STRANGE HAZE

 

Back in March, a story ran in a Texas newspaper about an Apache helicopter seen dumping a white chemical in Burnet County.

You can view that original story at this link.

 

I recently received this e-mail from a Texas reporter:

 "Hello. My name is Andrew Griffin and I am a reporter for the Waxahachie Daily Light in Waxahachie, Texas (30 miles south of Dallas). I did a story several days ago for the Daily Light concerning Mark Atwood (former resident of Ennis, here in Ellis County) about the Apache chopper sighting he reported in Burnet (Texas) Bulletin, which subsequently received a lot of (alternative) press in Texas.

I spoke with him one afternoon and did a story which has yet to run. I thought you all might be interested in the story I wrote."

Hill Country Reporter Stumbles Across a
Chopper Mystery


By Andrew Griffin
Waxahachie Daily Light staff writer


BURNET - Black helicopters, conspiracy theories, strange, gritty, white powder falling from the sky. In Burnet, Texas, it's becoming business as usual.

It was on March 3, that Ennis native Mark Atwood, managing editor of the Burnet Bulletin published a story concerning a report of a black helicopter spotted flying over Burnet and releasing an unknown white powder on residents below.

The concerned resident, Richard Wruble of Burnet, contacted Atwood at the Bulletin and asked for him to investigate the black, unmarked Apache helicopter.

Atwood grabbed his camera and soon found the Apache flying away from Burnet.
"Zoom lenses are a beautiful thing. By the time I got to it, it was pretty far away. We were able to blow up (the photo) on Adobe Photoshop and put it in the paper," Atwood said.

Atwood, who was a former editor at the Ennis Daily News in the late 1980s, said since the story ran he has become Burnet County's reluctant authority on conspiracy theories.

"Before i did the story, I thought the term "New World Order" was just a professional wrestling organization," Atwood said, adding, "Now I have heard every conceivable conspiracy theory that the government is spraying some sort of bio-toxin which breaks down the white blood cells, to NASA tests, to foreign troops being let loose here in our grea state. When I ran taht story, I really had no idea what I had gottenn myself into."

In the past two months, Atwoods 'quirky and innocent'story has gone national. From Internet sources to interviews on texas radio stations and from the television programs "Hard Copy" and "Sightings."

"There is not a five-day work week that goes by that I am not getting a phone call from someone wanting to interview me about this chopper. Around the office it is sort of an inside joke," he said.

However, to some of the residents of the town, it is not a joke. In Atwood's original story, the white powder fell onto the Wruble family truck and damaged the paint job. Atwood said he decided to investigate the story further, especially after he had a follow-up sighting.

"I talked to Ben Santos at Fort Hood and asked him about these Apaches. He basically told me that 'our Apaches are designed to blow up tanks,not spray.' I have also been told that no Apaches from Fort Hood were in or around Burnet that day. They have also said that they weren't their Apaches. So far no one has claimed it," Atwood said.

Atwood did find out that a lot of training missions from Fort Hood do fly over Burnet County, but what was sprayed over that Hill Country community continues to remain a mystery - a mystery that Atwood said probably is not as sinister as one might imagine, because Atwood has had Apache helicopter sightings since the original story ran.

"I have not personally witnessed any helicopters spraying anything, although I did see one about 100 feet of the ground on the outskirts of town ... I have to say that even if I was the most pessimistic, conspiracy-minded person in the world, I really don't think there is anything to this particular incident," he said.
Atwood said the March 3 issue of the Burnet Bulletin has sold out.

"We don't even have a copy for the morgue. Everyone wanted a copy ... of course they wanted it simply for that story," Atwood said with a chuckle.