GE contractor taken underground claim
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 11
| Claimed date | Early 1950s; the year was not given |
|---|---|
| Place | Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Fairborn, Ohio |
| Subject | "YR", a General Electric millwright and former Army chauffeur, retired on a medical pension near Cincinnati |
| Source | YR's daughter, through Leonard Stringfield |
| Published | Stringfield, Status Report III, June 1982 (Case B-1); reprinted by Linda Moulton Howe's Earthfiles in 2005 |
| Claim | Blindfolded and taken underground to install a radiation device near a room holding seven alien bodies |
| Status | Second-hand and anonymous; no supporting record |
| Date | 1982 |
| Topics | Beings & bodies (topic), Bases & Area 51 (topic) |
| People | Leonard Stringfield, Linda Moulton Howe |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 93 |
| Year | 1982 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1982 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 8 |
In his 1982 crash-retrieval report, the ufologist Leonard Stringfield published an account from the daughter of a General Electric millwright, whom he identified only as "YR".[1][6] She said that in the early 1950s her father had been driven in a curtained limousine to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, blindfolded and taken down by elevator to an underground level. There he installed a radiation device near a room holding seven alien bodies in glass cases.[6] Linda Moulton Howe reprinted the report on her Earthfiles website in 2005.[3][5] The account is second-hand, neither the man nor his daughter has been publicly identified, and no record supports it.[6]
The source
Stringfield filed the case as B-1 in the "intermediary" section of UFO Crash/Retrievals: Amassing the Evidence, his Status Report III of June 1982. That section held reports from go-betweens whose first-hand sources wanted anonymity.[1][6] Stringfield described YR as follows:[6]
- Background. He had served in the Army in the Second World War, as a chauffeur for General Patton, and later worked as a millwright for General Electric.
- Health. He was retired on a government medical pension and had "long suffered from radiation exposure".
- Home. He lived near Cincinnati, as did his daughter.
The case is often called the "GE contractor" story. In Stringfield's text, however, YR was a General Electric employee sent to the base on a job assignment.[6]
How the story emerged
The daughter told Stringfield that her father had been away from home for more than a week on secret work at the base and would discuss it with no one except her late mother.[6] Years later he saw Stringfield on WLW-TV talking about crashed UFOs and said, "That man knows what he's talking about!" She called it "the wedge I needed". Over several months she drew out "bits and pieces".[6]
The account
As the daughter related it to Stringfield:[6]
- The job. YR accepted the assignment knowing it was sensitive. It involved installing "a radiation device (a furnace?)", used in some unexplained way in a secret section in or near a room that stored seven alien cadavers.
- The journey. He and a Black assistant, "Mr. W.", reported to a Wright-Patterson office and were driven in a limousine with dark curtains drawn, which reminded him of a hearse. They were blindfolded, "turned around several times for disorientation", and taken by elevator to an underground level.
- The "morgue". The chamber was "icy cold", with a strange, offensive odour. Guards watched his every move. When he peeked at one of the bodies, each in a glass case on a marble slab with louvres on the side, a guard pulled a sheet over it. The glass sometimes fogged up.
- The bodies. They were short, with large heads, and looked "clammy with the skin of a reptile". The skin of the head reminded him of a frog, and the hands were webbed. He did not remember how many fingers they had.
- His quarters. He lodged in a cell-like room he called "his jail", cut off from the outside world. The smell was so bad he asked for a fan, but he said "The food was good – steaks, everything. I even had a TV set."
- Radiation. Officials worried about his exposure. He changed work clothes regularly, was checked for radiation when he left, and continued to report for medical check-ups. His daughter said he took early retirement because of radiation sickness. Mr. W. also retired early and died of cancer.
The father would not say much about the bodies, which the daughter put down to his oath of secrecy.[6]
Stringfield's assessment
Stringfield found YR's homely phrasing, "his jail" and "blindfolded and turned around several times", convincing in the way that "body chemistry" can be.[6] He noted that YR would not speak to him directly, "fearing loss of his pension", and said he trusted the daughter's word.[6] He saw blindfolding as a recurring feature of his sources' stories. Earlier he had argued that a blindfolded trip described by another informant showed that "extreme security measures" were common in retrievals.[6]
Publication
Stringfield self-published seven status reports on alleged crash-retrievals from 1978 until his death from lung cancer in December 1994. Status Report III was the third.[1][5] Earthfiles republished Status Report III in parts in 2005. Most of the reprint is available only to subscribers.[4][5] Howe is known for her work on cattle mutilations and her view that the U.S. government is working with aliens.[3] Stringfield's first published crash witness, "Major J.M." in 1978, was later revealed as Jesse Marcel of the Roswell case.[2]
Wright-Patterson rumours
YR's story belongs to a long line of claims about alien bodies at Wright-Patterson:[2][7][8]
- 1966. The book Incident at Exeter mentioned in one sentence a tale of alien bodies in an Air Force "morgue" at Wright-Patterson. The passage inspired the 1968 novel The Fortec Conspiracy.
- 1974. Robert Spencer Carr claimed on 11 October that bodies from a 1948 crash at Aztec, New Mexico, were kept in "Hangar 18". The Air Force replied that there was no Hangar 18 at the base and noted the similarity to The Fortec Conspiracy. Carr's son later described his father as a teller of tall tales who insisted they were true.
- Goldwater. Senator Barry Goldwater said he had been refused access to a restricted area. In a 1988 interview he said Curtis LeMay had angrily refused him entry to a secret UFO room.
- Hangar 18A. In 1980 the manager of Hangar 18A, in post since 1942, told In Search of... that its freezing cells had never held alien bodies. They were used to test aircraft parts in the cold.
Wright-Patterson was genuinely the home of the Air Force's UFO investigations, Projects Sign, Grudge and Blue Book, from 1947.[8]
Assessment
The account is at least second-hand. It came to Stringfield through the daughter, and the man never spoke to him himself. Neither has been publicly named, and no year was given.[6] No document, employment record or medical record has been produced to support it.[6] Stories of alien bodies in a cold "morgue" at Wright-Patterson were already in print more than a decade before YR's daughter came forward.[7] The Air Force has denied that the "Hangar 18" of such stories exists.[7]
People and topics
- Wright-Patterson Air Force Base — The Ohio air base that housed Project Blue Book and is linked to the Hangar 18 legend.
- Leonard Stringfield — Former Air Force intelligence officer and NICAP researcher who collected anonymous crash-retrieval accounts from 1978 to 1994.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Linda Moulton Howe — Journalist and filmmaker who runs the Earthfiles website and has reported many crash-retrieval claims.
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
On the Timeline
- Andrew Basiago and Project Pegasus (1981) — Andrew Basiago claims he took part in a secret time-travel project.
- Air Force colonel harassed over a UFO group (1982) (1982) — An Air Force colonel says he was harassed after founding a UFO group.
See every 1982 event on the UAP Timeline →
Further reading
- Wright-Patterson Air Force Base — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Hangar 18 (the legend and 1980 film) — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
References
- Leonard H. Stringfield — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Stringfield's 1978 report — Patrick Gross · ufology.patrickgross.org · archived copy
- Linda Moulton Howe — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Earthfiles — Linda Moulton Howe's news site · earthfiles.com · archived copy
- earthfiles.com · earthfiles.com · archived copy
- Leonard H. Stringfield, UFO Crash/Retrievals: Status Reports I–VII (compiled text), Internet Archive · archive.org
- Hangar 18 (conspiracy theory) — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- Wright-Patterson Air Force Base — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia articles “Leonard H. Stringfield”, “Linda Moulton Howe”, “Hangar 18 (conspiracy theory)”, “Wright-Patterson Air Force Base”, “Hangar 18 (conspiracy theory)”, “Wright-Patterson Air Force Base”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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