Jeffrey Morse, Len Stringfield, Richard Hall and The Fort Dix Alien

 

Since this has come up in a couple of questions asked of me, and since there is some interest in this case, I thought I would look a little deeper into it. To be clear, I have read George Filer’s book about his experiences in the Air Force, which does cover the events at McGuire Air Force Base/Fort Dix in January 1978. This involved an alien creature that was allegedly shot and killed and the subsequent cover up of the incident.

I will note, up front, that I am not a fan of anonymous sources or witnesses identified only by a pseudonym. That means, simply, that there is no way for us to verify the credentials of that source or to follow up on the details. It means that we must believe the source to be honest, and while others might know who he is, the rest of us simply don’t.

Len Stringfield

The information was originally provided to Len Stringfield, who had been collecting tales of what he termed UFO crash/retrievals. On September 23, 1980, Stringfield received a letter from a man who Stringfield identified as Jeffrey Morse, but that wasn’t his real name. The letter was written on Air Force stationery, but there is no significance in that. Such stationery is available on nearly every base exchange on military installations. Morse wrote:

In January of 1978, I was stationed at McGuire AFB, N.J. One evening, during the time frame of 0300 hrs. and 0500 hrs., there were a number of UFO sightings in the area over the air field and Ft. Dix MP’s were running code in the direction of Brownsville, N.J. A state trooper then entered Gate #5 at the rear of the base requesting assistance and permission to enter. I was dispatched and the trooper wanted access to the runway area which led to the very back of the air field and connected with a heavily wooded area which is part of the Dix training area. He informed me that a Ft. Dix MP was pursuing a low flying object which then hovered over his car. He described it as oval shaped, with no details, and glowing with a bluish-green color. His radio transmission was cut off. At that time in front of his police car, appeared a thing, about 4 feet tall, grayish, brown, fat head, long arms, and slender body. The MP panicked and fired five rounds from his .45 cal. into the thing, and one round into the object above. The object then fled straight up and joined with eleven others high in the sky. This we all saw but didn’t know the details at the time. Anyway, the thing ran into the woods towards our fence line and they went to look for it. By this time several patrols were involved.

We found the body of the thing near the runway. It had apparently climbed the fence and died while running. It was all of a sudden hush-hush and no one was allowed near the area. We roped off the area and AFOSI came out and took over. That was the last I saw of it. There was a bad stench coming from it too. Like ammonia smelling but wasn’t constant [in] the air. That day, a team from Wright-Patterson AFB came in a C141 and went to the area. They crated it in a wooden box, sprayed something over it, and then put it into a bigger metal container. They loaded it in the plane and took off. That was it, nothing more said, no report made and we were all told not to have anything to say about it or we would be court-martialed.

I will be getting out of the Air Force in about two months. Do not disclose my name as I could get into trouble. I am interested in pursuing this and other matters if you need help. Forgive me for not signing this but I can’t take any chances. Please reply to the above address and my parents will forward it to me or I will be home already. Don’t send it here because they monitor all mail closely and I again don’t want to take any chances.

Although Stringfield was skeptical of the claims, he wrote to Morse, but there was no reply. Stringfield wrote again and this time Morse responded, claiming he hadn’t received the first letter. Now out of the service, he thought he’d be getting his mail regularly. He wrote that he didn’t know much else be did remember the name of the desk sergeant.

Stringfield then enlisted the assistance of a close friend and colleague, Dick Hall., who, on April 10, 1982, wrote to Morse. There was no response for months. Finally, on September 27, 1983, nearly 18 months later, Morse wrote:

I’m sorry that it has taken so long to answer your letter. I had to be sure about you and your organization. My mail has not been monitored for some time now, however, I must not express my information in the letter form. I have been threatened and I have personally been interrogated as recently as February, 1983, in reference to the subject I discussed with Len Stringfield. I also have further information… which I know will interest you… I have the opportunity now to travel to D.C. area. So if you wish to contact me again, you should still have my address. Hope to hear for you soon. If after 2 weeks I have not heard from you, I will no longer acknowledge my participation with your group, nor will I answer any mail.

Hall failed to meet the deadline by two days and as promised, Morse did not answer. Stringfield then wrote and on December 6, 1983, Morse called Stringfield. He said that two days after the shooting, he and several others, were taken to Wright-Patterson AFB for interrogation. Morse wrote:

While there we were all together except actual interrogations. Mine had two men, one apparently a civilian with a pipe and a beard who never spoke [a veiled reference to J. Allen Hynek?]. At one point there were three men. One played nice guy, one mean guy, and, of course, the silent civilian. All they wanted to know was the nature of the incident, what I knew and then told me about my duty to keep my mouth shut… I signed a form and it is supposed to bind me for life.

From this point, Morse was returned to McGuire AFB, where his commanding officer again warned him about talking out of turn. Shortly after this, Morse was transferred to Okinawa. He said the others who were involved were transferred to other bases around the world so that they wouldn’t be able to compare notes.

Dick Hall

Now, the communications between Morse and Stringfield took on a new life. He even supplied some documentation by certified mail. It seemed to be an official form that noted, “One body of unknown origin released to the care of the OSI [surely an official form would have said AFOSI] District Commander and special recovery team at Wright-Patterson AFB.”

The document held the names and ranks of a number of others. The social security numbers, now being used as the military serial numbers, had been blacked out for privacy reasons. Stringfield and Hall verified the existence of the people named and Hall reported that two others stationed at McGuire were eventually interviewed. They said that something strange had gone on but they had not been involved in it.

With somewhat regular communication reestablished, Morse provided additional details about the incident. He said that his unit have been kept away from the site but others, known as the Blue Berets, that is an Air Force security force and who all were staff sergeants were not. Interestingly, Morse said that they wore no identifying insignia, except of course, their blue berets and their ranks. Morse said they wouldn’t answer questions about themselves and he wasn’t sure how they arrived at the base.

Morse said that he never got closer to the humanoid body than 40 to 70 feet and it was guarded by men with M-16s. He said that he could see that the being was four feet tall with a large head, slender torso and skinny arms and legs. The skin was wet and shiny. I’m not sure how Morse figured out the height from more than 40 feet away since the body was lying on the ground.

Although there was some continued correspondence with Stringfield, Hall did manage to meet with Morse twice. At any rate, Morse got a job overseas and that ended this aspect of the episode.

Then retired Air Force officer George Filer, mentioned that he had been at McGuire at the time of this incident and, according to him, he had been involved in the shooting of an alien creature at the Fort Dix/McGuire Air Force Base complex. Well, maybe involved is too strong a word. He was near the scene as the military police and Air Force officials took care of the problem. Filer was to brief a general about what had happened, based on his interrogation of some of the participants. Unfortunately, events intervened so that Filer didn’t see the alien, didn’t see the photographs of the alien, and was just around the periphery of the event… but then he was there on the morning of the incident so that provides him with a better perspective than those of us who just read about it much later.

There is little else to tell about this. Morse is a pseudonym and I certainly don’t know who he is. Dick Hall apparently thought he was reliable, but I would disagree. The others who have mentioned they were at McGuire were not involved or didn’t see much. As Jerome Clark wrote in his massive UFO Encyclopedia, “Since then however, no significant progress has been made in the investigation. Given the utter absence of substantiating evidence, it is safest to deduce this is an elaborate fabrication.”