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1989-12-31
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(The following account will appear in the July/August 1988
issue of the International UFO Reporter, 2457 West Peterson
Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60659. Please contact CUFOS for
permission to make copies. Reproduction without permission is
strictly prohibited. Copyright (c) 1988 by the J. Allen Hynek
Center for UFO Studies.)
AN UNUSUAL CE-III UFO REPORT
FROM THE BANGOR NAVAL SUBMARINE BASE, BREMERTON, WASHINGTON
by
Donald A. Johnson, Ph.D.
P.O. Box 161
Kirkland, WA 98083-0161
DATE: August 31, 1987
TIME: 11:00 p.m. (PDT)
TYPE OF SIGHTING: CE-III
WITNESSES: Dennis Mauer, age 10
Randy Springsteen, age 8
Charlene Springsteen, age 26
LOCATION: U.S. Navy Trident Submarine Base
Bangor, Washington
I received a phone call from Bob Gribble of the UFO
Reporting Center on September 1st, 1987, saying that he had
received a report of a UFO sighting by two boys, ages 8 and 10,
who live in base housing with their families at the Bangor Naval
Submarine Base. I called the mother of one of the boys,
Charlene Springsteen, and she related the following account.
Her son Randy, age 8, and her neighbor's son Dennis Mauer,
age 10, were spending the night together and she allowed them to
go outside for a few minutes to play on the playground
equipment. This was at approximately 10:55 p.m. on Monday
evening, August 31st. The two boys were outdoors for about 10
minutes and came running back in, "as white as ghosts". The
boys reported that they had seen a big circular-shaped object
hovering 20-40 feet over her house, shine a beam of light down
on the house, then come directly over the boys on the playground
equipment, stop, and shine a larger beam of light down on them.
After a few minutes, during which they reported seeing two
cat-like humanoid figures aboard the craft, the object moved
away and the kids ran home. After hearing from the boys, the
mother went outside and saw an "aircraft" with many--"10 to
20"--red and blue lights arranged in a row in the Northwestern
sky. She knew that airplanes had red and green running lights
so concluded that the lighting arrangement was not that of an
airplane. She then saw the object make a quick turn and zip
away. She looked around the immediate neighborhood to see if
any of her neighbors also witnessed the event, but none of her
neighbors were out.
The boys reported that they saw an occupant--"some sort of
creature"-- through a door or opening in the bottom-middle of
the craft with big long, "cat-like" ears. It was standing up,
and they saw it bend over something that looked like a
searchlight and shine the light down on them by pulling a
lever. They saw a second occupant similar in appearance to the
first in a second doorway, in the bottom-lower left of the craft.
Mrs. Springsteen had the boys draw sketches of what they
had seen the following morning. Her husband is an enlisted man
in the Navy with the rank of E-6, and works with the base
security forces. She told me he was skeptical of the boys'
account and reluctant to have them report the sighting to any
officials.
Mrs. Springsteen called the Bremerton police to report the
sighting, and had a friend call the private security force, Pam
Am, that provides security for the base housing, on her behalf.
The Bremerton police, who incidentally would have been out of
their jurisdiction and so can't legally investigate in response
to a call from the Bangor base, suggested she call 911 if she
felt the incident warranted the attention, and the Pan Am base
security guard did not regard the UFO report as a serious matter.
I suggested that she probably should report the sighting to
the base commander, because the UFO was an unauthorized aerial
object in a restricted, Federal area. However, I emphasized
that it wasn't my intention to pressure her to do so, and I left
the decision up to her. She told me she would think about it
and meanwhile she would talk to Dennis's mother and have her
call me.
About half an hour later I received a phone call from Linda
Mauer, Dennis's mother. At first, Dennis did not tell his
mother about his encounter the night before because he wasn't
sure she would believe him. When she did learn about their
encounter from Charlene Springsteen, she had Dennis draw
sketches of what he had seen and the sketches were identical to
those drawn earlier. This convinced her that the boys were
reporting a real event and not making something up.
Mrs. Mauer also reported that she had had a previous UFO
sighting in New Mexico and was more willing to accept the boys'
account of the events because of it. Her previous sighting
occurred at her home at a time when they were living in the
desert, "30 miles from anything", and as she was hanging a
bedspread on the clothes line she noticed three bright, red
columns of light move through the sky.
I called Jim Clarkson in Aberdeen, a police officer and
MUFON field investigator, and asked him to check with police and
sheriff departments in the Bangor area to see if they had logged
any other UFO reports. He reported back that he had talked to
the Kitsap County Sheriff's Department and they had received no
reports.
I interviewed Mrs. Springsteen, Randy, Dennis Mauer, and
Linda Mauer in person on Sunday, September 6th. The base is a
high security restricted area not open to the public and a
visitor requires special permission from someone living on the
base to visit base housing (see the enclosed copy of my
visitor's pass). Base housing is south and about a quarter of a
mile away from the top security military installation where the
nuclear submarines are docked and nuclear missiles stockpiled.
I arrived at their home on F Court of Albacore Circle in the
early afternoon.
The immediate neighborhood consists of approximately 25
housing units, grouped into four or five-unit townhouses that
are approximately 25 feet apart (see sketch prepared by Linda
Mauer). The playground is shared by 50-60 families and the
swingset on which the boys were playing at the time of the UFO
encounter was estimated by Mrs. Springsteen to be 75 feet from
the Springsteen house. I later measured the distance and found
it to be 82 feet.
On the night of the encounter Dennis Mauer was staying
overnight at his friend Randy's house. This was the last week
of summer before school started and the boys were up late. In a
private conversation with one of the neighbors, I learned that
it is not uncommon for the children in the neighborhood to be
out playing very late at night. According to Dennis:
"I asked Sherri if we could go out in the backyard
and swing on the swings and she said "no" and we begged
her and begged her and she said yes. And we went out
there, and it just flew over this (the Springsteen) house
and then it went over the park."