World UFO Watch

The Curious Case of The Gosport Fisherman

By Bob Spearing, MUFON Assistant National Director of India, Star Team International Case Assistance Group, Special Assignment Team and NJ  MUFON State Section Director

MUFON Case # 68712, Stokes Bay, Gosport, U.K. – RESOLVED –Unknown Aerial Vehicle, Possible Abduction

Early on the morning of July 22, 2015 around 1:50 am, Don Martin (his real name) felt an unusual compulsion to gather up his fishing tackle and head out to Stokes Bay Beach in Gosport, Hampshire U.K. and see if the fish were biting even at such an ungodly hour.

It had been a rough couple of years for Don. Heart problems, medical setbacks and procedures punctuated his life. He was a Mini Bus driver for disabled children before his ill health forced him into early retirement at the age of 62 this last year.Two years back he had a very unusual experience in the doctor’s office. With his arm held out by a nurse during a procedure and looking into the doctor’s eyes, he saw what appeared to be colorful star-like shapes float across the room and enter his right eye in a sort of psychic experience. As odd as the experience was, he kept it to himself. Perhaps it was just his blood pressure acting up and causing spots before his eyes. There would be another similar corresponding episode.

Then something unusual happened in March of 2015. His nightly ritual entailed looking out his window to ascertain the weather. It was approximately 9:30 pm. He was taken back by what he saw.  “Under low broken clouds something caught my eye. Above the house approximately 30 feet above there was a disc 30 to 40 feet across, metallic silver, 6 blood red "ports” in a circle .It was very sharp and a gold color to my eye. I could not work out why this thing was above the house nor understand its unusual red colored windows. The base of the object was concave. ... .I`m sure this sighting went on for at least ten minutes.” Since the March 2015 event he has felt the necessity to become a vegetarian. This is one telltale sign of an abduction experience.

Don is a congenial man. In my first interview with him he came across as coherent, reflective, truthful and of sound mind but deeply disturbed by what was befalling him and how he felt isolated. His friends and life partner didn’t want to know. Then came that disastrous July 22nd early morning  fishing excursion.  With fishing pole in hand “I noticed a light high in the sky moving in a northeasterly direction. My initial thought: maybe satellite or possibly the international space station. After a few moments the light brightened. I looked for aircraft navigation lights. There were none. The light seemed to fall from the sky. A moment later a huge pulsing pure white “not reflective” light (it looked like a "blob" or a "splat") was above me. I felt a pressure change and I remember taking an intake of breath. I was fixed to the spot trying to take in what I was witnessing. Then a large cream colored orb slowly ejected from the light object and ascended vertically above getting smaller to its zenith and started dancing about high in the sky. I noticed a very pale yellow haze around me. Moments later the main object started to dim. Until this moment I did not see a solid craft. What I did see then was what I thought looked like the top of the Eiffel Tower, a solid aerial perhaps, definitely looking metallic. The main object blinked out. The small orb was still high in the sky. Then I saw another light which I believe was the main object connect to the small orb then both moved off to the northeast for a few seconds then blinked out.”

An oddity Don relates about the sighting is that the main blob of light seemed to be dropping globs of some material on the ground. Don’s case to this point is eerily reminiscent of the Pascagoula Abduction on October 11, 1973 when two fishermen, Charles Hicks and the younger Calvin Parker, fishing on the western bank of the Pascagoula River in Mississippi saw two flashing blue lights and an oval object descend upon them. "Conscious but paralyzed" while three "creatures" took them aboard the object, they were subjected to an examination before being releasing by the presumed robots. 

While in the yellow haze Don felt a sense of peacefulness but immediately afterwards the feeling was panic. Don still worries that they will return for him. Why? Well maybe it is the suppressed memories that have begun resurfacing at odd intervals. Don can’t account for 20 minutes. Enraptured in the haze he felt calmness but nothing else. What went on for twenty minutes? While in the yellow haze he suddenly remembers a small entity” marshaling” him somewhere. He subsequently begins to have flashbacks of huge tunnels with artificial light with entities pushing carts going by.  He also remembers entities in groups like military formations passing each other in units on this large tunnel-like highway. Like Travis Walton related in his experience, the interior of the “ship” seemed far larger than the exterior in his flashbacks.Next there came the beautiful woman with blond hair, blue eyes and a supple fertile  pear shaped body. Was Don a contactee like the late George Adamski dubiously was? Was he about to be told enduring words of wisdom such as ” Cease your warlike ways. Your atomic bombs will only destroy your planet!” No. It turned dark for Don fast. There was no peace, love and understanding coming his way! The beautiful blonde ripped away her face revealing an insectoid countenance black and ant-like.  This was no Grey. This was no human hybrid. This was an insectoid. More abduction scenario!Then he was on a metal table. Sound familiar? The ant-like entity drew close. Its eye seemed to enlarge greatly distorting the face. It went eye to eye with Don. Was this the bonding technique Dr. David Jacobs talks about in his book “Secret Life?” Or was it the great eyeball machine Budd Hopkins describes in his book “Missing Time?” Suddenly, in a reversal of his doctor’s office visit several years prior, manifestations of light seemed to exit from Don’s left eye into the insectoid’s eye.  Ever since, Don has had a piercing ache behind his left eye. Don even remembered in great detail the instrument one entity held in his hand and waved over him.It was a 4 inch long by 1 inch wide metal bar. It was like a tuning fork with the prongs touching each other. The metal was white and it had a faint pattern all over it like brickwork.Something was happening to Don and it wasn’t very pleasant but it was all very familiar to anyone who has ever studied abduction phenomenon. 

Being that I was in the U.S.A. as a member of the Star Team International Case Assistance Group helping with MUFON’s burgeoning backlog of cases due to our increasing popularity abroad, I needed to ask Don to do a little experiment for me. One of the telltale signs of abduction is the possible implantation of a device or object into the experiencer. A charmingly simple method for determining if an implant is in a body is to purchase a stud finder from a local hardware store which is an electro-magnet capable of finding metal nails in a wall. Used as an implant finding device, it is waved over the entire body looking for metal under the skin. Don purchased a Stanley Brand S100 stud finder for approximately fifteen dollars. Not only could it detect metal under the skin it also had an A/C function that could detect live electrical alternating current passing within three quarters of an inch from the surface of an object which in this case would be Don’s skin. There was no metal found in Don’s body scan. However, on the left side of Don’s neck and behind his left eye, the A/C detector tone went off as if some sort of electrical current was present in those areas. Don subsequently went for an MRI scan of his left eye for the pain he was experiencing but the test results were negative. 

Don had a flashback where he was in a blue dome. It was a shimmering undulating material and it seemed like golden confetti fell from the ceiling where a large orange ball illuminated everything. This was his most pronounced and repetitive vision to date.

Don decided a solo sabbatical without his life partner to Greece was in order. He was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He checked into a vacation resort consisting of modest yellow bungalows called Aberdeen Studios on the Island of Thassos in Greece. He received no reprieve.  

In the middle of the night he recalled everything going completely dark. He felt paralyzed yet totally awake. A hand was roughly trying to drag him from his bed. The entity was a small bald silhouette and had a big thick neck when Don drew the courage to look. Either he or the entity said “Let Go!!” Don did not let go and he lapsed back into sleep.

Don had another episode that predated his July 22nd affair.  On June 8th, 2015 at a friend’s house at approximately 10 pm, he states “I was very tired and fell asleep on a settee and feeling a severe burning pain on my left foot I woke up. It stopped. Later, I woke up again with the pain. I looked to my foot and there was a green and yellow glass-like rod approximately one foot long which looked and felt like a welding rod lying on my foot burning my skin. There was no mark. There was no smell of burning flesh but there was a buzzing noise. My socks were also hanging off my toes as if removed. The atmosphere in room was strange, silent. The television was on but had no sound. Three friends were there but they did not move. Then I blacked out. Nothing was said in the morning and I left it at that.”

I decided to investigate Gosport itself to see if he was fishing where he should not have been. I was taken back by the results. Gosport is a sleepy town with a series of chapels and a nice seaside. But it is also home to the Portsmouth HM Naval Base just a half mile away from Don Martin’s fishing spot. It is the home of two-thirds of the British Navy and soon to be home of Britain’s two new aircraft carriers. It also has a submarine base.

Even closer to Don’s Stokes Bay seawall fishing spot is Fort Moncton. It is a two hundred year old edifice protecting the bay. Its only entrance today is still via its drawbridge and its English Channel facing side has an enormous and unscalable sea wall. I did a search for Fort Moncton on the internet. The reader should do the same. According to Wikipedia, the only legitimate website mentioning Fort Moncton, it seems its only purpose apart from its function as logistical support for the Special Air Service (SAS), the special forces arm of the British Military,  is purportedly as the main training facility for MI6 (British Intelligence Service) teaching “field craft.” Additionally, it is the almost universal absence of anything on the internet for this 200 year old fort that is most disconcerting.  That’s not all. 
 
Gosport is also home to the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) “just up the road” from Don’s house as he put it.  It is the U.K. equivalent of the United States’ Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The DSTL’S mission, by its own admission, is “to maximize the impact of science and technology for the defense and security of the U.K.” Its means are the utilization of experiments in chemical, radiological and nerve agents.  One of its specific areas of research is Air and Weapons Systems.  It seems Gosport and its surrounding areas are perhaps the most secretive and sensitive top secret locations in all of Great Britain! And our fisherman went fishing there!  

From 1972 to 1985 Don Martin was in the military.  He spent considerable time in the 47th Air Dispatch Squadron. He flew on many missions in support of the SAS on C-13O transport planes.  When asked if he ever flew any secret missions, he stated when he was handed a gun and a knapsack on several missions it was inferred something was going on. 

In August 1982, Don was stationed in Cyprus when he caught the tail end of a UFO sighting over the communications base responsible for intercepting all communications from the Middle East. Don was stationed at Bloodhound Camp on the outskirts of Akrotiri Sovereign Base which housed the Royal Air Force.  It is Britain’s largest overseas base. It was 3:30 am. Don was roused from sleep by a commotion. He ran outside. Sirens were going off. Akrotiri had three listening stations housed in white golf ball shaped facilities called radomes. People were taking flash photography of something over the golf balls.  Don saw a silvery blue elongated  “double donut” shaped vehicle hovering over the golf balls.  It had windows and was engulfed in a sort of misty atmosphere and it glowed.  It was also absolutely silent. Don and several comrades estimated that its size was slightly longer than a 747 Jumbo Jet. 

For many years the Akrotiri base was the site of a powerful shortwave transmitter called the Lincolnshire Poacher, which was used by the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) to transmit instructions to undercover British agents. Additionally, antennas at Akrotiri tracked surveillance satellites as well as U-2s on secret Middle East Intelligence gathering flights.

According to Wikipedia” "The Lincolnshire Poacher" was a powerful shortwave numbers station that transmitted from Cyprus from the mid-1970s to June 2008. The station gained its commonly known name as it uses bars from the English folk song "The Lincolnshire Poacher" as an interval signal. The radio station was believed to be operated by the British Secret Intelligence Service and emanated from the island of Cyprus.[1] Amateur direction finding linked it with the Royal Air Force base at Akrotiri, Cyprus, where several curtain antennas had been identified as being its transmitter.It consisted of an electronically synthesized English-accented female voice reading groups of five numbers: e.g. '0-2-5-8-8'. The final number in each group was spoken at a higher pitch. It is likely that the station was used to communicate to undercover agents (spies) operating in other countries, to be decoded using a one-time pad.”There is a corroborating story in Richard Dolan’s book entitled “The Cover-Up Exposed 1973-1991.” In this version of the account as forwarded to Mr. Dolan by Nick Redfern, on August 16, 1981 (a thirteen months difference with Don Martin’s estimation) an order was given by the British Ministry of Defense for all aircraft operating out of Akrotiri to stand down. Shortly afterwards a “vast” object was tracked at 30,000 feet traveling at 900 mph. The object came to a halt over the base for 45 minutes. Witnesses described it as a white triangle over 700 feet long. As Don Martin recounted, many photos were taken.

On the following day a man and a woman arrived at the base and confiscated all photographs. Don’s story seems to hold up well against Richard Dolan’s!Therefore a highly classified MI6 operation was underway in Cyprus where the UFO hovered. Given Don’s role in SAS support operations in his 13 years with the military and his proximity to the SAS support facility Fort Moncton later as well as his living down the road from DSTL Laboratories, one must question if Don was an innocent bystander in a highly complex spy world. Don’s experience in Cyprus may well be of an ultimately important UFO sighting currently under wraps by governments involved in the sighting. The British Government has no equivalent of the American Freedom of Information Act so we may never know what went on at Akrotiri. Around the time of the Akrotiri incident, Don was found in a sleepwalking state in his underwear on the base. Several years earlier, back in England again in the employ of the 47th, Don woke up in a Chippenham military base’s garden without any clothes on. He doesn’t remember how he got there. Was Don simply a victim of somnambulist’s nightmares or was he being returned from abductions? 

So we have Don, a witness to a UFO sighting on a British Military base in August 1982, a victim of a July 22nd, 2015 sighting with physical effects in a highly secretive British town and a victim as well in several ancillary experiences such as Thassos, Greece, reaching out to MUFON for help.  What else could be construed as being irregular in this twisted tale? The sad answer came soon enough!

On January 28th, 2016 (exactly six months and six days after his July 22nd sighting), I heard from Don for the first time since his Greece vacation. The email went as follows:“Hi Bob, I`m sorry for the delay in contacting you. Unfortunately it has just been confirmed I have been diagnosed with terminal Esophageal and Liver Cancer. I believe this is a direct effect of the event of 22 July 2015. I am interested to know I if you are still willing to write up this event in the Mufon Journal, using my name. My prognosis is two to three months life span. I will leave it at that for now until I receive your reply. Sincerely Don.”

There had to be more to this story. Only 7 months after being enveloped in a yellow haze of a UFO, Don Martin was dying. Was Don imagining everything or was something happening to him?
What could I do as an investigator? I couldn’t walk up to Fort Moncton’s Drawbridge and ring the bell asking if anyone was sending killer drones on unsuspecting British citizens, could I? I could only detail what happened. There was no physical evidence but the circumstantial evidence, the amazing coincidences concerning the SAS and MI6, and the amazing onset of terminal cancer so soon after his horrific July 22nd 2015 affair suggest a pattern. And so “What if?”

What if his whole story is true or even just part of it?! Then we must confront the legitimate possibility that Don Martin, the Gosport Fisherman, was murdered by someone or something unknown! Don Martin died on March 5, 2016 exactly 7 months and 14 days after his encounter.