Source record
Ellsworth missile-site encounter claim - 1977
Ellsworth missile-site encounter claim - 1977
- Type: case (military witness and alleged abduction)
- Claimants: Mario Woods and Michael Johnson
- Claimed setting: November 1977, November-5 launch facility in the Ellsworth AFB Minuteman field, South Dakota
- Evidence value: ~20 for the claimed anomalous encounter; ~5 for the hypnosis-derived onboard account
- Main new source: Jesse Michels interview with Woods and Johnson, September 7, 2026
- Sourced: 2026-09-07
Mario Woods says that he and fellow Air Force security policeman Michael Johnson responded to an alarm at the November-5 missile launch facility in 1977, encountered an enormous luminous object, became immobilized, and later regained awareness with their truck several miles from the site. Woods began telling the story publicly decades later. His account grew to include beings approaching the truck, military interrogation, unusual medical examination, missing time, and an onboard experience recovered through hypnosis.
The September 2026 Jesse Michels production adds the first public appearance and account from the man presented as Johnson. It materially improves the record concerning the existence of Woods's named colleague. It adds much less evidence for the alleged encounter because the production did not preserve an uncontaminated first account from Johnson.
Michael Johnson was located and interviewed
Michels says a viewer found a Facebook page for an older Michael Johnson whose post placed him at Ellsworth from 1975 to 1977. A recruiter then located him. The video records Johnson and Woods speaking by telephone and later reuniting in person.
This is useful identity evidence. Johnson recognizes Woods, recalls Ellsworth people and procedures, and says he served there during the relevant period. The production does not publish a service record, duty roster, dispatch log, medical record, or other document independently placing Johnson with Woods at November-5 on the claimed night.
Johnson's waking account
Before the filmed hypnosis session, Johnson says he remembers a large bright light approaching and receding, being unable to move or speak while gripping the steering wheel, burning eyes, blurred humanoid forms around the truck, and a message resembling "do not fear" or "do not worry". He also says he was examined and injected after the event, experienced confusion and headaches, retained weakness in his dominant right arm, received an Article 15 for a later confrontation, was assigned menial work, and left the Air Force with an honorable discharge and a reenlistment restriction.
Johnson also recalls visiting Woods before leaving South Dakota. He says they discussed what happened and made drawings. He describes an alien-like face, a shiny interior, and a glove on the floor. Woods had publicly attributed these details to Johnson years before Johnson was located, so they were not held back as a blind test.
The first call supplied the answer before Johnson accepted it
The video's opening presents Johnson's recognition as spontaneous. The longer recorded call is different. Woods tells him they were at November-5 in November 1977, asks whether he remembers what they encountered, and Johnson first answers "No." Woods then asks whether it was "that UFO," after which Johnson agrees and supplies a few details. Later narration omits the initial denial and says Johnson immediately answered "the UFO" after hearing only the date and location.
The reunion and interview also occurred before the hypnotic regression. Johnson knew Woods had spent years discussing the case publicly, and the participants compared memories and repeatedly described the craft, beings, missing time, and "do not fear" motif. This sequence prevents the later overlap from functioning as independent corroboration.
Hypnosis produced the detailed onboard narrative
During Yvonne Smith's regression session, Johnson describes three large-eyed, putty-like beings, removal from the truck, needles in his head, an examination table, cutting or probing of his legs, groin, chest, mouth, and back, writing near a console, and telepathic reassurance. The interviewer repeatedly directs his attention to body areas, asks who is causing sensations, and asks him to continue describing an assumed event.
The production then compares this material with an older regression recording from Woods and emphasizes matching details. The comparison does not authenticate the memories. Johnson had already heard the central narrative and supplied several of the same details in waking conversation. The project-wide assessment of hypnotic regression treats such content as a record of the subject's experience during suggestion, not as reliable retrieval of a hidden historical record.
Other new claims
Johnson says he has seen unusually shaped people whom he suspects may not be fully human. He also recounts childhood sightings around St. Louis and a later episode of missing time while driving in Nevada. These are new personal claims without external support in the production.
Woods adds that an unnamed Department of Energy colleague once told him that unusual propulsion systems are "grown" rather than built. He also repeats accounts of burns, removed skin samples, a strange medical examination, a debrief involving AFOSI, and later security-clearance scrutiny. The video supplies no records for these claims and turns Woods's uncertainty about the skin sample into narration that it was confiscated and classified.
The production argues that Richard Doty may have used Woods's case to construct the false Ellsworth L9 humanoid document. The local primary record is less supportive: Bill Moore's 1989 statement calls the Ellsworth humanoid story a counterintelligence exercise and says Doty was probably involved, while expressly saying Doty was not responsible for creating its documents. Michels presents the stronger attribution as a likely explanation without producing a new primary record.
Evidence assessment
- The video strongly establishes that a man identifying himself as Michael Johnson has now publicly associated himself with Woods and the Ellsworth story.
- It moderately supports that Woods had a real colleague by that name and that the two knew one another at Ellsworth. Publicly released service or duty records would raise this component.
- It adds low-grade testimonial support for a disturbing event involving a bright light, immobilization, disorientation, and later military attention. The 49-year delay, immediate prompting, prior public exposure, reunion before formal elicitation, and lack of contemporaneous records sharply limit the gain.
- The hypnosis-derived onboard material has near-floor evidentiary value. The method and this session's sequencing cannot distinguish historical memory from suggestion, reconstruction, and narrative agreement.
- The emotional reunion is evidence that the meeting mattered to both men. Affect does not establish what happened in 1977.
Internal and editorial problems
- The description says the men lost nine hours, while the account in the program describes roughly five to six hours.
- The introduction says the men did not see one another again for nearly 50 years, while both men say they met and compared accounts about two weeks after the event.
- November-5 is the launch-facility identifier. The program also uses it as though it were the calendar date, while the opening call appears to mention November 18 and the L9 discussion places the alleged encounter on November 17. The exact incident date remains unsettled.
- The assertion that Johnson immediately identified the UFO without being told is contradicted by the program's own recording of the first call.
Net
The new source resolves one longstanding biographical question: Woods's named partner is no longer only a person in Woods's retelling. It raises the case slightly above a single-witness account, but the production forfeited the strongest possible test by prompting Johnson, reuniting the witnesses, allowing narrative comparison, and then using hypnosis. Overall evidentiary value for the anomalous encounter is about ~20, with the detailed abduction account at about ~5.
Followup items
- Obtain redacted service records or other documents independently placing both men in the relevant Ellsworth unit and duty assignment.
- Seek the original 1977 drawings, security blotter, dispatch records, medical records, Article 15 and discharge paperwork, and any Meade County or state-police dispatch log.
- Establish the event date and distinguish it consistently from the November-5 facility designation.
- Obtain an unedited production chronology showing what Johnson said before he heard Woods's account and before the regression session.