So I asked who took the picture and what the caption meant. It was explained to me that some time before, some lights had been spotted outside the back gates of Woodbridge, the base right next door to Bentwaters and shared many of the same personnel, and that they got so excited that they actually called the commander out to look at them. Now the locals think UFOs landed here. The big laugh was that someone got a picture of one of the targets, a truck that didnt even have an engine in it, and claimed that it moved around and supposedly had real missiles on it.
We all had a good laugh and then some years passed. I worked with security personnel on daily basis, met all kinds of airmen and officers, and new many locals and counted them among my friends and in all that time not a word was spoken about any UFOs which is odd because if you believe the stories you see and hear now about the Bentwaters/Woodbridge incident youd think the whole base was on alert and thats all anyone talked about. At the time they all dismissed it as a tractor on its way home late at night driving through the rows of trees. The pines were hand-planted in neat rows so a tractor driving through the forest wouldnt be unusual in the least.
Im not sure what changed but just before I was to be sent back to the states the UFO incident started to crop up all over the place and even new recruits asked about it the moment they landed. I lived about an hour from base, which was rare for any AF personnel but I got to live in an area not frequented by Americans so I was somewhat of an oddity with my neighbors, and finally over the fences late at night and in the pub people started asking me if I knew anything about the UFO. Knowing the art of a good prank is making up one story and sticking with it I told them that in the most secure area of the bomb dump, in a half-buried bomb-proof building with two locks that no one person was ever allowed to hold both keys at the same time, in a vault inside this building with two combinations, again where no one person could know both, was a metal rod on a heavy wooden platform. Once a month, under heavy guard, these four people would open the vault and a certified inspector (which I had finally become at the time) would have to verify that the metal rod was still there. It was thin rod, about a quarter inch in diameter, about three feet long, with two slight bends. It was solid and rounded at both ends. I told them that I had no idea what it was, why it was there, and why it was held in virtually the most secure location on the base but rumor had it that came from the very UFO that landed that night and was absolute proof of alien life visiting our planet. As the vault was real, and the method for getting in the vault was real, it seemed like a plausible story that many people could collaborate. There was even a real thin metal rod in the vault, but it was only something that had fallen off the door years before and the only reason we opened the vault from time to time was to verify the locks still worked. It was always empty the entire time I was stationed there.
I wasnt the only one making up stories. Somebody started the rumor that the large square cisterns of water could be drained to reveal the doors to underground bunkers (they were really there for the firefighters) and base personnel were forbidden to hike in the forest behind the base (we were asked not to hike in uniform, as at the time an American in uniform was an easy target, also, it was private property). When the new hardened aircraft shelters were being built they were suddenly UFO bunkers. And the night some airmen saw lights in the trees suddenly became an international incident that was the subject of cover-ups and conspiracies. The lights themselves slowly became real UFOs, that landed, were touched, Geiger-countered (really, go back to Bentwaters in 1980 and try to find a Geiger counter) burned hands, broke trees, left holes in the ground, and finally left parts behind.
I have to smile at that last bit, because I think somewhere, somehow, I started that part of the story. Yes, I will never get credit for it and have no proof, but its kinda nice to know I dipped my finger into what is today a true UFO legend. And I did it just to see if anyone would believe it, to see if it would make the papers.
Ive seen many shows that touch on the Bentwaters/Woodbridge incident and even a couple that featured it and frankly Im amazed. The people seem so sincere. Do they really believe they saw a UFO break branches off of trees and drip molten metal into the ground? Are they just enjoying some fame from stories they made up? All I can say is at the time it was a small report, and from what I heard the airmen who reported the lights were actually embarrassed that the commander was even called out, because they were just going to dismiss it but once you are out there with your commander, you better make sure he didnt feel like he wasted his time.
And when the locals ask for a story and youre loving the attention, youd better make it a good one.
Randy R. Pischel
On a side note, there is a picture of the vault I described here: http://twinbases.org.uk/photbw/pc/2005-05-LB--bldg398-wsa.htm along with a note I sent them years ago. Even the guy who wrote in from the Security Police Squadron didnt know the vault was empty. Its the perfect prop for the perfect UFO story.