Hangar 1: The UFO Files (2014) s02e08 Episode Script
The Smoking Gun
March 1994.
Aviation writer and UFO researcher Don Berliner retrieves his mail, and in it, receives an unusual package.
- In March 1994, Don Berliner had just returned from an experimental air show in Wisconsin where he had taken a lot of pictures, met a lot of people.
When he got home he went through his mail.
One of the pieces of mail he had was an unmarked package, which inside had a roll of film.
So he assumed that he had left a roll of film behind at the air show and someone had nicely just sent this to him.
It wasn't until he developed the roll that he realized what he had.
Instead of pictures of aircraft that he had taken, he was looking at pages of a top-secret document.
Its title: SOM1-01: a special operations manual for the recovery of "extra-terrestrial entities and technology.
" - If this document is real, that changes everything.
Life as we know it changes dramatically.
Is SOM1-01 real? And if so, is this proof that the government not only knows about UFOs, but has official protocols in place to deal with their recovery? Hangar 1 opens its files to reveal the shocking truth right now.
The mutual UFO network-- known as MUFON-- is an independent organization, not bound to any government.
They investigate reports of UFO sightings from around the world.
Over the past five decades stored at a secure location known as Hangar 1.
Now, for the first time, MUFON is granting access to their vast archive.
These are the files of Hangar 1.
To this day, the government denies any knowledge of UFOs or extraterrestrials.
Official White House policy is that UFOs do not exist.
However, the discovery of a top-secret government manual called SOM1-01 could be proof that everything the government has told us is a lie.
- In March of 1994, Don Berliner received the mother of all leaked documents.
The document was Special Operations Manual 1-01, otherwise known as SOM1-01.
- If this manual is real, it means that the military has been collecting evidence from crash sites from around the world for decades, and this entire time engaging in a large-scale cover-up.
The authenticity of SOM1-01 is hotly debated among UFO researchers and raises many questions.
- If you really want to start a heated argument among ufologists, ask them if SOM1-01 is real.
Most informed UFO scholars fall on both sides of the debate.
- You can never be 100% sure that a document is real.
There's always people that will say it's a fake.
But we've invested many man-years worth of effort to study each nuance, every paragraph, every sentence, everything we can think of to try to authenticate this special operations manual.
MUFON investigators Robert Wood, his son Ryan, and Stanton Friedman have made every effort to authenticate the manual.
- My father took the original negatives down to the print shop and made 8x10 copies of these negatives and studied them with a magnifying glass, deciphered every single word, and then created a complete replica of the special operations manual.
- Stanton Friedman began focusing on the facts that could be independently checked.
For instance, were facilities mentioned in the manual in operation at the time? Were the instructions for packaging evidence reasonable? And did the language used accurately reflect language and terms used during that time? - On the change control page, for example, there are initials-- just initials-- JRT and EWL.
So I found the Albuquerque phone book in 1954, '55, and looked up all the people with those initials, and sure enough, Lieutenant Colonel Jess R.
Tonton and Lieutenant Colonel Edward W.
Levine, both on Perimeter Road on Kirtland Air Force Base.
Kaboom! Why would the government create a detailed manual for handling UFO crashes if UFOs do not exist? - The idea that these things actually crash, and that there are recovery protocols and manuals and so forth, and that there's involvement with the government-- all these things make sense to me.
All of a sudden it lifts up out of purely a science fiction kind of way to look at it.
This isn't a television show.
Thiss something real that's happening right in front of your eyes.
- This document would not have been created as some speculative guide on how to retrieve UFOs.
This is a very specific document that has very specific information in it, and it would not have been created if there had only been one recovery of a downed craft.
There had to have been numerous UFO crashes to have warranted the creation of such a document.
One of these crashes took place in Kingman, Arizona, one year before the special operations manual was reportedly published.
Many believe the events surrounding this crash had a direct impact on the protocol and procedures that would eventually appear in the SOM1-01 manual.
May 1953.
Kingman, Arizona.
A military air base control tower picks something up on their radar.
Suddenly, the object loses altitude and disappears from the screen.
- Officer Woolcott is on duty in the control tower.
After witnessing an object of unknown origin appear and disappear on his radar screen, looks up to see other officers pointing towards the horizon, and they're talking about something being down.
- Several officers, including Woolcott, jump into a jeep and take off in the direction the object crashed.
After searching around area where the object had lan, they finally locate something.
The officers discover a craft unlike anything they have ever seen.
- In front of them is a domed, metallic-looking disc embedded 20 inches into the sand.
The craft is completely inta and there isn't a single scratch on it.
Whe dermining how to handle the situation, Woolcott and his fellow officers are quickly joined by hers, also awa of e crash.
They begin cordoning off the area and questioning all the witnesses.
Everyone not part of the recovery team is removed from the site and warned never to reveal what they have seen.
Their procedures for securing the site appear to follow the exact instructions found in SOM1-01.
- Chapter 3 of the special operations manual talks about recovery operations, and there is an entire section about securing the area.
Once the cra has been discovered, the military moves in as quickly as possible to set up a perimeter and an on-site command post, claiming complete control of the area.
- Once a perimeter is estaished and an on-site command post is set up, the military does an area sweep of all unauthorized personnel.
Any witnesses they find must be thoroughly debriefed and then removed from the location.
- The Kingman Crash of 1953 is a precursor to the creation of this government handbook issued in 1954.
But you can see that the government is already starting to put this system into place.
Securing the site is just one of many protocols outlined in the specl op.
Yet each procedure appears to exist for a single purpose.
- Every si sts r one reason: to keep things sect.
What other UFO crash protocols are contained in SOM1-01 that help prove it's the smoking gun the government doesn't want you to know about? Hangar 1 files reveal the manual's specific instructions for covering-up a crash.
- Suddenly mesge comes in over the teletype.
Anit reads: "This is the FBI.
You will immediately cease all communication.
" The special operations manual, SOM1-01, reveals how far the government is willing to go to maintain their secrets when we return.
MUFON has uncovered what could be one of the most shocking official documents ever created: SOM1-01: a government manual that outlines procedures for recovering UFOs.
And though there is debate among historians and researchers as to the manual's authenticity, one event that may have influenced its creation and protocols is the famous Roswell UFO crash.
Early July 1947.
Albuquerque, New Mexico.
- In 1947, Lydia Sleppy worked at KOAT Radio in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
One of her duties was operating the station's teletype machine.
It received news as well as allowed them to send stories to their affiliate stations.
- Sleppy was at the office when she received a call from John McBoyle, the general manager at the radio station in Roswell.
McBoyle informed her that he had something hot for the network.
- As McBoyle relayed the information to Sleppy over the phone, she began using the teletype machine to send the message to ABC News Headquarters in Hollywood.
She recalls McBoyle telling her that a flying saucer had crashed down north of Roswell.
- Sleppy is typing the information when suddenly the bell on the teletype machine ngs indicati an incoming message.
The next thing Sleppy knows, a message comes in over the teletype, and it reads, "This is the FBI.
You will immediately cease all communication.
" Afraid to proceed, Lydia Sleppy follows the FBI's orders and stops her transmission.
thgornment fails to keeprts Roswell's flying saucer out of the media.
- Because Roswell was probably one of the earliest crash retrievals of a UFO, there weren't specific protocols in place to manage the press.
This is why the Army found themselves scrambling to concoct a cover story like a downed weather balloon, for example.
This is why, when you look at the Special Operations Manual, under recovery operations, the first thing they talk about is press blackout.
You see the lessons of Roswell right here in this manual in black and white.
To prevent media blunders like Roswell from happening in the future, SOM1-01 also provides protocols for what to do when the government fails to suppress crash information.
- According to the handbook, the first thing to do is, you deny that anything had happened.
Secondly, to discredit witnesses who refuse to keep quiet by indicating that they were mentally unstable or had misinterpreted whatever they had seen and so forth.
And if that didn't work, then you just flat-out lie.
You can just state that what people saw was a meteorite, or maybe if you want to just keep them away from the site altogether, say it was a toxic chemical spill or something like that.
Cases like Roswell expose the lack of protocol that existed during the earliest UFO crashes.
Returning to the Kingman crash, we see that by the mid-1950s, a new set of procedures are instituted to ensure a higher level of security.
May 1953: The day of the Kingman crash.
Arthur Stansel is working nearly two hundred miles away at the Nevada proving ounds for atomic tting.
- Arthur Stansel was a mechanical engineer who was employed by the U.
S.
Air Force at Air Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
At the time, he was on loan to the Atomic Energy Commission at the Nevada Test Site.
Stansel receives a call about a top-secret assignment and is immediately flown to Phoenix with 15 other specialists.
Once in Phoenix, he boards a bus with windows that are completely blacked out.
- They are told that they are going to be involved in the recovery of the downing of a very highly experimental aircraft.
Once at the crash site, each person was only responsible to investigate the area under their specific expertise, nothing more.
This is extreme compartmentation of duties.
- Stansel's escorted from the bus to the crash by military police.
He first notices that there is a ring of guards blocking the view of whatever is behind them.
to see the surrounding area.
- But he sees this object embedded in the ground.
It's a disc shaped object, about 30 feet in dmeter, looks like a flying saucer, embedded into the ground about 20 inches or so in.
He had one and only thing that his job was.
Determine from the impact site how fast that object had been going when it hit the ground.
- And then after Stansel's work was done, he gets debriefed.
He is interviewed at length.
He is ordered to surrender all of his notes.
He has to raise his right hand and make an oath never, ever to reveal what he had learned.
According to Arthur Stansel's testimony, security at the Kingman crash site was incredibly tight.
- Stansel's account is fascinating, because you really get an inside look at how the operation on the ground worked.
Everything about these crash sites was compartmentalized, right down to the way the experts analyzed the data.
No one ever had a complete picture of what was happening.
Compartmentalizing tasks is key to security protocols.
But what you witness at Kingman is an early example of the way security was handled at UFO crashes.
Because when the special operations manual is published a year later, the security protocol has changed.
- It looks like SOM1-01 ultimately does away with specialists analyzing the crash on-site.
Outside of a special ops team evaluating the situation, all material found at the site is to be shipped off as quickly as possible to a secure facility.
Why would the manual dictate that a craft be moved as quickly as possible rather than analyzed on location? Is it simply to keep the crash material secure from the public? Another complication encountered at the Kingman crash reveals unexpected dangers at UFO retrieval sites, leading to even more safety protocols.
- The crew spends about an hour inside the craft, but when they emerge it is clear that something isn't right.
- Every single team member almost immediately removes their mask and begins to vomit.
The files reveal the deadly truth behind the manual's instructions on contamination, when we return.
Hangar 1 files have exposed a shocking piece of possible evidence that connects the U.
S.
government to knowledge of extraterrestrials.
An official military special operations manual called SOM1-01 details instructions for the recovery of downed UFOs.
MUFON investigators are tasked with the challenge of trying to prove whether this manual is real.
Cases like Roswell reveal why protocols such as "media blackouts" were created.
More recent cases indicate that SOM1-01's retrieval procedures have continued to evolve, but essentially follow specific steps.
Thanksgiving 1992.
Long Island residents near Southaven park report what they think is an airplane crash.
- Motorists traveling along Long Island's Sunrise Highway on the night of November 24, 1992, report what they think was a plane going down into Southaven Park around 7:00 P.
M.
Other local residents report seeing unexplainable flashes of light in the sky.
- It's believed that immediately after the crash, a fire broke out in the park.
Firefighters rushed to the scene, but instead of local firefighters, it was a special team from the federally controlled Brookhaven Laboratory Fire Department.
- The roads surrounding the park were blocked by county and park police, but no one except federal officers were allowed inside the perimeter of the park.
At the same time, a number of military helicopters were seen flying over the park area.
The next day, and several days following, the park was closed to the public.
- Local residents near the park noted that for the five or six days following the incident they experienced numerous power surges.
But when the power company was questioned, they were told their official response was that no abnormal power outages had occurred.
- When authorities were questioned about the park's closure, official records state that the park was closed between November 25th and 28th for private duck hunting.
Seriously? Duck Hunting? But look at page 8 of the manual.
It may be necessary to issue false statements to preserve the security of the site.
It appears that the security protocols outlined in SOM1-01 were followed to a "T" during the Southaven Park incident.
- Another interesting thing about the 1992 Southaven Park incident is the fact that only federal officers are allowed to enter the scene.
Page nine of the UFO Recovery Manual specifically states that local law enforcement may be used to set up a perimeter and deal with crowd control, but they are not allowed to enter the crash site.
And here you are with reports that a federal fire response team was brought in to secure the site rather than local firefighters.
- Are all of these security measures followed just to insure secrecy? A closer examination at what happened years earlier at the Kingman crash reveals another purpose: to prevent possible contamination.
At the Kingman crash, a special retrieval team was called on to enter the downed craft.
- An entry team arrives dressed in "clean room clothing" and surgical masks.
They are wired with two-way radios, so they can communicate with a team outside the craft.
The crew makes their way inside the craft and immediately experiences complications.
- The first thing that happens is, their communications fail.
They no longer have any contact with the team outside the craft.
- The crew spends about an hour inside the craft, but when they emerge, it is immediately clear that something isn't right.
- The team comes out showing signs of intense nausea.
Every single team member almost immediately removes their mask and begins to vomit.
Alarmed, authorities quickly snap into action.
- The entry crew is ushered through decontamination protocols and sent off to another secret facility to undergo medical examinations.
The officers at the scene are left to question, what have they been exposed to? - I mean, you have to wonder.
Did the team have an adverse biological reaction to the alien environment? Or was the UFO booby-trapped with some sort of toxin? - I believe people get sick not because of the entities, but because of the craft or something to do with the craft.
These are obviously very far advanced, Which to me lends credibility to the story, right, that they got sick.
Cases such as this, exposing retrieval teams to the hazards of alien materials, are addressed in the manual with instructions that limit access to the craft.
There are also explicit instructions on removing all crash material to a secure location.
But transporting a UFO can be dangerous.
Securing a UFO site is just the first step-- moving it is an entirely different matter.
- Military officers hatch this crazy, risky scheme to tow the saucer across the river at night.
- Suddenly, the unthinkable happens.
A guide cable comes loose.
The barge starts floating down the Colorado River headed straight for the Hoover Dam.
Coming up, military officers react when a UFO recovery goes awry and crashes into a national monument.
And later, a member of an elite UFO retrieval team gives his personal account of coming face-to-face with UFOs and their inhabitants.
- On several occasions, I was called upon to be part of an elite unit to assist in the recovery of objects of unknown origin, UFOs.
And I know for a fact that those objects did not originate on the face of this planet.
When Hangar 1 returns.
In 1994, an alleged government document surfaces that outlines specific procedures for securing and recovering UFOs, a special operations manual called SOM1-01.
The authenticity of this document is questioned, but the fact is, the instructions outlined in SOM1-01 seem to follow procedures described by eyewitnesses at numerous crash sites.
However, one crash stands out: the famous Kingman, Arizona, crash of 1953.
- As the Kingman case illustrates, the retrieval process can be difficult and dangerous.
The Colorado River.
May 1953.
- In the summer of 1953, a UFO crash-landed in the desert near Kingman, Arizona.
Once it no longer appeared safe to analyze the evidence at the Kingman crash site, the saucer was loaded onto an M25 tank transporter.
Now, the nickname for this beast was called the Dragon Wagon, and it is used to transport tanks during World War II.
- Here comes a tank transporter loaded down with a giant UFO, when it suddenly finds itself face to face with the Hoover Dam.
Now, the weight allowance for vehicles crossing the dam is only about 1 ton.
The tank transporter is 40 tons.
This convoy team has an obvious problem.
The team quickly devises a plan to transport the UFO across the Colorado River.
Now, in order to do this, they planned to drive the giant M25 transporter loaded down with the saucer onto a barge.
They would use two floating personnel carriers to string up guide cables across the river.
Then they would connect the barge to the cables and pull it across.
And of course, they're doing all of this in pitch black darkness.
- This operation was difficult at best, but somehow they manage to get the transport onto the barge.
Here they go.
They start pulling this thing across the river.
Suddenly, the unthinkable happens.
A guide cable comes loose.
The barge starts floating down the Colorado River headed straight for the Hoover Dam.
The barge carrying the M25 transport and the saucer crashes into the side of the Hoover Dam.
- Having a military protocol in place is one thing, executing it brings up an entirely new level of challenges.
- It's a miracle they didn't cause any serious damage.
But finally, they managed to reattach the cables and finish pulling the barge and transport vehicles across the river.
The SOM1-01 manual contains instructions that UFOs should be transported by truck.
But more recent crash retrievals suggest that as technology has improved, new methods for transporting UFOs have evolved.
Spring 2008.
A small military force descends upon Needles, California.
- On May 14, 2008, several witnesses see a glowing, turquoise-colored object streak across the sky and crash into a nearby hillside.
Then, almost immediately, they report what looked like military helicopters searching the area.
But the helicopters aren't the only military presence on the scene.
- David Hayes, who worked for KTOX, the local Needles radio station, was driving down the road just outside of town when it happened.
He watched a military convoy pull off the main road and head towards the location of the crash.
It isn't long before the military finds what they're looking for, and attempts to retrieve it.
- According to one witness, one of the helicopters had a giant hook dangling from it.
And once the military found the object, they air lifted it out of the area by helicopter.
Despite the fact that the object was covered with some sort of draping, other witnesses noted that it was still glowing when the military carted it away.
They claimed they could see it lighting up the ground below it as it flew overhead.
Did the residents of Needles, California, witness a modern UFO retrieval team in action? - It makes s As technology changes and our knowledge FOs ows, the methods presented in SOM1-01 would also be updated.
Coming up, Hangar 1 files uncover another incredible chapter in the SOM1-01 manual-- how to deal with alien beings recovered from crash sites.
And an army sergeant who recovered UFOs when we return.
Researchers inside Hangar 1 believe they have uncovered a top-secret special operations manual called SOM1-01.
And though some question the authenticity of this manual, it appears to outline government protocols for securing crash sites and transporting UFO technology.
But that's not all.
An entire section of the manual is also devoted to encounters with alien beings.
For the amazing story behind one such alien encounter, we return to the Kingman crash of 1953.
At the Kingman, Arizona, crash site, military personnel lock down the scene to not only conceal the UFO, but what was also found in the downed alien craft.
- From the moment the military teams arrive at the site, the scene is one of orchestrated chaos.
Some teams are sent to secure the perimeter, others are to secure the craft itself.
Officers immediately start setting up tents and lights.
I mean everybody has their orders.
Through the chaos, it becomes clear to the retrieval teams that they are dealing with more than just crash debris.
- Incredibly, when the retrieval teams arrive on the scene, they find four extraterrestrial biological entities, officially known as E.
B.
E.
s.
The creatures are standing outside the craft, and it becomes clear that two of them are injured.
- The E.
B.
E.
s are described as between 3 1/2 to 4 feet tall.
Humanoid in appearance, with dark brown skin.
Their heads are disproportionately large compared to their bodies.
- A special unit approaches the two injured aliens and attempts to give them medical aid.
But in truth, there's not a whole lot they can do.
The real goal is to secure the creatures as quickly as possible and transport them to a secure location.
Before the aliens are removed from the scene, the two uninjured E.
B.
E.
s are allowed to reenter the craft.
- The two head into the craft, but remain in view through the open hatch door.
It is believed they are making one final attempt to communicate with others from their home or perhaps another craft in the area.
- As soon as the two beings emerge from the craft, all four are immediately loaded up and transported away to an undisclosed location.
What are the manual's protocols when it comes to encountering alien beings found at crash sites? - It appears that at the time the manual was written, at least two different types of extraterrestrials had been encountered.
While the manual states that teams should make every effort to keep the E.
B.
E.
s alive, it also states that their life is not worth the security of the site, and contact should be kept to a minimum.
- The manual clearly states that because it is unknown what effect terrestrial medicine will have, medical teams will only attempt to stop bleeding, bind wounds, and splint broken limbs.
According to the manual, where are these extraterrestrials sent? What happens next? - Several receiving facilities are mentioned in the manual for UFO materials.
Area 51 is one of them.
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is another one.
But the manual also suggests that once these materials were received and cataloged and studied, that they could be moved to other facilities around the U.
S.
for additional research.
What this means is that UFO evidence could be hidden all over the country.
When analyzing SOM1-01 in conjunction with crash cases like Kingman and Southaven Park, evidence seems overwhelming that the government has been involved in recovering downed alien craft for over half a century.
Investigators remain determined to uncover additional proof.
Next, the testimony of Clifford Stone.
- I would be visited by an individual who would always go ahead and tell me that the general sends his regard, code word Tabasco.
I knew then that I had to grab my BA50 bag, kiss the kids and my wife good-bye, and go off on that mission.
A member of an elite UFO recovery team tells his incredible story when we return.
Stone began his army career in 1969, and was assigned to the nuclear, biological, and chemical unit, known as the NBC.
- It was a good cover for me 'cause these teams would always be utilized.
You would go there, you would secure the site, you would recover the object and any bodies or living entities if any were there.
According to stone, these sites were located all around the world.
- We had teams set up that would actually go out worldwide to recover fallen UFOs.
During this time, Stone's services were called on at a moment's notice.
- When an event took place and you got the call, you grab your BA50 bag, you'd go ahead, you kiss your wife and your kids good-bye, then you'd g, and you had no idea whether you was ever coming back, because accidents happen.
People died, because we were dealing with technologies that we didn't even begin to understand.
Stone notes that procedures involving UFO sites followed a very specific set of protocols.
- There would be a total blackout on any news getting out.
We would have several different cover stories.
We could always cover it by stating it was an experimental aircraft that crashed.
If there was any media involvement, we were prepared to go so far as saying that there was a nuclear device on that craft.
After every mission, there was a rigorous debriefing.
- You'd be debriefed, and then cautioned not to talk about it and be told it was classified.
Stone's experiences seem to line up exactly with the instructions detailed in SOM1-01.
But curiously, Stone was never shown SOM1-01 during any of his missions.
- Special Operations Manual, do we have Special Operations Manual? Yep, but it's not SOM.
I never saw SOM1-01.
But was there a manual, or what we would call a Standard Operating Procedure? Yes, there was.
They had standard protocol on how you do the recovery.
Everybody involved knew exactly what their mission was.
- It's fascinating that Clifford Stone never came into contact with SOM1-01.
Perhaps there have been multiple editions of the manual over the years, and the version that Clifford saw was simply a later version.
Or maybe it was written after the fact by someone with intimate inside information.
The question remains, is this manual real? With debate continuing, the truth remains unclear.
However, the evidence suggests that the protocols found within SOM1-01 are in fact in place.
Whether the manual is authentic or not, by investigating multiple UFO crash files, including Roswell, Kingman, and Southaven, Long Island, one thing becomes clear: It is possible that the government has been hiding its involvement with UFOs and their inhabitants for decades.
- I think, what would I do? If I were the government, what would I do? I would absolutely have a manual.
I would absolutely have protocols in place.
Now, maybe this wouldn't be a public thing.
Maybe there would just be a few individuals, key individuals, that would know about these protocols, but I would absolutely be prepared that another Roswell wouldn't happen.
That absolutely makes sense to me.
I would do it, so why wouldn't they do it? While SOM1-01 appears to be a smoking gun for many ufologists, the final proof of its authenticity may not be resolved until the U.
S.
government officially discloses what they know about UFOs.
Until that time, Hangar 1 continues to open its files, searching for the truth.
Aviation writer and UFO researcher Don Berliner retrieves his mail, and in it, receives an unusual package.
- In March 1994, Don Berliner had just returned from an experimental air show in Wisconsin where he had taken a lot of pictures, met a lot of people.
When he got home he went through his mail.
One of the pieces of mail he had was an unmarked package, which inside had a roll of film.
So he assumed that he had left a roll of film behind at the air show and someone had nicely just sent this to him.
It wasn't until he developed the roll that he realized what he had.
Instead of pictures of aircraft that he had taken, he was looking at pages of a top-secret document.
Its title: SOM1-01: a special operations manual for the recovery of "extra-terrestrial entities and technology.
" - If this document is real, that changes everything.
Life as we know it changes dramatically.
Is SOM1-01 real? And if so, is this proof that the government not only knows about UFOs, but has official protocols in place to deal with their recovery? Hangar 1 opens its files to reveal the shocking truth right now.
The mutual UFO network-- known as MUFON-- is an independent organization, not bound to any government.
They investigate reports of UFO sightings from around the world.
Over the past five decades stored at a secure location known as Hangar 1.
Now, for the first time, MUFON is granting access to their vast archive.
These are the files of Hangar 1.
To this day, the government denies any knowledge of UFOs or extraterrestrials.
Official White House policy is that UFOs do not exist.
However, the discovery of a top-secret government manual called SOM1-01 could be proof that everything the government has told us is a lie.
- In March of 1994, Don Berliner received the mother of all leaked documents.
The document was Special Operations Manual 1-01, otherwise known as SOM1-01.
- If this manual is real, it means that the military has been collecting evidence from crash sites from around the world for decades, and this entire time engaging in a large-scale cover-up.
The authenticity of SOM1-01 is hotly debated among UFO researchers and raises many questions.
- If you really want to start a heated argument among ufologists, ask them if SOM1-01 is real.
Most informed UFO scholars fall on both sides of the debate.
- You can never be 100% sure that a document is real.
There's always people that will say it's a fake.
But we've invested many man-years worth of effort to study each nuance, every paragraph, every sentence, everything we can think of to try to authenticate this special operations manual.
MUFON investigators Robert Wood, his son Ryan, and Stanton Friedman have made every effort to authenticate the manual.
- My father took the original negatives down to the print shop and made 8x10 copies of these negatives and studied them with a magnifying glass, deciphered every single word, and then created a complete replica of the special operations manual.
- Stanton Friedman began focusing on the facts that could be independently checked.
For instance, were facilities mentioned in the manual in operation at the time? Were the instructions for packaging evidence reasonable? And did the language used accurately reflect language and terms used during that time? - On the change control page, for example, there are initials-- just initials-- JRT and EWL.
So I found the Albuquerque phone book in 1954, '55, and looked up all the people with those initials, and sure enough, Lieutenant Colonel Jess R.
Tonton and Lieutenant Colonel Edward W.
Levine, both on Perimeter Road on Kirtland Air Force Base.
Kaboom! Why would the government create a detailed manual for handling UFO crashes if UFOs do not exist? - The idea that these things actually crash, and that there are recovery protocols and manuals and so forth, and that there's involvement with the government-- all these things make sense to me.
All of a sudden it lifts up out of purely a science fiction kind of way to look at it.
This isn't a television show.
Thiss something real that's happening right in front of your eyes.
- This document would not have been created as some speculative guide on how to retrieve UFOs.
This is a very specific document that has very specific information in it, and it would not have been created if there had only been one recovery of a downed craft.
There had to have been numerous UFO crashes to have warranted the creation of such a document.
One of these crashes took place in Kingman, Arizona, one year before the special operations manual was reportedly published.
Many believe the events surrounding this crash had a direct impact on the protocol and procedures that would eventually appear in the SOM1-01 manual.
May 1953.
Kingman, Arizona.
A military air base control tower picks something up on their radar.
Suddenly, the object loses altitude and disappears from the screen.
- Officer Woolcott is on duty in the control tower.
After witnessing an object of unknown origin appear and disappear on his radar screen, looks up to see other officers pointing towards the horizon, and they're talking about something being down.
- Several officers, including Woolcott, jump into a jeep and take off in the direction the object crashed.
After searching around area where the object had lan, they finally locate something.
The officers discover a craft unlike anything they have ever seen.
- In front of them is a domed, metallic-looking disc embedded 20 inches into the sand.
The craft is completely inta and there isn't a single scratch on it.
Whe dermining how to handle the situation, Woolcott and his fellow officers are quickly joined by hers, also awa of e crash.
They begin cordoning off the area and questioning all the witnesses.
Everyone not part of the recovery team is removed from the site and warned never to reveal what they have seen.
Their procedures for securing the site appear to follow the exact instructions found in SOM1-01.
- Chapter 3 of the special operations manual talks about recovery operations, and there is an entire section about securing the area.
Once the cra has been discovered, the military moves in as quickly as possible to set up a perimeter and an on-site command post, claiming complete control of the area.
- Once a perimeter is estaished and an on-site command post is set up, the military does an area sweep of all unauthorized personnel.
Any witnesses they find must be thoroughly debriefed and then removed from the location.
- The Kingman Crash of 1953 is a precursor to the creation of this government handbook issued in 1954.
But you can see that the government is already starting to put this system into place.
Securing the site is just one of many protocols outlined in the specl op.
Yet each procedure appears to exist for a single purpose.
- Every si sts r one reason: to keep things sect.
What other UFO crash protocols are contained in SOM1-01 that help prove it's the smoking gun the government doesn't want you to know about? Hangar 1 files reveal the manual's specific instructions for covering-up a crash.
- Suddenly mesge comes in over the teletype.
Anit reads: "This is the FBI.
You will immediately cease all communication.
" The special operations manual, SOM1-01, reveals how far the government is willing to go to maintain their secrets when we return.
MUFON has uncovered what could be one of the most shocking official documents ever created: SOM1-01: a government manual that outlines procedures for recovering UFOs.
And though there is debate among historians and researchers as to the manual's authenticity, one event that may have influenced its creation and protocols is the famous Roswell UFO crash.
Early July 1947.
Albuquerque, New Mexico.
- In 1947, Lydia Sleppy worked at KOAT Radio in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
One of her duties was operating the station's teletype machine.
It received news as well as allowed them to send stories to their affiliate stations.
- Sleppy was at the office when she received a call from John McBoyle, the general manager at the radio station in Roswell.
McBoyle informed her that he had something hot for the network.
- As McBoyle relayed the information to Sleppy over the phone, she began using the teletype machine to send the message to ABC News Headquarters in Hollywood.
She recalls McBoyle telling her that a flying saucer had crashed down north of Roswell.
- Sleppy is typing the information when suddenly the bell on the teletype machine ngs indicati an incoming message.
The next thing Sleppy knows, a message comes in over the teletype, and it reads, "This is the FBI.
You will immediately cease all communication.
" Afraid to proceed, Lydia Sleppy follows the FBI's orders and stops her transmission.
thgornment fails to keeprts Roswell's flying saucer out of the media.
- Because Roswell was probably one of the earliest crash retrievals of a UFO, there weren't specific protocols in place to manage the press.
This is why the Army found themselves scrambling to concoct a cover story like a downed weather balloon, for example.
This is why, when you look at the Special Operations Manual, under recovery operations, the first thing they talk about is press blackout.
You see the lessons of Roswell right here in this manual in black and white.
To prevent media blunders like Roswell from happening in the future, SOM1-01 also provides protocols for what to do when the government fails to suppress crash information.
- According to the handbook, the first thing to do is, you deny that anything had happened.
Secondly, to discredit witnesses who refuse to keep quiet by indicating that they were mentally unstable or had misinterpreted whatever they had seen and so forth.
And if that didn't work, then you just flat-out lie.
You can just state that what people saw was a meteorite, or maybe if you want to just keep them away from the site altogether, say it was a toxic chemical spill or something like that.
Cases like Roswell expose the lack of protocol that existed during the earliest UFO crashes.
Returning to the Kingman crash, we see that by the mid-1950s, a new set of procedures are instituted to ensure a higher level of security.
May 1953: The day of the Kingman crash.
Arthur Stansel is working nearly two hundred miles away at the Nevada proving ounds for atomic tting.
- Arthur Stansel was a mechanical engineer who was employed by the U.
S.
Air Force at Air Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
At the time, he was on loan to the Atomic Energy Commission at the Nevada Test Site.
Stansel receives a call about a top-secret assignment and is immediately flown to Phoenix with 15 other specialists.
Once in Phoenix, he boards a bus with windows that are completely blacked out.
- They are told that they are going to be involved in the recovery of the downing of a very highly experimental aircraft.
Once at the crash site, each person was only responsible to investigate the area under their specific expertise, nothing more.
This is extreme compartmentation of duties.
- Stansel's escorted from the bus to the crash by military police.
He first notices that there is a ring of guards blocking the view of whatever is behind them.
to see the surrounding area.
- But he sees this object embedded in the ground.
It's a disc shaped object, about 30 feet in dmeter, looks like a flying saucer, embedded into the ground about 20 inches or so in.
He had one and only thing that his job was.
Determine from the impact site how fast that object had been going when it hit the ground.
- And then after Stansel's work was done, he gets debriefed.
He is interviewed at length.
He is ordered to surrender all of his notes.
He has to raise his right hand and make an oath never, ever to reveal what he had learned.
According to Arthur Stansel's testimony, security at the Kingman crash site was incredibly tight.
- Stansel's account is fascinating, because you really get an inside look at how the operation on the ground worked.
Everything about these crash sites was compartmentalized, right down to the way the experts analyzed the data.
No one ever had a complete picture of what was happening.
Compartmentalizing tasks is key to security protocols.
But what you witness at Kingman is an early example of the way security was handled at UFO crashes.
Because when the special operations manual is published a year later, the security protocol has changed.
- It looks like SOM1-01 ultimately does away with specialists analyzing the crash on-site.
Outside of a special ops team evaluating the situation, all material found at the site is to be shipped off as quickly as possible to a secure facility.
Why would the manual dictate that a craft be moved as quickly as possible rather than analyzed on location? Is it simply to keep the crash material secure from the public? Another complication encountered at the Kingman crash reveals unexpected dangers at UFO retrieval sites, leading to even more safety protocols.
- The crew spends about an hour inside the craft, but when they emerge it is clear that something isn't right.
- Every single team member almost immediately removes their mask and begins to vomit.
The files reveal the deadly truth behind the manual's instructions on contamination, when we return.
Hangar 1 files have exposed a shocking piece of possible evidence that connects the U.
S.
government to knowledge of extraterrestrials.
An official military special operations manual called SOM1-01 details instructions for the recovery of downed UFOs.
MUFON investigators are tasked with the challenge of trying to prove whether this manual is real.
Cases like Roswell reveal why protocols such as "media blackouts" were created.
More recent cases indicate that SOM1-01's retrieval procedures have continued to evolve, but essentially follow specific steps.
Thanksgiving 1992.
Long Island residents near Southaven park report what they think is an airplane crash.
- Motorists traveling along Long Island's Sunrise Highway on the night of November 24, 1992, report what they think was a plane going down into Southaven Park around 7:00 P.
M.
Other local residents report seeing unexplainable flashes of light in the sky.
- It's believed that immediately after the crash, a fire broke out in the park.
Firefighters rushed to the scene, but instead of local firefighters, it was a special team from the federally controlled Brookhaven Laboratory Fire Department.
- The roads surrounding the park were blocked by county and park police, but no one except federal officers were allowed inside the perimeter of the park.
At the same time, a number of military helicopters were seen flying over the park area.
The next day, and several days following, the park was closed to the public.
- Local residents near the park noted that for the five or six days following the incident they experienced numerous power surges.
But when the power company was questioned, they were told their official response was that no abnormal power outages had occurred.
- When authorities were questioned about the park's closure, official records state that the park was closed between November 25th and 28th for private duck hunting.
Seriously? Duck Hunting? But look at page 8 of the manual.
It may be necessary to issue false statements to preserve the security of the site.
It appears that the security protocols outlined in SOM1-01 were followed to a "T" during the Southaven Park incident.
- Another interesting thing about the 1992 Southaven Park incident is the fact that only federal officers are allowed to enter the scene.
Page nine of the UFO Recovery Manual specifically states that local law enforcement may be used to set up a perimeter and deal with crowd control, but they are not allowed to enter the crash site.
And here you are with reports that a federal fire response team was brought in to secure the site rather than local firefighters.
- Are all of these security measures followed just to insure secrecy? A closer examination at what happened years earlier at the Kingman crash reveals another purpose: to prevent possible contamination.
At the Kingman crash, a special retrieval team was called on to enter the downed craft.
- An entry team arrives dressed in "clean room clothing" and surgical masks.
They are wired with two-way radios, so they can communicate with a team outside the craft.
The crew makes their way inside the craft and immediately experiences complications.
- The first thing that happens is, their communications fail.
They no longer have any contact with the team outside the craft.
- The crew spends about an hour inside the craft, but when they emerge, it is immediately clear that something isn't right.
- The team comes out showing signs of intense nausea.
Every single team member almost immediately removes their mask and begins to vomit.
Alarmed, authorities quickly snap into action.
- The entry crew is ushered through decontamination protocols and sent off to another secret facility to undergo medical examinations.
The officers at the scene are left to question, what have they been exposed to? - I mean, you have to wonder.
Did the team have an adverse biological reaction to the alien environment? Or was the UFO booby-trapped with some sort of toxin? - I believe people get sick not because of the entities, but because of the craft or something to do with the craft.
These are obviously very far advanced, Which to me lends credibility to the story, right, that they got sick.
Cases such as this, exposing retrieval teams to the hazards of alien materials, are addressed in the manual with instructions that limit access to the craft.
There are also explicit instructions on removing all crash material to a secure location.
But transporting a UFO can be dangerous.
Securing a UFO site is just the first step-- moving it is an entirely different matter.
- Military officers hatch this crazy, risky scheme to tow the saucer across the river at night.
- Suddenly, the unthinkable happens.
A guide cable comes loose.
The barge starts floating down the Colorado River headed straight for the Hoover Dam.
Coming up, military officers react when a UFO recovery goes awry and crashes into a national monument.
And later, a member of an elite UFO retrieval team gives his personal account of coming face-to-face with UFOs and their inhabitants.
- On several occasions, I was called upon to be part of an elite unit to assist in the recovery of objects of unknown origin, UFOs.
And I know for a fact that those objects did not originate on the face of this planet.
When Hangar 1 returns.
In 1994, an alleged government document surfaces that outlines specific procedures for securing and recovering UFOs, a special operations manual called SOM1-01.
The authenticity of this document is questioned, but the fact is, the instructions outlined in SOM1-01 seem to follow procedures described by eyewitnesses at numerous crash sites.
However, one crash stands out: the famous Kingman, Arizona, crash of 1953.
- As the Kingman case illustrates, the retrieval process can be difficult and dangerous.
The Colorado River.
May 1953.
- In the summer of 1953, a UFO crash-landed in the desert near Kingman, Arizona.
Once it no longer appeared safe to analyze the evidence at the Kingman crash site, the saucer was loaded onto an M25 tank transporter.
Now, the nickname for this beast was called the Dragon Wagon, and it is used to transport tanks during World War II.
- Here comes a tank transporter loaded down with a giant UFO, when it suddenly finds itself face to face with the Hoover Dam.
Now, the weight allowance for vehicles crossing the dam is only about 1 ton.
The tank transporter is 40 tons.
This convoy team has an obvious problem.
The team quickly devises a plan to transport the UFO across the Colorado River.
Now, in order to do this, they planned to drive the giant M25 transporter loaded down with the saucer onto a barge.
They would use two floating personnel carriers to string up guide cables across the river.
Then they would connect the barge to the cables and pull it across.
And of course, they're doing all of this in pitch black darkness.
- This operation was difficult at best, but somehow they manage to get the transport onto the barge.
Here they go.
They start pulling this thing across the river.
Suddenly, the unthinkable happens.
A guide cable comes loose.
The barge starts floating down the Colorado River headed straight for the Hoover Dam.
The barge carrying the M25 transport and the saucer crashes into the side of the Hoover Dam.
- Having a military protocol in place is one thing, executing it brings up an entirely new level of challenges.
- It's a miracle they didn't cause any serious damage.
But finally, they managed to reattach the cables and finish pulling the barge and transport vehicles across the river.
The SOM1-01 manual contains instructions that UFOs should be transported by truck.
But more recent crash retrievals suggest that as technology has improved, new methods for transporting UFOs have evolved.
Spring 2008.
A small military force descends upon Needles, California.
- On May 14, 2008, several witnesses see a glowing, turquoise-colored object streak across the sky and crash into a nearby hillside.
Then, almost immediately, they report what looked like military helicopters searching the area.
But the helicopters aren't the only military presence on the scene.
- David Hayes, who worked for KTOX, the local Needles radio station, was driving down the road just outside of town when it happened.
He watched a military convoy pull off the main road and head towards the location of the crash.
It isn't long before the military finds what they're looking for, and attempts to retrieve it.
- According to one witness, one of the helicopters had a giant hook dangling from it.
And once the military found the object, they air lifted it out of the area by helicopter.
Despite the fact that the object was covered with some sort of draping, other witnesses noted that it was still glowing when the military carted it away.
They claimed they could see it lighting up the ground below it as it flew overhead.
Did the residents of Needles, California, witness a modern UFO retrieval team in action? - It makes s As technology changes and our knowledge FOs ows, the methods presented in SOM1-01 would also be updated.
Coming up, Hangar 1 files uncover another incredible chapter in the SOM1-01 manual-- how to deal with alien beings recovered from crash sites.
And an army sergeant who recovered UFOs when we return.
Researchers inside Hangar 1 believe they have uncovered a top-secret special operations manual called SOM1-01.
And though some question the authenticity of this manual, it appears to outline government protocols for securing crash sites and transporting UFO technology.
But that's not all.
An entire section of the manual is also devoted to encounters with alien beings.
For the amazing story behind one such alien encounter, we return to the Kingman crash of 1953.
At the Kingman, Arizona, crash site, military personnel lock down the scene to not only conceal the UFO, but what was also found in the downed alien craft.
- From the moment the military teams arrive at the site, the scene is one of orchestrated chaos.
Some teams are sent to secure the perimeter, others are to secure the craft itself.
Officers immediately start setting up tents and lights.
I mean everybody has their orders.
Through the chaos, it becomes clear to the retrieval teams that they are dealing with more than just crash debris.
- Incredibly, when the retrieval teams arrive on the scene, they find four extraterrestrial biological entities, officially known as E.
B.
E.
s.
The creatures are standing outside the craft, and it becomes clear that two of them are injured.
- The E.
B.
E.
s are described as between 3 1/2 to 4 feet tall.
Humanoid in appearance, with dark brown skin.
Their heads are disproportionately large compared to their bodies.
- A special unit approaches the two injured aliens and attempts to give them medical aid.
But in truth, there's not a whole lot they can do.
The real goal is to secure the creatures as quickly as possible and transport them to a secure location.
Before the aliens are removed from the scene, the two uninjured E.
B.
E.
s are allowed to reenter the craft.
- The two head into the craft, but remain in view through the open hatch door.
It is believed they are making one final attempt to communicate with others from their home or perhaps another craft in the area.
- As soon as the two beings emerge from the craft, all four are immediately loaded up and transported away to an undisclosed location.
What are the manual's protocols when it comes to encountering alien beings found at crash sites? - It appears that at the time the manual was written, at least two different types of extraterrestrials had been encountered.
While the manual states that teams should make every effort to keep the E.
B.
E.
s alive, it also states that their life is not worth the security of the site, and contact should be kept to a minimum.
- The manual clearly states that because it is unknown what effect terrestrial medicine will have, medical teams will only attempt to stop bleeding, bind wounds, and splint broken limbs.
According to the manual, where are these extraterrestrials sent? What happens next? - Several receiving facilities are mentioned in the manual for UFO materials.
Area 51 is one of them.
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is another one.
But the manual also suggests that once these materials were received and cataloged and studied, that they could be moved to other facilities around the U.
S.
for additional research.
What this means is that UFO evidence could be hidden all over the country.
When analyzing SOM1-01 in conjunction with crash cases like Kingman and Southaven Park, evidence seems overwhelming that the government has been involved in recovering downed alien craft for over half a century.
Investigators remain determined to uncover additional proof.
Next, the testimony of Clifford Stone.
- I would be visited by an individual who would always go ahead and tell me that the general sends his regard, code word Tabasco.
I knew then that I had to grab my BA50 bag, kiss the kids and my wife good-bye, and go off on that mission.
A member of an elite UFO recovery team tells his incredible story when we return.
Stone began his army career in 1969, and was assigned to the nuclear, biological, and chemical unit, known as the NBC.
- It was a good cover for me 'cause these teams would always be utilized.
You would go there, you would secure the site, you would recover the object and any bodies or living entities if any were there.
According to stone, these sites were located all around the world.
- We had teams set up that would actually go out worldwide to recover fallen UFOs.
During this time, Stone's services were called on at a moment's notice.
- When an event took place and you got the call, you grab your BA50 bag, you'd go ahead, you kiss your wife and your kids good-bye, then you'd g, and you had no idea whether you was ever coming back, because accidents happen.
People died, because we were dealing with technologies that we didn't even begin to understand.
Stone notes that procedures involving UFO sites followed a very specific set of protocols.
- There would be a total blackout on any news getting out.
We would have several different cover stories.
We could always cover it by stating it was an experimental aircraft that crashed.
If there was any media involvement, we were prepared to go so far as saying that there was a nuclear device on that craft.
After every mission, there was a rigorous debriefing.
- You'd be debriefed, and then cautioned not to talk about it and be told it was classified.
Stone's experiences seem to line up exactly with the instructions detailed in SOM1-01.
But curiously, Stone was never shown SOM1-01 during any of his missions.
- Special Operations Manual, do we have Special Operations Manual? Yep, but it's not SOM.
I never saw SOM1-01.
But was there a manual, or what we would call a Standard Operating Procedure? Yes, there was.
They had standard protocol on how you do the recovery.
Everybody involved knew exactly what their mission was.
- It's fascinating that Clifford Stone never came into contact with SOM1-01.
Perhaps there have been multiple editions of the manual over the years, and the version that Clifford saw was simply a later version.
Or maybe it was written after the fact by someone with intimate inside information.
The question remains, is this manual real? With debate continuing, the truth remains unclear.
However, the evidence suggests that the protocols found within SOM1-01 are in fact in place.
Whether the manual is authentic or not, by investigating multiple UFO crash files, including Roswell, Kingman, and Southaven, Long Island, one thing becomes clear: It is possible that the government has been hiding its involvement with UFOs and their inhabitants for decades.
- I think, what would I do? If I were the government, what would I do? I would absolutely have a manual.
I would absolutely have protocols in place.
Now, maybe this wouldn't be a public thing.
Maybe there would just be a few individuals, key individuals, that would know about these protocols, but I would absolutely be prepared that another Roswell wouldn't happen.
That absolutely makes sense to me.
I would do it, so why wouldn't they do it? While SOM1-01 appears to be a smoking gun for many ufologists, the final proof of its authenticity may not be resolved until the U.
S.
government officially discloses what they know about UFOs.
Until that time, Hangar 1 continues to open its files, searching for the truth.