PART 4

The Bennewitz Affair: In the late 1970s Paul Bennewitz, an
Albuquerque businessman trained as a physicist, became convinced
that he was monitoring electromagnetic signals which extraterrestrials were using to control persons they had
abducted. Bennewitz tried to decode these signals and believed he
was succeeding. At the same time he began to see what he thought
were UFOs maneuvering around the Manzano Nuclear Weapons Storage
Facility and the Coyote Canyon test area, located near Kirtland
AFB, and he filmed them.

Bennewitz reported all this to the Tucson-based Aerial Phenomena
Research Organization (APRO), whose directors were unimpressed,
judging Bennewitz to be deluded. But at Kirtland, Bennewitz's
claims, or at least some of them, were being taken more
seriously. On October 24, 1980, Bennewitz contacted Air Force
Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) agent Sgt. Richard Doty
(whose previous tour of duty had been at Ellsworth) after being
referred to him by Maj. Ernest Edwards, head of base security,
and related that he had evidence that something potentially
threatening was going on in the Manzano Weapons Storage Area. A
"Multipurpose Internal OSI Form," signed by Maj. Thomas A. Cseh
(Commander of the Base Investigative Detachment), dated October
28, 1980, and subsequently released under the Freedom of
Information Act, states:

"On 26 Oct 80, SA [Special Agent] Doty, with the assistance of
JERRY MILLER, GS-15, Chief, Scientific Advisor for Air Force Test
and Evaluation Center, KAFB , interviewed Dr. BENNEWITZ at his
home in the Four Hills section of Albuquerque, which is adjacent
to the northern boundary of Manzano Base. (NOTE: MILLER is a
former Project Blue Book USAF Investigator who was assigned to Wright-Patterson AFB (W-PAFB), OH, with FTD [Foreign Technology
Division]. Mr. MILLER is one of the most knowledgeable and
impartial investigators of Aerial Objects in the southwest.) Dr.
BENNEWITZ has been conducting independent research into Aerial
Phenomena for the last 15 months. Dr. BENNEWITZ also produced
several electronic recording tapes, allegedly showing high
periods of electrical magnetism being emitted from Manzano/Coyote
Canyon area. Dr. BENNEWITZ also produced several photographs of
flying objects taken over the general Albuquerque area. He has
several pieces of electronic surveillance equipment pointed at
Manzano and is attempting to record high frequency electrical
beam pulses. Dr. BENNEWITZ claims these Aerial Objects produce
these pulses. . . . After analyzing the data collected by Dr.
BENNEWITZ, Mr MILLER related the evidence clearly shows that some
type of unidentified aerial objects were caught on film; however,
no conclusions could be made whether these objects pose a threat
to Manzano/Coyote Canyon areas. Mr MILLER felt the electronical
[sic] recording tapes were inconclusive and could have been
gathered from several conventional sources. No sightings, other
than these, have been reported in the area."

On November 10 Bennewitz was invited to the base to present his
findings to a small group of officers and scientists. Exactly one
week later Doty informed Bennewitz that AFOSI had decided against
further consideration of the matter. Subsequently Doty reported
receiving a call from then-New Mexico Sen. Harrison Schmitt, who
wanted to know what AFOSI was planning to do about Bennewitz's
allegations. When informed that no investigation was planned,
Schmitt spoke with Brig. Gen. William Brooksher of base security.
The following July New Mexico's other senator, Pete Domenici,
looked into the matter, meeting briefly with Doty before dashing
off to talk with Bennewitz personally. Domenici subsequently lost
interest and dropped the issue.

Bennewitz was also aware of supposed cattle mutilations being
reported in the western United States. At one point he met a
young mother who told him that one evening in May 1980, after she
and her six-year-old son saw several UFOs in a field and one
approached them, they suffered confusion and disorientation, then
a period of amnesia which lasted as long as four hours. Bennewitz
brought the two to University of Wyoming psychologist R. Leo
Sprinkle, who hypnotized them and got a detailed abduction story
from the mother and a sketchy one from the little boy. Early in
the course of the abduction they observed aliens take a calf
aboard the UFO and mutilate it while it was still alive, removing
the animal's genitals. At one point during the alleged
experience, the mother said, they were taken via UFO into an
underground area which she believed was in New Mexico. She
briefly escaped her captors and fled into an area where there
were tanks of water. She looked into one of them and saw body
parts such as tongues, hearts and internal organs, apparently
from cattle. But she also observed a human arm with a hand
attached. There was also the "top of a bald head," apparently
from one of the hairless aliens, but before she could find out
for sure, she was dragged away. The objects in the tank, she
said, "horrified me and made me sick and frightened me to death"
(Howe, 1989). Later she wondered about the other tanks and about
their contents.
end of part 4


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