DOW-UAP-D171: BAASS Monthly Report for June 2009 -- an underground vault, a MUFON funding cut, 15 field cases, a Brazil mission and Project Northern Tier

Source file: DOW-UAP-D171-BAASS_Monthly_Report_June_2009.pdf Originating agency: Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS), contractor to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) under the AAWSAP program Document type: Contractor monthly progress report ("June Report"), with appended MUFON case reports, a Brazil trip report and Project Northern Tier status reports Date: Cover dated July 9, 2009; covers the period June 1-30, 2009 Classification: No classification marking; the title page carries a proprietary notice ("This information is proprietary and confidential and cannot be disseminated or used without prior written consent from the Operating Manager of BAASS"). Released to the public in 2026 with privacy redactions under 10 U.S.C. 1843(a)(2) and (a)(3) Page count: 134 VIRIN: 260508-D-D0360-1163 PURSUE Release: 7

Summary

This is the BAASS progress report for June 2009, one of four monthly reports in Release 7 (with DOW-UAP-D169, D170 and D173). The cover reads "June Report" over a stylised triangle of three lights and the date "July 9, 2009". The table of contents lists eight sections: staff recruitment, new facilities, the EarthTech position-paper contract, MUFON investigative activity, the Brazil deployment, Project Northern Tier, foreign government releases, and a conclusion. Printed page numbers run one behind the PDF; this article cites PDF pages.

The administrative sections are short but specific: 461 resumes in one month, 45 full-time staff at month's end, plans for a hardened underground vault in North Las Vegas, and five new buildings in escrow. The bulk of the report, about 85 pages, consists of MUFON field reports, which BAASS was buying under a February 2009 purchase agreement. These sit beside a frank exchange of letters in which BAASS says MUFON spent less than half its money and delivered too few cases.

The last third of the report describes BAASS's own investigative work: a north team in Ceara state, Brazil, that collected roughly 70 GB of files from two ufology groups, and Project Northern Tier, which the report calls "one of the sponsor's top priorities", an attempt to find and re-interview witnesses of Cold War incidents at four northern U.S. bomber and missile bases.

Research Article

Staff, a vault and five buildings

The recruitment section reports that between 1 and 30 June BAASS "received a total of 461 resumes", screened out applicants for frequent job changes, inexperience or non-U.S. citizenship, and held "between three and four dozen" interviews (p. 4). By 30 June the organisation had "forty five full time employees and six part time employees in addition to the administrator", including investigators with law enforcement and AFOSI backgrounds, engineers, physicists and biologists (p. 4). The two-page staff table (pp. 5-6) lists every employee only by label and job title: AAP Person 4 as Administrator, AAP Person 7 as Deputy Administrator, a long column of Mission Analysts, a Corporate Attorney, an Accountant, a Director of Security, security officers, and a separate group of "Utah Ranch" security officers. BAASS expected to reach a full complement of "approximately 50-60 personnel" to begin the second year (p. 6).

The facilities section (pp. 7-8) is one of the more unusual passages in the AAWSAP record. Citing "a BAASS priority to pursue and acquire recovered hardware and biological samples from the corporate world and/or from private individuals and groups located elsewhere, including in Brazil", the administrator designed "a 5000 sq.ft underground vault with 3 foot thick walls, ceiling and floor", reached by a concrete tunnel and at least one steel vault door, buried under "15-20 feet of earth" at the Bigelow Aerospace site in North Las Vegas, with any surface structures "extensively camouflaged" (p. 7). Occupancy was expected in late 2009 or early 2010, subject to permits. Oddly, the paragraph promises more details "in the June 2009 BAASS monthly report", which is this report. Separately, after inspecting "close to fifty separate buildings", BAASS had five office buildings in escrow "As of June 31, 2009" (a date that does not exist), planned to hold a 5,000 sq ft laboratory, secure evidence storage and a SCIF (p. 8).

EarthTech's position papers

On 31 December 2008 BAASS contracted EarthTech International to deliver 24-30 position papers expanding on the twelve AAWSAP technical areas, which the report lists from "1.) Lift" to "12.) Other peripheral areas" (p. 9). Delivery was due in July 2009, and "Earthtech have taken delivery of approximately 24 papers" (p. 9). A table on pp. 10-11 gives topics, institutions and due dates (1 May to 30 June 2009), with every author redacted as an AAP Person. Topics include antigravity, warp drives, wormholes, a matter-antimatter energy source (Positronics Research), brain-machine interfaces (Wayne State), IEC fusion (University of Illinois), metallic glass (Johns Hopkins), metamaterials and metallic spintronics (University of Texas at Austin), a "Statistical Drake equation" (International Academy of Astronautics), laser weapons, gravity-wave communication, FTL/quantum-entanglement communication and advanced nuclear space propulsion (University of Nevada, Reno). Many of these titles match DIRD papers released in Release 6 (DOW-UAP-D117 to D153), such as metallic glasses (D117), programmable matter (D118) and the statistical Drake equation (D127).

The MUFON purchase agreement under review

In February 2009 BAASS signed a purchase order with the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) entitling it to notice of significant U.S. sighting reports "within hours", investigators' reports, and physical evidence "including photographs, digital recordings, samples of soil, insects, plants, and animals" (p. 12). The report says that from March to June MUFON supplied far fewer cases than agreed and was "only spending about 50%" of its stipend (p. 12).

BAASS's letter of 25 June 2009 (pp. 15-16), signed by AAP Person 4 as Administrator, cites Section 7.0 of the agreement, which allowed termination, continuation, or a merit-based price increase. It sets out the figures: MUFON spent $11,014.37 of $74,666.67 in February/March, $23,803.95 of $56,000 in April and $23,812.00 of $51,000 in May. "Therefore, it appears that BAASS is sending excessive sums to MUFON on a monthly basis" (p. 15). BAASS proposed a Phase II stipend of $25,500 a month for 1 July to 31 October 2009, which together with roughly $120,000 of unspent money would give MUFON about $55,000 a month, with a further review by 27 October 2009 (p. 16). MUFON's reply of 29 June (pp. 13-14), signed by AAP Person 105, accepted the reduction for four months. It praised the new triage process as "a HUGE step forward for Ufology" and asked for re-evaluation in October in view of rising deployment costs.

Fifteen case numbers in the field

The MUFON section (pp. 17-100) reproduces reports by MUFON "STAR team" investigators coordinated by AAP Person 59. Cases were sorted into deployment categories (CAT 2 and CAT 3). The reports vary in quality and candour, and several record the investigators' own doubts.

• Scammon, Kansas (case 16421, 4/5 April 2009): a mother and son out at 1:23 a.m. searching for a missing boy saw an orange light "as large as a small house" about 200 feet over the treetops, which left and returned. The sheriff attributed it first to fireworks, then to "3 Chinese lanterns", but never supplied names. The investigator rejected lanterns: "Conclusion: UAV unknown" (pp. 17-22).
• Dardanelle, Arkansas (case 16644, 20 April 2009): a nurse driving at about 5:20 a.m. described a triangle "the size of a B-1 bomber" with three lights per side, a rumbling noise and a blinding flash, followed by a dead phone and loss of voice. The investigators found the phone battery's internal fuse blown, "usually the result of a high voltage insult", and a large compass deflection near the car's rear panel. A control test on a 2009 model at a dealership, however, showed similar deflection, which "brought our findings on the experiencer's vehicle into question" (pp. 22-30).
• Marathon, Texas (cases 17097 and 16814, 22 April 2009, 12:49 p.m.): two travellers south of Marathon on Route 385 described a bright form with "arm like extensions" that seemed to pass through their rented SUV and filled it with white light. The investigator found them sincere but noted that "no physical evidence was obtainable" and that no exact site could be fixed (pp. 30-35).
• Buffalo, Oklahoma (case 17125, 18 May 2009): a woman feeding horses at 12:30 a.m. saw three lights hover about 150 feet away. The investigator found "three areas where the vegetation is crushed in a swirled pattern", normal Geiger readings, and white spots on a horse that an equestrian expert thought could be a "Freeze Fire" from a cold medical instrument, or insect bites. Soil, grass and hair samples, with controls taken 200 feet away, were carried by hand on an airliner, "not X-rayed" (pp. 35-42).
• Trego, Wisconsin (cases 17360 and 17478, June 2009): an experiencer who signals "them" with her camera flash. The investigators were troubled that she had claimed to be a licensed pilot while still 20 hours short of soloing, and that a weather record showed cloud on a night she described as starry (pp. 42-53).
• Fallon, Nevada (cases 16818 and 16819, 7 May 2009): two 18-year-olds near the Fallon Naval Air Station range reported three boomerang-shaped objects, one pacing their truck, and about an hour they could not account for. One father was told by base security of "three C 130s in formation" and an "unspecified aircraft incident", which the public affairs office later confirmed for midnight to 1 a.m., not 9:30 p.m. (pp. 54-61).
• Bowling Green, Kentucky (case 17163): marked "NOT COMPLETE" (pp. 61-62).
• Pasadena, Maryland (case 16539, 16 April 2009, about 3:15 a.m.): a black, lightless craft like a "stretched out" F-117 with about a 300-foot wingspan, taking 17 minutes to pass. The investigator's artist rendition is on p. 68 (pp. 63-68).
• Grants Pass, Oregon (case 17526, 16 June 2009): orbs, and a "whitish humanoid figure" by a fence 43 yards away measured with a laser rangefinder. A Ballester-Guasp scoring sheet gives a "CERTAINTY INDEX" of 36.29% (pp. 69-74).
• Arizona (cases 16720, 16721 and 16726, 28 April 2009): amber and triangular lights near the Ak-Chin reservation, Estrella Mountain and Marana. On 6 May the MUFON investigators met BAASS staff (AAP Persons 13 and 16), and "The BAASS team decided to stop at the police station" (pp. 75-93).
• Poynette, Wisconsin (case 17546, 18 June 2009, 12:54 a.m.): a retired deputy sheriff saw three "perfectly spaced, perfectly linear" lights she estimated at 300-375 feet long, moving at about 30 mph (pp. 94-99).

The Brazil north team

According to the report, BAASS sent two teams to Brazil, one to contacts in Sao Paulo and Brasilia and one to Fortaleza to look into "recent reports of UAP activity in the Itatira region". Only the north team's report is included (pp. 101-118). The opening sentence's dating ("Beginning at the end of June, and spanning early June") is garbled, but the trip report gives 25 May to 3 June 2009 and case number 090525-1. The team (senior investigators AAP Persons 12 and 11, translators AAP Persons 31 and 32) was told to keep "a very low profile", to "mitigate and dampen all media inquiries" and to use pre-approved talking points. Yet at a conference in Sobral the writer noticed a TV crew and a radio reporter, "and it was clear that we were the center of the night" (p. 105).

The team photographed items held by the Fortaleza group CPU, including "some type of chip taken out of a human, which was planted by an 'alien'", burned rocks and metal fragments from claimed landing and crash sites. It recorded the CPU's own view that one assault account by three boys was inconsistent and possibly "abuse" or a fishing accident (pp. 103-104). It came home with "approximately 70+GB" of material, including a list of CPU files on cases from 1962 to 1993 and "65+ GB of recorded footage" (pp. 102, 113-114). The recommendations are candid. The CPU's 3,418 case files were "in total disarray" and the chain of custody of its evidence unknown. The Sobral group CSPU was "too commercial". A local official linked sightings to a uranium mine due to reopen. BAASS should send a surveillance team to Colares. A translation priority list puts Brazilian military documents on "Colares/Operation Saucer" at the top (pp. 115-117).

Project Northern Tier and the foreign archives

Project Northern Tier was formed in late April 2009 to re-examine historical incidents at Minot, Wurtsmith, Loring and Malmstrom Air Force Bases. A guidance memo of 11 June calls it "one of the sponsor's top priorities", aims at a "One Stop Shop" analysis, and insists on recording failed contact attempts: "We must demonstrate the level of effort to accomplish this task" (pp. 121-122). The base reports are mostly arithmetic of attrition. For Loring's October 1975 events, 15 identified witnesses produced 71,428 database hits, narrowed to 588, of whom only two were reached; one remembered nothing and one "purposefully terminated the call" (pp. 128-129). The Minot analyst estimated "at least 300 unidentified witnesses" to one silo incident because it was relayed over an open SAC alerting line, and noted that one NORAD document "is still listed as classified" (pp. 123-125). A Wurtsmith witness recalled that small planes "would often 'buzz' the Base" (p. 126). The same pages show that BAASS ran its own cases: Liberty County, Texas (090602-1) and Marathon, Texas (090527-3), with evidence handled on instructions from AAP Person 18. The map appendices of DOW-UAP-D170 cover the same four bases.

The foreign-release section (pp. 132-133) counts UK MoD files (about 7,297 pages, plus 1,200 cases released on 21 March 2009), 9,500 Canadian pages for 1947-1980, 329 Danish Air Force pages and about 100,000 GEIPAN pages. The Danish paragraph still says the translation "will be complete by March 13, 2009", which suggests it was carried over from an earlier report without updating.

Significance

D171 shows AAWSAP's contractor in mid-2009 working as an intelligence-style collection operation more than a research program. It was building secure storage for hoped-for physical evidence, buying a civilian sighting stream and then haggling over its price, sending low-profile teams abroad, and running database searches for Cold War airmen. The conclusion claims that "The BAASS database of cases is now larger than any other database owned by UAP organizations in North America" (p. 134), and records first contact with Uruguayan Air Force personnel (CRIDOVNI). The document does not give evaluations by DIA, laboratory results for any sample, or findings on any Northern Tier event. Its MUFON material consists of reported accounts and field notes, sometimes self-critical and sometimes speculative ("This may be the new code words used by our military in place of UFO", p. 60). It should be read as a record of what the contractor collected and how, not as proof of what witnesses saw.

Key People

Locations

Incidents

Notable Quotes

"It was recognized by the BAASS administrator that there was no highly secure facility at BAASS to store exotic material or tissue that the organization could obtain." -- page 7

"Therefore, it appears that BAASS is sending excessive sums to MUFON on a monthly basis." -- page 15

"This is a HUGE step forward for Ufology" -- page 13

"This may be the new code words used by our military in place of UFO." -- page 60

"BAASS personnel were under strict instructions not to draw attention to the organization or its membership." -- page 101

"The CSPU is in my opinion too commercial. They utilize their investigations to sell newspapers." -- page 115

"Project Northern Tier is one of the sponsor's top priorities" -- page 121

"The BAASS database of cases is now larger than any other database owned by UAP organizations in North America." -- page 134