Meet The Nuclear Base Employee Abducted By Aliens (Ft. Mario Woods) Summary — American Alchemy

On November 5, 1977, Mario Woods, then a 23-year-old Air Force Security Police officer stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota, responded to an alarm at a Minutemissile site called November 5 and ended up having a close encounter with a large spherical craft and several small beings, followed by roughly five hours of missing time, a catatonic state in his partner, and a lengthy military debriefing that included a non-disclosure agreement and a medical evaluation with unexplained procedures.

Background and the job

Mario served in the Air Force from 1975 to 1983 and was assigned to missile security at Ellsworth.
He was part of the personnel reliability program, meaning he had been psychologically screened and cleared to work around nuclear weapons.
The missile sites were manned by small teams and supported by security response teams who lived at remote launch control facilities for three days at a time.
On the night of the incident, Mario was on a night shift at November 1 control with a partner he had never worked with before, Michael Johnson, who was filling in for Mario’s regular partner.

First sign of something unusual

Around 9:00–9:15 p.m., Mario saw a bright light to the east from the launch control facility.
He initially thought it might be B-52 landing lights, but the light was silent, stationary, and did not move closer or farther away.
Mario estimated it was about five to seven miles away at a 30-degree angle and appeared larger when he held up his fist, which he found strange.
He went inside and asked the flight security controller, Bill Hollman, if he could flash the facility lights; Hollman waved him off without much interest.
Mario flashed the facility lights three times, went back outside, and after a short wait the light flashed back in the same pattern.
He repeated this signaling several more times with similar responses, until the light eventually went out and did not return in the same way.

Response to the alarm

Around 12:15 a.m., the alert phone rang with a two-pronged alarm for November 5, indicating both above-ground and below-ground sensors had been affected.
Mario and Michael suited up, warmed up their two-wheel-drive F-150 pickup, and drove out toward November 5.
November 5 was the closest missile site to their facility, roughly five and a half miles away by direct line but farther by road.

Seeing the object up close

While driving, Mario saw what he described as an orange-yellow-white glow coming from the direction of November 5.
After turning onto the access road and making a dogleg turn, he saw a huge sphere sitting about 10 feet above the blast door of November 5.
The blast door itself was extremely large, and the sphere appeared enormous by comparison.
Mario said the object was a complete sphere with no wings, tail, portholes, or thrusters, and had an energy effect around it that looked like boiling or pulsing light.

Close encounter at the site

They pulled up near the cattle gate at about a 60-foot distance from the site.
Almost immediately, Mario experienced an intense flash of light that temporarily overwhelmed his vision and made it hard to breathe.
He felt paralyzed by fear despite being armed and physically fit, and had what he described as an instinctive impulse to ask for relief.
He pulled himself up on the truck window mirror, used his gloved hand to hold onto the roof beacon, and flashed his flashlight toward the craft.
After that, he slid back into the seat and noticed dust particles inside the cab appearing to move in slow motion.
Michael did not respond verbally and appeared locked in place, bathed in blue-white light.

The black sphere and missing time

A smaller black sphere, about six times the size of a beach ball, shot down in front of the truck, moved rapidly all around the vehicle, and then disappeared.
Mario smelled a strong, foul odor inside the truck, like ammonia or something rotten, even though the windows were closed.
He began to feel tunnel vision and like he was going to pass out.
He then saw four beings near the vehicle, gliding rather than walking normally.
Three were small and uniform; one was taller and had something on its chest that pulsated like the light on the smaller one’s waist wand.
At that point Mario blacked out.

Waking up in the wrong place

When Mario regained awareness, it was dark, the intense light was gone, and he had no idea where he was.
Michael was still gripping the steering wheel, eyes open and breathing, but completely unresponsive.
Mario got out of the truck and discovered they were backed up against the inside wall of the New Lake Reservoir Dam, about eight and a half miles from November 5.
The area was muddy despite frozen conditions, and there was only one set of tire tracks, which were their own.
He contacted Wing Security Control by radio and learned they had been missing since the alarm, around 12:15 a.m., and it was now after 6:00 a.m.

Rescue and separation

Security teams, including Sergeant Garza, eventually located them and escorted them back to November 1 control.
Mario had great difficulty getting Michael’s hands off the steering wheel; Michael remained catatonic and silent.
At the facility, Mario and Michael were immediately separated.
Mario was questioned intensively about what happened, why they did not strike the site, and why they did not report by radio.
He was never allowed to see Michael again on base after that morning, except for one brief meeting about two or three weeks later.

Debriefing and outside investigators

Mario was taken to Ellsworth’s main operations building and formally debriefed by his commander, Colonel Spraker, in the presence of several other officials.
In the room were the deputy base commander, a captain from OSI named Jack Reed, a new OSI counterintelligence agent named Rick Doty, and an unidentified man in a gray tweed suit with his hat under his arm.
Mario later learned that Rick Dotie had previously been involved in a disinformation-style operation against researcher Paul Benowitz, which made Dotie’s presence at his debriefing especially notable.
Mario was told the incident was classified and was made to sign a non-disclosure-type agreement.
He was not given a copy of his own written report.

Medical evaluation and strange examination

After the command debriefing, Mario was sent to the flight surgeon’s office for a medical evaluation.
Two flight surgeons examined his ears, eyes, nose, throat, joints, and hands.
One doctor then spent several minutes pressing firmly around Mario’s gums, teeth, and under his tongue, which Mario found unusual and unexplained.
The doctors noted burns above Mario’s right eye and on the back of his right hand and took small skin samples from both areas.
OSI personnel were present on the other side of a partial wall during this exam.

Aftermath and career impact

Mario was reassigned to another launch control facility under closer supervision and never returned to November control.
He was never again made a team leader in the missile field until he left for an assignment in Korea about nine months later.
He was not allowed to call his wife until later in the day and could not tell her what happened.
He later learned that Michael Johnson could not be located through normal searches, and efforts by Mario and others to find him have been unsuccessful.

Meeting Michael again

About two or three weeks after the incident, Michael unexpectedly showed up at Mario’s apartment in Rapid City.
Michael appeared normal and talkative, though still reserved.
Mario had him draw what he saw, and Michael drew the same craft, the black sphere bouncing around the truck, and confirmed smelling the odor and hearing “do not fear.”
That was the last time Mario saw or heard from Michael.

Physical marks and later health issues

Mario has two small, perfectly vertical marks on his body that a doctor found medically unexplained.
The doctor noted they were identical in size and depth and had a tiny dimple in the center, and could not connect them to any known medical or emergency event.
Mario has also experienced heart rhythm problems that began after a later hypnosis session and has had episodes of atrial fibrillation.
He reports occasional unusual electrical or electromagnetic experiences, including lights flickering or failing around him.

Hypnotic regression and recalled details

Mario underwent hypnotic regression first with Bob Upton and later with Yavon Smith.
Under hypnosis, he recalled being inside a craft that felt like a beehive with multiple levels and many small Grays moving around.
He described being placed in some kind of triangular or pyramidal field about four feet in the air, rather than on a table.
A tall Gray did something to his wrist that hurt, while a voice repeated “do not fear” in a way that felt telepathic and vibrated through his body.
He recalled seeing a room filled with old-fashioned objects, including a Singer sewing machine, floor lamps, an old radio in a wooden cabinet, and a steam iron.
At the back of that room was a round window with a slice cut out of it; he was told he could look out but felt afraid and did not.
The first regression was emotionally painful and brought back the smell and fear of the original event.

Interest in pyramids and ancient technology

After the incident, Mario became intensely interested in archaeology, pyramids, and hidden history.
He believes the Great Pyramid and the Giza Plateau show evidence of advanced technology and engineering beyond what mainstream archaeology accepts.
He supports ideas similar to researcher Christopher Dunn’s that the Great Pyramid may have been a power generator and that ancient builders used sophisticated tools and mathematics.
He also finds plausible the idea that some ancient sites may have functioned as portals or “stargates.”

Views on the beings and their possible nature

Mario describes the entities as Grays: small humanoid beings with uniform appearance, plus a taller Gray who seemed to be in charge.
He does not believe they are future humans.
He thinks they may be extremely advanced, possibly from another dimension or civilization far beyond ours.
He interprets their behavior as purposeful but not overtly hostile, and he believes their message “do not fear” was meant to be reassuring.
He suspects they may be interested in nuclear technology as a way to gauge human intelligence and development.

Broader pattern around nuclear sites

Mario believes UFO activity at nuclear missile sites is common and significantly underreported.
He estimates that at Ellsworth, where about 800 security police worked, perhaps one in four had seen something in the night sky.
He notes that personnel are usually told not to talk about sightings and that some past incidents were treated as rumors rather than formally investigated.
He mentions other cases, such as Terry and Toby, where partners had strange experiences and one later disappeared from normal contact.

Later life and reflections

Mario is now 69 and lives in Southeast Georgia.
He has tried repeatedly to locate Michael Johnson and other potential witnesses, with limited success.
He has not made money from his story and says he has tried to stay factual and avoid embellishment.
He hopes the world will take away from his account a sense of possibility and less fear, and that if these beings wanted to destroy humanity, they would have done so already.
He also reports that unusual sightings and experiences seem to run in his family, including his mother, father, and grandfather.