Fort Dix/McGuire AFB Investigation

Introduction

NIDS was contacted in July 2000 by a number of individuals and urged to conduct an investigation into the alleged fatal shooting of a non-human entity at Fort Dix/McGuire AFB on January 18, 1978. The case had originally been investigated by Leonard Stringfield and colleagues in the 1980s. NIDS reproduces here (see next section) a paper that Leonard Stringfield authored for the 1985 International MUFON symposium in which the detailed genesis of the McGuire AFB case is described. To briefly summarize the events described in the Stringfield paper: on September 23, 1980, Leonard Stringfield received a letter from a sergeant Morse. The letter, according to Stringfield, was "typed in proper military format on stationary with official letterhead." The three text paragraphs of the letter are reproduced here and are self-explanatory:

1. In January of 1978, I was stationed at McGuire AFB, NJ. One evening, during the time frame of 0300hrs and 0500hrs., there were a number of UFO sightings in the area over the air field and Ft. Dix Army camp. I am a security policeman and was on routine patrol at the time. N.J. State Police, and Ft. Dix MPs were running code in the direction of Brownsville, NJ. A state trooper then entered gate #5 at the rear of the base requesting assistance and permission to enter. I was dispatched and the trooper wanted access to the runway area which led to the very back of the air field and connected with a heavily wooded area which is part of the Dix training area. He informed me that a Ft. Dix MP was pursueing (sic) a low flying object which then hovered over his car. He described it as oval shaped, with no details, and glowing with a blueish (sic) green color. His radio transmission was cut off. At that time in front of his police car, appeared a thing, about 4ft tall, grayish (sic), brown, fat head, long arms, and slender body. The MP panicked and fired five rounds from his .45 Cal into the thing, and one round into the object above. The object then fled straight up and joined with eleven others high in the sky. This we all saw but didn't know the details at the time. Anyway, the thing ran into the woods towards our fenceline and they wanted to look for it. By this time several patrols were involved.
2. We found the body of the thing near the runway. It had apparently climbed the fence and died while running. It was all of a sudden hush-hush and no one was allowed near the area. We roped off the area and AF OSI came out and took over. That was the last I saw of it. There was a bad stench coming from it too. Like ammonia smelling but it wasn't constent (sic) in the air. That day, a team from Wright-Patterson AFB came in a C141 and went to the area. They crated it in a wooden box, sprayed something over it, and then put it into a bigger metal container. They loaded it in the plane and took off. That was it, nothing more was said, no report made and we were all told not to have anything to say about it or we would be court martialed.
3. I will be getting out of the air force in about two months. Do Not disclose my name as I could get into trouble. I am interested in pursuing this and other matters if you need help. Forgive me for not signing this but I cant take any chances. Please reply to the above address and my parents will forward it to me or I will be home already. Don't send it here because they monitor all mail closely and I again don't want to take any chances.

In November 27, 1980 Morse again wrote to Stringfield, claiming that he was now out of the service. There followed a sporadic and intermittent correspondence, punctuated by long silences. On December 6, 1983 (over three years after the first correspondence), Morse called Stringfield by telephone and in subsequent conversations, revealed that two days after the incident he and others on duty at the scene were summoned to Wright Patterson AFB for interrogation, and each was transferred promptly to a separate base overseas. Morse even gave Stringfield the names and ranks of the officers at WPAFB who had interrogated him. Then on December 23, 1983, Stringfield received, by certified mail, a photocopy of an incident/complaint report (Form 1569). The report essentially contained the same story as originally told by Morse.

Stringfield, according to his 1985 MUFON symposium paper, had only the personal testimony of Morse together with the Form 1569 as evidence for the authenticity of the case. Additionally on January 13, 1985, Morse met in person with other prominent UFO investigators, including Richard Hall and Bruce Maccabee, who came away with a positive impression of Morse, pronouncing him credible.

The Fort Dix/McGuire case was also of interest because a prominent UFO investigator, George Filer, claimed to have been present at McGuire AFB on the morning of January 18, 1978. Mr. Filer told NIDS that he witnessed a commotion with red lights on one of the disused runways at McGuire when he arrived on the base at 4:00 AM. He further claimed that he heard from a Senior Master Sergeant at McGuire command post on the same morning that (i) UFO activity had been sighted by the control tower and on radar at neighboring Fort Dix and (ii) an alien had been shot that morning and that it had been found dead on the runway at McGuire. A map of the Fort Dix/McGuire area accompanies this report.

The purpose of the preliminary investigation by NIDS was to look for some independent corroborative testimony or evidence that the above-described event happened.