July 1, 1977: The UFO Encounter at Italy’s Aviano Air Base

It was a clear, warm morning, around 3 a.m., on July 1, 1977, when electronic alarms suddenly sounded at Italy’s Aviano Air Base, a NATO base and then home to the 40th Tactical Group. Something had set off the magnetic and motion detectors in the high hurricane type fence protecting the Victor Alert compound, a facility that housed fighter aircraft, their crews, maintenance and support personnel. Simultaneously a power outage occurred at the Victor Alert facility, and though a back-up system immediately kicked in, minor power fluxes went on for the next 15 to 20 minutes. Soon security personnel were reporting a strange light display off to the northwest, off base, perhaps 200 meters beyond the fence line, over a soybean field.

Gerald E. Rolwes of Spokane, Washington, was assigned to Aviano AB from June 1991 until his retirement in July 1993. While there he had served as the logistics officer Deputy Commander for Resource Management, and also as the Deputy Commander for the Regional Support Group. Though “Jerry” Rowles retired as a Lt. Col. USAF, his UFO interest was a private and personal matter, and not connected in any official capacity with his military duties.

Word spread meanwhile of his interest in the incident (details of the sighting had been published in Timothy Good’s book Above Top Secret), and as a result Jerry was able to interview one of the principle witnesses in this case, a Sgt. Roger Furry.

Sgt. Furry had been on duty that morning as a security police communications controller. “I just observed it with my eyes; you didn’t need anything else because it was a very bright light,” Stg. Furry told Jerry in a taped interview. “It was circular. ÉBecause of the intensity of the lights, especially around the rim, it was hard to see beyond the glare. ÉIt seemed to have multiple lights. In Mr. Good’s book, he described the lights going through different colors from white to green and then to red. As I recall, it was more from yellow to orange to red. I didn’t notice any green lighting on the craft. While I was observing the object you could hear a sound like bees buzzing or a humming sound. There was also a high amount of static electricity in the air and you could feel it on the hair on your arms. You could definitely feel the static. Outside of that phenomena, there were no other changes to the atmosphere when the object changed color.”

Sgt. Furry had the object in sight for approx. five minutes, as it was hovering over the soybean field, until it began to move away, at which time he watched it for about another minute. “The buzzing sound increased,” he noted. “It got just a little louder and a little higher pitched. The sound did get to a level such that you needed to raise your voice to be heard by a person next to you. When the buzz increased in pitch, the color started to fluctuate, it went from yellow, orange to red in a gradual manner. It stayed more toward the reddish color as it moved away.”

The object moved off towards the Dolomite Mountains, about three kilometers from the base, increasing in speed, and soon disappeared from sight.

Sgt. Furry estimated that the object he observed may have been 75 to 100 feet in diameter. Contrary to the account in Good’s book, he never observed the object actually over the base property himself. It was always off base. Also he was unable to observe a dome type outline, as indicated in Good’s book also.

Jerry Rolwes, though retired from the Air Force, is still active in other areas of his life. For example, the Spokane Astronomical Society and as a MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) state director in Washington state.

What does he think about the current state of Ufology?

“We’ve taken some major hits over things like the Truman signed documents,” he shared in an email. “We need to leave Roswell and look to the more recent events like the 1996 Brazilian case. The American people are far more concerned today, with good reason, over issues like the ongoing war, oil, cost of living, etc.”

“Many of my friends will always curse the USAF for the ‘evil cover-up.’ The most destructive thing to a wing commander is to have a ‘ UFO land on his base,’ and then have all the UFO trekkies out there bothering him when HE CANNOT GIVE ANY TYPE OF EXPLANATION WHICH WOULD (1) SATISFY THEM, AND (2) MAKE THEM BELIEVE HE IS NOT LYING OR COVERING UP.”

“He is out there trying to lead a fighter wing FUNDED by ‘we the people.’ He is responsible for the safety of his personnel and if the UFO does nothing to harm his operation, well lets ignore it.”

References:

1. MUFON Journal, February 1996

2. MUFON (St. Louis) Symposium Proceedings, July 2000. (Both MUFON publications contained articles prepared by Jerry Rolwes on the Aviano case)

3. Above Top Secret, The Worldwide UFO Cover-Up, by Timothy Good. William Morrow and Company, Inc., 105 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016. 1988. ISBN: 0-688-07860-5.