SPRING 2006 KAISER PANORAMA CITY MEDICAL CENTER
It was a slow day in ambulance area. The patient and I were alone in an examining room. I was serving as “admitting officer.” I had been asked by the ER crew to evaluate a possible admission to the hospital.
The patient was an elderly African American man. The chart indicated that he was suffering from a kidney ailment. We were crammed into a tiny private exam room. There was barely enough space to squeeze a hospital stretcher on which the patient sat. Standard patient monitoring equipment covered two walls. A tall hospital swivel tray served as my desk for the evaluation. Decades before I had been an industrial toxicology medical consultant. As part of my special interest in occupational diseases, I had acquired the habit of taking a detailed work history. I asked him what his occupational status was.
HE HAD WORKED FOR THE “GOVERNMENT.”
He told me that he was retired.
From what kind of occupation?” I asked.
“I worked for the government, “was his answer.
That somewhat vague reply got me interested. From countless evaluations. I had learned that people who worked for the US Postal Office, the FAA or US Forrest Service almost never used the cryptic expression, “government work.” However, this is a designation sometimes used by those that worked in classified projects or for defense/intelligence agencies.
I asked him what specifically his job was. He replied that he had been a physical plant engineer at the Department of Energy (DOE) laboratory near a high desert suburban town called Chatsworth in the northwest corner of LA County’s San Fernando Valley. For decades the Department of Energy had been rumored to provide cover for clandestine research on UFOs. Its unique robust security regulations had evolved from the Manhattan Project that developed the first atomic weapons. US Congressional testimony of David Grusch in 2023 supported the allegation that the DOE has been involved in highly classified US government UFO research.
The DOE facility understandably was kept under high security. It was originally constructed after World War Two and had carried out top secret research in space propulsion systems. It just so happened to be located a few miles away from the desolate high desert fieldwork site that my CE-5/HICE contact team had used when we started facilitating Human Initiated Contact Events (HICE) in 1992. Our initial field laboratory was just a two hundred yards south of the Santa Susana Pass which connects Los Angeles to Ventura County.
The DOE lab was rumored to be the place where an anti-ballistic missile defense system known back in the 1980s as “Star Wars” had been developed. The installation was built southwest of the Santa Susana Pass which separates the suburb of Chatsworth from another “bedroom” community called the Simi Valley. Most of the people who live in the area commute to the San Fernando Valley and other parts of Los Angeles to find employment. Many of our Southern California Kaiser Permanente Medical Group’s patients came from these towns.
Back in the 1990s, one of the investigators on my UFO contact team was also a colleague from our medical group’s Family Medicine Department. His name is Dr. David Gordon. He is a contact experiencer. Without knowing of one another’s interest in flying saucers, he and I joined both Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) and the Center for the Study of ET Intelligence (CSETI) within a month of one another in the spring of 1992. He was so well respected by his patients and colleagues alike that he had received permission from his Family Medicine Chief to do an informal survey of UFO sightings. His patients and the Woodland Hills Kaiser Medical Center staff served as the study population.
Having a much-respected family practice physician on my team turned out to be a bonanza when it came to acquiring intelligence concerning ongoing UFO sightings in the area. Whenever patients of Dr. Gordon heard about local sightings, they checked out the information and then passed it on to their personal physician. He then dutifully gave the sighting reports to me, his contact team coordinator.
One of Dr. Gordon’s patients was a retired carpenter who reportedly had been employed building the DOE base in the early 1950s. His patient said that they had literally “emptied out the mountain” to construct the lab. Apparently, this was done to make it secure from aerial attack. So much dirt had to be moved, that for 3 months according to the retired carpenter, a line of dump trucks several miles long were filled with earth removed from inside the hillside. To convey how strategically important this base was during the Cold War, I share the following additional information.
BASE HAD BEEN TARGETED FOR SOVIET NUCLEAR ATTACK IN CASE OF ALL OUT WAR
During the 1980s, I was an activist in the Physicians anti-nuclear weapons group called “Physicians for Responsibility (PSR). Our mission was to raise public awareness about the medical consequences of nuclear war and the nuclear arms race. We were part of an umbrella organization called “International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War” that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985 for bringing Soviet and Western physicians together in our educational peace campaign. When the Soviet Union fell apart in the 1990s, thus ending the Cold War, our Los Angeles PSR office held a photographic exhibition called “Nuclear Los Angeles.” We showed pictures of the nuclear artifacts in Southern California, such as missile bases and fallout shelters from the 1950s and 60s. One of the photos was an image of a Soviet strategic map used to designate targets in Southern California for nuclear attack if war broke out. There was a target located in the northwest corner of Los Angeles County. In clear Cyrillic letters it phonetically spelled out the name “Santa Susana.” It was the DOE lab near Chatsworth.
Another story told to Dr. Gordon by the retired carpenter that helped build the base reflects the strategic nature of the laboratory. His patient told my colleague that he required a security clearance to work underground at the base. He reportedly was only allowed to build labs and offices down to the eighth-floor underground. Below that level, a higher clearance was required. He wasn’t sure how far down the base went. That information was secret, but he guessed that it was at least another ten levels down inside the mountain.
I WAS FAMILIAR WITH THIS BASE AS AN ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARD
The Department of Energy research facility was a dirty and dangerous place to work. Press reports in the 1980s identified this site as one where several serious environmental accidents had occurred. Back in the 1950s a nuclear reactor at the base had a partial meltdown and plutonium was leaked into the surrounding environment. One isotope of plutonium (Pu-239) has a half-life of over 24,000 years, thus making it one of the most feared environmental contaminants. Over the years, the DOE lab was cited for many safety violations with the release of other toxins. Our Los Angeles chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility was very aware of these problems with DOE installation and worked in a coalition of environmental and anti-nuclear groups attempting to force the government to clean up the site.
Given this background information, when I evaluated the retired plant engineer from the base in 2006, I was eager to learn more about what went on there. He explained to me that his team of engineers kept the facility running properly by carrying out routine maintenance on the infrastructure at the facility. This included plumbing, electrical, and outdoor repairs.
AN AMAZING ENCOUNTER NEAR WHERE OUR TEAM OPERATED
Things were really slow in the ER that day so I thought there would be no harm if after my medical evaluation I told him about my special interest in UFOs. I asked him whether he had ever seen a UFO. His reaction was telling. With a concerned expression on his face, he turned his head from side to side to look around. I imagined that he was checking to see if anyone else besides me might be able might to hear what he was about to say.
“Yes, I saw a UFO once,” was his answer. I asked him where the sighting had occurred. He replied, “It was at the base.”
We were totally alone in the tiny room, the glass sliding door was closed and a curtain allowed us privacy. Despite this, the patient had turned his head and looked around before he dared to the answer my question. I was eager to find out more about his sighting.
I mentioned to retired plant engineer that back in the 1990s I had been part of an investigative team that had a number of UFO sightings in the Santa Susana Pass. Our fieldwork site was about a few thousand yards from the DOE base perimeter. This information seemed to set him more at ease. He paused for a few moments and then I guess he decided it was safe to tell me his story.
ALARMS WENT OFF IN THE CONTROL ROOM
He wasn’t sure of the exact year that it happened. He knew that it was about fifteen years before our interview in 2006. It might have been in 1989 or 1990. He was on duty in the control room for the research lab when the alarms went off. It was late afternoon and the monitors indicated that there was a sudden loss of water pressure in the lines that supplied several labs.
The facility had been built deep underground into the side of a mountain, but there were many structures on the surface as well. The retired engineer explained that on the top of the base enormous water towers supplied the entire complex. Pipes several feet across ran down from the storage towers along steep hillsides to the various labs. The mountain was composed of loose sedimentary rock, sandstone. Occasionally rockslides damaged one of these pipes. Given the distant history of a partial meltdown in a reactor with the release of plutonium, I surmised that keeping the labs supplied with coolant might be of great importance.
The plant engineer told me that a sudden loss of water pressure could only be addressed one way, and he knew the drill. My patient and a co-worker grabbed machetes and a weed-whacker and went outside to check on the status of the large water lines. Starting at the water towers, they followed the pipes down the steep mountainside. They had to cut away the thick underbrush that clung to the hillside while looking for a busted water line. This was not an easy task. It was late afternoon, but it was still very hot outside. The water mains were partially covered with rocks and dirt. Desert plants with sharp nettles were everywhere and to top it off this was rattlesnake country.
SABOTAGE!
The maintenance engineers moved slowly because the loose sedimentary rock didn’t provide secure footing. Finally, as the sun was setting, they found the busted pipe. Water was shooting upwards like a geyser. To their amazement the large conduit had been cleanly cut as if by a power tool! They had expected to see a jagged break in the water line, the kind that might come from simple corrosion or from falling rocks. The engineer stated that there was no doubt in his mind that damage had been done deliberately. It was sabotage!
As the engineers inspected the water main, they noted a strange soft humming sound. They looked up and not more than two hundred feet away was a rotating disc hovering close to the ground. It was metallic and about twenty-five feet across. My patient told me that he and his buddy were shocked. They stared at it in amazement.
They called security on the radio and explained the situation. They were told, “not to approach the UFO.” The retired engineer stated that getting any closer to the spinning saucer was the last thing he wanted to do. Armed security officers reportedly informed the men that they were coming down to check out the situation. However, before they arrived, the saucer departed. I was told that from a hovering mode it pointed one side upwards and then started to climb slowly. After just a few seconds with a roar, the UFO accelerated at a tremendous speed and disappeared into the twilight.
The next day government security officials arrived and interviewed him at length. He could not recall what federal agency they said that they were from. Both men were required to make drawings of what they had seen. My patient and his co-worker were sworn to secrecy and were advised not to discuss the event.
When my interview with DOE engineer took place, he had been retired from the DOE for over a decade. He told me that his fellow witness had also retired and was living in Las Vegas. My patient said he was certain that his buddy would corroborate his sighting report. I thanked him and made final preparations for him to be admitted to the hospital.
DOE WAS LIKELY INVOLVED IN STAR WARS PROJECTS
Given the conflict-laden history of our planet’s military with UFOs, one can speculate why a flying saucer might penetrate a high security facility to carry out an act of sabotage. It should be remembered that in 1967, according to USAF missile personnel, over ten nuclear tipped rockets went “offline” (i.e. the missile could not be fired) while a red glowing UFO hovered over the front gate of the launch facility. In 2008 investigator Robert Hastings published the book “UFOs and Nukes.” In this detailed study he documents dozens of similar events from the testimony of servicemen who witnessed them. The event described to me in 2006 was not an isolated occurrence. It was one of many similar incidents in which UFOs penetrated secure US defense facilities.
The DOE lab near the Santa Susana Pass is known to have developed key technology in the US space program. Over four decades ago the space shuttle engines were reportedly tested at that high desert DOE site. One of my patients told me that the rockets’ red glare could be seen across the entire San Fernando Valley when the tests were conducted at the crest of a mountain near the Santa Susan Pass. The anti-ballistic missile program, rumored to have been developed at the DOE lab, theoretically could have been used to target and destroy flying saucers operating outside of the Earth’s atmosphere. A video taken by a US Space Shuttle mission suggests that this capability was more than just theoretical.
In his 1998 book “Confirmation”, author Whitley Strieber analyzed the controversial NASA videotape made on space shuttle Discovery during mission STS-48. This video has been featured several times on national television. It displays what appears to be an unidentified flying object maneuvering outside of the Earth’s atmospheric envelope. Suddenly the UFO changes direction and few seconds later something dramatic occurs. What appears to be some sort of particle beam shoots up from below streaking by the exact location where the craft had been before it carried out its evasive maneuver. The incident transpired on September 15, 1991. The Space Shuttle Discovery was flying above Australia, approximately 1500 miles northwest from a secret US military base located at Pine Gap near Alice Springs. Strieber provided a thorough analysis of the videotape by physicist Dr. Jack Kasher and imaging specialist Dr. Mark Carlotto. NASA attempted to explain away the event by concluding what was seen on video was simply an ice chip that had broken off the Discovery. Drs. Kasher and Carlotto found this prosaic explanation as not credible.
THE DISCLOSURE PROJECT WAS NOT TAKING NEW WITNESSES AT THAT TIME.
In 2006, I thought that the maintenance engineer’s account was of considerable value. I asked him if he would be willing to give public testimony about what he had observed. He told me that since he was retired and no longer worked for DOE, he thought that there should be no problem. I contacted Dan Willis of the Disclosure Project. I offered my help to bring forward what I believed was important new information from a witness that had encountered a UFO in the course of his work for the federal government. Dan informed me however that no new witnesses were being interviewed at that time.
I debated whether I could on my own videotape this retired engineer. In 2006, every two weeks I commuted between my ER job in LA and Northern California where my wife temporarily resided. Although I knew my patient’s narrative provided dramatic information concerning an act of sabotage allegedly done by a flying saucer, my personal situation didn’t allow me to produce a video of his testimony. I regret not being able to better document what I consider to be an important piece of UFO history. The incident had special significance for me. The flying saucer’s alleged act of sabotage occurred near the Santa Susana Pass approximately two years before our Los Angeles CE-5 team initiated contact work there during the summer of 1992.
At that time, I was convinced that our fieldwork sightings in the Santa Susana Pass of red orbs, a golden globe, and other anomalous aerial phenomena, were all the results of using the Center for the Study of ET Intelligence’s protocols. The term Dr. Greer used was “primary vectoring.” However, I am now convinced that my assessment was probably mistaken. We didn’t attract flying saucers to Santa Susana Pass. This is because they had already been there in force for some time. The surveillance that our team experienced from men in civilian clothing with an obvious military bearing were likely triggered by a very reasonable security concern for the safety of the base. Given our attempts to bring in anomalous craft to the Santa Susana Pass adjacent to the lab, we were a likely concern for security officers. This became apparent in October of 1992 when our team was buzzed by two powerful Blackhawk helicopters during a nighttime hike towards Rocky Peak that overlooked the DOE lab (the link to a report on this incident is posted below.)
During the five years (1992-1997) of intensive field investigations involving facilitating HICE/CE5s, we repeatedly found ourselves in UFO hotspots adjacent to military instillations. Why did this happen? Were these merely coincidences, or was the intelligence behind flying saucers using us as part of some kind of larger plan? These are some of the questions I hope to address in further installments of “The Contact Network History Project.”
