Now, I'm not one to promote such a thing. In fact, anyone who's read my writings can see I don't buy into the whole cover-up scenario.
But when you find a blatantly incorrect statement made by a military communications officer about UFOs, you have to wonder.
Buried deep in the newly-released MoD UFO files is a case from April 16, 2000. It's in the set of files accessed as: http://filestore.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pdfs/defe-24-2009.pdf and consists of a letter from someone who appears to be a civilian UFO investigator, a photograph of a UFO, and the MoD's reply. The civilian told the MoD about a sighting that had been reported to him (or her) and asked if they had any info or explanation for it. The incident had occurred near Beeston in Cheshire and involved the sighting and photograph of a "pulsing" object that changed shape and vanished after a few minutes of observation.
It was a very polite letter, intelligent, with many details and very respectful in tone. In it, the writer asked if the UFO might have been a military aircraft from a nearby base called Hack Green.
The reply from MoD was a form letter, with a few additions to personalize it. Basically, the MoD said no, they had not received any other reports from that day, and that they did not consider the incident a "breach" of UK airspace by "unauthorised military aircraft."
Apart from the fact that statement itself can be construed in many ways, it was the next comment that made me curious.
"There is no current RAF station called "Hack Green" and we are not aware of any previous station by that name."
I thought that was odd, because somewhere I recalled hearing about a place called Hack Green and immediately looked it up. Sure enough, Hack Green was definitely a British military base, especially a radar installation during WWI and after it as part of an early warning system. It was then developed as a nuclear bunker. It was decommissioned in 1998 when it was sold to a private developer as a museum. It's now a tourist attraction called the "Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker!"
Here's a link to some info about it: http://www.rocremembered.com/hack-green-r6-rotor-station-rg/
And yet... the MoD had never heard of it.
Cover-up, incompetence... or simply not taking the inquiry seriously?
What information do you expect was readily available in 2000 to the officer on the MoD UFO desk about a RAF station which was decommissioned thirty-four years earlier, then redeveloped as a secret installation, and which had been in private hands for years? The ROC Remembered website which you referenced is dated 2007; and neither the Wikipedia article on Hack Green nor the Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker website existed before 2006. Are you not indulging a hindsight bias, expecting a person in 2000 to have access to the same sources you have in 2010? The Subterranea Britannica article on Hack Green dates from 1998, and so would have been extant in 2000; but since you didn't mention it, is it fair to accuse the MoD officer of incompetence because he didn't mention it?
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