“Tell him what he wants to hear.” - Ex-BAASS employees have a different perspective on Skinwalker Ranch

“Tell him what he wants to hear.“ - Ex-BAASS employees have a different perspective on Skinwalker Ranch

[Note : all pictures of Skinwalker Ranch are reproduced in this article with the kind permission of Christopher Bartel]

Ten months ago I started some personal research on the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP). The program was run by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and was supposed to explore “the physics and engineering of advanced aerospace weapon systems as they apply to the foreign threat out to the far term, i.e., from now through the year 2050“. The contract for AAWSAP was awarded to Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies, LLC (BAASS). Unfortunately, very few official documents about AAWSAP have surfaced so far.

What others researchers and I discovered was that BAASS was primarily investigating the UFO phenomenon on US soil and abroad. Whether BAASS did so on behalf on the US Government, and whether the DIA was fully aware of the extent of BAASS UFO and paranormal research activities has to be proven. One of the most mysterious element of the whole story was the existence of an alleged paranormal and UFO hotspot called “Skinwalker Ranch“. This remote place in Utah was bought by Robert Bigelow in the nineties, and was studied for almost a decade by the National Institute for Discovery Science, chaired by Bigelow himself. Everyone who has ever heard about the Ranch knows about the extraordinary events that allegedly took place on the property over the years : portals opening on other dimensions, poltergeists, swarms of UFOs, crypto-creatures… To the best of my knowledge, no factual evidence has ever been brought forward to support those extraordinary claims. Most of the testimonies come from second-hand witnesses. Therefore, I was pretty skeptical about this place.

A remote Ranch in Utah and a $22-million contract

What was even more puzzling was that Skinwalker Ranch was instrumental in the inception of the AAWSA program and BAASS. In order to understand how important the Ranch is, it’s worth reading what Senator Harry Reid, who publicly stated that he played a major role in the creation of AAWSAP, told to New York Magazine reporters in March 2018 :

Harry Reid : “I’m in Washington in the Senate and Bob Bigelow called me — I kept in touch with him over the years. He called me and he said, “I got the strangest letter here. Could I have a courier bring it to you?” I said, “Sure.” He didn’t want to send it to me over the lines for obvious reasons.

I read the letter. The letter was from a federal national-security agency. Okay? The letter said, “I am a senior, longtime member of this security agency, and I have a Ph.D.” — I can’t remember in what, in physics for sure, maybe math also. “And,” the letter said, “I’m interested. I’m interested in talking to you, Mr. Bigelow. I have an interest in what you’ve been working on. I want to go to your ranch in Utah.”

Bigelow had bought a great big ranch, a 70-, 100-acre ranch in Utah that was in a basin for more than a century.

NY Magazine : “Was that the Skinwalker Ranch ?“

Harry Reid : “Yeah, that’s it. I called Bigelow back and said, “Hey, I’ll meet with the guy.” I called the guy. He said, “I don’t want to meet at my office, I don’t want to meet at your office. Where can we meet?” I said, “Come to my home.” The two of us met and I was terribly impressed with him. Very low-key scientist. He told me of his interest. I called Bigelow and I said, “This guy, I’ve checked him out and he seems like a pretty nice guy and his credentials are as he says.“

“He went, met Bigelow, and after I don’t know how much time went by, he came to me and said, “Something should be done about this. Somebody should study it.” I was convinced he was right. I said, “Well, if you were me, what would you say to people in power in the United States Senate who have huge control over the spending of defense money?” And here’s what he said: “What I will do is prepare something for you that anyone can look at it that wants to, it’s strictly science.” He put it in scientific language — what the study should consist of.“

And this is how, according to Senator Harry Reid, the whole AAWSAP saga started. Skinwalker Ranch is central to the story, so I decided to reach out to people who went there and worked there. Three security officers had already come forward so far : Chris Bartel, Chris Marx and an anonymous officer called "Chip". Over the course of the last 6 months I tracked down several former BAASS employees and interviewed them about their experience working for BAASS at the Ranch. Those people spent months, even years, boots on the ground  and what they told me offer a completely different perspective on Skinwalker Ranch and BAASS.

Documenting dust at Skinwalker Ranch

One of the first people I talked to worked for Bigelow Aerospace for a couple of years. Australian researcher Keith Basterfield had provided me with a list of known BAASS employees and the name of this Security Officer appeared on it. I checked his background before reaching out to him. He worked in the military for a couple of years before joining Bigelow Aerospace.

He recounts how it all started for him. “I was hired by Bigelow Aerospace, not BAASS, but transferred later on. Security Clearance was required. I don't know anything about the initial hiring process for the first group of BAASS officers. When we transferred to BAASS, we didn't have any contact with the Aerospace piece of it. It was frowned upon if there was any kind of interaction between the two divisions.“

It is now public knowledge that AAWSAP was a government-funded program. I asked him if everyone on the BAASS payroll was aware that the sponsor was the Defense Intelligence Agency.  “Not everyone initially. Not for probably the first 6 months" he recalls. “Just coffee pot talk from the head of security. We knew but it was never officially announced. It was common knowledge that our mission was to research any potential UFO activities. We were going to investigate reports of UFO activities and try to see if there's any technical information we could gain for use in Bigelow's programs.“

Part of the officers' duties included securing Skinwalker Ranch, investigating and documenting paranormal events. The Security Officer spent some time at the property. “I’ve spent a total of 4 weeks there. I don't believe anything happened at the Ranch. I can see how staying at the ranch by yourself could be stressful. It wasn't a dark spooky place though. I never witnessed anything crazy. There's nothing happening out there that cannot be logically rationally explained.“

“I talked to some of other security officers and they said that stories were embellished to please Mr Bigelow“ he explained. “Mr. Bigelow did not like to be told that there was nothing to it. I remember one specific thing about the orbs that you can photograph. I was standing out in the middle of a field at night taking a picture with a digital camera and then a high-speed 35 mm standard camera, trying to show the fact that orbs only show up on digital. The truth is that it was simply dust. They did not want me to send that along with my report. The bottom line was just : “Tell him what he wants to hear.“

The Officer also remembers other experiments. “We also did some experiments with some batteries down at one of the homesteads. This was silly stuff actually, considering we had PhD scientist working for the company.“ I asked him if the BAASS scientists used to visit the Ranch. “Yes, they were there many times. They didn't stay long but they were up there for a day or two, and they had the same basic jokingly opinion about the whole mess. For most of us it was simply a paycheck.“

In an April 2020 interview by Curt Collins, another former BAASS Security Officer, Chris Marx, explained how he took part in those kinds of experiments while working for BAASS.

Marx and other officers also mentioned that they had to send daily reports to BAASS. I asked the Security Officer if he had to go through debriefings. “Just faxes to Mr Bigelow and Colm [Kelleher]. No real debriefings, just simple as : “Anything to add to your daily reports ? Nope, ok. Thanks.“

When asked what his opinion about the reported paranormal events was, he said “I mentioned there was some minor unusual things that happened up there, but everything, and I mean everything, had a logical rational reasonable explanation that Mr Bigelow just didn't want to hear about. And yes there's some ancient Indian legends about the Skinwalker and all that other stuff. Can't ignore it, just can't prove it.“

When they were not stationed at Skinwalker Ranch the Security Officers worked at the odd-looking BAASS headquarters, called the Polaris Building, at 4975 Polaris Avenue, Las Vegas, Nevada. “At peak there was somewhere around 35 to 40 employees and the entire place was only functional for approximately 18 months. There was a small library, but nothing you couldn’t buy yourself. I work mids sometimes and I remember reading Project Blue Book out of the library just to keep me occupied.“

“Mr Bigelow was such a micromanager that you couldn't get anything done without his direct approval through Colm Kelleherget. So there was a lot of sitting around. I remember XXX had a PhD in nuclear physics. He helped me with my college homework.“

“I would say there was a lot of frustration because they couldn't do what they were hired to do because of the micromanagement and the compartmentalization of information and control. Towards the end in 2010 the frustration level got quite high because everybody was pointing their fingers at everybody else on why. I remember the first major investigation that did they put a team together to go to I believe it was Brazil to investigate some UFO activities that was at least four or five years old it took them to three months to put the team together and actually get moving. So the frustration at least from the investigator side was deep.“

BAASS was working under the AAWSAP contract for the Defense Intelligence Agency. I asked the Security Officer if US Government or DIA officials often visited BAASS headquarters at the Polaris Building. “No not really, maybe once a quarter“ he recalled. “And one that did, didn't stay long at all. We didn't interact with them. Colm [Kelleher, BAASS Deputy Administrator] would meet them at the door, we were told basically to ignore them. They went into the SCIF [Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility], had a few minutes of meetings and left. One day in June of 2010 the suits from the Defense Intelligence Agency showed up for 15 minutes and left. The next day we were all laid off.“

Although evidence suggest that AAWSAP was essentially an unclassified program, BAASS analysts were allowed access to classified information if needed, after coordination with the DIA program lead. Therefore it was a requirement for the contractor to set up a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF). However, it seems that BAASS security was pretty low-key according to the Security Officer. “One guard, no alarms, a relatively inactive SCIF. Information was only protected by physical means. Safes, secured computers etc.“

Other contemporary accounts mention another Bigelow building close to the airport called the Pama Lane Complex, at 2252 East Pama Lane, Las Vegas. The Security Officer spent some time patrolling this other facility.

“Yes, on Tropicana. The were remolding a building on Tropicana in preparation for the build up, but never occupied it. I think at first, they expected the whole BAASS operation to become something huge, they were talking hundreds of people.“

His conclusion : “You can summarize BAASS with one word. Boondoggle.“

Accounts from a Bigelow Aerospace Security Supervisor 

I reached out to this person in April 2020. He never went to the Ranch, but he supervised a team of Bigelow Aerospace security officers who occasionally deployed to Skinwalker when BAASS had staffing problems due to holidays or scheduling conflicts.

Although he did not visit the Ranch, he debriefed his officers when they came back from Ranch deployment. “I had guys rotate over there. I know my guys were just short term and didn’t report anything out of ordinary except for looky-loos hanging around fencing" he recalled.

"NIDS never did anything close to what myself and Chris Marx did."

Everyone interested in the AATIP/AAWSAP history or Skinwalker Ranch knows about Chris Bartel. He spent a total of 6 years securing the Ranch, in a 2-man team at first, then alone for the last 4 years. I spent a couple of hours chatting with Chris Bartel about his experience working for BAASS. Chris has always been very friendly, candid and forthcoming about his experience. Securing the Ranch was definitely a stressful experience, especially when he was alone for days on this vast property in the middle of nowhere. Chris shared a lot of information on various interviews and shows about a couple of very unusual experiences he had while staying at the Ranch. However he keeps a lot of good memories from working on the property and he really enjoyed the beautiful landscapes of Unintah basin. He believes that the Ranch should be treated with respect because of its long history of Native American occupancy that should not be ignored.

Chris was hired in September 2010, when BAASS operations were winding down. A major layoff had just happened in the Summer of 2010. Twelve officers were working security at the Ranch and after a few months, the only members of BAASS that remained were Colm Kelleher, Chris Marx and Chris Bartel.

“Our trailer was a mess, black mold, no upgrades“ he said about his living conditions. “Officer safety was completely ignored. Only one guy to safeguard 100-acre Ranch, and no backup“.

He confirmed that a couple of strange things happened during his 6-year stint, but a lot of extraordinary stories were in fact embellished. “We had a few people who tried to make stuff up in order to please Mr Bigelow. Same with NIDS. A few BAASS guys did as well. So you had real stuff and fake stuff“ he explained. “I remember hearing rumors when I was first hired that a bonus would be giving out if anyone provided actual evidence to a event. This of course created a problem. Yes, some people embellished stories.“

About his former boss Bartel says “I don't doubt Bigelow’s passion about UFOs. But people knew that was his weak point and capitalized on that. I actually feel sorry for him to a point. But when you invest money into only one side of the phenomenon and ignore the rest, then you become the problem. Which is why he ignore all the Native American phenomenon.“

As Marx and the Security Officer he also remembers experiments being conducted at the Ranch “I debunked a lot of false claims. I did a experiment in Homestead 2. An officer said his flash light kept going off. So I went there with his flashlight and like 3 other things including another light. He claims the energy was intelligent. The truth was his flashlight would flicker due to temperature changes. He was embellishing his claims.“

Bartel insisted that while many of the extraordinary stories originated during the NIDS era, nobody stayed for such long periods of time at the Ranch. “The truth is that NIDS never did anything close to what myself and Chris [Marx] did. We would sleep out in the rocks. Make campfires. Alone. Trying to find anything. These NIDS guys never stayed more than maybe a week at a time on the Ranch. NIDS had no security. But the Ranch manager was there. Then when NIDS was disbanded the Ranch managers were concerned with security. So Bigelow started having his guys from the Aerospace division go up.“

In 2010 Chris Bartel and Chris Marx experienced a very unusual encounter. “Chris [Marx] found large K9 prints on the mesa. A single set. That night we went out to find this wolf with out 3 dogs" he remembers.

But later that night, the story got even weirder.

“At 3 A.M., no luck, we decide to back track and we find wolf prints behind our original prints. It had been following us all night. We got to an area where the animal would be exposed. It was a full moon night. Then we heard a deep guttural howl come from a nearby ditch. We turned around and this huge wolf jumped out of the ditch running west. We follow it and "poof" it disappeared right in front of us. It was insane. That happened in 2010. Then in 2015. I was by myself at the east gate while sitting in a lawn chair. I heard the howl behind me. Like he was reminding me “I’m here still“.

Actual DNA sample collected by Chris Marx with data sheet. Picture by Chris Bartel.

Bartel and Marx documented the encounter, they took pictures of the prints and Marx even took a DNA sample and secured it.

Another interesting part of this story happened years after this spooky night, and it is very telling. “Chris Marx took a DNA sample back in 2010. A Supervisor at Bigelow Aerospace texted me in 2015 and told me to get rid of the DNA stuff that we all knew wasn’t going anywhere, he told me destroy the bags that were kept in the freezer [Author's note : the fridge can be seen to the right of door in the picture of the officer's quarters]. This shows how much Colm [Kelleher] really cared about all this. The DNA sample sat in the freezer for so long that it evaporated.“

There is no question that Skinwalker Ranch is a sacred Native American site. Unfortunately, as Chris Bartel mentioned several times, this part of the story seems to have been completely ignored by Robert Bigelow and BAASS at the expense of a sensational narrative involving UFOs, cattle mutilations and weird creatures. One may also wonder why BAASS management, namely Colm Kelleher, did not care about having that DNA sample analyzed.

Conclusion

Despite countless extraordinary stories, the accounts of people who spent years working and living at Skinwalker Ranch are much more mundane. There is no question that Skinwalker Ranch is an unusual place, but definitely not as strange and crazy as we've been told for years. 

Some people will argue that there was an unprecedented wave of paranormal events that happened in the nineties when the Sherman owned the Ranch, that the NIDS scientists witnessed creatures from other dimensions, unexplained cattle mutilations, swarms of UFOs, but that the paranormal activity decreased in the 2000s.

Maybe.

Or maybe some people had an interest in perpetuating a myth that resulted in a $ 22-million contract with the US Government and an ongoing TV show. Who knows...

Feel free to send any comment or suggestion to uapparallax(at)outlook.com

[I want to thank all the people who shared their experience with me, and especially Chris Bartel who documented his 6 years at Skinwalker Ranch with amazing pictures]

Reference

1. Harry Reid's interview by Eric Benson, New York Magazine, March 21st 2018 - https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/03/harry-reid-on-what-the-government-knows-about-ufos.html

2. Former Skinwalker Ranch Security Officer "Chip" interview  - https://www.theparacast.com/podcast/now-playing-december-2-2012-david-paulides-and-j-c-johnson/

3. Keith Basterfield's blog has a number of articles about the Ranch - https://ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com/2020/01/aawsapaatip-mri-brain-scans-and.html

4. Chris Marx's interview by Curt Collins - https://www.blueblurrylines.com/2020/04/the-pentagon-funded-paranormal-research.html