it out to his friends, Mike and Lance.
From the east they see what appears to be a giant object with four lights.
The lights are intensely bright.
Steve compares them to a magnesium flare.
That's how bright they are.
NARRATOR: The lights appear to be moving at an extremely high rate of speed.
Although the object is moving incredibly fast, it makes absolutely no sound.
Suddenly, the lights come to a dead stop over Stephenville.
And this is when some really weird things happen.
The lights change formation several times.
MAN 2: The two columns of light burst into flames.
( explosion roars ) And then, they disappear.
They don't fade in the distance.
They don't streak out of sight.
They simply and completely disappear.
NARRATOR: All three men are amazed and alarmed by what they have just witnessed.
Lance is terrified by what he's just seen.
Without so much as a goodbye, he jumps in his truck and takes off.
( truck engine starts, revs ) Steve and Mike rush into the house to tell Mike's wife, Claudette, what they've witnessed.
Claudette's not sure what to make of the story, so she decides to pick up the phone and call Lance.
When Lance answers the phone, he's driving down the highway.
And he can see the object coming back towards them.
He tells Claudette to run outside.
And this time, the object is closer and lower than the first time they saw it.
It feels up close and personal.
And then, two F-16s fly by, apparently in hot pursuit.
They all watch in amazement as the object and the jets travel out of sight.
NARRATOR: This is just the beginning of what will become one of the most famous UFO flaps in history.
Year after year, these types of sightings consistently appear in the skies over Texas.
What makes the Lone Star State such a lightning rod for these UFO encounters? Hangar 1 looks for answers right now.
The Mutual UFO Network, known as "MUFON," is an independent organization not bound to any government.
They investigate reports of UFO sightings from around the world.
Over the past five decades, they have collected more than 70,000 files.
Stored at a secured location known as "Hangar 1.
" Now, MUFON is granting access to their vast archive.
These are the files of Hangar 1.
NARRATOR: They say everything is bigger in Texas.
The hats, the belt buckles, the cattle.
( lowing ) Even the UFO sightings.
And the Stephenville incident that began with local pilot Steve Allen is no exception.
The day after the sightings, Steve begins a quest to try to figure out what he saw.
He first contacts the local Stephenville airport to see if they have any information.
They reach out to Ft.
Worth, but none of the airports seem to have any answers.
Steve's next step is to reach out to the local newspaper to see if they had anyone else who might've reported the sightings.
A local reporter decides to investigate Steve's story.
And suddenly, witnesses start coming forward.
It turns out, a lot of people in the area witnessed strange lights that night.
NARRATOR: MUFON investigators learn of the sightings.
And launch a full-scale investigation.
The phone of the MUFON Texas State director began ringing off the hook.
Everyone wanted answers.
We set up a team of investigators that began interviewing witnesses.
NARRATOR: Seventeen different witnesses come forward to report sightings.
MAN: What I love about the Stephenville story is multiple eyewitness accounts of the same object, the same scenario, the same descriptions, there's credibility all over it.
These are large, clear sightings that are seen by, you know, police officers and scientists and citizens of all walks of life.
I see these kind of events as displays.
They're displays.
They're like peacocks spreading their feathers.
( explosion ) NARRATOR: Armed with a mountain of eyewitness testimony, MUFON investigators search for hard evidence.
Because multiple witnesses had reported seeing jets chasing after the UFO, investigators reached out to the military to try to get some answers.
MOSS: Stephenville is in the vicinity of three different Air Force bases.
So residents are familiar with how military jets look and sound.
And yet, when the military was initially contacted, they denied having any jets in the area or knowledge of unusual activity.
NARRATOR: Stonewalled by the military, MUFON investigators turn to local radar data.
MUFON investigators were able to collect radar data from the FAA from multiple radar stations in the surrounding area.
And the information they uncovered was astounding.
( beeping ) RAY: Radar data proved there were unidentified objects in the area during the time of the sightings.
But that's not all.
The data also reveals there was a potential target.
NARRATOR: One UFO was headed directly towards restricted airspace.
MOSS: And this isn't just any restricted airspace.
This is the Crawford Ranch, the vacation home of President George W.
Bush.
What was this UFO doing over the area? Was it specifically interested in President Bush? NARRATOR: Radar data from the night of January 8, 2008, also shows an unusually high volume of military aircraft in the area.
Radar data reveals not one, not two, but ten different military jets in the area during the time of the sighting.
When first asked, the military denied having any aircraft in the area, and any knowledge of unusual circumstances.
Now, with indisputable evidence, the military recants their original statement, and claims that they did, in fact, have military aircraft in the area, but were simply running a training operation.
NARRATOR: Were the military aircraft dispatched to protect the President's ranch? Any pilot knows that if you cross over into that restricted airspace, you're either gonna be forced down or shot down.
NICHOLAS: But the object was moving so fast, that it was through the restricted airspace and gone in the blink of an eye.
Was this UFO dangerous? Are all of these military jets launched for defense or was there another reason why this UFO and these jets were in the air around the same time? SPEIGEL: I'm not at all surprised by this encounter.
I know for a fact that jets had been scrambled to try and get them and they could never get close enough to them.
They had free reign over what they did and where they showed up.
As many times as we've scrambled jets, to try and stop them, we've never been able to pin them down.
NARRATOR: The events surrounding the Stephenville sightings remain a mystery.
But as we explore other extraordinary Texas encounters, new pieces of the puzzle emerge.
Up next: UFOs shut down vehicles, leaving motorists terrified and helpless.
They're showing us that they're here.
They want us to know that they're here.
NARRATOR: The remarkable story of the Levelland Landings, when Hangar 1 returns.
NARRATOR: The Lone Star State is no stranger to UFOs.
But why is it such a hotbed of unexplained phenomena? Perhaps, additional clues can be found in another Texas case file.
One where the UFOs prove to be more than just lights in the sky.
Levelland, Texas.
November 2, 1957.
Two immigrant farm workers, Pedro Saucedo and Joe Salaz, call the Levelland police department regarding a UFO sighting.
Officer A.
J.
Fowler is manning the night desk at the police station.
And this is the beginning of what is about to be a very strange night.
EQUITZ: Pedro and Joe are driving four miles west of Levelland when they see a blue flash of light near the road.
Suddenly, their engine dies, and the vehicle rolls to a stop.
At that moment, a strange object approaches them.
( car engine sputtering ) NARRATOR: When the object moves away from the vehicle, the engine restarts.
Saucedo immediately calls the police.
NICHOLAS: Officer Fowler thinks he's dealing with a crank call.
So he ignores it.
But an hour later, he gets another call.
Jim Wheeler is four miles east of Levelland when he reports a brilliantly-lit egg-shaped object sitting in the road, blocking his path.
And like Pedro, he claims his vehicle dies.
As he gets out of the car, the object takes off and at the same time, the object's lights disappear.
( car engine starts ) NARRATOR: Once again, the car restarts after the object is gone.
First, Pedro and Joe.
Then Jim Wheeler, then the calls just start rolling in.
A married couple driving northeast of Levelland.
A motorist 11 miles north of town.
A Texas Tech college student ten miles east of town.
Boom, boom, boom.
The calls keep coming.
All of these motorists have similar stories.
"A strange object in the road.
" Their engines cut out.
When the object flies off, their engines start up again.
NARRATOR: By this time, the Levelland police department is actively investigating the situation.
Officer Fowler alerts on-duty officers to the situation.
The local sheriff and one of his deputies begin monitoring Officer Fowler's reports and tracking the object.
Around 1:30 a.
m.
, they have their own encounter.
A large glowing object passes across the highway in front of them.
The officers claim the entire highway is lit up below the sun-like object.
NICHOLAS: The Levelland police department received a total of 15 calls that night.
And reports would continue to trickle in for the next several days.
HARZAN: The Levelland case is considered by UFOlogists to be one of the most impressive in UFO history.
Mainly because it wasn't just a light in the sky seen by one or two witnesses.
But something that landed, and the object, whatever it was, interacted with the environment.
MATHIESON: This sounds like an EMP to me.
An electromagnetic pulse weapon that shuts down motors.
It doesn't kill the people.
They're showing us that they're here.
They want us to know that they're here.
NARRATOR: The local newspaper runs the story, which is then picked up nationwide.
Project Blue Book then dispatches an Air Force sergeant to investigate.
EQUITZ: The Air Force sergeant heard that there had been thunderstorms in the surrounding area earlier that morning.
He decided to focus on this and announced that a phenomenon called "ball lightning" had occurred.
( lightning sizzles ) So ball lightning is a real phenomenon that exists.
Um, we just don't really understand what it is.
It's one of those interesting atmospheric effects that generally occurs in thunderstorms after lightning strikes.
And it basically is what it sounds like.
It's a glowing ball of light and electrical discharge and energy.
If you've ever seen a plasma ball in the store, that's sort of, I think, a good image of what it is.
NARRATOR: But not everyone is convinced of the Air Force's official findings.
EQUITZ: Dr.
J.
Allen Hynek was an astronomer at Northwestern University, and one of the top scientific consultants to Project Blue Book.
After doing his own investigation, he claimed the sightings could not be attributed to ball lightning.
First of all, ball lightning is not very large.
But in each of the sightings, the object was big enough to block the road.
Second, ball lightning is not known to have the ability to shut off car engines.
Despite what the Air Force sergeant heard, there was no rain or lightning in the vicinity of Levelland at the time of the sightings.
NARRATOR: It appears the military's report does not reflect all the facts.
Despite these omissions, the case is closed.
Up next: the nation takes notice when one of the most famous Texas UFO sightings is caught on film.
When I was a kid, one of the first images of UFOs that I ever saw were the Lubbock Lights.
( camera shutter clicking ) And I thought this was amazing.
NARRATOR: The incredible story when we return.
NARRATOR: Texas is home to some of the most intriguing UFO cases in history.
Do these mass UFO sightings fall within a particular area creating a geographical pattern? One particular case may hold some important clues.
Lubbock, Texas.
August 25, 1951.
Around 9:00 p.
m.
, three professors from Texas Tech University were hanging out in one of the professor's backyards.
There was a chemical engineer, a petroleum engineer and a geologist.
So you have three scientists here.
EQUITZ: The men have actually gotten together to study meteors.
So their eyes are trained on the sky.
Suddenly, they see 20 to 30 bright lights roughly the size of dinner plates, flying in a "U" formation.
The objects are moving fast across the sky.
The men immediately rule out the objects as meteors.
And as they're discussing what the lights might be, another group of lights, similar to the first, flies overhead.
NARRATOR: The professors reach out to the Air Force for answers.
The professors check with Air Force personnel, but there was no traffic in the air that night.
Not sure what to make of this, they shared their story with a local newspaper.
EQUITZ: Once their story's published in the newspaper, multiple witnesses start coming forward with similar stories.
Very bright, very big lights, arranged in a boomerang formation, flying across the sky, and never making a sound.
NARRATOR: Sightings continue from August to November of 1951.
The professors are intrigued.
And decide to investigate further.
GRAY: They formed a watch group and set up a schedule to watch the skies.
Between the original sighting in August, and sometime in November, hundreds of these observers around Lubbock saw as many as three flights in one night.
NARRATOR: Then, on the night of August 30th, new evidence of the Lubbock Lights is captured.
A Texas Tech student by the name of Carl Hart, Jr.
attempts to photograph the lights.
He witnesses two different flights that night.
One at 5:30 p.
m.
, and the other around 10:30 p.
m.
He takes photos both times with his 35mm camera.
( camera shutter clicking ) GRAY: In each of the photos you can see anywhere from 18 to 20 lights arranged in a boomerang formation.
NARRATOR: The local newspaper publishes the photos.
And they begin circulating throughout the country.
When I was a kid, one of the first images of UFOs that I ever saw were the Lubbock Lights.
And I thought this was amazing.
Eventually, the Air Force gets their hands on the photos.
They're actually given to Captain Edward Ruppelt.
Edward J.
Ruppelt was a US Air Force captain.
He's most famous as being the head of Project Blue Book.
The Air Force had had several investigative bodies that investigated UFOs going back to 1947.
The first one being Project Sign, which went up until 1949.
Which was then succeeded by Project Grudge, and then 1952 that became Project Blue Book.
NARRATOR: Captain Ruppelt, now working under Project Grudge, travels to Lubbock to investigate further.
He finds a local man who mentions seeing one night the reflection of the newly installed city streetlights bouncing off the white bellies of a few plover birds flying by.
This gives Ruppelt, and the Air Force, a natural phenomenon to explain away the silence.
And they jump on it.
They issue a statement that the newly installed vapor streetlights were bouncing off the undersides of the birds as they flew overhead.
Case closed.
NARRATOR: In an effort to test this theory, a photographer at the local paper attempts to recreate Hart's photos using plover birds flying over the city at night.
( camera shutter clicks ) His photos are nowhere close to Hart's photos.
The reflection off the birds are way too dim to see anything.
A federal wildlife game warden also rules out the plovers as a cause of the sightings.
He notes that the birds can only fly around 50 miles per hour.
Much slower than the movements of the lights.
Not to mention the fact that you can hear the birds when they fly.
( birds squawking loudly ) NARRATOR: The residents of Lubbock are also not satisfied by the Air Force's findings and demand answers.
When MUFON investigators start digging, they expose shocking revelations.
HARZAN: At MUFON's Midwest UFO Conference in 1971, a presentation was given about the way the government documents UFO cases.
It was discovered that in some instances, Project Grudge created two different reports for the same UFO file.
One secret report and one public report.
And they did this for the Lubbock Lights case.
SPEIGEL: The public report basically said that these lights were nothing more than a flock of birds and that we were seeing reflections off of their bodies reflected off of streetlights below them.
But the secret report was saying other things.
Like we really need to figure out what this thing was.
EQUITZ: The secret report reveals the findings of both the photographer at the paper and the game warden.
And it concludes that the objects in Hart's photographs are definitely not birds.
HARZAN: It's very troubling when you think about it.
The government is flat-out lying to the public about its findings.
Who knows what else they're lying about? NARRATOR: The dots connecting these historic UFO sightings are starting to reveal a pattern.
As MUFON investigators continue to dig deeper into Texas' most unusual UFO cases.
Coming up: Victims of a close encounter with a UFO sue the federal government for damages.
Details of the case when we return.
( music playing ) NARRATOR: Hangar 1 has opened its files to some of Texas' most extraordinary cases.
This next incident may be one of the most shocking yet.
Huffman, Texas.
December 29, 1980.
MOSS: Betty Cash and Vickie Landrum, along with Vickie's seven-year-old grandson Colby are on their way home from dinner.
At about 9:00 p.
m.
, they're in the dense woods of Huffman, Texas, on an isolated two-lane road.
GRAY: They see a light above the trees and initially think it's just an airplane approaching the Houston Intercontinental Airport.
A few minutes later, the same light is now much closer and very bright.
MOSS: This giant, diamond-shaped object is hovering at about treetop level, right in front of them.
It's illuminated in this bright light and flames are flooding out from the bottom of it.
It's giving off significant heat.
Both Cash and Landrum get out of the car to inspect the object.
Colby, however, is terrified.
Landrum quickly has to return to the car to comfort the frantic child.
But Cash remains outside, mesmerized by the bizarre sight.
NARRATOR: The heat coming from the object is intense.
Cash had to use her coat to protect her hand from being burned by the door handle.
( sizzles ) NARRATOR: Suddenly, new aircraft come into view.
MOSS: A group of CH47 Chinook helicopters surround the object in a tight formation.
Cash and Landrum watch as the object and the helicopters fly off into the distance.
It's not just an unidentified flying object, there are some identified flying objects in this same event.
They're right there in the same proximity.
They seem to be escorting it somehow.
I see a blur (sizzles) between what might be completely extraterrestrial, or what might be, perhaps, human and extraterrestrial happening there.
NARRATOR: Unfortunately for the witnesses, the incident doesn't end there.
HARZAN: All three of them suffer from nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, generalized weakness, and a burning sensation in their eyes.
Landrum continues to have intermittent outbreaks throughout her life.
Cash, however, who spent the most amount of time outside the car, her symptoms actually get worse.
MOSS: Cash winds up being hospitalized for several weeks.
She can't walk.
She loses large patches of skin.
She loses her hair.
These large, painful blisters form on her skin.
And her eyes swell shut.
NARRATOR: Landrum and Cash reach out to several UFO organizations, including MUFON, for help.
MUFON submits the witnesses' medical records to a radiologist, who, after examining them, believes there's strong evidence that the patients have suffered secondary damage to ionizing radiation.
And there was possibly an infrared or ultraviolet component as well.
Something like a UFO that's traveled here, presumably, it has a very powerful, strong energy source.
It's probably using something similar to our nuclear reactors, maybe of a different design.
And it could be leaking radiation in a way that would expose people to it and then have severe effects on them.
Suddenly, you're experiencing rapid cell damage, through hair falling out or even something as extreme as cancer.
( deep exhale ) NARRATOR: A few months later, Vickie Landrum and her grandson have a chance encounter with another possible witness.
Landrum and her grandson see a CH47 flying into Dayton.
MOSS: They wind up being able to approach the helicopter and talk with the pilot.
And the pilot makes an interesting comment.
He claims that he was in the area once before in order to check on a UFO that was in trouble near Huffman.
Landrum says she's really glad to run into him, because she had been one of the people burned by that UFO.
When the pilot hears this, he clams up.
He kicks them out of the helicopter and refuses to say another word to them.
NARRATOR: Betty Cash and Vickie Landrum decide it's time to take their case directly to the US government.
HARZAN: The Chinook helicopter suggests at least one branch of the military may somehow be connected to this UFO.
And yet, when the Department of the Army Inspector General interviews Cash and Landrum, he says there's no evidence that the helicopters belonged to the US Armed Forces.
NARRATOR: Eventually, Cash and Landrum hire a lawyer and file a complaint against the US government for $20 million.
There was a lot of effort by investigators to find out where the helicopters came from.
But no bases anywhere near the Houston area claimed to have helicopters in the air that night.
The only base that even acknowledged having a large patrol of helicopters was Gray Army Airfield, located at Fort Hood.
NARRATOR: The lawsuit of Cash and Landrum vs.
the US government proves unsuccessful.
In 1986, the case was dismissed by a US District Court judge, who claimed that there was not enough evidence to prove that the helicopters were associated with the US government.
And military officials had testified that US Armed Forces did not have a large diamond-shaped aircraft in their possession.
NARRATOR: The case was closed, but questions remain.
Could the helicopters have been part of a classified military operation to retrieve UFOs? Perhaps the answers to this mystery can be found at Fort Hood, Texas.
Coming up: Inside the military's elite UFO helicopter unit.
And a look at the extraordinary history of UFOs and Fort Hood when we return.
( music playing ) NARRATOR: Hangar 1 has opened the Lone Star State's most unusual case files.
Searching for clues for what may be attracting UFOs to Texas.
When helicopters are seen escorting a UFO, questions regarding the military's connection emerge.
Does the answer lie within America's largest armored post, Fort Hood, Texas? NARRATOR: The summer of 1975.
A pilot stationed at Fort Hood with an RS2 intelligence aviation unit, is driving on a highway close to a base, with a friend, around 10:00 at night.
EQUITZ: Despite the weather, he can see in the sky above Fort Hood a number of Army helicopters.
They appear to be heading back to the base, but they're not alone.
They're surrounding another object as though they're escorting it.
But it's an aircraft unlike anything he's ever seen.
Now this guy's a helicopter pilot himself, so he's very familiar with what helicopters look like at night.
And he's certain that this large object, a disc-type thing, with a reddish light, is not another helicopter.
The next day when he gets back to the base, he asks his friend who works in the air traffic control tower if he knows anything about what happened.
The friend claims nobody at the tower knows anything.
So he starts asking around among his other pilot buddies.
None of them seem to know anything either.
Now this seems really strange to him.
Usually, if anything happens on the base, it makes its way through the grapevine pretty quickly.
But for some reason, in this case, nobody seems to know anything.
Finally, after asking around for a bit, one of his pilot buddies tells him he'd better stop asking questions if he cares at all about his job.
NARRATOR: Were the helicopters witnessed by Cash and Landrum and the Fort Hood pilot part of a top secret UFO project, operating out of Fort Hood, Texas? Numerous witnesses have reported seeing helicopters escorting UFOs in and around Fort Hood.
Why would this keep happening over and over in this area? At some point you have to ask, "Is the military working in partnership with extraterrestrials?" RAY: A news reporter that has filmed a segment at Fort Hood learned that there was a special helicopter unit involved with UFOs called the "Blue Boys.
" The Blue Boys supposedly operate out of the section of Fort Hood called Gray Army Airfield.
This helicopter unit may be responsible for escorting and transporting UFOs.
They may even be storing them on the base.
EQUITZ: Gray Army Airfield was a top secret facility that was built with numerous underground tunnels, originally designed to store atomic weapons.
These tunnels could be a perfect location for the military to store recovered UFOs.
We have testimony from an individual who worked in an underground bunker at Fort Hood.
He actually stated that "the technology that is being applied in this underground complex would remind someone of a science fiction thriller.
It is unbelievable what they know and can do from this area.
" The question is: is this technology our own or is it extra-terrestrial? I believe that the military had interaction with these beings, as we have heard in the stories.
That might not be the whole picture.
There might be another layer to that onion.
NARRATOR: Does the US military have a secret UFO research facility at Fort Hood? And could it be tied to a history of reoccurring UFO sightings in Texas? Coming up: More than 100 servicemen reported seeing strange, illuminated flying objects in different shapes and configurations buzzing around the area.
NARRATOR: Deep in the heart of Texas one of the most extraordinary UFO flaps on file takes place directly over Fort Hood.
When we return.
Spring, 1949.
The skies over Camp Hood, now known as Fort Hood, are filled with unusual objects.
Fort Hood may have been one of the first times when UFOs have been seen around and above military complexes.
NICHOLAS: In 1949, over the course of four months, March through June, the heavily guarded facility of Camp Hood experiences a record number of UFO sightings.
More than 100 servicemen reported seeing strange, illuminated flying objects in different shapes and configurations buzzing around the area.
In 1949, Camp Hood was one of three national stockpile sites where nuclear weapons were stored.
Security over this whole area was paramount.
The situation was so serious that a very high-level conference was held at Camp Hood to discuss this whole situation.
They brought in the Fourth Army, the Air Force Office of Special Investigation: AFOSI, Office of Naval Intelligence, and the FBI to study what was going on.
NARRATOR: Despite the urgency of the situation, government officials cannot agree on a course of action.
Eventually, the base commander decides to take matters into his own hands.
NICHOLAS: After two weeks of nightly sightings, the commander of Fort Hood devises a plan of action by establishing special UFO patrols.
Each patrol is assigned to specific areas of the base, and each team has four men: an instrument man, a timer, a recorder and a radio operator.
The idea was that when a team would spot a UFO, they would track the exact elevation, the azimuth, of the object.
The radio operator would call out the location of the object and the direction it's going to other teams, which would then know where to look.
EQUITZ: Azimuth is the angle of an object in relation to north.
You combine that with the object's elevation, and you can pinpoint its exact location in the sky.
This kind of data is critical when trying to prove the existence of UFOs.
NICHOLAS: The plan seems foolproof.
And it has the support of every man who's participating.
For the first time in history, everybody wants to get on the patrols.
But since the Air Force has prime responsibility for UFO investigations, the plan has to be coordinated through them.
A copy of the order is rushed to the Air Force, with everyone standing by for the minute they say "Go.
" And they don't.
EQUITZ: These patrols would've provided an excellent opportunity to get some concrete data on at least one type of UFO.
It's something that should have been done from the start.
Speeds, altitudes and sizes that are estimated just by looking at a UFO are miserably inaccurate.
But this plan could have provided us with some real information.
Indisputable evidence.
NARRATOR: So why doesn't the Air Force approve the plan? Some people believe that this is because, realistically, the Air Force did not want lower-level operations confirming the reality of UFOs.
MATHIESON: IRRATOR: Despite ther Force's unwillingness to approve official UFO patrols at Fort Hood, Texas, sighting reports continue to flood in.
NICHOLAS: Because so many sightings are taking place, a standardized form is created.
On one night alone, 50 sightings are reported.
Finally, after four months, the sightings stop.
The Air Force collects all of the reports on sightings, but ultimately sweeps them under the rug, waiting for them to be forgotten.
NARRATOR: Could this event in Texas have been one of the United States' most defining UFO moments? We had mass UFO sightings for an extended period of time over Camp Hood and a base commander willing to authorize a serious investigation.
This could've been the turning point for UFO investigations in America.
If the investigation had been approved, we could have collected indisputable evidence allowing for public awareness that these entities exist.
NARRATOR: Although this event did not lead to national public awareness, it still may have played a significant role in our UFO history.
And be a clue to why UFOs are drawn to Texas.
The sightings at Camp Hood are a major UFO event, and it may be that this event triggered the government's desire to have a secret UFO facility at this location.
EQUITZ: It's possible that the UFOs were originally attracted to Camp Hood because of the nuclear weapons stored there.
What's interesting is that those same underground storage facilities that housed nuclear weapons could now be housing a secret military UFO operation.
NARRATOR: Fort Hood is located directly in the middle of the UFO corridor.
Is Fort Hood the missing link to Texas' unexplained UFO activity? The state of Texas has Texas-sized UFO cases.
Perhaps as UFO groups like MUFON continue to investigate, one day we'll understand what is attracting these UFOs.
NARRATOR: For now, the truth behind the strange objects that light up the Texas skies remains elusive.
But keep your eyes peeled when traveling through the Lone Star State because you may become a witness