Most people have the common misconception that Paul first contacted the Air Force late in 1980. When he actually made that first call and spoke to Ernest Edwards is important because it is a marker of when his sightings occurred. It separates them from everything else. Some of the AFOSI documents do suggest it was late in the year, possibly in October. Jerry Miller and Richard Doty were also reported to have visited Paul’s home in October, which no doubt led many to assume that Paul must have contacted the Air Force not long before their visit. One document even stipulates that Paul had contacted Richard Doty in October about aerial objects over the weapons storage area. That wording can easily lead to the assumption that his sightings must have happened not long before. In fact, no mention is made of when he first contacted Edwards, when his sightings actually occurred, or that he had film showing vehicles actually landing inside the MWSA. Attachment D even states he had been filming "Aerial Objects" over Kirtland AFB during the last 15 months, a statement not only incorrect, but that generalizes Paul's reason for contacting Edwards. All of this might lead anyone to believe that Paul’s experiences, at least anything of interest to the Air Force, must have occurred late in 1980. That is not the case at all.
Ernest Edwards always gave the impression that the first strange events he reported were sightings by his own men on August 8th of that year. The first word of those sightings would eventually appear in the now infamous AFOSI Complaint Form, dated 2-9 September 1980, written by Richard Doty (Attachment A). From the wording in this Complaint Form it would be easy to think that the first time Doty had heard from Edwards was on the 2nd of September. Actually, the document only summarizes a series of events that supposedly occurred in August and September.
In a conversation I had with Ernest Edwards on December 6, 1985, soon after he had returned to Albuquerque from overseas duty, he commented that he had been working with Paul since 1980, then paused and added “October…somewhere along in that time frame.” Some time later, I learned that on October 31st, just a few weeks before I had spoken with him, Edward’s had met with two representatives from Sandia Security who had asked to speak with him on behalf of Senator Pete Domenici. Paul had sent me copies of several letters he had written to the Senator, and included with those letters was a brief summary of the October 31st meeting, a summary that had been written by Edwards himself, by then Executive Officer to the USAF Chief of Security Police. My copy of this briefing transcript “log entry” appears to be missing a page, perhaps more than one, but what is there is very revealing.
On October 31, 1985, Mr. Don Stone and Mr. Sam Ortega, of Sandia Security, arrived at 9AM and Edwards led them into an adjacent office to begin “the briefing”. Then, in a very surprising contradiction, the first two items listed in the document state:
First contact - Jan 80: Paul calls me at work (1608th SPS/CC, Manzano) and tells me he wants to talk to me about the “landings” on the mountain and in Coyote Canyon. I arrange meeting and go to his house. Observed equipment, ‘3aw (sic) photos, went out on deck and observed moving and stationary lights. Showed them photos Paul gave me of lights in Coyote.
Related to them what Paul had told me of his data collection. Measurement of disturbances in local magnetic fields and correlation to actual sightings. Explained use of linear recorders and showed them copy of strips dated 27 May 80, night of first full briefing by fireplace in Paul’s home; 31 May 80, night of heavy attack by alien; 1 Jun 80, night of visit by John warren, LASL; 6 Jun 80, day of call to White House; etc.
The implications are obvious. Whether or not Edwards immediately referred Paul to Richard Doty—through Edwards others in the Air Force hierarchy undoubtedly learned of Paul’s activities immediately after his call. This would all have happened within a few weeks at most of when the films were taken. The full briefing transcript (Attachment E) makes it clear that Edwards not only knew about Paul's activities but also what Doty and others were doing. He mentions disturbances in local magnetic fields correlating to actual sightings and, even five years after the events, he was apparently able to produce copies of several strips of data Paul had collected. These data strips had obviously been made on several occasions when something significant was taking place at Paul’s home. One strip is even attributed to an alien attack, which certainly suggests Paul’s frame of mind by that time. If counterintelligence agents had been aware of Paul for some time and were already taking steps discredit him, who can say what activity might have been staged to push these increasingly strange beliefs into him. Nevertheless, it is clear that Paul had been a known issue for months, though it would never be openly acknowledged in any of the documents that appeared later on.
In his meeting with Stone and Ortega, Edwards gave plenty of details emphasizing alien interpretations, implant victims, and the Archuleta ‘base’. What he told them shows that he knew quite a lot about what Paul's activities, information he almost certainly obtained directly from Paul. Curiously though, Edwards told them very little about Doty, only briefly mentioning his involvement. Also, for some reason Edwards specifically noted that he did not tell Stone and Ortega about a mysterious helicopter flight that took place almost immediately after the November 1980 meeting at Kirtland AFB. (Edwards later told me himself that he found out the flight had gone to the Archuleta Mesa, though he did not know who was onboard or what the purpose of it was.) Why Edwards would leave out some information and intentionally minimize Doty’s involvement, facts that Stone and Ortega might very well have deserved to know, is curious. They are certainly significant omissions.
It is also curious that Edwards mentions Coyote Canyon, even if he was simply referring to the general area. Based on the information I have available, Paul never mentioned lights or landings in Coyote Canyon at all. He knew of Coyote Canyon, and he had mentioned the possibility that the vehicles he had filmed could have traveled down the canyon to remain unseen. However, Coyote Canyon is not visible from Paul's home. The entrance to the canyon is on the opposite side of the Manzano Weapons Storage Area, hidden from almost all of Albuquerque. Of course, by the time Edwards met with Stone and Ortega, a questionable document had been circulating for some time alleging sightings in Coyote Canyon by several security guards. Suggesting that Paul had taken pictures of lights in the same canyon could serve not only to bolster the credibility of the document, but also to subtly blend Paul's claims in with all the other reports.
It should be pointed out that by 1985 Paul had in fact been into Coyote Canyon—driven there by Edwards himself. Paul had taken photographs while there, though to my knowledge they were daytime photos and of nothing that could be called ‘lights’. Perhaps Edwards was referring to those pictures, though they had absolutely nothing to do with why Paul had called him to begin with. Whatever the case, it would not be surprising if, by the time the gentlemen from Sandia Security met with Edwards, they were already under the assumption that Paul was simply one small part of a series of UFO stories that had circulated in the second half of 1980.
From my telephone conversations with Ernest Edwards, and having met him one time in Albuquerque, I have no doubt he is a conscientious and careful man. He always spoke very highly of Paul despite any apparent difficulties he might have had with some of Paul’s conclusions. Edwards did not strike me as a man to take a possible security problem lightly, as demonstrated in the same briefing transcript log entry where, near the end, he writes:
“…That ended the briefing and Stone and Ortega left at about 1020. At about 1100, I contacted Lt. Col Dick Emmons, local AFOSI DETCO, to tell him that I had re-established contact with Paul and that if AFOSI was still interested, I would keep them informed of any new developments. I also informed Brig Gen Scheidel, current AF Chief of Security Police that I needed to brief him on a subject of possible security interest.”
Clearly Edwards felt it was important in 1985 to advise AFOSI that he had reestablished contact with Paul, and to inform Brig. General Scheidel, the Chief of AF Security Police, of something he
thought was of possible security interest. Is it likely that in January of 1980, when Edwards first learned of what Paul had seen and filmed, that he would not just as quickly have alerted whoever he was required to notify about that “subject of possible security interest”? Considering the potential security implications—not to mention that it would have been his duty to report it—it seems inconceivable he would not have. If Paul witnessed an operation conducted by our own military or government, then it is inconceivable that security plans would not have been in place in advance for just such a contingency. If he had in fact filmed repeated intrusions by truly unknown vehicles, then the existence of his films may have been of even greater concern, requiring an urgent response to assess and control the situation.
To drive home this point, according to Greg Bishop, Edwards immediately put Paul in contact with Richard Doty50, who then paid a visit to Paul’s lab at Thunder Scientific. These statements are not attributed, but since Bishop did not interview Edwards, it almost certainly came from Doty himself—which suggests Doty was involved from the very beginning. If this version of events is true, such actions are far more in keeping with what would be expected from men whose jobs and careers depended on the proper response. But considering the spate of mysterious documents that materialized beginning in mid-1980, there are other documents conspicuous by their absence.
There are literally no incident reports, log files, or other documents available from the immediate days, weeks, or even months after Paul first contacted Edwards. It is as if nothing was happening at all, though it is obvious that Edwards was in communication with Paul and had even visited him at his home. Suddenly, three documents were written dating between September and November of 1980. All three of these were later released under the Freedom of Information Act and all three point to counterintelligence involvement.
An incident report written by Richard Doty, and two other reports signed by Thomas Cseh, Commander of the Base Investigative Detachment, all show notations that they went to the AFOSI Counterintelligence Security Operations Division (IVOS). Cseh’s first report, describing Jerry Miller and Richard Doty’s visit to Paul’s home, states flatly that, in Miller’s opinion, Paul’s electronic recordings were far less impressive than the photographic evidence—evidence that clearly showed some type of unidentified aerial objects were caught on film. So, why would this report have been written and sent to AFOSI Counterintelligence so late in the year, nine months after Paul’s initial telephone call to Ernest Edwards. A casual reader could easily assume that the report was describing the first time anyone had visited Paul to see what he had on film. Would Edwards, Doty, the Base Investigative Detachment Commander, or anyone in such a responsible position wait that long to follow up on what Paul had called about? This incredible lapse in time between Paul’s first telephone call and any written evidence of follow-up, investigation, or even mention of his name, is extremely curious. Could there be a reason for it?
Everything I have seen, heard, and read about how military intelligence and security operate strongly supports that Edwards, and no doubt Doty, would have acted immediately on hearing of Paul’s activities. As mentioned earlier, if Paul had stumbled upon a known operation or exercise, security measures would certainly have already been in place for such a contingency. But whether he saw something known or unknown, AFOSI Counterintelligence would have needed to remain virtually invisible as it assessed and worked to control the situation. If there had been a sudden flurry of investigation and documents immediately after Paul's first call, there was a risk that, sooner or later, it would actually draw attention to what he had filmed and when it occurred. Likewise, if it ever became known that Counterintelligence was involved immediately, that information alone could have ended up throwing a spotlight on him and what he had filmed. A strategic delay would almost certainly have been necessary, and during that time a plausible reason for any action against Paul could be either found or created.
The first months of 1980 were the lull while an artificial storm was brewing. By shifting Paul’s involvement to appear to have come later in the year, and have his story appear to be just one of several generic sightings around that time, his initial sightings and films could slip off the radar with little if any notice. The documents eventually released would further the belief that what was important had happened later, at a time when security guards and others were also seeing things. The shift in the time frame obscured the fact that it all began with Paul and at a time when he alone had filmed disk shaped vehicles landing on the slopes of the weapons storage area.
Never before have there been films and still photographs—taken simultaneously—of repeated instances of disc-shaped vehicles landing inside a sensitive military installation. Considering Paul, who he was, and the company he owned, the fact that such films and photographs existed as evidence of what he had seen and where he saw them was undoubtedly a huge problem for someone. More than just Paul, his wife could also testify about what she had seen.
By the time of the November 10th meeting meeting was held at KAFB, there were already signs that a counterintelligence operation had been underway for months. The infamous “AFOSI Complaint Form”, signed by Doty in early September, had reported sightings that occurred a month earlier—long before his visit to Paul’s home with Jerry Miller. But, two months before even that report, someone had already been spinning a “flying saucers and aliens” web around Albuquerque, with a “Mr. Dody” conveniently at its center.
In July of 1980, a strange anonymous letter had arrived at APRO headquarters in Tucson (see Attachment B). Generally called the "Weitzel Letter", it would eventually be attributed to Richard Doty himself. With its references to an AFOSI agent named "Mr. Dody", this letter was the first overt evidence of the counterintelligence operation—practically an invitation for someone to come to Albuquerque and investigate the incidents it described. It seems to have been a veiled but targeted attempt to do what Doty's AFOSI Complaint Form eventually did on a larger scale. Both the Weitzel Letter and the Complaint Form suggested intriguing incidents of disc-shaped vehicles seen by military personnel, both pointed the reader to Kirtland AFB, and both would lead anyone investigating aerial objects around Kirtland AFB and the Sandia Reservation, sooner or later, to Richard Doty himself. This letter is prime evidence that by mid-year Richard Doty was set as the point man for all traffic relating to the Paul Bennewitz operation. (On a side note, both the fact that the Weitzel Letter was sent to APRO, and the timing of its arrival, lead to several other troubling questions. This is explored more fully in Chapter 19 under the section on Bill Moore's "recruitment".)
Following the Weitzel Letter, there were other more serious indications that the operation to contain and control Paul and the spread of his information was underway. Author Greg Bishop reports being told by Jerry Miller that when Miller and Doty visited Paul’s home in October of 1980, Doty had secretly photographed not only Paul’s equipment and pictures, but the interior of the house. What purpose could be served by having photographs of the inside of the Bennewitz home? Someone might have wanted Miller’s opinion of the films and other evidence Paul had, but Doty’s purpose in photographing the interior of the house suggests something far more nefarious was afoot.
It was also in October of 1980 that author Bill Moore, by then a board member of APRO, met with Richard Doty and quietly agreed to begin feeding him information on Paul’s activities. By November, when Paul was invited to present his evidence at a meeting at Kirtland AFB, the counterintelligence operation to undermine his credibility and defuse the growing situation was apparently set to go into full swing. Soon after this meeting, the obscure helicopter flight left from Kirtland AFB and headed north. Ernest Edwards had told me of this flight in an telephone conversation, saying only that soon after the November meeting, several of those in attendance had boarded a helicopter bound for the Archuleta Mesa. Though Edwards said he did not know the purpose of the flight, this flight is certainly suggestive of late
r ones that would be used to saturate Paul’s mind with ideas of alien bases in the wilds of northern New Mexico.
The Weitzel Letter, sent out in July, and the AFOSI documents of the next few months were the beginning of a divide-and-conquer approach to suppressing interest in Paul’s claims. Instead of just one witness—Paul—there were now a variety of witnesses: several security guards, several mentioned in the Weitzel Letter, and others, each with a story of strange unidentified objects and inticing rumors connected to the weapons storage area. With multiple sightings and multiple witnesses all telling bizarre stories, “who” no longer meant just Paul. He was being pushed back in the crowd, no longer the man of the hour.
Nevertheless, the counterintelligence operation needed to have a plausible reason behind it...something releasable if questions were ever asked, but that would be virtually impossible to verify—let alone refute. Before looking at other aspects of the operation against Paul, consider the only explanation ever given for why he warranted any attention at all: he was intercepting NSA secrets. Surprisingly, to this day the most proffered explanation for all the interest in Paul has been the very thing dismissed earlier by Jerry Miller as possibly coming from a number of conventional sources: the electronic recordings Paul had collected. It may have been Richard Doty51 who first suggested that Paul had actually been picking up and decoding signals from NSA facilities located in the area east of Albuquerque. Conveniently, the NSA explanation requires no mention of the vehicles Paul saw and filmed over the MWSA—his whole reason for calling the Air Force in the first place. Not much was known about the NSA at that time, but during the 1980’s its very secrecy made it something of a hot topic, and conveniently hush-hush.
Of course, all of this begs the question of whether sensitive NSA signals or frequencies are transmitted freely into the airwaves around Albuquerque? If it was true in 1980 that our intelligence agencies, NSA or otherwise, transmitted sensitive information into the air around Albuquerque, then anyone in the area could have set up equipment to intercept these transmissions. Reasonably speaking, someone like Paul should have been the least of the NSA’s or the Air Force’s worries. Thunder Scientific, the company Paul founded in 1966, has a long list of distinguished customers, including NASA and virtually all branches of the military. Is there any reason to doubt that his company, the owners, and its employees, all went through security checks? Nevertheless, if Paul had inadvertently intercepted NSA signals, would it have taken months, or years, to stop him?
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