Fort Hood hidden opening claim
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
| Claim | A private pilot, forced to land at Gray Air Force Base in the late 1960s, saw a section of ground slide open "like 'giant sliding doors'" onto a huge corridor |
|---|---|
| Chain of sources | Unnamed pilot → an Air Force captain stationed at Fort Hood (1972) → researcher Tommy Blann → Leonard Stringfield |
| Published | Stringfield, UFO Crash/Retrievals: Status Report III – Amassing the Evidence (June 1982) |
| Republished | Linda Moulton Howe's Earthfiles (2005) |
| Real site nearby | Killeen Base (West Fort Hood), an underground weapons storage complex beside Gray AFB |
| Status | Third-hand; no records support it |
| Date | 1982 |
| Topics | Military encounters (topic), Secrecy & cover-up (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 |
According to an Air Force captain quoted by the researcher Tommy Blann in Leonard Stringfield's 1982 Status Report III, a pilot forced to land at the airfield inside Fort Hood, Texas, saw the ground open up. He described it as "a huge section of land separating like 'giant sliding doors' with vegetation intact revealing a huge corridor inside".[1][5] Linda Moulton Howe later republished the account.[3][5] A real underground facility did exist beside the airfield: Killeen Base, later West Fort Hood, an Air Force weapons storage complex built in the late 1940s.[7] No records support the specific claim.[5]
The account
The story appears in Status Report III, dated June 1982, in material supplied by Blann.[5][6] Blann introduced the setting. Fort Hood covered about 160,000 acres in central Texas, and within it lay Gray AAF, "known as Robert Gray Field", where Air Force personnel were attached. Little was known about its activities, he wrote.[5] The story, as he told it:[5]
- The source. An Air Force captain stationed at Fort Hood in 1972 told Blann about an incident in the late 1960s.
- The forced landing. A pilot in a small private plane had to make a forced landing in the restricted air corridor and came down on a dusty field. A jeep with armed military police appeared "out of nowhere".
- The opening. He then saw the land slide apart, vegetation and all, to reveal a huge corridor.
- The interrogation. At gunpoint he was ordered out, blindfolded and driven into what he took to be the underground complex. He was led down a long corridor to a windowless room "like a modern conference room" and questioned by two men.
- His release. A few hours later he was blindfolded again and returned to his plane, which had been refuelled. He was warned not to talk and allowed to take off.
The pilot is not named, nor is the captain.[5]
Blann's other Fort Hood stories
Blann linked the account to other claims about Fort Hood:[5][6]
- November 1973. Near the Brazos River, Blann and others watched two glowing objects escorted by seven Chinook helicopters and two jets. Fort Hood told a local editor it had been a routine reconnaissance training mission.
- Winter 1974. A television news director told him of an underground installation at Fort Hood still doing UFO research, with helicopter crews code-named "BLUEBOYS".
- 1976. A man in McGregor, Texas, said his father worked in "the secret underground complex".
- 1975. Helicopters from Fort Hood searched for a reported crash near Mexia.
- A 1975 caller. A former Fort Hood helicopter pilot said he saw a UFO escorted by Army helicopters.
Blann also cited Leon Davidson's analysis of the Air Force's Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14. He said it put the Gray–Fort Hood area among the four regions with the most UFO sightings from 1947 to 1952.[6]
Stringfield and Howe
Stringfield (1920–1994) collected anonymous crash-retrieval accounts from 1978 in a series of seven self-published Status Reports. He admitted that unnamed testimony "can be construed as hearsay".[1][2] The investigative journalist Linda Moulton Howe reprinted the reports in parts on her subscription site, Earthfiles, from 2002. Status Report III appeared there in March 2005, introduced with the Fort Hood quotation.[3][4][5][6] Howe is known for her work on cattle mutilations and other paranormal claims.[3]
The real base
Fort Hood is one of the largest military installations in the world, with headquarters near Killeen, Texas. It was named after the Confederate general John Bell Hood. In 2023 it was renamed Fort Cavazos, and in 2025 it was renamed Fort Hood again, this time after Colonel Robert Hood.[8] Beside its airfield lay Killeen Base. This underground weapons storage complex was built by the Air Force in the late 1940s next to Gray Air Force Base, with tunnels 20 feet wide and 30 feet high reaching about 1,000 feet into a hillside.[7] It was handed to the Army in 1963. In 1969 it became West Fort Hood, and the airfield became Robert Gray Army Airfield. The tunnels are now used for tunnel-warfare training.[7] That real, secret Cold War storage site may lie behind some of the rumours of hidden underground installations at Gray.[7]
Assessment
The account passed from an unnamed pilot to an unnamed captain to Blann before Stringfield published it. None of them has been identified, and no records support it.[5] The story does not mention UFOs directly; its link to UFO research comes from Blann's other, equally unsourced reports.[5][6] A real underground weapons complex did exist at the site.[7]
People and topics
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- Leonard Stringfield — Former Air Force intelligence officer and NICAP researcher who collected anonymous crash-retrieval accounts from 1978 to 1994.
- Linda Moulton Howe — Journalist and filmmaker who runs the Earthfiles website and has reported many crash-retrieval claims.
On the Timeline
- Air Force colonel harassed over a UFO group (1982) (1982) — An Air Force colonel says he was harassed after founding a UFO group.
- Kit Green's Air Force physician source (1982) — Kit Green says a retired Air Force physician told him crash recovery stories are true.
See every 1982 event on the UAP Timeline →
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
- earthfiles.com · earthfiles.com · archived copy
- West Fort Hood · en.wikipedia.org
- Fort Hood · en.wikipedia.org
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia articles “Leonard H. Stringfield”, “Linda Moulton Howe”, “West Fort Hood”, “Fort Hood”, “West Fort Hood”, “Fort Hood”, 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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