The Cheyenne Mountain UFO Incident

During our case study article looking at the Loring Air Force Base UFO incident in October 1975, we touched upon the rather bizarre wave of UFO-phantom helicopter sightings that occurred at the same time. One of those accounts stood out a little from the others, the Cheyenne Mountain UFO incident, which took place around late-October and would result in the NORAD Command Post (based inside the mountain itself) moving their alerts to the highest level.

What perhaps makes this incident all the more intriguing is the complete mystery surrounding it, not to mention the fact that, at least officially, the encounter didn’t take place. The sheer abundance of strange activity across the United States – very much on record – would suggest otherwise, however. We have to consider just what was taking place in the skies of America during this time that would force such denials of events that officially didn’t happen.

Like many other UFO encounters, which by their very nature are full of unanswered questions, the case is full of the usual twists and double turns UFO researchers have come to not only expect but begrudgingly accept, in order that we might get to the greater and overriding truth of the UFO and alien question. A question that has eluded some of the finest investigative minds for decades, no less.

UFO researcher, Francis Ridge would bring the account into the public arena following a caller to a radio station where he was acting as a guest divulging information of the incident on-air in 1983. He would contact the caller following the show and begin to examine the incident in much more detail. We will, as Ridge does in his report, refer to the gentleman as Mr. E, who provides Ridge and us with what we know.

The Highest Level Of Security – Nobody Came In, Nobody Went Out!

As we discussed in our examination of the Loring Air Force Base incidents, a bizarre wave of UFOs was seemingly sweeping across military installations around the United States during the last several months of 1975. In light of this, many military bases across America, if discreetly, were on a constant state of alert.

According to the informant, one evening in late-October, the military facility at Cheyenne Mountain was at their highest level – Security Option 5 Alert. What’s more, no one could leave the base at this time without the clearance from the highest authority, and only high-ranking military officers and specialist units would enter the facility.

All personnel was put on duty, with some being “rolled out of bed” in order to do so. Furthermore, several jets would scramble from the runways and into the skies overhead in one of the most extraordinary evenings in the base’s history.

Mr. E, along with several of his friends, was enjoying the first of several days leave on the day in question. After finishing their shift at 8 am that morning, they had set out into the nearby woodlands and countryside to hunt and camp out for several for the night.

As they were enjoying a late supper around the campfire at around midnight, they began to see the beginnings of the events they would soon be recalled immediately back to base for. At first, they believed they had witnessed a shooting star. They also began to notice “unusual animal activity” around them, more specifically, apparent sounds of agitation.

When they saw two more “shooting stars” they began to get the impression that something out of the ordinary was about to unfold.

Witness “Tracked A UFO For 20 Minutes!”

After quickly smothering the fire a little to decrease its brightness, they could clearly see three distinct and separate lights moving, apparently purposely in the skies overhead. Mr. E would state ^[1] to Ridge:

We were thinking our eyes were playing tricks on us until they lined up almost abreast of each other and proceeded directly toward the mountain!

Several minutes later, the sound of the facility’s high alert tones rang out meaning they were to return to base immediately. They were approximately 45 minutes drive away from the facility. It was a little after 2 am when they arrived. After showing their security passes, they were immediately sent to their posts, still wearing their hunting clothes, and would remain there until around 6 am.

Interestingly, and important for the details of the incident here, there was another member of their usual group who should have gone hunting with them that day. However, before they had set off, he was called in to work on radar duty. Knowing this, Mr. E and the others would soon find their friend to try and fill in the blanks as to the excitement of the previous evening.

He would claim that he had “tracked a UFO for a good 20 minutes” during the high alert. He would continue that the movement of the object was “erratic” and “weird”.

Within several days, and perhaps very aware of an unusually intense and secretive atmosphere surrounding the night in question, Mr. E and the hunting group began to perform their own discreet investigations. When they discovered that the log for the scrambled jets was completely blank, it was obvious that something out of the ordinary was underfoot.

Best To “Ignore” Or “Forget The Incident!”

Incidentally or not, around this time, a unit that Mr. E would call the “Air Force UFO Division” would arrive looking to interview various personnel around the base. This would include Mr. E and his hunting colleagues, who would all be interviewed separately. The radar controller was also interviewed, and while it isn’t clear if other base personnel were subject to the same treatment, all were ordered “not to mention the incident” to anyone outside of the base. Mr. E would elaborate:

As long as we were in uniform, we were not to discuss it with anyone other than military personnel with an official need-to-know…

Furthermore, the men were told that the object was, in fact, “navigational or landing lights” of a standard aircraft. Needless to say, the men, including Mr. E, would privately reject such a notion. The men were also advised to “ignore” the report they had filed and to “forget the incident”.

The fact that the men, especially when we consider they were told the lights were merely standard navigation lights, were told not to talk of the incident was a red flag of sorts to Mr. E. Especially when this was enforced with threats of prosecution of potentially being in violation of federal laws if they did so.

On the one hand, there were the brutal threats from this “UFO group” of the United States Air Force. Yet on the other “they played it off like it wasn’t anything (serious)”. These two attitudes were clearly in conflict with each other. They also were not at all in sympathy with the fact that the base was at its highest level of security for several hours.

Evidence Removed, Disciplinary Files Added!

Further discreet searching in the records of the base – all of which were freely available to all base personnel – appeared as though any mention of the strange object, including the radar confirmation, had simply been removed.

Perhaps rather more ominous, though, was the sudden written warning which came out of nowhere. And would remain permanently on their files for “drinking while on duty”. The date of the notice was the same as the night of the bizarre encounter. Not only was this not true, but the men were decisively off-duty at the time of the incident.

Even stranger, the radar operator, who was on duty at the radar screen, would receive the same written warning. It would appear that this file would serve to dismiss the men’s claims as drunken nonsense. Should, of course, they ever decide to talk of the incident in the future.

Interestingly, years later following his military career, one of the men in the group would go on to work for United Airlines. During his time there, he would search through their records. On the night in question, it appeared the airline had made a report of a UFO to the air force.

It would appear, like many sightings over or near the United States Air Force bases at the back end of 1975, not only was the sighting genuine, but the military did all that it could to obscure it. And even remove records and reports of such sightings. Quite often, for example, the use of the word “helicopter” in many records was clearly used in place of UFO.

Just what was the connection between such activity on the grounds of these military installations and the bizarre aerial objects above them during October and November 1975?

Another Complex Enigma Of An Incident

Such cases as the apparent incident over Cheyenne Mountain without fail lead us to the same questions as before. Just what did certain high-ranking members of the United States military know of such incidents, if indeed anything? And if there were knowledge and intelligence available to these high-ranking officers, how did such data come into their possession? Was it the result of intelligence operations and monitoring as would be the case in any other scenario? Or might such claims of secret deals between “them” and “us” have more truth than most might imagine?

And above all, just what was the reason for such activity in the first place. Over some of the most protected skies in the United States, no less. Were such missions to gather information and intel on the part of a species from elsewhere in the Universe? If so, what might that say about these apparent extraterrestrials? Might the idea that they would “come in peace” be nothing more than wishful thinking?

And if there was such an admittedly bizarre operation between humanity and an intelligence from elsewhere in the cosmos, one that the powers that be feel the need to keep from the larger population, then why would such intense activity be taking place so regularly?

Or might the operations be part of an ultra-secret military nature? If so, however, the same questions as above largely apply.

Ultimately, a big step forward toward answering a large portion of these questions is to establish the reasons for UFO secrecy in the first place. Just why are the vast majority of the world’s population simply not allowed to see such information? Is it simply that it doesn’t exist? The wealth of accounts would certainly suggest otherwise.

An Unsolved And Unrecognized UFO Encounter

The incident of late-October 1975 directly over the military nerve center in Cheyenne Mountain remains unsolved and unrecognized. And what’s more, it would unfold during a period of intense aerial activity. Activity that, as far as the official records are concerned, is as blurred as it is mysterious. Losing such a UFO incident among this barrage of activity is certainly not that much of a stretch.

Whether or not there is a connection, this activity we are examining also took place just prior to and during one of the most famous cases of alien abduction in history – that of Travis Walton. Walton would disappear while working as a logger in the forests of Arizona. Right after the men left their vehicle to look at a low-hovering disc-like craft. Five days later, he reemerged, confused and miles from home. Whether there is a connection is perhaps something that requires discussion. However, it would perhaps be a little amiss to not keep it as a consideration on the collective backburner.

Whatever the truth of the matter, that some bizarre, strange, and seemingly intelligent force was present in the skies over the United States during the final months of 1975 is surely without a doubt. As we continue to probe for more information, new accounts, and indeed a better understanding of these bizarre but intriguing encounters as a whole, the blurred and disjointed areas of such accounts as the Cheyenne Mountain incident will perhaps come more into focus and become much more coherent.

Check out the video below. It looks at UFO sightings around military bases in a little more detail. Intriguing and alarming at the same time.