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Case Basics:
This section compiled by Richard Hall: During the early morning hours of January 18, 1978, UFOs were sighted flying over Fort Dix and McGuire AFB, adjacent military bases. Shortly afterward, an Air Force security patrol was ordered to the back gate of McGuire AFB to allow entry to New Jersey State Police who were searching for something. One of the airmen on duty was Sgt. Jeff Morse (pseudonym). The state trooper told Morse that a Fort Dix MP was pursuing a low-flying object that had hovered over his car; then a small being with large head and slender body appeared in front of his car. The MP had panicked and shot the alien several times with a .45 automatic. The being had fled over the fence between the two bases, before falling and dying on the deserted runway. Morse and his colleagues found the body lying on the runway. As they followed routine procedure and roped off the area of the "crime scene," other "blue beret" forces unfamiliar to Morse and his companion took over. Morse was relegated to a back-up role, but could see from a slight distance what was happening. Later that day a team from Wright-Patterson AFB arrived in a C-141 cargo aircraft, crated up the body, loaded it on board, and took off. Morse and his companion were warned not to talk about the incident or they would be court-martialled. Two days later Morse and other participants were taken to Wright- Patterson AFB, OH, where they underwent intimidating interrogation and were again warned not to talk about the incident. (Morse supplied the names of the interrogation team taken from their name badges, and their identities have been verified.) Morse reported; "[They] told me about my duty to keep my mouth shut. . . . I signed a form and it is supposed to bind me for life." Shortly after returning to McGuire AFB, Morse was debriefed by his commanding officer, a lieutenant colonel (name also known), and heard no more about the incident. Shortly thereafter each of the airmen who had been involved was transferred to a separate overseas base. Morse was shipped to Okinawa. The author has met with Morse face-to-face several times, talked with him on the telephone numerous times, and considers him completely credible. He has cooperated fully, answering all questions to the best of his ability and agreeing to meet and talk with various colleagues. He has given a formal deposition on the incident in the presence of several witnesses, and was subjected to questioning on specific details. As a direct consequence of innocently being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Morse has been harassed and threatened, and his reputation defamed to the point that he had difficulty finding employment in the law enforcement field. Another witness of this extraordinary event was George Filer (Major, USA, Ret.), who was stationed at McGuire AFB in 1978. Serving as an intelligence officer; one of his duties was to brief the commanding general. He was not on duty at the time of the incident, but the next morning he heard talk about the "alien body" and saw a lot of unusual activity He is prepared to testify on what he knows firsthand and what he has learned since about the incident.
More Information:
The additional information that follows is taken from the MUFON Symposium Proceedings, "THE FATAL ENCOUNTER AT FT. DIX-McGUIRE: A CASE STUDY; Status Report IV." Copyright ® 1985 by Leonard H. Springfield. Additional details about the case came by phone conversation and letter exchange between Springfield and Morse based on specific questions by Springfield. Description of the Humanoid: At varying times during his patrol duty, Morse was within 40 to 70 feet from the prostrate body on the abandoned runway #5. Never close enough to observe details such as facial features, or its hands and feet, he did recall that, under the glare of truck headlights, the skin of the unclad, hairless body was wet, shiny, and snake-like. As reported in his initial letter, the entity was about 4 feet in height with large head, slender torso, thin arms and legs, and overall, of grayish-brown coloration. Unquestionably not human, it was however of humanoid stature, fitting the anatomical description so often heard from military sources who have made claim to having seen entities at crash sites and as defined, coincidentally, by a medical source who allegedly performed an autopsy on a specimen in the early 1950's. Always pressing for more detail, I once proffered the notion that the McGuire corpse could have been that of a wild animal, a deer perhaps or an escaped ape from a military experimentation lab, or a zoo. To this Morse replied, "No zoo nearby. We did have a problem with deer on the runway, but no one ever made such a big fuss over a deer." The only other anomaly that Morse attributed to the presence of the body was the strong smell of ammonia in the cold night air, and, I note here that the same odor has been present at other crash sites. The Retrieval Operation. It was maximum security, said Morse who, alone, in his patrol car, received word by radio that a state of alert was in effect at McGuire as a result of the shooting incident. He was ordered to Gate #5 to answer the request of a state police officer who had been "running code" with the MP during his encounter at Ft. Dix and wanted admission to the airbase. Morse was ordered to "comply," but when the trooper wanted to get closer to the runway he was not allowed to do so, and he was angry. On orders by radio, Morse was told that all personnel - including he and other members of his security police unit - were restricted from entry into the roped-off zone. Taking command was a new and unfamiliar team of Blue Berets that suddenly descended onto the scene, just moments after the runway had been cordoned off. With speed and efficiency "they took over" he said, "and when asked who they were we were told nothing and ordered to stay outside the ropes." Perplexed by this covert action, he noted that all of them were staff sergeants and up, wearing fatigues without patches or insignia. And for headgear, he said, "they wore blue berets just like mine." In one letter Morse vaguely speculated they were "undercover cops" and, by phone, he said he felt certain "they" were stationed somewhere at McGuire to account for their quick deployment to the runway. In support of this, when asked if helicopters were seen or heard overhead or landed on or near the scene, his reply was negative. This, it seems, would rule out any notion that they had been transported from an outside base. It also strengthened his belief, and mine, that a UFO had not crashed or been disabled nearby requiring close tactical air support. But, what of a landed craft, perhaps one that touch-landed earlier at Ft. Dix? Could it have deployed one or more of its kind to perform a duty, forever unknown, at one or both of the adjoining military installations? The book, "Clear Intent" by Lawrence Fawcett & Barry Greenwood (Prentice-Hall, 1984) relates many reports of UFO surveillance over airbases in 1975-76 and I know of many more hidden under the lid of secrecy. At McGuire, once the sensitive area had been roped off and ECP (Entry Control Point) established, a generator unit was brought in for better lighting. At least a dozen men, said Morse, armed with M-l6's were assigned to guard at the ropes and no one was allowed to enter except the base commander, the security police squadron commander, 1st Lt. WS of the security police squadron, and a base photographer. While on patrol, Morse watched the Blue Beret specialists spray the corpse from a portable tank and cover it with a white sheet. Before daybreak the body was carefully placed onto a platform and a wooden frame built around it. This was finally placed into a large square silver metal container, about 10 x 10 feet with undistinguishable blue markings Before going off duty, Morse and others watched the silver box fork-lifted into a C-141 which arrived about 7 a.m. from Wright-Patterson AFB (identified by special markings) and, later, at a distance he said he watched the plane and its secret cargo soar aloft into limbo, presumed destination, Dayton, Ohio. For Sgt. Morse and others of the Blue Beret regulars at McGuire, it was far from over when the C-141, with corpse, took off. Two days later he and three others he named were also on a C-141 on orders to report to Wright-Patterson, the base of many sancta. The setting at Wright-Patterson was like that of a court martial, a table and chairs in an unadorned room which Morse describes as follows: "While there we were all together except for actual interrogations. Mine had two men, one apparently a civilian with pipe and beard who never spoke. At one point there were three men. One played nice guy, one mean guy, and, of course, the silent civilian. All they wanted to know was the nature of the incident, what I knew and then told me about my duty to keep my mouth shut...I signed a form and it is supposed to bind me for life." Never once, as Morse recalls, did any of the interrogators offer information or an explanation of the incident. Nor did anyone ever refer to the retrieved dead body or suggest that it may have been of extraterrestrial origin. Said Morse, "they beat around the bush, all references to it were indirect." The day after the interrogation, Morse returned to McGuire, was debriefed by his Commanding Officer, Lt. Col. FM, and released for normal duty. The incident, he said, was not discussed again by anyone as though it never happened. Latest Information: This last section compiled by Springfield / Hall The former Air Force security policeman who claims to have witnessed a UFO incident on January 18, 1978, involving military police at McGuire AFB, New Jersey and adjacent Fort Dix, and New Jersey State Police, recently visited the Washington, D.C., area from overseas, where he is employed and met with the authors. The Fund for UFO Research sponsored a mini-conference to bring Stringfield from Cincinnati, Ohio, and have representatives of the Fund meet the witness to form their own impressions of his credibility. The Fund-sponsored mini-conference took place on January 24, 1987, at a large shopping mall in the Washington, D.C., area suburbs. In addition to the authors and Morse, Dr. Bruce S. Maccabee (Chairman of the Fund) and William H. Hall (electronics engineer and brother of Richard) were present. Dr. John B Carlson, Univ. of Maryland astronomer and Fund Board Member, was to have been present, but a postponement caused a schedule conflict and he was out of town on the date of the conference. William Hall. a former technical consultant to the National Investigations Committee an Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), substituted since he had a number of things in common with Morse (including military police background and overseas duty stations) and would be able to judge Morse's credibility as he talked about his activities . By prior arrangement Morse remained incognito, using only his first name, but talked freely and responded to questions by Maccabee and William Hall. (The authors know his full name, employment status, past biography, etc.) During the questioning and review of the alleged incident, Morse filled in details that were missing from his previous account, but offered no startling new information. A number of questions were clarified, and some new information (including claims that can be checked and proved or disproved) were offered. However, the authors were again impressed by Morse's straight forwardness and lack of embellishment. The most significant new information related by Morse, briefly, was his claim that on a trip to the United States to visit his family in October 1986 he had been "detained," while in California, under obscure pretenses. Outraged, he filed a lawsuit against the California-based authority and notified Stringfleld by letter that he would return to the United States in January 1987 for court appearances and, at that time would be willing to meet him and Dick Hall and a couple other well-trusted friends to discuss the matter. But, during Morse's layover in the States he could learn nothing about the cause or reason for his detainment, nor the identity of the source who dictated the "pick up and hold" order. His legal probes, for some inexplicable reason, had been stalled in a tangle of red tape. Among other things discussed at the mini-conference was the entire question of alleged harassment of UFO crash/retrieval witnesses, apparently in an attempt to intimidate them into silence. If Morse's story is credible, he is potentially an important witness who would tend to undermine the official cover-up. Unfortunately, this makes him vulnerable to retaliation (which may account for his detainment) and inhibits his ability to lead a normal life. Skepticism about crash/retrieval reports may be fully justified and entirely understandable on the part of UFO "believers" and "disbelievers" alike unless they have met Jeff Morse or one of his many counterparts face-to-face. Morse has now provided many additional leads that we intend to check, and we will report our findings objectively as new information is obtained. Meanwhile, the authenticity of the "Incident Report" form Morse supplied to Stringfleld (reproduced in the MUFON 1985 UFO Symposium Proceedings), obtained from a colleague still on active duty, has been disputed by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) on the grounds that the style and terminology used "allegedly" does not follow proper Air Force style and is therefore probably a hoax. One of the key statements made by AFOSI was that pay grades (E-2, E-3...) were given instead of ranks (Corporal, Sergeant...) on the official form. Aside from the fact that Morse has claimed all along that this was a rough draft "back room" copy subject to review and revision, and that minor errors would be corrected by responsible officials before the final report was filed, the AFOSI statement is inaccurate. Pay grades, rather than ranks, are routinely filed in official Air Force reports. Participants of the mini-conference discussed ways of obtaining additional confirmation of the reported 1978 event, and various initiatives will be undertaken to do so. As a result of the mini-conference, two additional persons (B. Maccabee and W. Hall) now have met and talked with Morse and can confirm that he is not a "fairy tale" or a figment of the imagination. They are also now in a position to help confirm or disconfirm his story. See official documents relating to the Fort Dix, McGuire AFB Case. Entire article arranged, edited for the UFO Casebook Magazine by B J Booth Return to: UFO Case files |
