Free Earth by Timothy Good Page A

arrival at Thomasville, James Hagerty reported that Eisenhower had come down with “the sniffles” and would be staying in for a while. He was not seen again for some thirty-six hours, having secretly been taken to Spence Field and flown in Air Force One to Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, together with a team of Secret Service aides and supervisors.
    One of the many witnesses to the presence of Air Force One was Airman2nd Class Manuel W. Kirklin, stationed at Holloman and assigned to the base hospital under the Flight Surgeon, Captain/Dr. Robert N. Reiner. Kirklin held clearance to Secret material at that time.
    â€œIn late February 1955,” relates Kirklin, “we heard that the president was coming to Holloman. I knew there was going to be an honor parade for him, scheduled for early in the morning. The day before it was due to take place, it was called off. Not only that, but I heard through the grapevine that the base commander [Colonel Frank D. Sharp] had requested leave covering the time the president was visiting. I thought this was unusual—I would have stayed on the base if I was the commanding officer and the president was visiting.” (Kirklin later realized that going on leave would allow Col. Sharp to give Eisenhower his undivided attention.)
    Later, at the hospital, Dorsey E. Moore, the enlisted men’s leading airman, asked Kirklin if he had seen a disc hovering over the flight line. Kirklin replied in the negative. “I’m thinking, a disc that you can throw,” he reports, “but the only thing that I knew that hovered was a helicopter and the Navy’s hovercraft.” He asked what it was made of. “Metal,” said Dorsey, “like polished aluminum or stainless steel.”
    â€œHow big is it?”
    â€œTwenty to thirty feet in diameter. Do you want to see it? Go out to the front of the hospital and look down at the flight line.”
    â€œWith my luck it wouldn’t be there.”
    â€œI took my wife to the commissary and it was there thirty minutes later. Go out to the front of the hospital and take a look.”
    Concerned at leaving his post without permission, Kirklin asked the head nurse if he could go. She consulted the doctor, but permission was refused. Later, the airman happened to be walking behind two pilots and overheard their conversation regarding the event. One of the men, an Officer of the Day, was responding to questions from the other pilot relating to Eisenhower’s visit. Kirklin asserts that the officer explained that after Air Force One landed, it had turned around and remained on the active runway. The base radar had then been turned off, after which two discs had approached the base at low altitude via the White Sands National Monument.
    â€œOne hovered overhead like it was protecting the other one,” explainedthe officer. “The other one landed on the active runway in front of [Eisenhower’s] plane. He got out of his plane and went toward it. A door opened, and he went inside for forty or forty-five minutes.” Asked by the other pilot whether he had seen the aliens, the officer replied that he had not: they stayed inside. Eisenhower then returned to his plane.
    Later, at about 11:15, Kirklin went to pick up the mail, where he encountered a new 2nd Lieutenant supply officer who asked him if he had seen anything on the flight line. Kirklin replied in the negative.
    â€œAfter work [about 16:30–16:45], I was in my barracks room when I was called out to see Air Force One fly overhead. It flew over the residential area of the base. This is a no-flying zone for all military aircraft—only the president could get away with it.”
    After supper, Kirklin noticed that the lights were still on in the Flight Surgeon’s office and went over to turn them off. There he saw and heard Dr. Reiner talking to a lieutenant colonel, who mentioned that the Commander-in-Chief (Eisenhower) had addressed