By Jack PhillipsMy name is Jack Phillips.
I am 51 years old and ex-military police. I was stationed in West Germany from 1974-1976. Two different types of 'duty stations' while serving there. 'White hat' and Physical Security. I had two separate sightings, one at each unit.
The first was at a 'highly sensitive weapons assembly depot' in the NW section of West Germany(back then it was W. Germany). Specifics I will share later as the actual location. I was a 'tower rat'. Physical security 'specialist'. 12hrs up and 12hrs down, from 00:00hrs to 12:00hrs, 12 day shifts with 3 off.
To say protocols were handled in a nonchalant manner would be putting it mildly...back then. When I first arrived at this unit, the 00:00hr 'guard mount' was assembling and awaiting the OD's inspection. Out of the roughly 20 MPs present, 18 of them were in a questionable state of readiness.
In fact 5 of them were propped against the wall with their M-16s acting as a brace from the floor to their chests, to keep them upright at 'attention'. The OD was relieved to hear that those individuals were assigned to the least security sensitive areas on site.
It was roughly three months after I arrived, around the middle of May 1974. There were three areas of interest. Area 1 where assembly of the 'sensitive weapons' was performed...payload to carriage. Area 2 where the delivery carriage devices were stored(least secured). Area 3 where the payloads were stored.(highly secured).
I was in Tower 4 of 7, of Area 3, from the 00:00hrs to 12:00hrs shift. It was the fourth day of my 12day cycle. It was around 03:30hrs as it was starting to become dawn. We were discouraged from wearing watches as to not count down the minutes...
I must tell you, right now, about the "50-5 Program". We 'tower rats' were required, every three months, to undergo a psychiatric evaluation to determine...well you can guess why if you have ever spent anytime in a 4'X4'X8' box 40ft in the air through all kinds of weather day and night for any length of time.
Unfortunately, there was a shortage of replacement personnel within the 50-5 Program and the evaluations were not allowed to be performed. An MP's answer to "Catch-22". You could request an evaluation, all you wanted. Getting the evaluation was a whole different matter. If you did manage to receive one, the results were always..."fit for duty".
I had just awakened from a period of 'deep observation' and noticed an intense 'star' in the northern sky. It wasn't there any of the other shifts, but it was the first clear sky I had seen since my arrival in Germany. I grew up in NW Michigan and had never seen a star so illuminating as this. If it had been the eastern sky, you may have convinced me it was Venus. A Venus that has the ability to instantly go from a point far away to roughly 100yds from my tower and increase in size. From a 'star point' to approx. 60ft in diameter.
A 'bluish green glow' more to the side of green, surrounded the craft(?) No sound. Just hovering above Area 3, inside of the fence line. I was about to use the field phone that connected each tower to the guard shack at the area to report. Hand crank bell alert, when all power went out for about 30secs. The base had two 12cylnder powered generators that were to kick in immediately during power outages. This is to initiate within 10secs. Nothing happened until 'Venus' instantly departed. Then all hell broke loose.
The alarm system is attached to all bunker doors. Pedestrian and access. Each guard shack had a master board where you could reset each door's electromagnetic switch. Electrical storms, if close enough, would occasionally cause a(singular) door's alarm to be set off. Every alarm on site was going off. Bell's, 'clackers' and klaxons were all sounding. The guy's in the shacks were frantically trying to silence the sound by resetting the board switches. To no avail.
The 'roving unit', where you spent the other 12hrs of your shift, was dispatched and had to reset every alarm by opening and closing every monitored door physically. "Shit!", one NCO remarked. "I've been stationed here seven years and nothing has ever happened to cause something like this before."
Did I report? Yes. Was I taken seriously? Remember...50-5. No paper...no problem. A variation of "Don't ask. Don't tell".