The Mysterious Hangar 18
Tuesday May 27, 2008 8:33 AM
Dayton, Ohio is not a town that most people would find remarkable. Folks elsewhere in the country might not have even heard of it, except for the presence of the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. This military base started life merely as Wright Field (named for the Ohio-born brothers who invented modern aviation). Allegedly, not long after the UFO crash at Roswell, NM, all of that changed. Material from the New Mexico crash is believed to have been transported to Dayton, whereupon Wright Field became Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
Many UFOlogists believe that, since that fateful summer in 1947, Wright-Patterson has been used to store not only wreckage from downed alien craft but also bodies of the aliens themselves. It was not long before rumors began to circulate about the mysterious "Blue Room," or, more widely, about Hangar 18. Stories about this top secret location in the Air Force Base were so persistent that in the 1960s, Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona dropped in on the base and sought permission to view Hangar 18 from General Curtis LeMay. His request caused quite a stir at the base and was flatly denied by LeMay.
A variety of credible witnesses have come forth claiming to have seen some of the bizarre things stored at Wright-Patterson. Norma Gardner, who had worked at the base for a number of years and held a high security clearance, claimed to have been responsible for photographing, tagging and cataloging materials recovered from crashed saucers. She also claimed to have seen the bodies of two aliens on at least one occasion.
Physicist Robert Sarbacher, a consultant to the Department of Defense's Research and Development Board made a startling statement to a group of Canadian scientists on September 15, 1950. He affirmed that the US government had alien materials in its possession and further, that it had been trying to duplicate their performance, albeit without success.
Retired Air Force officer Arthur Exon has testified that alien crash remains were brought to Wright Field while he was serving there in 1947. Exon later became a brigadier general and, in 1964, he was named the Wright-Patterson base commander. Even with this high rank, he was still denied direct access to any of the studies being carried out upon the alien material. Exon also asserted that among the materials gleaned from the 1947 crash were alien bodies, and these were also under study at Wright-Patterson. He remains the highest-ranking military person to come forward with statements regarding the Roswell crash.
Given all of these accounts, it seems highly credible that something top secret was, at least at one time, going on at Wright-Patterson. But does the Dayton base still harbor the mysterious materials in Hangar 18? One retired Air Force pilot, speaking under the condition of anonymity, told UFO researcher Leonard Springfield that at least some of the items originally stored at Wright-Patterson were later moved to a site in Colorado Springs.
Even if nothing extra-terrestrial remains at the Ohio Air Force Base, the legend of Hangar 18 has become such an iconic part of modern UFO mythology that rumors about what's really there are likely to continue indefinitely.
Comments (1)
I grew up in Xenia Ohio about fifteen minutes from the base. I was on the base a lot and the only time my husband and I got into trouble was when we were driving around looking at the jets and got too close to the Hangars. There are some areas around the hangars that are off limits but I cannot say what is there for sure. Interesting article though.
Posted by Kris | June 8, 2008 2:13 PM
Posted on June 8, 2008 14:13