My experience was accidental, and I did not get to question anyone other than those performing this test, and mostly it was they who asked the questions. It could have been a cover for something else, or just what they said. I do not know who they actually were, they wore Army uniforms and were very worried about the whole situation. My best guess is CIA or some similar operation, and I had to sign a "7 year statement" at the debriefing....The device was in a "deuce and half truck" with a box on the back.....
There are several things about this whole thing that are unclear to me still; First, how did they make ULF without a very long antenna? Second; Was the supposed device in the truck the real device? Third, How can one verify this sort of thing? These agencies have the "Therory of Onions"
as an operating principle, they wrap everything they do in layers, and I suspect most of it is dis-imformation anyhow, so in spite of some personal experience, it is hard to demonstrate any real substantial facts on this.
I was warned not to join such projects by other Officers, they stated that the guys running these things were "Squirrelly" at best, and refered to them as "Spooks". All I can say is, it was totally accidental that this thing affected me, and only when I asked the Flight Surgeon about it, did they come around to see me weeks later.
They were very interested in my actions upon exposure, and asked all kinds of subjective questions about it....I was flying a Helicopter at the time, and did not let this effect prevent me from operating it, I just landed and shut it off, waited for about 10 minutes and started it up again and flew back to Hood Army Airfield. I went to the Flight Surgeon and told him what had happened, he gave me an examination and said he had no idea, as they were no detectable effects, at least that he could determine.
The Debriefing personnel were somewhat upset about the whole thing, but not just my experience, I got the impression that something was not working as intended with this test, and they were disappointed about something, but I do not know what. It could have been just their technique to reduce interest, or something else entirely. I can not say for sure. I have no idea why they chose to test this device, if that is what is was, with Aircraft operating in the area. Maybe they wanted to determine the operating parameters or something like that...
I an only repeat what they claimed was the principle of the thing, and since I did not directly know anyone else affected, I can only say what they stated: A device to affect enemy troops, using ULF, and other radiation. IF this is a lie, or dis-information, then it was their cover for something else. Sine I had observed the truck, parked out in the range area road, and the troops nearby, they had to tell me something....
The pesonal affect was like "waking dreaming"...That is, I started to see things obviously not real, and by concentrating on flying and landing, I guess I descended out of the range of the thing, or flew out of effective range..The main thing was not having any clue as to why or what was going on, which is very annoying when piloting a helicopter to say the least!!
When the instruments start to "swim around" and one sees things outside, in the air, that cannot be real, all a pilot can do is land as soon as possible and shut the chopper down....
When I turned by head to clear the turn of the chopper, and I was flying alone, so I had to look before turning myself, the effect almost ceased entirely...(For the non helicopter pilots, I wanted to land into the prevailing wind, and make sure the path was clear, so this is why I had to do this.) To this day, I think the APH-5 flight helmet, and the engine block, just behind me, somehow stifled the effect of whatever this was. The Helicopter was a Hiller OH-23G, which is similar to the Bell OH- 13, as seen in "MASH", but the Hiller had the engine mounted a bit higher than the Bell. They did want to examine the flight helmet and they were surprised that it was the ballistic armored version, and not the usual peactime model used in the States at that time...It was heavier than the older model, but fit me better and did not cause pressure pain like the older one I was issued at Ft Hood, so I used the one I brought from Vietnam instead. One gets used to the weight, and it fit like an old shoe anyhow, so I kept using it. The armor was ceramic and aluminum and not all that heavy, just a little thicker than the previous models....One other thing, the earphones and mic worked a lot better for some reason, and the earphone padding and lining was much more comfortable!!
They did say that I was supposed to be disabled by this thing, and I was lucky to have landed..I only got their anecdotes about the other "victims" of this test, and they told me that it did not work all that well anyhow, I suspect bullscheiss, but since these guys were sneaky to start with, who can say for sure...I know that I do not think they would have told me the truth in anycase, just "Need to Know" and that was it...
Dale
