The high point of the evening's "entertainment" was an individual with a Mideastern accent and a very loud voice who quoted from the Koran (chapter 51, of course). He announced, "All aliens! All aliens!.. We want to see the freedom of those captured aliens… Freedom, freedom of captured aliens! We are here to save the good from the bad!" He pointed accus-ingly at the Bureau of Land Management officers and said, "Fear in your God!"[838] This was not the typical land use meeting.
In the desert, the situation was getting increasingly out of hand. On March 22, 1994, a group of visitors, including a reporter and photographer from the New York Times Sunday Magazine, were near the restricted area.
The reporter wanted to interview one of the private security guards (nicknamed "Cammo Dudes"). This had proven difficult, as, when approached, the guards would quickly cross back into the restricted area to prevent being identified. When one of the white Cherokees passed their three-vehicle convoy, the vehicles turned diagonally across the road, trapping the Cherokee between them. The reporter then walked over and interviewed the guard. Showing remarkable restraint, the guard only said, "No comment," and, "Don't ask me any questions."
The following day, the group was on Freedom Ridge when they discovered they were being watched by a telescopic camera. When they tuned a scanner to the sheriff's radio frequency, they discovered that search warrants were being issued. When the sheriff's deputy found them, he bluntly told them to surrender their film or be held until search warrants were obtained. Two rolls of film were surrendered. Never before had it been taken to this point. (The implication was that the new get-tough policy was in response to the "ambush journalism" of the day before.)[839]
On April 8, 1994, an ABC news crew was stopped, searched, and detained for two hours. A video camera, sound-mixing equipment, tape recorders, microphones, batteries, cables, a tripod, radio scanners, walkie-talkies, and audio and videotapes were seized. The total value was estimated at $65,000.
This was the first time that a search warrant had been served.[840]
Accounts of the seizure were carried in local newspapers and by Aviation Week and Space Technology.[841] The equipment and tapes were returned six days later, and the report was aired on April 19. It included shots of the crew being questioned, a Russian satellite photo of the base on the XR-7 instruction sheet, and "sound bites" of enraged citizens at the public hearings. Other than the satellite photo, there were no shots of the Groom Lake facility itself. (It was accusations that the crew had filmed the site that had led to the search warrants being issued.)[842]
This situation continued for another year. Then, during the weekend of April 8–9, 1995, the warning signs were put up. White Sides and Freedom Ridge were closed off. Groom Lake, and its secrets, were again hidden.
The center of the Aurora (and UFO) watching is Rachel, Nevada. A wide spot in the road, its population is about 100 people. The town consists of a Quik Pik gas station, RV park, thrift store, and the world famous "Little A-Le-Inn" (Little Alien) bar/meeting place/restaurant/hotel/UFO research center. Originally called the Rachel Bar and Grill, the name was changed in 1990 when the UFO watchers started showing up. Inside, the walls are lined with photos of UFOs and personalities. UFO books, T-shirts, bumper stickers, and souvenirs are for sale. An extensive UFO reference library contains numerous books, magazines, maps, and videotapes. The food is described as excellent.[843]
On the surface, Rachel resembles the small towns (and their eccentric inhabitants) of fiction. But it is not another Lake Wobegon, it is more akin to Twin Peaks. Like the Black projects conducted at Groom Lake, Rachel has its "dark side."[844]
Although the sign says "Earthlings Welcome," this does not extend to liberals. This political category is defined rather broadly in Rachel. During the standoff with the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, during early 1993, opinion in the town was solidly behind David Koresh. President Clinton and the federal government are vehemently cursed and despised. (Local federal employees [and their money], however, are "loved.")[845] During the Los Angeles riots, one person was heard to say, "If those damn [rioters] come near here we'll be ready."[846] The town's inhabitants think environmentalists taste as good cooked as roast spotted owl."[847]
Rachel was also the site for annual UFO conferences. These had "a no-holds-barred Bible-thumping and conspiracy" slant. There was talk about "Frankenstein experiments" being done to humans at the secret alien underground bases.
In 1993, the audience of about two hundred met in an old tent. One observer thought this was appropriate, likening the atmosphere to an "evan-gelical flying saucer camp meeting" where the speakers' "every utterance is taken as the gospel truth." John Lear talked about the secret bases, the exchange program, the eighty alien races visiting the earth, and some forty UFO crashes over the years.
Robert Lazar also appeared and was mobbed by the faithful everywhere he went. Lazar spent two and a half hours answering questions from the eager audience. These covered such areas as how the saucers worked, anti-matter generators, gravity waves, and, of course, Aurora. (Many Aurora believers also accept Lazar's claims and view Aurora as a test that would prove them — if Aurora was true, so must his captured saucer stories.)
One of the conference moderators was Gary Schultz. He runs a group called Secret Saucer Base Expeditions, which has tours to the area. Schultz described a dark and sinister web of conspiracy, run by a "shadow government." UFOs represent only one strand of this web, which includes the death of David Koresh and the Branch Davidians, the B-2, the Council of Foreign Relations, Dreamland, and the local sheriff. This was backed up by quotes from "the only authorized version of the Bible."
One observer, who believed UFOs are alien spaceships, wondered, "Does UFOlogy give rise to paranoia or vice versa?"[848]
It is only fitting that in a time of delusion, the final word on Aurora, the nonexistent Dark Eagle, should be given by a nonexistent person. In late 1990, at the time the Aurora stories were published, there was a fad on the U.S. east coast for T-shirts with a black Bart Simpson. One read:
"It's A Black Thing, You Wouldn't Understand."
CHAPTER 13
Invisible Horizons
History, Stealth, and Innovation
War is a matter of vital importance to the State; the province of life or death; the road to survival or ruin. It is mandatory that it be thoroughly studied.
With the turn of the century, and the approach of the 100th anniversary of the first powered flight, this is an appropriate moment to look back on the role played by the Dark Eagles. The secrecy of the Dark Eagles, in most cases, was due to their involvement with the technology now popularly known as "Stealth." As a result, the Dark Eagles are inextricably intertwined with the history of stealth's development and application. In addition, beyond their importance in the history of both military aviation and reconnaissance, the Dark Eagles also provide a case study in the process of innovation.
842
846
Private source. The exact quote used a derogatory term for black people. The source called this a "Rachel slur."
847
Roy J. Harris Jr., "'Earthlings Welcome' in Tiny Nevada Town Notes 339 Where Mysterious Aircraft Often Fly Overhead,"
848
Dennis Stacy, "The Ultimate UFO Seminar,"