Fig 28. Capt. Dan D. Fulgham at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio several days after the balloon accident with a “traumatic hematoma” on his forehead. This photo shows Fulgham after blood had been aspirated from under his scalp and a substantial amount of swelling had dissipated. Concerns that Fulgham’s odd appearance might startle uninformed persons was why he was returned to Wright-Patterson AFB aboard a specially arranged flight from Holloman AFB, N.M. (photo collection of Dan D. Fulgham)
“Bodies” with Large Heads
and Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio
UFO theorists contend that the U.S. Army Air Forces secretly shipped the alien bodies with large heads to Wright-Patterson AFB for further processing and deep-freeze storage. However, it is likely that, in this account, this is a reference to Fulgham’s return to Wright-Patterson AFB following the balloon mishap.
Although Fulgham did not require hospitalization at Walker AFB, upon his return to Holloman AFB he was admitted to the base hospital for observation. Three days later on May 24, 1959, the balloon pilots were flown from Holloman to Wright-Patterson AFB on a specially arranged flight aboard a C-131 hospital aircraft.[234]
The return to Wright-Patterson AFB was directed by Stapp and coordinated by Kittinger.[235] The preliminary arrangements for this flight were made by Kittinger while at the Walker AFB hospital.[236] Kittinger recalled that conversations with Stapp regarding their return to Wright-Patterson AFB were made by phone in busy areas of the hospital and these conversations could have been overheard by nearly anyone present.[237]
Upon their arrival at Wright-Patterson, Fulgham, who Kittinger did not want to transport on a commercial flight due to his odd appearance, still could not open his eyes and had to be led down the steps of the aircraft. Kittinger recalled that Fulgham’s wife was waiting at the bottom of the aircraft steps when they arrived.
“They dropped the ramp and I looked down at the bottom and there was Dan Fulgham’s wife,” Kittinger said. “Dan couldn’t see ... so I grabbed him by the arm ... Dan’s wife sees me leading this blob down the staircase ... and she looks right at me and says, ‘Where’s my husband?’ I said, ‘Ma’am, this is your husband’. I presented her this blob that I was leading down the ramp. And she let out this scream you could hear a mile away. He was such a horrendous looking thing that she had no idea that the thing I was leading down that ramp was her husband.”[238]
Fig. 29. As a physiologist for the space program, Fulgham (third from left) discusses Project Gemini emergency escape systems at the U.S. Navy Aerospace Recovery facility at El Centro, Calif. on January 28, 1965. Shown with Fulgham (from left) are NASA astronaut Jim Lovell, NASA project engineer Hilary Ray, and NASA astronaut Alan Bean. (U.S. Navy photo)
