CONTACT NETWORK HISTORY PROJECT
Copyright 2022 Joseph Burkes, MD
Synopsis: This report is about a Human Initiated Contact Event that occurred in the high desert January 24-25, 1996. For a week prior to fieldwork, my wife and repeatedly received strange telephone calls. When the phone was picked up, there was silence on the line. At the research site in Joshua Tree in two separate locations, contact team members were openly photographed in apparent surveillance. During a windstorm golden globes of presumed ET origin were seen in the west and then in the north above Queen Mountain. The following morning the contact team was buzzed at low altitude by three waves of fighter-bombers. They were flying well below 1000 feet and were headed to the east, in the direction where the team had anticipated their next sighting of UFOs would take place.
Introduction:
Around the world human initiated encounters are being co-created by both volunteer contact workers and the intelligences responsible for the flying saucer phenomenon. This organized pro-active approach has been going on since 1974 when the Peruvian based contactee network called Mission Rama attracted a saucer shaped craft to their research site in the desert outside of Lima.
In the 1990s the author of this document, Joseph Burkes MD participated in the activities of the Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence. He has also worked with Mission Rama, now called Rahma.
Part One, Surveillance
During the first week of 1996, I made plans for fieldwork. After last minute cancellations, only two other field investigators were available to go out into the high desert with me. My co-worker at the hospital, Mikhail (Misha) Goldman (a pseudonym) accompanied me. We drove from Los Angeles. Robert Hairgrove from San Diego planned to meet us on site in Joshua Tree National Monument some 120 miles east of LA.
The date for our intended fieldwork was January 24, 1996. The place where we were to assemble was Jumbo Rocks Campground. The plan was to link up at the campground parking lot. Giant boulders, some over 40 feet high served to mark this jumping off point for our excursion through the Queen Valley. Our research site was situated several miles south of Jumbo Rocks. It could be reached via a dirt road that sported a sign warning “4-wheel drive vehicles only.”
For a week prior to the intended fieldwork, my wife and I received many strange phone calls. Ten to fifteen times a day, during both day and evening hours, the phone rang. When we picked up, there was apparently no one on the line. At times, these unnerving calls occurred almost every hour, but never past 7PM. I mused whoever was making them seemed to be keeping office hours.
On Wednesday, January 24, I drove my red Isuzu Trooper eastward on US 10. Michail and I both felt the excitement building as we turned north on highway 62, heading towards the Yucca Valley. It was mid-week, in the middle of winter. Not surprisingly when we arrived at the monument it was practically deserted. Situated at an elevation of 4000 feet, our research site promised to keep us nice and cool. “ The colder the better”, I reasoned. I didn’t want a bunch of spectators to interfere with any UFO contact that might occur. Little did I know that we were far from being alone.
In addition to the expected chilly weather, a major storm was coming in off the Pacific. As always we were hopeful that our research venture would be successful despite adverse weather conditions. We suspected that a good outcome might actually be facilitated by the high winds associated with an incoming storm front. This notion, that foul weather might help our research, requires some explanation.
An example of how adverse weather conditions might facilitate contact with the non-human intelligences associated with UFOs was demonstrated in November of 1993. Two members of the Los Angeles CE-5 Working Group had a prolonged interaction with two UFOs. The objects first appeared as anomalous nocturnal lights. One of the UFOs was less than one mile away from us. At that close range through binoculars, the object was clearly visible as a disc. The entire superstructure of was glowing like a neon sign. This encounter occurred as the first storm of the rainy season hit Southern California. During that very night, 45 mile per hour winds hit a nearby Marine base. Thus, adverse weather may have increased security for the encounter by preventing Marine helicopter flights.
Now let us return to events of January 24-25, 1996. Prior to this field trip, in accord with protocols, all members of the team carried out thought projection exercises. The mentally transmitted data included the team’s expected location during fieldwork as well as our desire to have peaceful interactions with what we hoped were “extraterrestrials” responsible for the UFO phenomenon.
For this particular venture, each of the contact workers independently acquired mental impressions concerning the time window for a probable contact event. The team agreed that an encounter would likely occur between 11PM and 1AM.
After a three-hour drive from LA, Mikhail and I arrived at the Jumbo Rocks Campground. It was just a few minutes before 5PM. A pale wintry sun was already setting. The National Monument looked spectacular in the fading light. I parked the 4-wheel drive vehicle at the campground’s entrance. We waited for Robert who was driving up from San Diego. Less than 5 minutes after our arrival, a brand-new Jeep Cherokee pulled up and parked directly behind my Isuzu Trooper. The shiny new vehicle bore no license plates. The Cherokee dealer’s sticker was still on the side window.
A beefy Marine drill sergeant type emerged. He was alone, powerfully built with a very short crew cut. He appeared to be in his thirties. Covering his muscular chest he wore a loose sweatshirt with the sleeves cut off. It was embossed with the image of the US flag. He then proceeded to pull from the back of his Jeep some rather fancy camera equipment. This included a flashy 35mm single lens reflex. He also had a video camera that he quickly mounted on a tripod.
What followed was somewhat comical. In a heavy-handed manner he attempted to appear to be taking nature pictures. Stocky and in need of a shave, his demeanor was almost ape like. He clumsily moved around the parking lot. Mikhail, whose Russian nickname is Misha, pointed out to me how this photographer managed to point the camera our way during each of his “nature shots.”
The Jumbo Rocks Campground parking lot is far from ideal for obtaining scenic views of the desert. Large boulders block any panoramic vistas of the natural beauty that abounds. Several metal toilet shacks were located between us and young man that looked like he might be a Marine noncom. It seemed likely that our personal photographer must have gotten several close-up shots of the outhouses as he filmed us. I mused that perhaps those squat rectangular malodorous structures had excited an animalistic aesthetic sense. Perhaps he was not really carrying out surveillance of my team, but instead was focusing on the toilets. I joked that he was doing a travelogue titled “Great Outhouses of the Southwest.”
“To each his own,” I thought as the ape-man maneuvered around for another shot pointed in our direction. It should be remembered that Joshua Tree National Park is near the 29 Palms Marine Corps facility. We speculated that our heavily muscled photo friend was a likely denizen of the base.
A few minutes after five, Robert from San Diego drove up in his truck. “You won’t believe this,” he told us with excitement, “I was photographed on the road 10 minutes ago. It happened as I drove into the park.”
Misha glanced over my shoulder and directed Bob’s attention to the boulders behind us. There once again was our personal press agent. “Well Bob this is your lucky day.” I said with a smile. “I think you’re still on camera.” The man with the American flag on his chest was again fumbling with his equipment. Apparently he was setting up for still another panoramic shot of our now fully assembled small contact team.
Robert described to us in detail what just happened to him. Just a few miles past the ranger station, as he headed south on the loop road, he saw a late model Ford Taurus station wagon parked on the shoulder. Next to the vehicle on the edge of the asphalt, stood a well-dressed man with gray hair wearing sunglasses. According to Robert he was in his mid-sixties. When Bob was about 30 yards from the Taurus this elderly gentleman lifted a SLR camera quickly up to his face and pointed it directly at Bob’s car. He then fired off several pictures. Bob described this maneuver as being so rapid that it appeared to be as if by reflex. Robert explained that there had been no time to properly position the camera. Strangely enough the man was wearing sunglasses despite the fact that it was twilight. Following this first maneuver, again in a reflex fashion, while holding the camera with one hand, the gray-haired man quickly lowered the camera to his side. He then turned and nonchalantly walked away from the road.
Robert told us that he had once been an insurance investigator. He recognized the way in which he had just been photographed. Bob said that it was much like the manner in which he had been trained to carry out covert surveillance. There was one very important difference, however. The technique of quickly firing off a few shots and then coolly turning away, was supposed to be employed without the surveillance subject looking directly at you. The man with the sunglasses had snapped photos of Robert in his truck as it was barreling down the road directly towards the camera. Unless Robert was driving with his eyes closed, there was no way that he could not help noticing what appeared to be obvious surveillance. There was nothing covert about it.
Perhaps however, that was the very message that we were supposed to receive. “They”, whoever that might be, wanted us to know that we were under observation. This seemed to be doubly so with the military type brazen filming us in the parking lot. If this was supposed to be intimidation, it didn’t seem to be working. We were more perplexed than frightened. After all we reasoned, we were on public land, carrying out lawful activities under the freedom of association guarantees protected by the US Constitution. Not wasting much time reviewing our high school civics lessons, we climbed into the trucks and proceeded southward across the open desert to our research site.
Part Two, Contact
Our field laboratory was situated off a dirt road that cut due south across the Queen Valley. From that location we had 360’ view of the sky. All around us, stretching out across the vast plateau were countless Joshua Trees. To the north, not unexpectedly looking like a queen’s crown, stood Queen Mountain. To the south were some low-lying hills, beyond which was Palms Springs. A seemingly endless expanse of desert stretched out eastward. There distant mountains appeared small as they rose up from the edges of the sandy plain on which we had camped. It was starting to get cold as the sun was setting. We expected the temperature to drop into the 30s before sunrise.
Despite the rather heavy-handed demonstrations of surveillance that had transpired earlier, Robert, Mikhail and I were excited about the prospects of contacting an intelligence that we believed was extraterrestrial. We set up our folding chairs, got out our sleeping bags, rechecked our equipment, and positioning cameras.
By 7:15 PM we started the work. We felt a cool gentle breeze from the west. We surmised that the storm was starting its approach from the coast 100 miles to the west. It was already dark. As we moved around the campsite we had to be careful. The ubiquitous presence of small cactus and other shrubs with needle sharp edges required caution where one treads. As team leader, one of my prime responsibilities was to prevent injuries. Both Mikhail and Bob, being experienced desert UFO investigators, required no reminders to stay vigilant. At approximately 7:20 PM the first sighting occurred.
The three of us became aware of an amber colored globe in the southwest at about the same moment. It was flying slowly in a horizontal trajectory northward, just a few degrees above the ridgeline. There was no associated engine sound to break the desert stillness. The object had sharp edges that clearly demarcated its structure. It appeared to be about one finger breath in size with arm fully extended.
Although it is impossible to state with certainty its distance, from the craft’s position above the ridge we estimated that it was about three to five miles away. The “craft” had no associated strobe or wing lights. Although landing lights when viewed straight on can sometimes have an amber appearance to them, such lights lack the sharply defined edges that we observed on this unknown.
Hastily I grabbed for the signal lantern. Before I was able to flash at the UFO that was slowly moving northwards, the circular light faded out. A few seconds later flying along the same path it reappeared. This UFO did not hover, nor respond to my signaling. After another 15 seconds of flight the amber light faded out and disappeared for good. At no time were we able to discern conventional lights on this globe like object.
Inevitably when viewing landing lights of an approaching conventional craft, as the airplane turns away from the viewer, wing lights and strobes should have immediately become visible. This was not the case with this golden globe. Its appearance was exactly like other round UFOs that we had seen during previous investigations.
Elated by this first sighting we moved around the campsite for a while, putting on more clothing and having our raingear ready for the expected storm. After some discussion we prepared for a round of meditation. Misha volunteered to guide us through some mental exercises. Following several slow deep breaths each of us entered a state of deep relaxation. I carried out the prescribed mental exercises as I focused on what I imagine is consciousness in its most unbounded form, one that is not limited by any restrictions of time or space.
I created in my mind’s eye a series of visualizations, first of our Milky Way Galaxy. I saw it as small point of light among a myriad of other galaxies that extended endlessly into space. As I zoomed in on the Milky Way, I envisioned it as an enormous spiral. I focused on one arm of the spiral. There I “saw” our star with its accompanying planets. Based on satellite images of Earth, I visualized the western coast of the North American Continent, followed by a closer view of Southern California. Zooming down towards the surface, in my mind’s eye I located our position northeast of San Jacinto Mountain. That enormous wall of granite towered to a height of 10,000 feet.
My team repeatedly sent out this mental road map of our location in the universe. While at the same time we mentally “broadcast” to the Cosmos our message of welcome, inviting contact with “extraterrestrial intelligence.”
The exercise went on in silence for over 30 minutes. The wind was now blowing at 10 to 15 miles per hour. Misha was seated facing to the northwest. As he ended this first round of meditation he opened his eyes. It was 9:05 PM. Directly in his line of sight was a golden globe. He called out for us to take a look.
The perfectly round object was visible just above Queen Mountain and was slowly flying due east. Misha asked me to pick up my 500,000-candle power lantern. I fired a salvo of flashes at the yellow object, which like its predecessor flew horizontally without any associated engine sound. This UFO also had sharp edges demarcating its circular shape. We were hoping for an exchange of light signals in an intelligible fashion indicating basic communication had been established. Instead of repeating back the same sequence of flashes as other anomalous lights had done for us in the past, this UFO extinguished its light, just as the other globe had done some two hours before. This second object reappeared a few seconds later further down its flight path. The globe then disappeared. This sighting like the first lasted less than a minute.
This furtive type of behavior had us somewhat perplexed. Was the intelligence responsible for the craft acknowledging the surveillance that we had experienced several hours before? By appearing and then quickly disappearing was it “telling us” that conditions were not “safe” for more intimate contact? The first sighting had appeared in the southwest moving northward. The sighting was seen in the north moving eastward. If it were the same” ET spacecraft”, was carrying out a circling maneuver. And by this oblique path, neither towards us nor away from us, were they attempting to indicate that conditions were not safe for a direct approach? It is probably wise not to dwell on such speculation. It is a maxim of this kind of work to never assume that you can think like an “extraterrestrial.” Nevertheless, we were intrigued by the possible implications of what we had witnessed.
Twenty to thirty miles per hour gusts were now showered us with sand. All around our campsite, low-lying shrubs tenaciously clung to the desert floor. We positioned our folding chairs and sleeping bags behind the shrubs hoping for a little bit of shelter from the flying sand. The Joshua Trees gracefully swayed back and forth in a dance like movement. An occasional tumbleweed rolled by our research site. As the wind increased I became more excited. The Twenty-Nine Palms Marine base was just 25 miles away. I imagined that the stronger the wind, the more adverse the weather was, then the less likely that helicopter gunships could respond to any “extraterrestrial” presence at our research site.
I remembered a previous encounter that Misha and I had in November of 1993 when we had interacted with two UFOs for over an hour. This memorable experience occurred while 45 miles per hour winds had pounded the local base. Perhaps with another storm headed our way on this particular January night, a repeat performance might be on the schedule. I very much wanted a sighting at close range.
Misha however did not appear to share my excitement about the prospects for further contact. This was in marked contrast to his usual gung-ho attitude. He was the youngest member of the team, in his mid-twenties, and was usually the most enthusiastic. He seldom rested during the long hours of nocturnal fieldwork. While others might catnap for a few hours between shifts of sky watching, Mikhail roamed around the research site. With signal lantern in hand, being a good soldier (he told us that he had attended nursing school at a Russian military trade school) “Mike” seemed ever ready for contact with what we called “extraterrestrial intelligence.”
His track record as a UFO researcher had demonstrated that his psi capabilities were clearly above average to say the least. On several previous occasions he had chosen the time and place for Working Group activities with subsequent contact events ensuing. Prior to some of these investigations, he had reported receiving a kind of precognitive ‘heads up.” Mikhail’s parapsychological talents appeared to encompass the entire spectrum of psi phenomenon. This included remote viewing, lucid dreams that predicted subsequent contact experiences or simply an awareness of a future event at the level of knowledge (i.e. precognition). In addition, I had witnessed on two occasions what appeared to be Mikhail’s psychokinetic ability. Years later I coined the term “Prime Contact” to described people like my friend Misha who was a veritable “human UFO magnet.” He like other “Primes” practiced advanced meditation as adolescents, often without any adult encouragement. They also have frequent UFO sightings with others present to confirm the Primes’ special relationship with UFO intelligences.
During the days prior to fieldwork, the three UFO researchers present on this particular investigation had reported “subjectively acquiring” details of a possible contact event. This information had been obtained by each of us independently. We had determined that contact with “ETI” might likely occur between 11PM and 1AM of the night of January 24-25. As this time widow arrived however, instead of a building sense of anticipation, Robert and I, like Misha earlier, perceived that something had definitely changed. The two-hour interval, during which we had hoped might be an opportunity for interactions, felt empty. The anticipation of contact, the growing excitement that many volunteer contact workers experience had almost completely dissipated. In light of what seemed to us obvious surveillance, we wondered if the absence of any further ET activity was related to us “having company.”
As the wind increased to over 30 miles per hour, attempting meditation outside, away from the shelter of our vehicles became impossible. Tarps had to be firmly staked down otherwise they quickly became airborne. Each time I turned westward to catch a glimpse of that portion of the sky, my nose, mouth and eyes were plastered with flying sand. I regretted the fact that I had left my goggles at home.
It was approaching 2AM and still there were no additional signs of an “ET” presence. Mike had turned in early, and was soon peacefully snoring in his sleeping bag that he had zipped all the way up over his head. Robert and I stayed awake hoping for another flyby or something even more dramatic. But nothing happened. There were just the stars, the wind and our waiting for the predicted rainfall. At about 3AM I removed my hiking boots, put on an extra pair of heavy woolen socks and finally called it a night. As I fell asleep I glanced up at the stars shimmering brightly in the wind-swept sky. I wondered why it was still so clear outside. If the expected storm was truly coming in from the Pacific, there should have been some rain by now. “Better get some rest while you’re still dry,” I told myself. Nestled inside my sleeping bag I finally drifted off to sleep.
The forecasted storm, like our “window” of contact between 11PM and 1AM, never materialized. I awoke at 6:30 AM to find a sunny sky with only a few clouds on the horizon. In the cold morning light the desert looked spectacular. As far as I could see, was a vast expanse of Joshua Trees extending in all directions. Except for the three of us, there wasn’t a soul in sight. Mike and Robert were already moving around the research site picking up equipment that had been tossed around by the wind.
Bundled up in their parkas, they looked like two bears trying to keep warm. For reasons that would be difficult to explain, I had the strong feeling that ET craft might still be in our vicinity. This feeling became so intense, that I took out my video camera and started videotaping the eastern horizon.
Back on November 10, 1993, at an early hour following our encounter, Mike had inadvertently filmed an anomalous object floating above the eastern horizon. Whatever it was exactly, we couldn’t say for sure. It was dark, oval in shape and appeared to slowly drop below the ridgeline in a kind of falling leaf trajectory. We had not seen the object at the time of shooting the footage. Only after reviewing the tapes on a big monitor back at home did we notice it.
Hoping again to capture something of interest in the east, I slowly panned the camera across the desert plateau that stretched all the way to the horizon. After several minutes it seemed to be a waste of time to film what appeared to be empty desert. I closed up my camera and joined Robert and Mike who were packing our gear into the trucks. Nevertheless, I kept glancing back towards the east, hoping to see a UFO. It was then that the sky exploded with thunder.
Two F-14 Tomcats blasted past us with a deafening roar. They were flying at less than 500 feet in altitude and were moving at upwards of 300 miles per hour. Robert who is from San Diego was quite familiar with this type of craft that operated out of Miramar Naval Air Station. He easily recognized the Navy markings on the fighters. They were moving in combat formation. The lead plane was slightly ahead, but still very close to its “wingman.” They whizzed by less than a quarter of mile to the north of us.
I was stunned. The sound of the powerful engines was truly awe-inspiring. They were so close to the ground that when I saw them shoot past my left shoulder I didn’t even have to look up! The F-14s were heading due east! It was in the very direction that I had anticipated our next sighting would occur.
Our ears ringing, Robert, Mike and I shouted at one another. “What the hell was that?” I cried out.
Less than 30 seconds later, the second wave of fighter-bombers roared past. Two jet aircraft, one on our left to the north, the other on our right to the south. They bracketed our position. Those sleek babies were higher in altitude, perhaps eight hundred feet up. They were moving even faster than the first wave. The jets were separated from one another by only about three hundred yards as they passed on either side of us.
Robert was less certain of the type of craft in the second wave. As they thundered across the desert, the plane to our north banked sharply to the right in order to avoid a distant mountaintop. My state of shock was quickly turning to a grave sense of concern. This was not safe, especially for the pilots.
The third wave of fighters immediately followed the second. Again a pair of military jets bracketed our position. They too were flying under a thousand feet and just as before moving by on each side of us. I had to admit that despite my concerns, those jets looked absolutely beautiful. Up to that moment I had only seen movies of high-performance jet aircraft. The ones zooming by me were so fast and so powerful. Such strength was something to be marveled at! Yet there was definitely something very wrong going on.
We had driven three hours to reach out research site in the desert as part of what we had imagined was a peaceful mission to interact with what we assumed was an ET intelligence responsible for flying saucers. I was very concerned that our mission was ending up like the prelude to some kind of interplanetary shooting match. As seductively beautiful as those jets appeared when experienced up close, they were not gentle little metal butterflies. They represented over hundred million dollars’ worth of killing machines.
It was all wrong! With a sick feeling in my stomach I wondered if there might be a connection between those strange phone calls that I had received at home and the surveillance that our team had experienced before reaching our research site? Could the fighter-bombers’ sudden appearance have something to do with our encounters the previous night? It seemed impossible, outrageous, but the thought actually crossed my mind that we were possibly being used as bait. I really didn’t like that idea at all.
And what about the safety of the pilots involved. I recalled that during a famous UFO encounter over Teheran in 1971, an F-4 of the Iranian Royal Air Force had reportedly lost all instrumentation as it prepared to engage a flying saucer. After the UFO moved off, the pilot regained control of his jet and was able to make it back to base. This amazing event was described in a report from none other than the CIA. The document had been obtained via a Freedom of Information request made by UFO investigators. There were other reports in the literature describing armed confrontations between terrestrial military craft and unknown objects that had vastly superior flight capabilities.
The jets that had just buzzed us were moving at high speeds dangerously close to the ground. I felt worried that if for any reason the jets’ engines malfunctioned, the pilots probably could not safely eject. A wave of sadness and disappointment rolled over me. I imagined that we were trying to extend the olive branch to some kind of “extraterrestrial intelligence visiting our planet.” If the fighters by chance had caught up with the golden globes we had seen the previous night, something other than peace offerings might be exchanged. I began to feel not only frightened but also ashamed. Was armed conflict to be the outcome of a rather naïve attempt at “citizen diplomacy?” I didn’t want anyone to get hurt, neither my team, the jet crews, nor any possible “ETs” who might be piloting the golden globes we had seen.
I was really quite shaken and wanted to head directly home. Bob however volunteered to stick around for a while at the monument and see what he could find out from the park rangers concerning fly-bys of military craft. He promised to call me later with a report as to what he might learn.
Part III Aftermath
Several days later I got a call from Robert Hairgrove. He told me what he had learned from chatting with a US Park Ranger that he met as he drove out of the Joshua Tree National Monument. The Ranger had heard the jets go overhead as well. Bob was informed that the event was not in any way, shape or form “routine training activities.” According to the Ranger, long standing Federal Park Regulations prohibited fly-bys at an altitude of less than two thousand feet. Despite these rules, pilots from the local base occasionally broke the regulation and thundered at low altitude over the park.
The effects of such violations on both animal life and visitors were a concern to the Joshua Tree National Monument staff. Robert told us that according to the ranger, a German tourist suffered a heart attack after being buzzed by low flying jets. Was our January 25, 1996 simply a “routine training mission?” The National Park Service ranger he spoke to reportedly didn’t think so. What was the possible relationship between the jets and the apparent surveillance we had experienced earlier? And finally, what about those mysterious phone calls that my wife and I received prior to my going out into the desert? In retrospect, this kind of evidence for surveillance and a military show of force with possible dangers of armed conflict was an extremely rare event for those staging HICE, (Human Initiated Contact Events). My concerns for pilot safety might have been a manifestation precognition. Later during that same year, 1996, the press reported on a strange series of crashes with three F-14s being lost under low altitude flight at high speeds. These were the very same conditions that we had witnessed during our January 1996 investigation in Joshua Tree National Monument. Eighteen years later I found a brief internet reference to the F-14 crashes and the resultant temporary suspension of flights.
“Following the loss of three aircraft over a four-week period in 1996, the CNO ordered a safety stand down to review what was known in order to find out if there were any operational restrictions that needed to be placed on the aircraft. The Navy placed interim restrictions on the F-14 in the low altitude, high speed environment. Afterburner use was prohibited for F-14Bs and F-14Ds at all altitudes except for operational emergencies.”
http://www.fas.org/programs/ssp/man/uswpns/air/fighter/f14.html
accessed 3-25-14, this link no longer works
Addendum:
When I posted this report on social media in 2023 one comment made was that our January encounter in Joshua Tree was “Only a few days after the Varginha case in Brazil. “
My reply is as follows:
Yes, that coincidence has crossed my mind too. Some have suggested that the military police arrived so quickly after the crash in Brazil because it resulted from a craft being shot down by the US military and that they alerted their Brazilian counterparts. So, in a sense, my concern about armed conflict links the two incidents, Joshua Tree and Brazil. I wondered if my statement about the dangers the pilots faced as they blasted past us, the subsequent crashes of F-14s, and the Varginha case in Brazil are all related. As the crude statement goes, “payback can be a bitch.”
Below is another internet report documenting the grounding of F-14s in 1995 and 1996.
http://www.cnn.com/US/9601/nashville_plane/01-30/index.html
accessed 3-25-14 and no longer works as of January 2025.
“Squadron grounded during crash probe
F-14 plagued with accidents
January 30, 1996 Web posted at: 8:30 p.m. EST
WASHINGTON (CNN) — The U.S. Navy has grounded a Navy squadron that suffered four crashes over the past 16 months, included Monday’s crash of an F-14 into a residential neighborhood that killed five people.
The jet’s two crew members and three people inside a house were killed in the accident, which occurred shortly after the plane took off from Nashville International Airport in Tennessee.
The Navy said it has grounded the 13 jets in the San Diego based-VF-213 squadron for at least one day to review safety procedures. A Navy spokesperson said ordering a stand-down after a major accident is a common practice for the military.
Broad investigation under way
The Pentagon said Tuesday the Navy is launching a broad investigation into its flying and training procedures in the wake of the crash.
Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said Defense Secretary William Perry and Deputy Defense Secretary John White met with the chief and vice chief of naval operations Tuesday to discuss how the investigation is going. He said Perry was satisfied the probe is being handled “very well.”
Bacon said there has been no decision to ground all F-14’s for a safety review, but didn’t rule out the possibility if the investigation reveals a safety problem. “I’m not ruling anything in or out here,” he said. “We are taking this very, very seriously. We are going to leave no stone unturned.”
The investigation will look at every aspect of what may have caused the crash, Bacon said, adding that the safety record of the Navy’s F-14 has been better than average over the past 15 years.
Vice Adm. Brent Bennitt, the Navy’s commander for Pacific Fleet aviation units, noted the F-14 has had an “unusual number of mishaps.” The Navy has 338 F-14s.
Since 1991 there have been 30 F-14 crashes, the last four from the same squadron, VF-213, also known as the “Flying Blacklions”. One of the squadron’s accidents was the October 1994 crash that killed Lt. Kara Hultgreen, one of the first women to qualify for a Navy combat aviation assignment.
But Bennitt said the Navy’s primary air-to-air combat plane has a lower accident rate when compared to other older Navy aircraft. The F-14, built by Grumman, was introduced in the Navy in the 1970s and is no longer being manufactured.
Critics of the F-14 say it’s underpowered, and all of the last four accidents happened following engine stalls or problems. The Navy is replacing the older engine in F-14s with newer engines that are 30 percent more powerful, but says the move is to improve performance and is not motivated by safety reasons.
Investigators sift through wreckage
On Wednesday, investigators at the site were combing through the wreckage and interviewing witnesses for clues as to what caused the Navy jet to come down.
“The plane is in parts all over the place,” one investigator said. “You can’t even make out a whole plane.”
The jet went down 2.5 miles south of Nashville International. The Navy said the plane was not carrying any missiles, rockets, or bombs.
Elmer Newsom, 66, his wife, Ada, 63, and a friend, Ewing T. Wair, 53, were killed when the plane hit their house in the Luna Heights subdivision. Its fuel turned the house into a huge fireball, and flames engulfed vacant homes on both sides. Also killed were Lt. Cmdr. John Stacy Bates, 33, who was flying the jet, and radar interceptor officer Lt. Graham Alden Higgins, 28.
Second crash for pilot
Bates’ squadron has had four F-14 accidents in the past 16 months, including one last April in which he was the pilot.
Bates apparently lost control of his F-14. He and the radar intercept officer managed to eject from the aircraft before it went down into the Pacific Ocean. The aircraft was never recovered.
A review of the accident investigation shows Naval investigators concluded the loss of the airplane was due to “pilot error” because Bates failed to take the required action to prevent his plane from going into an uncontrollable spin after an engine stall.
According to the internal document, the actions of Bates and his navigator were “indicative of a need for further training … on … recovery techniques.”After a review, Bates was found fully qualified for return to flight status, said Cmdr. Gregg Hartung, a Navy spokesman.”
For More Reports from the Contact Underground the following links are provided:
My human initiated contact team had immediate results when we started fieldwork, but they were not what I expected.
https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/10/15/mystery-lights-in-the-santa-susana-pass/
Staging Human Initiated Contact Events adjacent to a high security research lab involved challenges of surveillance for my team.
https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/05/19/did-a-fateful-phone-call-trigger-the-appearance-of-blackhawk-helicopters-during-contact-work/
This report was first published in 1993 on my return from a CE5 investigation in the “Volcanic Zone” near the Mexico City. There our team witnessed multiple UFOs including a large triangular “craft” that signaled at us.
https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/02/20/ufo-investigation-in-the-volcanic-zone/
What is flying saucer intelligences had access to every witness’ full treasure chest of memories?
This report was first published in 1993 on my return from a CE5 investigation in the “Volcanic Zone” near the Mexico City. There our team witnessed multiple UFOs including a large triangular “craft” that signaled at us.
https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/02/20/ufo-investigation-in-the-volcanic-zone/
https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/04/30/why-do-ufo-
A wave of missing time events occurred across the CE-5 network in 1993. I describe in detail the bizarre sequence of events involving missing time for two members of my Los Angeles based contact team.
https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/02/14/missing-time-on-highway-62/
In this detailed report I describe my volunteer contact work in Southern England in 1997. I had the good fortune to work with a Prime Contactee who I call “Tracy.” We had sightings of UFOs, including one that probably followed us back to her parents’ cottage.
Contact Underground 
11 thoughts on “And then the sky exploded: Incident at Joshua Tree, January 1996”