by Clark C. McClelland, Former ScO, U.S. Space Shuttle Fleet
KSC, Florida 1958 to 1992
Art Campbell writes, "Shortly after the US Air Force became a
separate branch of the service, Alamogordo Air Base became
Holloman AFB in honour of Colonel George V. Holloman, a pioneer
in Air Force research and development." The old Alamogordo
airfield had been a training base for heavy bombers. Then, U.S.
President Dwight Eisenhower was landing at Holloman. It was a
smooth landing as landings go. The big Lockheed Constellation in
passenger service in those days carried over 125 passengers, but
there were fewer than twenty aides and secret service men in the
main cabin with the crew of fourteen each at his station. At
about 7,000 feet into the landing, Major Bill Draper, the pilot,
started reversing the engines, and the plane slowed measurably
and taxied to the end of the runway.
Air Force One taxied back up the runway about 75 yards and
stopped. All engines were shut down. There were probably 300
people with a vantage point, who saw Air Force One land, and as
it did, they called others to other windows, work stations and
vantage points. It must have seemed very eerie for the
president's plane to be seen sitting out there almost a half mile
away, alone and quiet.
No red carpet, no band, no honour parade, just a few horned
meadowlarks calling in the distance. Eventually, the base workers
returned to their stations. And always the question was asked: Is
Ike here? What's going on? The civilians and military on the base
had been told that while the president was here, this would be a
"business as usual" day. A few minutes earlier, Col. Sharp, the
base commander, and several officers had gone to the base
operations tower to see the president's plane land.
The first communication they heard about 8:10 was "HOLLOMAN
TOWER, THIS IS AIR FORCE 7885 TEN MILES EAST OF MARYHILL."
They requested landing instructions, other traffic in the area, and
base wind direction. The runway they were assigned was the
farthest away from the hangars and workshops. It was obvious to
base personnel that what was happening or going to happen was as
far away as it could be. Little could be seen unless one had a
vantage point and binoculars. Phones all over the base were very
busy, many questions were asked, is he still out on the runway?
But about ten minutes after the plane landed the radar officers
gave instructions to shut off all radar. He had turned base
operations over to his deputy base commander as long as the
President was here. He felt it his duty to be with him with no
distractions.
There were a dozen visual patrols out around the base and some of
the up-range small radars were on. A phone rang in the tower with
a report of two unidentified objects passing over Range Road 12.
Then a minute later the bogies were over Range Road 7 only a few
minutes from the runways. Men in the tower swung their glasses to
the north in the morning haze. Then something glinted in the sun,
then something else just below it.
A report came in of a third bogie five minutes behind the first
two. The tower personnel who did not know what these were, were
stunned. No tail, no wings, no motors. Just round objects
approaching the president's plane sitting alone on the far runway
with a covey of base officers in the tower, including Col. Sharp.
They knew something big was up. They reported the objects, logged
them and did their job which was "business as usual." The two
objects stopped about 300 feet over Air Force One, and one
descended on the far side of the plane and gently touched about
200 feet ahead of the plane.
The other hovered briefly and then came across the near runway
towards the big hangars and some shop buildings. It took up a
position somewhere above the buildings over the tarmac. The disc
had a good vantage point of anything that might come towards the
president's plane and the disc on the ground. It was with some
disbelief that two UFOs had come to Holloman AFB in February of
1955. There was little background for believing in them at all as
extraterrestrial. Some who saw or heard about the two craft at
the base that day thought they might be new Russian or German
innovations.
Soon after the UFO landed in front of Air Force One, a man many
assumed to be the President, came to the doorway of the plane,
descended the portable stairs and approached the saucer on the
ground. Some sort of a hatch had been opened a few minutes before
and had folded down to become a small ramp. The man walked up the
ramp, stood briefly at the opening, shook hands with someone, and
went inside.
Observers thought the period of time to be about 45 minutes. When
he emerged from the craft, he walked towards Air Force One. Part
of this time he was facing the observers, and most were sure it
was Ike. He wore no hat, and many recognized the hairline and his
erect military walk.
Thanks to Art Campbell.
About the writer:
Clark C. McClelland, former ScO, Space Shuttle Fleet, KSC,
Florida 1958 to 1992. Former Director, NICAP Unit-3 at Cape
Canaveral and KSC, former MUFON Assistant Florida State Director,
and former Director, Kennedy Space Center MUFON Unit, KSC.
Source: Kevin Smith Show E-Zine, Dec 2 2007 SUBSCRIBE
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