The Groom Lake Desert Rat: Issue 24

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The Groom Lake Desert Rat

 · 9 months ago

Issue #24. April 4, 1995

In this issue...

• The Story Of "Jarod"
• All About Boron
• Groom In Outbreak
• Campbell Banned From A'Le'Inn
• Our Readers Respond
• Lincoln County In The News
• Intel Bitties

The Story Of "Jarod"

What first brought significant attention to Area 51 was the testimony of Bob Lazar, who went on Las Vegas TV in April and November of 1989 to claim that he had worked with alien spacecraft at Papoose Lake, south of Groom. He saw nine saucer-shaped craft, he claimed, stored in camouflaged hangars built into a hillside. There was a minor blip in the media as Current Affair and a few other tabloid shows picked up the story, but for the most part Lazar remained unknown outside Las Vegas and the community of UFO believers. Lazar lost credibility when his educational credentials could not be verified and when he pleaded guilty to a criminal charge relating to an illegal brothel. The Lazar movie, once optioned by New Line Cinema, has not yet come to pass, and Lazar himself has shown little interest in speaking further about his experiences. There's a well-paid niche awaiting him on the UFO lecture circuit--a trusting environment where veracity is rarely questioned--but Lazar has declined most offers with appropriate disdain.The Lazar story was superior to most other UFO claims because he offered specific technical details about the operation of the craft but claimed to know little about the program as a whole. His experience was limited to a few days on the job, and when recounting it, he was careful to delineate what he did and did not know for sure. Lazar's claims imply a longstanding relationship between the aliens and a secret division of the U.S. government. They suggest that the issue of "Unidentified Flying Objects" is moot, because the government has already identified both the craft and their owners, has been in direct contact with them and has assembled a substantial database of relevant information.

The problem with the Lazar story is that it has come from Lazar alone. A program such as he described would seem to require a large number of employees at multiple sites, but none have come forward in a public forum to confirm any of Lazar's claims.

That is, until now...

Introducing Jarod (1 And 2)

Our source has chosen "Jarod" as his pseudonym. That's pronounced "JAY-rod," which is the name of a certain individual for whom our source has great respect. The original Jarod is an alien, working here on earth as a scientific translator for the secret government research program. We have seen a sketch of "Jarod 1" drawn by our source, "Jarod 2." Jarod 1 is a handsome looking Gray, like you've probably seen on UFO shows on TV. He has a large, round, hairless head, with an expressionless slit for a mouth, two small holes for a nose and big, black wraparound eyes. He has four long fingers on each hand, ending in very long, Howard Hughes-style nails. Unlike on television, this Gray is dressed in human clothing. He is wearing a button-down shirt and is shown in the sketch in a relaxed, human-like posture as though sitting behind a desk. Our source explains that the street clothes are intended only to put at ease the humans who must interact with the alien. Our source says (with some ambiguity), that when Jarod 1 speaks to you, "you hear it in your own voice."Jarod 2 (henceforth simply "Jarod") is a human. He is a retired 70-year-old mechanical engineer who grew up in Pennsylvania and who says he worked for the secret government program from the mid- 1950s until his retirement in the late 1980s. We cannot attest to anything about Jarod's claims except that he has made them to us directly and we feel that, according our own private system of evaluation, he is genuine. We have not attempted to verify anything about his background. Our style is to take him at his word, collect the story as "folklore," then look for connections with the body of folklore we are assembling from other sources. What is true or false, we believe, will shake out on its own, because any fiction, carefully explored, will eventually prove inconsistent with itself. In the meantime, a well-crafted story is rare enough that it deserves appreciation on its own merits, independent of how it pans out.

In this case, even more than others, we have used a pseudonym for our source not to hide him from the government, which seems perfectly aware of his activities, but to protect him from an onslaught of UFO believers, tabloid TV shows and, yes, alien ambassadors. The Ambassador Merlyn Merlin II from the planet Draconis, a self-proclaimed alien in human form who preaches his own peculiar religion [DR#2, #23], is already aware of some of Jarod's claims and has camped out in his car in front of Jarod's house as though it were some sort of temple. As is Merlin's style, he made enough of a pain of himself that he had to be chased away by some firm discourtesy. There are a lot of Ambassador Merlins on earth, maybe not all of alien origin, but still capable of draining the life out of anyone they latch onto. They come to a witness like Jarod to preach to him their UFO gospel and seek confirmation for what they already believe.

Jarod's story is a compelling one, with all the elements necessary to make it the obsession of many a UFO fanatic. It could also become a tabloid extravaganza. Encounters [DR#10] has been calling him, as have been organizers of UFO conventions in California who want to pay him big bucks to speak--no verification required. Jarod has so far declined these offers. Jarod has already spoken, in a low- key way and without pay, at some minor UFO gatherings. He is not a flamboyant speaker, and he is easy to overlook among the extravagant claims and slick sales presentations at many UFO events. Nonetheless, word is starting to get around among the reasonably intelligent that this witness is a cut above the rest. We imagine that his name will be well-known before long, but we do not want to do anything to hasten the process. We are fond of Jarod, and do not want to jeopardize his privacy or the good will of his former employers.

Jarod's Claims

In summary, this is what Jarod claims....

• For over 30 years, Jarod worked on the mechanical design for simulators for human reproductions of alien flying saucers. These simulators are used to train pilots to fly the craft, but they are more than just a cockpit. They reproduce the entire craft, inside and out. Jarod says he knows of three of these simulators now in operation.
• Although he worked only with the human built simulators, some of the technical details he is familiar with reflect on those of the original craft. The simulators closely match the kind of craft Lazar describes, with a reactor in the middle and three gravity amplifiers below deck.
• Jarod's working environment was highly compartmentalized and all information strictly controlled--so much so that routine communications with other groups was severely impeded. Nonetheless, Jarod and his group were briefed over the years on human contact with the aliens and the secret government program that works with them. Jarod does not claim to know the whole story of what the aliens and secret program are up to but he offers some intriguing hints. (E.g. "Boron")
• On several occasions, Jarod 2 has seen Jarod 1, the Gray, but has never communicated with him.
• Jarod has been speaking to us and to the small UFO groups with the permission of his former employers. He is speaking at his own initiative, but he clears what he says with his former boss first. Some topics have been nixed and others approved, and what he has told us so far appears to be only a small part of what he knows.

We acknowledge that this is a lot to swallow at once. Many similar claims have been made in the UFO literature over the years, not many of them credible. What makes Jarod different for us is that we know him personally. We have talked with him many times over the past six months, and we see in his words and behavior all the nuances of reality. We also know several members of his family, and they all regard him as truthful, although a bit of a mystery even to them. Jarod's brother and son knew that he worked for classified defense-related projects throughout his career but they say he has never discussed his work until recently. We can confirm, by visits to Jarod's workshop behind his house, that he has an exceptional talent with things mechanical. Like Lazar, he can get totally wrapped up in technical projects and lose track of almost everything else.We do not expect our readers to trust our judgment or accept Jarod's claims as truth. We know what the skeptics' position will be: that Jarod is a distracted "Walter Mitty" merely recycling the standard folklore he read in the UFO literature. Nonetheless, he is adding a few new twists we haven't heard before and presents us with a story of considerable depth. We ask our readers to suspend judgment for now. We should focus first on understanding the story itself and on trying to integrate it into our body of existing folklore.

History Of The Program

Jarod spent most of his career at "Facility X," which he does not identify directly but that appears to be Los Alamos Laboratories in New Mexico. Specific facilities are one of the things he is not supposed to talk about. Curiously, there do not seem to be as many restrictions on his discussion of the aliens or of the early government program that first made contact with them.Jarod's story, like Lazar's, is rich and complex enough that we cannot recount it all in one Rat issue. We shall focus for now on the history of the secret government program, which has already been alluded to by Alfred [DR#23], Knapp's source "from a prominent Nevada family" [DR#22] and many other anonymous sources in the UFO literature. The secret program, it is said, was begun in the late 1940's or early 1950's after a series of UFO crashes in the southwestern U.S. provided the government with undeniable proof of the alien presence. Apart from the famous Roswell incident, there have supposedly been crashes at Aztec, New Mexico; in northwestern Arizona near Kingman and perhaps at other sites. Hardware, bodies and even some live ones were recovered, and government officials were pressed to decide what to do.

We will let Jarod explain the history in his own words. The passage below is reprinted from a recent series of faxes from Jarod to us. We have corrected the spelling and made some minor grammatical changes for clarity. We have also edited the manuscript to limit it to the program history, saving other topics for the future. Otherwise, this is Jarod's own report on the content of the briefings given to his design group. Jarod himself has reviewed this issue of the Rat and finds it to be accurate as far as he knows, and presumably it is also acceptable to his bosses.

This is the way I recall what was explained to the group I was assigned to, and only after we were all cleared for the project that was to be our responsibility (mechanical design for the avionics on the flight deck for the disc simulators).To protect what was found at the disc crash sites in New Mexico and Arizona, those in charge at the time scrambled for a position and a decision as to whom in the government would carry the responsibility. This included security, material, personnel, documents and military and civilian intelligence.

It was not decided until the Eisenhower administration in the early part of 1953. A group was formed by the President, and the chairman of the group was Vice President Richard M. Nixon. Around June of 1953, the final decision was made to set up a "satellite government." This separate government would interface with the U.S. Government for support only. Personnel involved in any part of disc retrieval, including first hand knowledge, were reassigned as satellite government entities. Additionally, new security requirements were established and new clearances assigned... Normally, clearances take 2 to 3 years for any responsible positions connected with disc design. (Bob Lazar was an unusual case due to his recommendation by Teller. This gave him an edge without going through a long clearance process. Teller is high up in the satellite government organization.) The rule for disclosure of information is 15 years after retirement in cases like mine... Here is a list of what is classified under their rules: technical data, drawings, photos, sketches, illustrations, procedures, all documents relating to personnel, companies, related associate military groups, code names, types of classifications, names of people, etc. Yes, I have dropped a few names, but only with permission. During my tenure at Facility X, Nixon and another former president made visits. We even got a handshake. What was amusing to us in the group was that most other visitors to our facility did not shake our hands nor did we know their names; they were familiar to us by face only.

The background as told to my group had some very interesting twists regarding craft retrieval and the first visitor encounter. Little did the government know that retrieval operations were monitored by the visitors. They, the visitors, were well aware of the mishap of one of their vessels; however, the military got to the crash site first. No details were provided to us on how contact was made to set up the initial meeting. The reason for contact almost 6 years after the Roswell incident was recalled as follows: The vessel that fell in Arizona in 1953 contained four entities; two were disabled and two were reasonably well but somewhat confused. (The visitors monitoring the retrieval activities noted with much pleasure the humane treatment provided to those involved.) All entities were later taken to Facility X for medical treatment and tests. Additionally, before leaving the scene, the two that were standing upright were allowed to re-enter the vessel. They entered the craft and disappeared from view. Some time had passed before exiting; it was later assumed that they were communicating with the monitoring craft.

A bizarre situation was encountered at the retrieval site. With the entities removed from the area, work proceeded: clean up and loading of the vessel on a trailer used to haul Sherman tanks. While preparations for this were being made, an entry crew was formed. They were dressed in clean-room clothing with medical surgical masks. The size of the crew was not mentioned to us. Communications was set up prior to entry. What happened when the entry crew went inside the vessel was noted as follows: Communications failed. After one hour inside, the crew emerged from the craft confused and with upset stomachs. They removed their masks and threw up. What was astonishing, they could not remember any of the inside details of the craft. The craft was sealed, camouflaged, loaded and shipped to an undisclosed Nevada test facility. The entry crew was sent to Facility X to undergo medical examinations. Results of the tests were not explained to us.

The vessel was exactly 10 meters in diameter and loading it on the tank retriever was simple. However, the overhang raised some concern due to road width. Since the pneuma-grips were still in place, it was decided to raise one end of the vessel to reduce the width. To the astonishment of retrieval crew, the crane located on the tank retriever was unable to raise the vessel. Horizontally raising or lowering was simple with no effort by the crane. Finally, it was decided to use the house-moving method with road blocks secured by military vehicles. Upon arrival in Nevada, two conditions annoyed our best intelligence support: (1) the problem with re-entry and (2) a strange low frequency humming sound still emitting from the lower part of the hull.

A particular item came to light as an anecdote: A member of the initial entry crew happened to be a fighter pilot. When asked if he would like to be part of the crew on the second attempt at reentry, without much hesitation he said, "I would rather take a rocket ship to Hell than to go back inside that craft." So it was a major item that had to be considered in the plan. It became paramount what the first item was: Establish a communications link with the boys. The boys had their own agenda: They were busily doing their own analysis of items provided in the quarantine area. This included food, facilities and us. It began to appear that we were the captees and they were the captors.

The entities, referred to now as the "boys," were secured in a medical facility that was manned by doctors, bioastronautic physicists, chemists and linguist. Initially, communications were limited to basic sign language. The first significant communication was between the bioastronautic engineer and the tallest entity of the four, who was dubbed 'Smiling Eyes.' This happening pleased the people in charge, but what ensued created a dilemma: The boys wanted to return to their vessel. After much deliberation, it was agreed to take them to the Nevada Test Site where the vessel was now located. They, the boys, were pleased upon inspection of the vessel's condition. The hatch was reopened for their entry. The four filed in. After a few minutes, the hum was silenced. 'Smiling Eyes' came out and went directly to the bioastronautic engineer requesting his presence in the craft. The team leader gave the okay and the two entered. After some time passed, both made their exit. The engineer looked well and smiling. The final outcome of this process was good news for the management. A request was made by the leader of the boys that they be housed at the Test Site, and they made additional requests for material, equipment and literature. So began a new era.

Before proceeding any further, one item has to be understood. All of the information presented here was provided to our group over a number of years, generally in technical briefings, design differences and discussions of classified requirements. The fact that we were young nuts-and-bolts type engineers made us quite skeptical of most information. After each session there was a lot of chuckles and further discussion within the group. Little did we know at the time that we were being monitored. Our comments were aired in following sessions in a very subtle manner; it did take some time to catch on. This made a big difference as time went on as our joking diminished with only serious discussions by the group after meetings.

To provide an illustration on how the structure of the program was decided on, one only has to look at the existing government. Think about what you would do to maintain a level of secrecy of something inherently totally bizarre in nature. Nixon did it right by establishing the satellite government. This provided cover for the visitors plus a totally new concept for protecting all information relating to this subject. The most complicated provisions of this pact was meeting the demands of the boys.

Selection of personnel in the organization was directed by the visitors. The leader was named to be the bioastronomical engineer who first made contact; his name cannot be told at this time. You cannot imagine the situation this caused. It was like putting a private in charge of the generals. Nearly all appointments were selected from the science field. All of the direction did not come from those boys picked up in the Arizona scenario: There is a chain of command. What they asked for is not completely known but some of the items included materials. One item was boron. We use this material for many things such as metals and nuclear processes. Some discord between the us and the boys was identified but it was not necessarily a problem that could not be dealt with.

What is surprising to me after reading many of the UFO books and listening to various speakers on this subject is that they almost have it right. But the information they are looking for is not in the known governmental chain of agencies but only in the exacto facto organization described above. It is believed that release of further information will come from the visitors themselves, but it will be accomplished a piece at a time. If you have understood any of the above it should give one clue. Impatience is not a virtue of the visitors. To shed some light on how it will proceed the example is a recent episode going on in New Mexico. (Reference the recent Midway sightings by a family in New Mexico.) Of course, this is where most all activity began. From what I know, the exacto facto government is again scrambling for a solution; the probable reason is distrust, not us of them, but them of us. These displays are one way for them to show disfavor. From my experience, the boys are very conservative with some emotions and occasionally show a sense of humor. Hard to get used to but nonetheless amusing. Whatever way they decide, I am sure it will be beneficial to mankind. For me, the sooner the better, some weights will be removed. No, I am not radical, just a practical engineer."

We will probably have more from Jarod in future issues.

All About Boron

"All I know is they sure take a lot of Boron," Jarod remarked cryptically at one of his talks before a small UFO group. When pressed for possible reasons, Jarod then remarked that, among other things, Boron is useful for preserving human bodies--a suggestion that caused some consternation among the abductees in the audience. When pressed, Jarod admitted that this was merely speculation on his part and that he didn't have any information that the aliens were using Boron to ship bodies. He said he knew for a fact only that Boron was being taken, although he could not reveal how he knew.In any case, Boron is a fascinating element, important to many chemical reactions and as an ingredient in some high-strength fiber composites. As a water softener in laundry detergent, Boron helps get clothes "whiter than white"--which may be important if you are a Gray. Boron is among the hardest substances on earth, second only to diamond, but its brittleness and high melting point make it difficult for us humans to work with; perhaps a more technologically advanced civilization could do more with it. Another interesting property of Boron, according a colleague who has done some research, is that it soaks up neutrons like a sponge, which may be useful in shielding or controlling nuclear reactions.

The vast majority of the world's Boron comes from the United States, and most of that is extracted from a big hole in the ground at--you guessed it--Boron, California, which happens to be adjacent to the most secret part of Edwards Air Force Base. The second largest producer is Searles Dry Lake at Trona, California, which happens to be adjacent to the highly restricted China Lake Naval Weapons Center. The other Boron mines in the U.S. are in those military/UFO hotbeds, Nevada and New Mexico.

Are we beginning to detect a BORON CONSPIRACY??? In any case, our recommendation to investors is BUY.

[Encyclopedia entry on Boron | More info from Bureau of Mines]

Groom In Outbreak

Groom Lake has a cameo appearance in the current film Outbreak, which is basically a helicopter movie with a few deadly viruses thrown in for plot. You'll miss the appearance if you are not looking for it, but the establishing shot for "Dugway Proving Grounds" is actually a nighttime photograph of Groom Lake like the one printed in the March 94 Popular Science. The photo has been severely manipulated to turn it into a moving 3-D shot, but the snow-capped mountains in the background can still be recognized. The producers could not get a photo of Dugway itself because the military was not cooperating with this very anti-military movie, which captures some of the X-Files-style paranoia of our age. We were disappointed only in the formula bad guy (Donald Sutherland) and unrealistically happy ending in which--wouldn't you know it--the world population is NOT exterminated by a nasty germ. The Sutherland character does not ring true because in real-life military horror stories, there isn't just one bad guy, there are hundreds, each one a church-going man who is "just following orders."We have reason to believe that Area 51 will soon graduate from a walk-on part to full Hollywood stardom, which is the next natural step in the evolution of its media identity. Psychospy is sworn to secrecy on most of these projects, but we can print one unconfirmed rumor: Twentieth Century Fox may be working on a movie (market unknown) called Independence Day, which ends with the President at Area 51. The plot is said to concern the alien presence, which the President has not been told about.

Campbell Banned From A'Le'Inn

Glenn Campbell has been officially banned from the Little A'Le'Inn for what he wrote about the proprietors in the latest edition of his Area 51 Viewer's Guide [DR#23]. He had been invited to dinner at the inn by some Hollywood types who are thinking of making a movie here, but Pat Travis ordered him out of the premises as soon as he entered. Campbell wonders now whether there would be a desert location closer to L.A. that would be better for filming. (You could reconstruct Rachel anywhere with a couple of mobile homes and a few sheets of plywood.)Campbell says he values his life, so he has every intention of obeying the ban. Campbell said: "I'd rather take a rocket ship to Hell than go back inside that bar."

Our Readers Respond

"Area 51 Reference Guide" Coming Soon

After perusing DR#23 I just couldn't resist placing a call to the Little A'Le'Inn in order to discreetly inquire into the availability of the Area 51 Viewer's Guide.A female answered, and after I voiced my interest in obtaining a copy of "the highly regarded Area 51 Viewers Guide" she rather enthusiastically explained that they don't stock it. Nor could she refer me to any source where I could obtain a copy. She did volunteer that in about 3 weeks they would have available the "Area 51 Reference Guide." She described this publication as a very exciting project that would be a comprehensive review of all known data concerning Area 51 including a number of color photos. She described it is a very professional product quite unlike anything available to date.

Sounds like "Ma and Pa" are a couple of real ingrates!

--Derbyguy@aol.com

Response To Alfred

"Alfred" was new to me, so of course I read Rat 23 with eyes wide, and (so to speak) my hand on my wallet. What IS one to think... especially when the story disinters the old tale of a UFO crash at Aztec, dismissed up to now as a 1950 hoax?But I don't mean to argue the truth or falsehood of the Aztec report, any more than you want to argue the truth or falsehood of saucers at Area 51. (And in fact it's easy to reconcile everything with a scenario like this: Krause knew there was more than one crash. He had good info about Roswell, but didn't know details of the others. He knew of Frank Scully's 1950 book about the Aztec crash. But he wasn't bothered either by its evident silliness or subsequent unmasking as a hoax played, allegedly, on Scully. Scully, after all, was over his head writing about anything but Hollywood, and talk of a hoax, Krause might think, could easily have been disinformation. Crashes HAD occurred, after all; Aztec evidently was one of them.)

I was curious about one detail in Alfred's account: "Also about this time, there were reports of a UFO crash at nearby Aztec, New Mexico. The Farmington Daily News reported the event in one of its issues. There had been a pinhole leak in the craft, the story said, and three small bodies had been recovered, three- to-four feet in stature, charred to a crisp. The craft itself was reported in good condition. The next day, the News recanted its report and called the crash a hoax."

Were these Farmington Daily News reports about the crash itself, or about Scully's book? If they were about the book, then Alfred may have compressed events in his memory. The book was published in 1950; the magazine article that debunked it came out in 1952. Or did the paper catch up to the story two years late, only to discover the refutation just the next day? But if the reports were about the crash itself, then that's a detail I don't think the world knows about.

-- gsandow@pipeline.com

Range Worker Finds No Evidence

A former Nellis Range employee who apparently worked at either Tonopah or Groom in the late 1980s writes that he saw no evidence of UFOs in his three years there.

There are some areas where some weird stuff is going on, but I believe it has more to do with research, i.e.: biological. I truly feel that the UFO stories are just distractions from the real activities and probably started by gov't agents. Every time I read information that seems to be getting close to the real programs, I see lots of UFO stories start flying.Me being a UFO buff since I was in junior high, I was excited about getting a job on the range and made every effort to discover any information or physical evidence that may be UFO related. No luck.

Lincoln County In The News

Lincoln County has been in the news lately because of a nuclear waste plan adopted last month by the county commissioners. The number one political hot potato in Nevada is the Yucca Mountain Project, a proposed underground storage site adjoining the Nevada Test Site where the Department of Energy (DOE) wants to permanently stash high-level waste from nuclear power plants. Naturally, the emotional reaction by Nevada residents is Not in My Backyard... never mind that backyards are pretty big out here. Yucca proponents point out that the Nevada Test Site is already profoundly irradiated by years of nuclear testing, so what more damage could a carefully managed storage site do? Opponents, of course, hear the word "nuclear" and go ballistic without further ado. Psychospy, with political allies on both sides of the question, has walked a very careful line on this one, and so have Nevada's politicians. It is considered political suicide for any state official to come out in support of the project, but the rest of the country seems to think Nevada the ideal site and Congress appears close to making it so. [Official Yucca Project Home Page*]Politicians are in a bind because they can't open negotiations with the DOE or power companies without appearing to support the project and break the state's unity, thus Nevada may not be appropriately compensated if the project goes through. What the Lincoln County Commission has done is, in essence, open their own negotiations with the nuclear industry. The commissioners have passed a resolution allowing a transfer facility to be built in a remote part of the county where waste casks would be moved from rail to truck and be temporarily stored enroute to Yucca. For this, the county would receive enormous monetary compensation and all the safeguards money can buy.

The Commission's resolution brought the TV crews up from Vegas and resulted in immediate and violent reactions statewide. The state Attorney General filed suit against the two offending commissioners to have them removed from office. This, in turn, allowed members of the State Assembly and Senate to jump into the fray in support of Lincoln County, on the grounds that the commissioners' "free speech" was being violated. Thereby, these politicians can ease into the Yucca negotiations without being seen to support the project itself.

We have no respect for some of our Lincoln County officials, but a several others have some political smarts and seem to have pulled off a significant coup. Naturally, this means that the hysterics of the county, hearing the word "nuclear," have amassed to lynch these officials by means of a recall drive, in addition to the state's suit. Although we are never optimistic about the future of Lincoln County, the Desert Rat wants to voice its support for Commissioners Eve "Don't Mess with Me" Culverwell and Ed "Has a Spine After All" Wright. At least Campbell isn't alone in fighting the morons.

Intel Bitties

THE DESERT RAT IS TOO BIG TO HANDLE, some of our internet readers say. It was over 50K last issue, which can clog up the mail system of subscribers with slow modems. As an alternative, we now offer an abbreviated mailing in which we send only the table of contents. Then you know that a new Rat is out and can download it by FTP or WWW at your convenience. (WWW is actually our most readable version, with hot keys to back issues and to supplemental information.) To switch to the abbreviated mailing, send us a message at Area51rc@aol.com.GROOM LAKE VOR. As mentioned in DR#18, the frequency of the Groom Lake VOR (navigation beacon) is apparently 117.5 MHz. The identifier is "dash-dash dash-dot-dash-dot dash-dot-dash-dash." Alas, we do not speak that language, but we are told it translates into "MCY." That would seem to imply that Groom is masquerading as Mercury, which has no VOR.

JOHN ANDREWS of the Testers Corp., who is known for designing plastic airplane models before the planes themselves officially exist, points out that the stealth helicopter discussed in the March 5 Aviation Week article [DR#23], greatly resembles his "Stingbat LHX" stealth helicopter model with scimitar shaped blades and no tail rotor. Alas, Andrews may have been too far ahead of the game, since this 1989 model is no longer available.

BOOKS ON AZTEC CRASH. Two books cover the alleged Aztec UFO crash mentioned by Alfred [DR#23]. Behind the Flying Saucers by Frank Scully was a best seller around 1950, so you will probably find it at your public library. It's a pulp potboiler written in 72 days. More interesting is UFO Crash at Aztec, by William Steinman, a fat 1986 book with lots of interesting tidbits, including mention of Area 51 as the repository for alien material (pre-dating Lazar) and the text of the True Magazine article that debunked Scully. The book is not widely distributed, but you may be able to get a new copy for $18.95 from Arcturus Books, (407) 398-0796. Arcturus also sells used copies of the Scully book. (We wonder if Scully is the source for the agent's name in The X-Files. [Not true says reader.])

[UFO Crash at Aztec is now available through us. See DR#26.]

UFO CRASH DATES. According to the UFO literature (not necessarily reliable), these are the dates of the three alleged UFO crashes we have mentioned: Roswell: July 2, 1947 (Source: Randle and Schmitt). Aztec: May 25, 1948 (Source: Steinman). Kingman: Around May 20, 1953 (Source: Fowler via Good in Above Top Secret, page 399, recommended reading).

CORRECTION. Miss Edith reports that she is NOT the only active member of the Rachel Senior Center, as reported in DR#23. There's also Rita, Fay and Lois. Rita was especially pissed to have been overlooked; we'll probably never hear the end of it.

LEGAL FUND THANKS. We wish to thank PK, PM, CH, CP, RK, RH and DY79FF for recent contributions to the legal fund. Legal pursuits are continuing, but for strategic reasons we will not discuss them in the Rat unless they become a matter of public record.

AN ARTICLE BY GLENN CAMPBELL on Groom Appears in the current issue of Covert Action Quarterly, Spring 1995.

THE MOUNT STERLING HIKE, scheduled for the Saturday, April 8, starting at 11am, is proceeding as planned. See DR#23 for details. Snow and mud are likely on at least part of the trial, so dress accordingly. (No tennis shoes!) The meeting point is milepost CL 131.1 on US- 95, about 50 miles NW of Vegas. This is planned as a day trip, but for those who are interested in staying another day, we may camp out in the desert (could be cold) and mount a different expedition on Sunday. The destination will be discussed at the first hike.

THE CNN REPORT ON GROOM [DR#21] aired on TBS on 4/2, but there is still a chance to see it on CNN's Earth Matters this Sunday, April 9, at 2:30 pm ET (11:30 am PT).

OUR SOURCES INSIDE THE AIR FORCE say the Desert Rat is widely read and much appreciated by our men in blue. The Rat lets the AF know which issues are important. If Psychospy introduces a scandal, and it falls flat on the media marketplace, the AF knows it can safely be ignored. If the issue takes off, maybe they should worry. The Desert Rat is said to give the AF their best overall gauge of what is going on in the public sector regarding Area 51, an informative role we are happy to play.

It is Psychospy's sincerest hope that we and the Air Force can be friends again someday. After all, we kissed and made up with Gene Huff after many harsh words were exchanged. Makes you think anything is possible.