Page 7 - 2011 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - January 2011

Crash Goes the Del Rio UFO Crash Crash Goes the Del Rio is a little different. In that affidavit he said: There are additional details about this "Down in Dyess Air Force Base in UFO Crash Texas, we were testing what turned out to be the available. According to the writers of the book, Willingham was part of a group of F-86 Continued from Page 6 F-94. They reported on the [radar] scope that fighters, and they were escorting a B-47 across they had an unidentified flying object at a high West Texas when they received the message In other words, there is absolutely no seep to intercept our course. It came visible to about the UFO. evidence that Willingham served in the Air us and we wanted to take off after it. Willingham also said that the object hit Force Reserve or that he was a fighter pilot. No Headquarters wouldn’t let us go after it and it the ground south of Langtry, Texas, digging a record of him anywhere and before you say, played around a little bit. We got to watching 300-yard long furrow before coming to rest how it made 90 degree turns at this high speed along side a sandy hill. Uriarte filled in more “Well, the government is covering up because he was talking about a UFO crash,” let me say and everything. We knew it wasn’t a missile of details when he said: this. There are too many places that his name any type. So then we confirmed it with the radar "The aviator [Willingham] returned to should appear and it would be impossible to control station on the DEW Line (NORAD) and the scene of the crash a few hours later... They erase all traces. There are no flight school they kept following it and they claimed that it landed the small plane right along side the records, no documents confirming he was crashed somewhere off between Texas and the crashed UFO and noticed that a large number of commissioned, his name does not appear in any Mexican border. We got a light aircraft, me and Mexican soldiers had already taken control of of the various official registries. These records my co-pilot, and we went down to the site. We the crash site. They had cordoned off the area would be filed in various places which means landed out in the pasture right across the from and would not allow Willingham or Perkins to even the fire in St. Louis couldn’t have where it hit. We got over there. They told us to approach the main part of the wreckage. destroyed them. leave and everything else and then the armed However, what they were able to see and look at But let’s say, for the sake of argument guards came out and they started to form a line was so amazing that it forever changed their that the failure to corroborate any sort of around the area. So, on the way back, I saw a lives." Before being forced to leave the area by little piece of metal so I picked it up and brought military service other than the short tour at the end of the Second World War does not impress. it back with me. There were two sand mounds the Mexican military, Willinghan picked up a Let’s say that you believe that his tale is that came down and it looked to me like this chunk of strange metal debris that was about the accurate. Then my question would be which thing crashed right in between them. But it went size of a man’s hand. He later tried to burn it, cut one? into the ground, according to the way people it, and otherwise deform it, but was not able to. According to what had been said, Todd were acting around it. But you could see for, oh The question now becomes, what do we Zechel claimed to have searched for I’d say, three to five hundred yards where it had do with this story? Witnesses, telling stories Willingham after he saw a short article in a went across the sand. It looked to me, I guess from memory, often make small mistakes or small Pennsylvania newspaper in which from the metal that we found, chunks of metal, alterations in the tale from telling to telling. Willlingham was quoted as saying he’d seen a that it either had a little explosion or it began to Dates might shift as the witness consults notes UFO crash. I tried to find that article, but failed. disintegrate. Something caused this metal to or realizes that he or she has gotten the sequence However, I found the next best thing. A come apart. wrong. We all expect these sorts of things and a "It looked like it was something that was paragraph published in the February/March made because it was honeycombed. You know report made in the same way, perfectly each time, suggests hoax rather than authenticity. 1968 issue of Skylook, which was the forerunner to the MUFON UFO Journal. This how you would make a metal that would cool But where do we draw the line? This told the original version of the story, and I found faster. In a way it looked like a magnesium steel report from Willingham has moved from 1948, that quite interesting. but it had a lot of carbon in it. I tried to heat it to 1950 and now to 1955. In his original The article said: with a cutting torch. It just wouldn’t melt. A affidavit, he said that he was flying F-94s but cutting torch burns anywhere from 3200 to 3800 now says it was F-86s. He says that he was "Col. R. B. Willingham, CAP squadron commander, has had an avid interest in UFO’s degrees Fahrenheit and it would make the metal denied permission to give chase to he was for years, dating back to 1948 when he was hot but it wouldn’t even start to melt." ordered to do so. He mentions the DEW line leading a squadron of F-94 jets near the So this is slightly different, but not all which wasn’t established in 1950 and wasn’t Mexican border in Texas and was advised by that much. We’re down to a single object, and operational in 1955. radio that three UFO’s “flying formation” were we have outside radar tracking the thing and a Couple these major changes to the lack near. He picked them up on his plane radar and mention of an Air Force base. of documentation of an Air Force career and no was informed one of the UFO’s had crashed a The changes continue as Willingham evidence that he was ever a fighter pilot, and few miles away from him in Mexico. He went to learns more about aviation history and what was this crash tale fails completely. There are simply the scene of the crash but was prevented by the happening where. The new story appeared in a too many flaws here to take this story seriously Mexican authorities from making an book dedicated to the Willingham and Del Rio any longer. The preliminary research, had it investigation or coming any closer than 60 feet. crash. Noe Torres, one of the authors of The been done by Zechel when he first learned about From that vantage point the wreckage seemed to Other Roswell: UFO Crash on the Texas- Willingham, would have ended this long before Mexico Border along with Ruben Uriate, wrote: we got this far down the road. Basic research consist of “numerous pieces of metal polished on the outside, very rough on the inner sides.” "A radio message warned Willingham would have ended the problem but sometimes Please note the date, which is 1948, his and others about a fast moving UFO that was we just don’t do the basic research. It’s a lesson claim to have been leading a squadron of F-94s, approaching Texas from the northwestern U.S. that never seems to take. that he saw them on his plane radar, and there Suddenly it came into their view like an Willingham gave us the clues if we were three of them. Notice also that he was not intensely bright light – like a bright star seen would listen to him. As his story expanded, we allowed very close and that the Mexican through a telescope. It blazed across the sky past should have realized there was something authorities were investigating. Note also that it them, and everyone in all the planes saw it. But wrong here. When he began to correct errors, clearly says CAP and nothing about the Air because of the location of Willingham’s jet, he errors that he introduced, we should have noted Force or Air Force Reserve. (And if you looked was in the best position to see what happened that. When he was caught with anachronisms, carefully, you wonder how he would have after the object flew by. we should have realized something was terribly gotten out of the Army in January, attended a "Willingham estimated that the object wrong. We did, finally, learn the lesson. We military flight school, and then been assigned to was traveling at 2,000 miles per hour, and he checked the facts and we now know the truth saw it make a sudden 90 - degree turn, without an operational squadron before the year was out.) slowing down. As the UFO streaked toward the about the Willingham story. All we can do now Now, fast forward to 1977. Willingham Texas-Mexican border, Willingham received is relegate Willingham to a Ufological footnote, has created an affidavit about his experiences, permission to break from the formation and remember our lesson about checking the basic probably at the insistence of Zechel. He is being pursue the object in his F-86 fighter. Following facts, and move on to something more touted as a retired Air Force colonel, though the object’s vapor trail, Willingham followed it important. technically, if he is not receiving a pension, or down to near Del Rio, Texas, where he saw it www.KevinRandle.blogspot.com eligible for a pension, he is not retired. His story suddenly begin to wobble and descend rapidly."