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well good afternoon ladies and gentlemen

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my name is Patrick McDonough and I'm

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here today to relate an experience that

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happened to me in September of 1966 44

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years ago but that experience was so

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significant it was basically burned in

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my memory I haven't forgotten about it

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at all but I am getting older and I did

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want to put this experience and relate

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it on the record a little background on

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me I had enlisted in the Air Force in

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Berkeley California in the first week of

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November 1962 at the onset of the Cuban

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Missile Crisis it was going I felt

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patriotic and up to that time I had been

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studying engineering in college I had

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three years of engineering and the Air

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Force considering my background trained

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me to be a geodetic survey er and I was

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assigned to 1380 first geodetic survey

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squadron in Orlando Florida

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we basically in 1965 we moved to Warren

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Air Force Base in Wyoming on average I

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would spend nine ten months a year on

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temporary duty surveying for latitude

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and longitude at our missile sites and

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aircraft bases for positioning missile

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and aircraft guidance systems basically

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the squadrons mission was to provide

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precise geographical coordinates for a

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missile or an aircraft inertial guidance

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system so that it would the missile or

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aircraft would know exactly precisely

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where it was at when it takes off

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while the intelligence agencies would

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provide the targeting and information in

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early of September of 1966 myself and

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two other Airmen a airman first class al

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Cramer and a airman third class Charlie

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Coates we were temporarily assigned to

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Malstrom Air Force Base and were ordered

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to provide or perform the initial

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geodetic surveys for the last 50 missile

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sites there there already was 150

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Minuteman 1 sites and we were putting in

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the last 50 for the wing and basically

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we were assigned to the site activation

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task force they call sate half it was a

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bong really the prime contractor we were

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given a government truck no radio

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anything in it that I was the chief of

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party I was the observer on our small

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three-man team al was the recorder

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Charlie was we were trying to train him

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both in observing and recording we

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arrived who normally would arrive at a

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missile site at about in early evening

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we'd set up our instruments and

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basically what I was doing was the start

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observation to provide precise latitude

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and longitude on the night of this

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incident that happened we were

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completing a series of what we call

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celestial Astro

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asmath observations southeast of Conrad

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and I was doing the observing L was

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recording and Charlie was assisting now

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with the chronometer on the time hax as

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I tipped on Polaris the unusual thing

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about this missile site I was at was

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that the blast hatch of the silo was

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open and that was very unusual

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normally when I'd go to these missile

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sites even though they were

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not activated yet with a missile they

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were always closed the mana lifts were

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there we do for mana lifts and do a

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precise quadrangle and the work we did

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was very precise it involved a lot of

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was basically all using star shots and

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so here's a site that we arrived at and

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the blast hatch is open and we're

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nearing completion of the star

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observations we had been to the other

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three mana lifts and I was at the

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monolith thought the next to the hatch

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and it was probably about one 1:30 any

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unidentified flying object came from the

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north and stopped right over us it I

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would say it was probably about altitude

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of 300 feet or so maybe a little higher

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it's a little hard to tell them the dark

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yeah it was round it had I would

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estimate its diameter at about 50 feet

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mmm and it's like a pretty large you

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know like a wingspan of a b-52 something

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in that range it's pretty large it

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seemed to have pulsating lights going

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around it and it had a white light from

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the center looking down into the silo

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there was no wind there was no noise

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still only stayed there maybe 20 30

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seconds at most and then I just remember

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I I'm staring up at their stars right

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I'm pretty keen observer of of what's

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above me here in the celestial spear up

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there and I just said to myself what if

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this thing beams beams us up and takes

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us off to some distant place and never

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returned earth again I mean this is

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going through my head here well this

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thing's above me and and then from this

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dead stop it shoots off to the east

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just like now you see it now you're

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doing it just to so after this UFO

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departs I grab my instrument me and

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jumped in the truck behind the steering

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wheel and off we went and we weren't

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about to be there if it came back we we

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didn't have guards with us because there

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was no missile we didn't have a radio

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because we're not really in contact with

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the air force base I don't know any of

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this other stuff is even going on to be

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honest with you I mean this is we're

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just kind of out there on our own doing

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these doing these sites and mailing our

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material back

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it was I wasn't even aware there was a

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UFO problem per se but as it turned out

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the night's events weren't totally over

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with us at that point as we sped away in

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on our way back to Conrad and the Army

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Corps of Engineers had base rocked all

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the roads to take the weight of these

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missiles they were bringing in and of

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course these are new sights and they

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took down all the signs to make the

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roads wider and I go over the hill and

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come down the headlights come down

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there's no road there at Eid you know

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and so I tried to make a you either went

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to the right or left I tried to go to

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the left to towards Conrad and the truck

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flipped over and we ended up upside down

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fortunately none of us were hurt

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we walked probably about two hours to

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the nearer nearby farmhouse if we call

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that nearby and I called that Montana

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Highway Patrol they the farmer drove us

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back to the accident site in was

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interesting when the highway patrolman

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arrived as we told him you know how did

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this occur he was asking us and told him

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that his dispatch had told him there had

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been over 20 reports to the to his

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office that night in reporting a UFO in

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the area

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I wrote incident incident reports to the

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sate half Boeing Montana

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this state regarding the accident but

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you know what was interesting was I

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never heard anything from the Air Force

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regarding the incident and I never had

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to there was no retribution or

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reimbursement required for me for

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rolling this truck and this truck at 18

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miles on it that afternoon I was a new

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truck okay so they nothing they heard

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nothing so this is this part was good

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because I didn't really want to buy the

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truck I I went back to my headquarters

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at Warren Air Force Base and about a

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month and a half later I was discharged

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I did not mention wrecking this truck up

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in Montana on one of my TD why's he

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didn't ask me and I I didn't mention it

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I didn't want to buy it and but I must

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say now my four years that I had with

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this geodetic survey squadron I had

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worked on the latest missiles and

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aircraft and in the US Air Force

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inventory and I worked everywhere on

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these guidance systems and we or I never

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saw anything in the Air Force inventory

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that could perform like this UFO did

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it's I don't know what it was but we

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sure didn't have any I never saw

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anything like it and I'd like to thank

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all of you for being here today and I

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thank the National Press Club hopefully

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someday the we'll know in the near

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future that the government rule

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perhaps release any information they

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have on UFOs thank you very much

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you