Fig. 24. Walker AFB Building 317, hospital dispensary with attached ramp, as it appeared in June 1954. It is in this building that UFO theorists allege that “alien autopsies” were accomplished in July 1947. However, this was the same building that Capt. Fulgham received treatment following the balloon accident on May 21, 1959. Persons apparently observed him and later related the unusual circumstances surrounding the balloon mishap as part of the “Roswell Incident.” (U.S. Air Force photo)
Fig. 25. Main gate at Walker AFB, N.M., formerly Roswell AAF, as it appeared in 1954. During the 1950s, the highly secure base was the home of the nuclear capable 509th and 6th Bombardment Wings of Strategic Air Command. (U.S. Air Force photo)
According to the medical technician who arrived on the helicopter with the pilots, he had difficulty persuading a flight surgeon to attend to the injured pilots. SSgt. Roland H. “Hap” Lutz, now a retired Chief Master Sergeant, recalled when he first contacted the Walker AFB hospital explaining that he had three persons injured in a “gondola accident,” the flight surgeon told him to “Go home and sleep it off.”[222] Fulgham, the injured pilot, recalled that when they got to the hospital, “there was this controversy going on in the hospital about who in the hell we were ... we weren’t supposed to be there and nobody knew anything about Air Force officers flying balloons ... we could have been ... [trying] to penetrate the security.”[223] Walker AFB security officials were satisfied of the pilots’ identities when they spoke to Colonel Stapp, commander of the Aero Medical Laboratory at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.
Fig. 26. Capt. Joseph W. Kittinger, Jr. (right), is shown here in 1962 with Dr. J. Allen Hynek while preparing for the project Stargazer high altitude balloon flight. (U.S. Air Force photo)
The “Red-headed Captain” and Dr. J. Allen Hynek
Captain Kittinger, the Stargazer high altitude balloon pilot and project engineer, had extensive professional contact with Dr. J. Allen Hynek, an astronomer and Stargazer project scientist. Additionally, Hynek was also one of the scientific consultants in the Air Force study of UFOs, Project Bluebook. Hynek is best known, however, for his apparent endorsement of extraterrestrial theories concerning UFOs after concluding his associations with the Air Force.
When asked about his recollections of Hynek, Kittinger stated that when they were associated, from 1958 to 1963, they discussed UFOs at length.[224] At that time, Hynek was steadfast in his opinion that most, if not all, UFO sightings could be resolved by applying known scientific analysis.[225] Kittinger said he was “flabbergasted” when, years later, Hynek appeared to reverse his opinion and endorse extraterrestrial explanations.[226] Hynek’s reversal in philosophies led to numerous commercial endeavors, most notably as a technical advisor for the science-fiction film Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Also, based on his experience with project Stargazer, Hynek was familiar with balloon operations at Holloman AFB, visiting the Holloman Balloon Branch several times.[227] Interestingly, there is no record that Hynek, who died in 1986, ever endorsed what is now presented as the “best evidence” of UFOs, the so-called Roswell Incident, which was actually a conglomeration of numerous events, some with origins in Holloman AFB launched balloons.