Robert Fugate also features prominently in a book published in 2006 about a secret group of scientists involved with the government. In The Jasons: The Secret History of Sciences Postwar Elite, Ann Finkbeiner examines the long history of involvement between the military and this "think tank". The Jasons, sometimes referred to simply as “Jason”, are a specialized group of brilliant and creative scientists who work on highly classified problems, more often than not for the defense and intelligence establishment. Fugate’s work on adaptive optics for the Air Force made significant advancement from information learned through Jason, advances that led to breakthroughs in resolving and identifying faint objects in space.
These advances in adaptive optics also stood to offer huge gains in the field of astronomy, where disturbances in the atmosphere have always played havoc with starlight. Unfortunately, the military applications meant that the information was classified and security was so tight that it was ten years before the Air Force finally released the information to astronomers and the public. Needless to say, the response by astronomers around the world to the lost time and opportunities was mixed. At least news of these advances was finally declassified, but according to Finkbeiner writing in The Jasons, the actual Jason reports themselves are still classified.58
Why Robert Fugate would be surreptitiously brought into Paul Bennewitz’s home is confusing. Considering that Fugate’s specialty is in adaptive optics and lasers, taking him in to Paul’s home to examine what was alleged to have been merely a home-built “gauss meter” seems very strange. Why endanger or implicate an eminent civilian scientist in a break-in of another man’s home? Could what Paul filmed have been a project Fugate was involved with, something beyond just optics research? Or, could his involvement simply have been a smoke screen to hide the real reason for the operations against Paul? Since Paul did continue to take photographs of the area around Kirtland AFB it was certainly possible that he could have caught images of laser tests. However, ignoring the fact that the vehicles Paul saw and filmed could in no way be confused with laser tests, the Starfire facility itself is on the opposite side of the four hills that form the MWSA—far from where Paul saw the vehicles he filmed.
Whatever the reasons for Jerry Miller and Robert Fugate to have been involved at all, it would be interesting to know whether Fugate was taken into Paul’s home before or after Miller’s visit. Fugate’s involvement could have come very early on considering that his name appeared, along with Miller’s, in the "Aquarius Telex" mentioned earlier, purportedly written in November of 1980 (more in Chapter 19). This ‘telex’ has long been considered highly suspect, but it included a tantalizing sentence advising whoever had written the document to continue to receive assistance from “Miller/Fugate”. Disinformation or not, whoever was behind this document seemed to know the names of two experts who had visited Paul’s home for purposes that can only be guessed at even now. Robert Fugate would not be widely identified until twenty-five years later.
Issues in the Bennewitz case have led me to question some things that may otherwise have simply been presumed to be true. Richard Doty’s position with AFOSI is one of them. He is still something of an enigma today, a situation in large part of his own making. I am sure I am not the only person to wonder whether he was, or still is, what he appeared to be.
His background as described in his co-authored 2005 book, Exempt From Disclosure59, seems normal enough—notwithstanding the bizarre experiences he claims to have had. According to the chronology he gave in the book, he purportedly served in the Air Force from 1968 until he retired in 1988. His military service records, of which I obtained a copy, reflects the same basic information. By his account, he entered basic training at Lackland AFB in Texas in August of 1968 and remained there to attend Air Force Security Police school, with some time in Hawaii to complete his training. Afterward, he took a special duty assignment at Indian Springs, Nevada. It was during this assignment in Nevada, which lasted until at least July 1969, that he claims he saw an enormous disc-shaped craft on the base. This was the same period in which he reportedly had a conversation about government and alien interaction with his uncle, Edward Doty.
He was supposedly recruited to join AFOSI in 1978 and, after completing his training in 1979, his first assignment put him directly at Kirtland Air Force Base. Home to some of the most secret projects being conducted, and a nuclear weapons storage area, it must have seemed like a plum assignment that might easily have gone to the most experienced "cream of the crop" agents, those with years of experience who were already seasoned professionals. Nevertheless, his arrival at Kirtland AFB happens to have placed him there at about the same time Paul Bennewitz began having his experiences, and seven months before Paul’s rooftop sightings. Coincidentally, Doty’s arrival at KAFB came in the same time period that, according to Bishop’s Project Beta, Bill Moore moved to Arizona in part to be “closer to APRO”. So, was Richard Doty simply a newly assigned AFOSI agent as he has led everyone to believe?
According to Phil Klass, formerly with Aviation Week and Space Technology, Doty stated that his father had worked for Project Blue Book. Later Doty would say that it was actually his uncle, not his father. In a letter dated March 3, 1989, when commenting about whether he thought the Earth might have been visited in the past, Doty stated that he did not have enough information to make a personal decision. But, in Exempt From Disclosure, Doty claims to have had extensive knowledge of aliens and alien technology during his own career, as well as through information that he learned from his uncle. This absolute contradiction certainly makes it appear that information Doty reveals about himself is being tailored for his perceived audience.
There are still some who argue that Richard Doty was a rogue AFOSI agent who, on his own initiative, set out to discredit Paul Bennewitz and mislead others with forged documents. The evidence says otherwise. My conversations with Ernest Edwards convinced me that he had absolute confidence in Doty and held him in high regard. After my one brief conversation with Doty, I was convinced that he took his position seriously and that Edward's respect was deserved. They both seemed credible and cautious, although even then I did not condone what happened to Paul Bennewitz. I found both of them to be credible and cautious, even while I do not condone what happened to Paul Bennewitz. Others were involved in the November 1980 meeting, which was held in the office of a Brigadier General, all making it impossible to imagine Doty acting alone. He would have had help when necessary, and superiors to answer to; Linda Howe’s strange meeting with him is further evidence of that (described in Chapter 19). Information I uncovered has convinced me that there is more to him than meets the eye, and that the operation that began with Paul Bennewitz, far from being simply a disinformation campaign, was a much more extensive and elaborate counterintelligence operation than I had imagined.
According to Doty's military service records, he spent time in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, serving between late 1969 and late 1970. His record lists a number of medals he received for his service, and, on the surface, appears fairly mundane and the chronology fits. However, while searching the Internet, I came across startling information that contradicted Doty's reported service and possibly indicates a past, or past connections, he may be trying to hide. The implications may be that the counterintelligence operation against Paul Bennewitz went well beyond AFOSI. To fully appreciate it however, it is important to know some history about events that occurred in the mid to late 1960's during a secret war in Laos.
In the years leading up to the Vietnam War, Laos had became increasingly important because of the common border it shared with both North and South Vietnam. Eventually, political agreements were signed aimed at removing all U.S. and Vietnamese troops from Laos, but, in reality, little changed on the ground. The U.S. presence in Laos became a covert operation. Because there were not supposed to be any U.S. troops in the country, it was common for those who were to be stationed there to be "sheep dipped"—officially removed from their
military roles, but only on paper. They were then "employed" by one of several government contractors, such as Lockheed Corporation and Federal Electric. The servicemen were then sent to Laos to do the job they were intended to do all along, only now under cover as civilians. Typically, on returning to the United States after their service was over, the "civilian employee" would be reenlisted into the service they had come from with no loss of time served. The war in Laos became a secret war, run for all intents and purposes by the CIA, with U.S. military personnel secretly handling operations. The locations of the remote operating bases, sometimes deep in the jungles of Laos, were often designated simply as "Lima" sites (LS)…as in Lima Site 20A, a site that will be important shortly.
One of the more well known and tragic incidents of the Laos campaign took place at a site known as Lima Site 85 (LS-85), located atop an almost vertical mountain called Phou Pha Thi. This site was a Tactical Air Control and Navigation (TACAN) and bombing radar site located high on a peak protected by land mines and sheer cliffs. While the very location of this remote site made it seem unassailable, the men stationed there were, to a great extent, captives of their own location. The men, typically on a seven to fourteen day rotation, included radar operators and technicians, air combat controllers, and CIA paramilitary personnel.
Ultimately, and despite repeated concerns about North Vietnamese troops nearing the site, on March 11, 1968 LS-85 was overrun by enemy forces that had managed to scale the steep cliffs. A number of men were killed during the attack, and while some were rescued, others fought with the few weapons they had, even lowering themselves over the edge of the cliffs in their attempt to evade capture. A very informative and moving web site—www.limasite85.com—provides a great deal of information about the site, the men, and the events surrounding its construction and eventual downfall. To this day, eleven men who were at the site when it was attacked remain missing. So, how does the story of Lima Site 85 relate to the question of Richard Doty's past?
Richard C. "Rick" Doty has used an America Online (AOL) email address in the past when posting information about himself and writing about his involvement in the Bennewitz case. The username is very unique, and a simple online search shows it to be so. However, I stumbled across a second email address with the same unique username, but issued by an Internet service provider in the Grants, NM area. The location was understandable; after he retired from the Air Force, Doty reportedly joined the New Mexico State Police and has served in the Grants, NM area for some time. In one of his earlier online postings, he even listed a P.O. Box address in Grants. It was while searching the Internet for instances of this second email address, that I stumbled across some very curious information.
In a message posted in January of 2005 on the History Channel web site, under the Vietnam War forum, a "Rick" Doty, writing from this second email address, stated that he had served two tours of duty in Laos as an Air Force Combat Controller60. He claimed to have been in Laos and Thailand between late January and May of 1968, and he mentioned two specific sites that had been attacked during his time there. One site Doty referred to only as "Site 5" (not "Lima Site 5"), which he said was its CIA codename. He added that several CIA contract personnel as well as two CIA paramilitary case officers had been killed in the attack on this site. Site 5 was said to be in northern Laos at a location he gave as Phongsali. The other site Doty mentioned as having been attacked was LS-85, though he very specifically stated that, at the time of the attack on this site, he had been at a third site called Lima Site 20A (a location with major significance in the secret CIA war in Laos). Furthermore, he also stated that in May of 1968, at NKP (Nakhon Phanom), Thailand, he had met a man named Roger Huffman who had actually been at LS-85 when it was attacked, and narrowly escaped.
The problem with these specific details is the obvious conflict between his claims of having been in Laos at that time, and his official service records released under the Freedom of Information Act. If he was already an Air Force Combat Controller on duty in Laos at the beginning of 1968, then he certainly should not have been at Lackland AFB in August of that year going through basic training. If he was already in Laos in early 1968, and had been born in 1950 (per his service records), then even if he was close to eighteen years old when he enlisted, he would have to have enlisted and immediately been shipped to Laos—clearly not a practical explanation. Perhaps he managed to enlist before he turned eighteen? Presumably, he would still have needed some time to go through whatever training was necessary, specialized or otherwise, before being sent to Laos as a Combat Controller. From what I have learned since I first found his History Channel message, the men who were chosen to serve at LS-85 were selected based on experience and skill, and the Combat Controllers and CIA men who were stationed there were certainly not fresh out of basic training. This point certainly argues against Doty having been sent to LS-85 the moment he arrived in country. If he was at these sites on these dates, then the discrepancies raise questions about his date of birth, his Air Force service records, and perhaps whether, in a covert war, he was actually Air Force at all.
His claim to have been in Laos in early 1968 also contradicts other online messages he has written in which he gave his dates of USAF service as 1968 to 1988, dates that do match his official service records. Using the same email address I had found on the History Channel web site, Doty has also posted messages on military-related web sites, at times mentioning his assignment locations at McChord AFB, Ellsworth AFB, and Hahn, Germany—all places he is said to have been stationed previously. In this type of post his dates do match what is in his military service records, so his claims to have been at LS-85 or any of the other sites in Laos that he mentioned, expose something that deserves explanation. Is it deception, or simply confusion (perhaps like the earlier confusion over whether it was his father or his uncle who was involved with Project Blue Book?) Equally puzzling is that none of the online messages I found in which he described any Air Force service included any mention of having worked with AFOSI.
It was time to verify that this second email address I had found belonged to the right Richard Doty. Then I would ask him about his posts on the History Channel web site.
I contacted Greg Bishop first. He verified that this second email address was, in fact, one that Doty used. In January of 2006, I wrote to Doty at this second email address, primarily to prove to myself, once and for all, that the email account was actually his. As my reason for writing, I asked him whether he would now be willing to tell me who had told him to contact Jerry Miller prior to their 1980 visit to Paul's home. This was something about which I had long been curious because it had never been clear who had told Doty to contact Miller, or why. Doty might have been ordered to take Miller along because Miller had some expertise that was required (implying Miller's was the more important role.) However, if, in fact, Doty was the primary agent in place responsible for decisions affecting the Bennewitz investigation, then Doty himself may have requested a technical expert to examine the evidence Bennewitz had. In other words, though he might have presented himself as simply an AFOSI agent, Doty may actually have been in charge of the operation and had wanted someone knowledgeable (i.e. Miller) to provide an opinion, perhaps "damage assessment" of the film Bennewitz had taken. This latter scenario would fit well with a comment Doty made to me that, "Jerry assisted me during the Bennewitz investigation."
The day after I sent my email to Doty, I had a reply. He identified a Major John Brisbois, a former supervisor, as the person who gave him Miller's name and the information that Miller was an "expert in the subject of UFO's" (this was an interesting revelation since I cannot imagine Miller's resume or the local base directory had that listed as an area of expertise.) Nevertheless, I had proven that the name and email address associated with the message I had found on the History Channel web site was the right Richard Doty.
With that, I wrote to him again, this time asking specifically about the message I had found on the History Channel web
site and the discrepancies with his official service records. What resulted was a series of emails in which—like slow motion “bullet-time” in The Matrix films—direct questions seemed to slip by him with no direct answer. I expressed my confusion over his dates of service...was it twenty years or 23 years, which I had also seen stated. He wrote back that he did not know where I got the information and said he had never “given an interview” with the History Channel. I sent him the link to the message, which was not an interview, and a link to an older version of his service records. He reemphasized that he had been in the Air Force for twenty years, and then added that on occasion people had made up information about his service. But, he did not even acknowledge the glaring question of why this information was in a message with his name and email address. When I wrote again and pointed out that he had totally ignored that question, his response seemed very peculiar. He simply wrote that there are "other Richard Doty's", as if that somehow explained things. My reply—that there were others out there with my name as well but that they did not use my email address—did not go over so well.
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