THE A-10 STORY

By Donald M. Ware

I seem to be the recipient of an unusual amount of unpublished information related to important incidents. I sometimes wonder if that is because someone knows I am likely to put it together and pass it on. One such case involves the mysterious A-10 flight of 2 April 97, a strange alert at Cheyenne Mountain, and what happened to Capt. Graig Buttons and the four missing 500 pound bombs.

Having been a fighter pilot who flew on the ranges of southern Arizona, I took great interest in the mass media reports. Three A-10s took off at 10:30 a.m. and refueled in the Tombstone area. Twenty miles SE of Gila Bend at 11:58 the instructor told his students to take spacing in trail for a bombing pass.

Buttons flew the trailing plane. A report in USA Today said, "The next minute... he was totally gone." He failed to respond to the next radio call and was no where in sight. Both pilots immediately began a search, later assisted by others. The transponders were turned off before entering the range, and the A-10 has no data recorder. Investigation showed that a combination of intermittent radar and visual sightings suggested it went across Apache Junction at 12:11 on a straight line to Glenwood Springs, CO, followed I-70 to Eagle, turned south to circle Aspen, and crashed at 1:40 PM between Aspen and Vail high on New York Mountain.

I found it interesting that Craig Buttons was born in Massapequa, New York. His father described him as "A-OK stable" with a passion for flying. He graduated from pilot training at Williams AFB, AZ in 1992 and was a T-37 instructor pilot at Laughlin AFB, TX until assigned to the 355th Fighter Squadron at Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ for A-10 training. After training he was scheduled to join a combat squadron at Spangdahlm AB, Germany. Although 33 years old, he had not married and had no brothers or sisters.

The day before the crash the MUFON State Section Director (Ed. Note: and former Associate Director of the UFOCCI), June Shearer, called UFO researcher, Wendelle Stevens, to report a story that he should hear first hand. They met for lunch on 2 Apr 97 with Ann H., a lady who had previously reported many contacts and communications with ETs. All three people were in route to Coco's restaurant when the A-10 became missing. Ann said that she had been in close contact with a human ET group for years. She visits them in her "astral body" and they come into her home "through the wall." She said that one week earlier these ETs had entered her home and asked for a favor. They wanted to land a number of their ships in an open desert area SW of Tucson to become acquainted with local people face-to-face. They wanted her to advise the authorities in advance and obtain assurance they would not be attacked without provocation. A couple of days later she called Davis-Monthan AFB and was connected with an NCO in the Command Post. He joked with her for a few minutes and handed the phone to another NCO who also did not take her request seriously.

She then called Senator John Kyl's office in Tucson and got the same treatment from his staff. The ETs returned on 29 or 30 March; and, when they got her report their response was, "We will have to do something to get their attention." Ann's reaction to that was, "Please don't use any ray weapons on us." and they responded, "Perhaps we will take one of their airplanes in flight."

The A-10 story was not released from the base until the night of 3 April, and it was the headline story the next day. When Mrs. Shearer saw the story she called the contactee. Ann said that she had already seen it, but Capt. Buttons was with her ET friends and was all right. On 12 April I saw Wendelle Stevens at the Eureka Springs UFO Conference, and he shared the contactee's story with me. Other friends told me there had been a strange alert at NORAD headquarters in Cheyenne Mountain. It was strange because when people asked what it was about they were told it was an internal affair and did not affect those outside. On 3 May I shared this strangeness with people who come to my monthly meetings in my home, and one of these people later related the following story from her friend.

An officer who works in Cheyenne Mountain called her mother, before the A-10 was located, to ask what kind of news reports were in our area. The officer had been required to stay in NORAD headquarters for several days without access to the media, and she wanted to compare what she knew was going on with what the public was told. The mother told her about the missing A-10 reports in all the media and asked "What's going on." The daughter said it was classified, and she couldn't say. However, before hanging up she said that she was really upset that Capt. Buttons' parent would never know the truth.

Other information I heard possibly relating to this incident follows: FAA initially reported seeing an unidentified radar blip enter the range from the South, but they refused to verify that when questioned later. All radar tapes were sent to higher levels for analysis. Activity in the Davis-Monthan Command Post was hectic after the incident, making contingency plans for various scenarios of plane or pilot recovery. One remote viewer of the Cheyenne Mountain alert "saw" a circular vehicle on the ground there. Remote viewing instructor, Marion Douglas, was totally confused about her impressions of the A-10 incident until she heard my version of the story. Some major media briefly reported that the "biologic material" found at the crash site was determined to be the pilot by DNA analysis in a Washington, DC laboratory. I question the accuracy of this report. Also, the next publication I received from the Council on Foreign Relations had an article about rethinking the Military Assistance Program at Davis-Monthan AFB, which sells sophisticated weapons of war to countries that probably should not have them.

Finally, the contactee in Tucson has since been told that Captain Buttons was offered a new job by the ETs, and he chose to work with them on a "mother ship" they call "Tagamont." They said a smaller ship magnetically captured the A-10, took it to the Tagamont to remove the pilot and the bombs, and then returned the A-10 to crash in a safe place.

p.s. I phone Stevens for his input to this story, and he sent it priority mail. It arrived seven days after postmarked, beat up, torn open and damp inside and out. It was raining, but the other mail in my box was dry.

I have heard of many other reports of ETs remotely taking control of both automobiles and aircraft.

Finally again, I suspect that Capt. Button's new job is more satisfying than combat in Kosovo. Perhaps he now flies one of those really fast things!