The Leah Haley Case: The Eglin Expedition

This is one in a series of posts on the Leah Haley Case.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency need look no farther than the beach incident to get some helpful pointers on how to achieve its objective of effectively developing and tracking memes. The hypnotic propagation of the incident and its growth into what physically manifested as the Eglin expedition are indeed fascinating and curious on a number of levels.

Haley is now uncertain exactly what happened during an event that was the focus of a July, 1991, hypnosis session conducted by John Carpenter. She is currently quite confident, however, that the event, the beach incident, is not as it initially appeared to her in the hypnotically induced mental imagery.

One way or the other, the beach incident was conceived and Haley, at the time, proceeded to seek clues which might have helped her further identify actuality. What she found was a winding trail and pot luck of Mufonians, ufologists, various self-proclaimed experts, unclear circumstances and what would later be identified as questionable motives.

Sprawling Eglin Air Force Base is located a few miles east of Pensacola, Florida, in the vicinity of Gulf Breeze and bordering the Gulf of Mexico. On September 24, 1992, Haley, Lieutenant Colonel Donald Ware, USAF, Retired, and Colonel Robert Reid, USAF, Retired, took a 13-mile hike eastward across the south end and beach of the base, from Navarre towards Ft. Walton Beach.

Ware and Reid were members of the MUFON board of directors. They acted as guides on a search for a location where Haley may have been aboard an alien craft downed by the US military and as suggested in regressive hypnosis sessions conducted by Carpenter, another MUFON director at the time.

The "kitchen timer" as photographed during the hike 

Items of interest that resulted from the curious hike included photos of some equipment, dubbed the “kitchen timer” by Haley, located on the base and along the beach. At the time it was suspected the equipment may have been used to generate a field of electromagnetic pulses, effectively disabling and downing the alleged alien craft Haley was supposed to have been aboard.

In Unlocking Alien Closets, page 43, Haley wrote:

A couple of months or so after Don, Bob and I investigated the area, Don gave a lecture to the San Diego UFO Society. He showed the audience a photo of the weird “kitchen timer” instrument I had photographed at the southern end of Eglin Air Force Base. In his lecture Don referred to it as a “directed electromagnetic pulse device.” After Don's talk, an elderly, white-haired gentleman approached Don and said, “When I saw that picture, I got chills up and down my spine. You have correctly named it. I am the engineer who made the drawings for the company that built that device.”

Another view

Interesting coincidence. There are more curious coincidences and discrepancies.

I recommend the particularly interested reader invest some time in learning about tactics and procedures common to military intelligence large scale deception operations, in the event they do not have a familiarity with the topic. I am not going to currently write about such procedures, but suffice it to say the topic is quite potentially relevant, and certain events being described may not appear as puzzling to some as they do to others.

The trio took photos and completed the hike without ever being confronted by base security. Haley wrote at one point they came upon a medic truck parked along the beach. It seemed Ware and Reid spoke with the medics while Haley stayed back.

“I thought it odd to see a medic truck parked on the beach,” Haley wrote in Unlocking Alien Closets, page 41.

“When Don and Bob returned, they told me the medics did not know why they had been sent there – they were just to go there and wait.”

The beach incident gained momentum following the Eglin expedition. The subsequent buzz about alien craft disabled by electromagnetic weapons breathed life into the story. It was not long, though, before Haley suspected she was being played.

A short distance from Eglin Air Force Base

In May, 1994, Haley and the late Marc Davenport conducted an experiment. In an effort to test the likelihood Haley, Ware and Reid were actually intentionally allowed to 'trespass' and hike across Eglin, Haley and Davenport attempted to walk the route of the original hike. The two were quickly confronted by base security and ordered to leave the way they came, else face legal consequences.

“The guard threatened to take us to the brig and cite us,” Haley recently recalled.

Who Were All Those People in Gulf Breeze?

There is a great deal to be studied and considered about the Gulf Breeze saga. I have now spent years researching certain aspects of how Gulf Breeze relates to the Leah Haley Case, and I can tell you without question I have barely scratched the surface.

There are others who have learned much, much more than I about such names as Ed Walters, Bruce Maccabee and Vance Davis. There are many, many more names of potential interest, several of which commonly remain all but unmentioned. Some researchers have lots of information to share and I know relatively little in comparison.

I can tell you one thing I learned, though. In spite of an avalanche of proclamations to the contrary, I have yet to find any reason at all to conclude intelligent alien lifeforms were present in the Florida Panhandle. I have no reason to believe any such aliens abducted human beings, were engaged in hostile war maneuvers or any other such fantastic circumstances.

An important question becomes who the hell all those people were that flocked to Gulf Breeze. My current answer is I do not know, not exactly, but I am confident the question matters. I have learned a few things about some of those people and I will share a bit of what I learned.

I have a sincere hope competent research and refusals to cower away from the right questions will one day more clearly reveal the actual agendas and activities of the players. My personal opinion is when that time comes, the UFO community will then have its answers to the Gulf Breeze enigma.

According to his website, Donald Ware is a retired Air Force pilot who achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel. He earned a BS in mechanical engineering in 1957 from Duke and an MS in nuclear engineering in 1972 from the Air Force Institute of Technology.

Donald Ware

As mentioned, Lieutenant Colonel Ware resided in the Gulf Breeze area and was extensively involved in ufology. His activities ranged from serving as a MUFON board member and MUFON Eastern Regional Director to directing the International UFO Congress. His website demonstrates his apparent extreme views on topics UFO, including a “transformation” currently taking place and facilitated by an alien intelligence. According to Ware, such alien transforming includes “genetic engineering” of the human population, resulting in increased intelligence quotient (IQ) and ease of telepathy, among other such things.

Ware's views and activities reportedly led to a parting of the ways with MUFON in 1993. The July, 1993, MUFON Journal, Director's Message, explained Ware was removed from the board of directors after he refused to resign.

“In an unprecedented election,” then-director Walter Andrus wrote, “Donald M. Ware was voted to be removed from the Board effective June 1, 1993.”

It seemed Ware was into promoting the channeling of aliens and the like, and a majority of his fellow board members did not share his enthusiasm about such topics. They seemed to be of the opinion Ware was damaging the scientific credibility of the organization. After apparent repeated warnings to lighten up, they removed Ware from the board. I will leave it up to the reader to form an opinion of the legitimacy of the board choosing that particular point in time to play the 'scientific research' card, considering the kinds of unsubstantiated material MUFON regularly promoted through its public events and Journal from the 1990's to present.

At any rate and whatever we make of Lieutenant Colonel Ware and his history, he was indeed on the Eglin expedition in September, 1992, and while in a role of MUFON leadership. I emailed him in attempts to learn more about the hike and related circumstances. I asked, among other things, how the expedition was arranged.

Ware claimed Haley thought she knew when the beach incident happened, August, 1988. She then wanted help identifying “where the vehicle came down,” he wrote.

“I told her there is about 100 miles of the sugary white sand along our coast,” Ware explained, alluding to details arising out of Haley's regressive hypnosis sessions with Carpenter, “but the most likely place for the military people to be there so soon would be the 13 miles of restricted Eglin AFB beach between Navarre and Ft. Walton Beach.”

Ware indicated he then suggested to Haley they hike the 13 miles. Haley agreed, never lacking courage and never short on heart.

I asked Ware what he thinks about the Carpenter Affair, in which John Carpenter turned over the case files of Leah Haley and 139 other possible alien abductees to Robert Bigelow.

“I see no problem with that,” Ware replied, adding the files are only useful to society if people see them.

Some think it worth noting Bigelow has a long history of controversial activities and questionable motives, such as funding the highly criticized Roper polls and coming under fire when the original sources of his financial contributions to MUFON were called into question. Items of note additionally include circumstances surrounding the National Institute for Discovery Science, or NIDS, a nonprofit corporation no longer active but originally founded and headed by Bigelow. Former NIDS personnel member Eric Davis stated on the April 1, 2006, broadcast of Coast to Coast that long time CIA employee Christopher "Kit" Green worked with NIDS. 

Additional controversy includes Bigelow's relationship with Colonel John Alexander, another former member of NIDS personnel. Colonel Alexander, known as “Mr. Non-Lethal” due to his advocacy of such weapons and technology, was directly accused of conducting intrusive mind control operations involving involuntary human research subjects and consisting of voices in the head as reported by Sharon Weinberger in her Washington Post cover story, Mind Games. It should be noted, however, that any such accusations have yet to be substantiated. Much more on non-lethal weapons research and development, as well as abuse of human research subjects, may be viewed in US Electromagnetic Weapons and Human Rights, a Sonoma State University-Project Censored work by Peter Phillips, Lew Brown and Bridget Thornton.

Curiously, Colonel Alexander was among those who reportedly confirmed the reality of John Carpenter's actions. In a July 20, 2000, email to UFO Updates List and referring to the Carpenter Affair, John Velez explained, "This nasty business has now been confirmed by Bigelow himself, Walt Andrus, Dr. Alexander of NIDS, and about seven of the abductees whose files were sold."

“I suspect Bigelow's friends would also find those files useful,” Lieutenant Colonel Ware stated about the Carpenter Affair.

“I suspect Bigelow's friends would also find those files useful,” Lieutenant Colonel Ware stated about the Carpenter Affair. When asked who, specifically, those friends might be and why they would find the files useful, Ware's unspecific reply included remarks about the alleged MJ 12, a supposed treaty “with the Zetas” and a new species of humans “more survivable in off-planet conditions,” among other topics.

The relationship between Ware and Carpenter continued after each of their challenges within MUFON. Carpenter made presentations at various events and venues in which Ware held leadership roles and invited speakers. Ware indicated he continued to hold Carpenter in high regard.

“I saw his (Carpenter's) presentation to Georgia MUFON folks a while back and thought it was very well done,” Ware stated, adding he would continue to invite Carpenter to speak when the opportunity presents itself.

I asked Ware what led him to correctly believe he could hike extensively across Eglin with visitors and without being detained by base security personnel.

I asked Ware what led him to correctly believe he could hike extensively across Eglin with visitors and without being detained by base security personnel.

“A state law keeps the part of Florida coasts below the high tide line open to the public except when a mission is in progress,” he answered.

Research revealed most states adopted the Public Trust Doctrine, a document of various loosely suggested water access guidelines published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Public beach access is universally recommended within certain tide lines, at least in theory, but many relevant contingencies are not addressed at length or in detail.

I telephoned Eglin Air Force Base, Media Relations, to inquire further. I was directed to call the base's Jackson Guard.

During a call placed to the Jackson Guard on January 6, 2012, I asked if I could hike across the base if I stayed on the beach and below the high tide line. I added I was told a Florida law allowed such a hike.

The Jackson Guard representative asked if I had base access. After telling them, no, I did not have any special access but wanted to know if such a hike was permissible, I was respectfully informed in no uncertain terms no one is allowed on base without proper access.

Suffice it to say I would personally not rely on citing any such guidelines or obscure legislation while hoping to access Eglin Air Force Base. That is particularly my opinion after speaking with the Jackson Guard.

There are of course numerous explanations that might account for exactly how the Eglin expedition came to be. The fact remains, however, that Ware is neither clear nor direct in providing any such explanation. While I appreciate his willingness to offer comments, his statements are not specific and neither confirm nor eliminate practically any of the many possibilities.  

The bottom line here is details remain elusive of how a hike across a United States secure military facility occurred, in which participants carried and used a camera, no less. This all took place, I am led to believe, while the guides, both MUFON directors, were hoping to assist a woman, encouraged to think she was an alien abductee by yet another MUFON director, in identifying the location an alien craft was grounded. After directly asking the man - that admittedly originally proposed and coordinated this remarkable expedition - to explain what led him to correctly believe he could take a party hiking across Eglin Air Force Base, I still do not conclusively know. I do seem to have been offered some unrequested information about Zetas and a secret superior breed of humans groomed to live on other planets, though.

The extraordinarily curious chain of events and the controversial activities of MUFON directors became even more curious and controversial in circumstances surrounding yet a fourth MUFON director, Lieutenant Commander Thomas Deuley, US Navy, Retired. In 1995 while speaking as a MUFON representative, Deuley told reporter Kurt Loft of The Tampa Tribune-Times that MUFON did not embrace "such ridiculous stories" as told by Leah Haley. As we will explore in an upcoming post, Deuley entirely failed to mention to The Trib his own MUFON peers, directors Carpenter, Ware and Reid, were directly and extensively involved, as we have now seen, in those exact stories from their very outsets.