{"type":"people","slug":"mario-woods","title":"Mario Woods","url":"https://disclosdex.com/people/mario-woods","description":"Air Force security policeman whose 1977 Ellsworth missile-site encounter became a contested nuclear-UAP testimony case","date":"2017-09-10T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["Witness"],"updated":"2026-05-18T10:51:27.000Z","disclosureRating":4,"connectionCount":4,"content":{"markdown":"Mario A. Woods Jr. is a former U.S. Air Force security policeman whose public UAP relevance rests on a first-person account of a November 1977 incident at Ellsworth Air Force Base's Minuteman missile field in South Dakota.[^3] [Robert Hastings](/people/robert-hastings) wrote that Woods's DD-214 confirmed his role at Ellsworth in 1977; the beings, missing time, medical-testing claims, and aftereffects come from Woods's testimony and later interviews rather than released Air Force, medical, or investigative files.[^3]\n\n## Security Police at the 44th Missile Field\n\nThe National Park Service records that Ellsworth's 44th Strategic Missile Wing was activated in 1963, had three 50-missile squadrons, and operated 150 launch facilities tied to 15 launch control facilities.[^1] In that layout, each launch control facility supported ten unmanned launch facilities, with security police stationed topside while missileers worked in the buried launch control center below.[^2] Woods's account begins inside that Strategic Air Command security routine, with a Security Alert Team dispatch after an alarm at a remote launch facility.[^3]\n\nHastings published the earliest substantial public version of the Woods case on September 10, 2017, presenting it as a written summary supplied by Woods and edited for brevity and clarity.[^3] Hastings identified Woods as USAF veteran Mario A. Woods Jr., stationed at Ellsworth from 1975 to 1979 with the 44th Security Police Squadron, and said Woods's DD-214 confirmed his 1977 presence and missile-security role.[^3] Woods's full service file, the AF Form 1000 he said he completed, and a contemporaneous statement from Sgt. Michael Johnson have not been released with the public case materials.[^3]\n\n## The November-5 Alarm Story\n\nWoods told Hastings that the encounter began during a night shift at the November Flight Launch Control Facility, where he was paired with Sgt. Michael Johnson and noticed a bright, hovering light near the horizon before the launch facility alarm.[^3] In Woods's account, he twice used the facility lights as a signal, then at about 0130 hours received a Situation-4 alert from Launch Facility November-5, meaning an outer-zone or support-building alarm had to be checked.[^3] Woods said that as the team drove toward November-5, he saw the light near the missile site and then directly over it as a silent, red-orange sphere hovering low above the ground.[^3]\n\nWoods's own narration supplies the abduction-like elements. He said the object appeared roughly the width of a large retail building, that both men had trouble breathing, that he flashed a large flashlight toward it until the pressure eased, and that he then remembered shadow-like figures, repeated telepathic words telling him not to fear, several small figures, and a taller figure before he blacked out.[^3]\n\n## Lost Time and Physical Aftermath\n\nWoods said the next thing he remembered was radio traffic asking for November-1's status, after which he found the truck away from November-5, near the Newell Lake reservoir north of Newell, with Johnson unresponsive and the ground muddy despite the cold.[^3] He said other security teams located them by radio triangulation, returned them through patrol boundaries, and that he later learned almost four hours had passed while six backup alert teams searched for them.[^3] He also said he filled out an AF Form 1000 UFO sighting report before sleeping, then was interviewed by the 44th Missile Wing commander with a possible Office of Special Investigations representative present.[^3]\n\nWoods attached several physical and psychological aftereffects to the encounter. He said he was ordered to provide a urinalysis and skin samples, had unexplained sunburn, recurring fearful dreams, two small puncture-like marks, and later heard Johnson remember voices while lying down away from the vehicle.[^3] Hastings wrote that Woods sent photos of the marks and that hypnosis was being arranged to probe possible suppressed memories, while acknowledging that hypnosis is controversial and that he was still seeking corroborating witnesses.[^3]\n\n## From Hastings to AARO\n\nThe case entered a broader official-adjacent record through later UAP hearings and AARO-related testimony claims. In May 2023, Matt Ford's Good Trouble Show introduced Woods as a retired USAF staff sergeant who had recently testified under oath to AARO about the Ellsworth incident while deployed with the 44th Missile Security Squadron.[^4] Martin Willis's June 2023 Podcast UFO episode notes listed Woods discussing AARO contact and a four-plus-hour testimony session about the Ellsworth case.[^5]\n\nAARO's own Historical Record Report Volume 1 does not name Woods in the lines available to the public, but it says AARO interviewed five former USAF members who served in and around ICBM silos at Malmstrom, Ellsworth, Vandenberg, and Minot between 1966 and 1977, some of whom claimed UAP sightings near silos or disruptions to ICBM operations.[^6] [Michael Shellenberger](/people/michael-shellenberger)'s written statement for the November 13, 2024 House Oversight hearing later included a timeline entry summarizing Woods's November 1977 Ellsworth account and citing Hastings's article as the source.[^7] The congressional exhibit repeated Hastings's source chain rather than adding released Air Force records for the incident.[^7][^8]\n\n## Media Circuit and Nuclear-UAP Network\n\nWoods's public profile developed through UAP media rather than released official case files. George Knapp's September 19, 2021 Coast to Coast AM program page paired Woods with former airman Jeff Goodrich for a segment on Air Force UFO cases and described Woods's experience as traumatic and unresolved.[^9] Martin Willis's 2022 Podcast UFO episode page summarized Woods discussing an encounter with lost time while assigned to surveillance and protection of weapons and nuclear materials at Ellsworth, and Willis's 2023 notes connected his account to AARO contact and later nuclear-security work.[^10][^5]\n\nIn 2025, Total Disclosure Podcast presented a long-form special on Woods as a former USAF security responder, naming Johnson and summarizing Woods's story as an encounter with unusual lights, a large spherical craft, physical effects, blackout, stigma, and cover-up themes.[^11] Hastings placed Woods inside the nuclear-weapons UAP pattern associated with [Malmstrom AFB](/locations/malmstrom-afb) and other missile-site cases; podcasts and disclosure-focused programs later circulated him as an experiencer witness.[^3][^9][^11]\n\n## Official and Evidentiary Limits\n\nHastings's DD-214 statement, the National Park Service missile-field context, and the later podcast and congressional records support Woods's service setting and public testimony trail.[^1][^2][^3][^7][^8] The beings, vehicle relocation, missing-time mechanism, medical testing, AF Form 1000, OSI involvement, and Johnson's remembered voices remain tied to Woods's account because the original Air Force report, medical records, OSI records, and an independently published Johnson statement have not accompanied the public materials.[^3]\n\nAARO's [Historical Record Report Volume 1](/documents/2024-aaro-historical-record-report-volume-1) wrote that the office found no empirical evidence that any UAP investigatory effort since 1945 had uncovered verifiable information about recovered extraterrestrial beings or craft, while noting that it continued to conduct interviews and pursue leads.[^6] The report does not identify Woods or publish an official conclusion on his Ellsworth account.[^6]\n\n## Ellsworth Witness Account Without Released Records\n\nWoods's role in the record is that of a military witness and experiencer claimant. The documented setting is a Cold War missile field, and the public trail runs from Hastings's article to later podcast interviews and Shellenberger's congressional-hearing statement.[^1][^2][^3][^7][^8] Woods's own account supplies the luminous sphere, lost time, relocation away from November-5, beings, and aftereffects.[^3] Hastings and show pages add third-party framing, including the DD-214 review claim, credibility judgment, and AARO-contact descriptions.[^3][^4][^5] Without the underlying military, medical, or investigative records, the explanation remains unresolved between a documented security incident, memory reconstruction, abduction interpretation, and possible prosaic causes.[^3][^6]\n\n## References\n\n[^1]: [National Park Service, \"The 44th Missile Wing and Ellsworth Air Force Base,\" last updated October 20, 2020](https://www.nps.gov/articles/44th-missile-wing.htm)\n[^2]: [National Park Service, \"Minuteman Missile National Historic Site: Protecting a Legacy of the Cold War,\" Teaching with Historic Places](https://home.nps.gov/articles/minuteman-missile-national-historic-site-protecting-a-legacy-of-the-cold-war-teaching-with-historic-places.htm)\n[^3]: [Robert Hastings, \"Former USAF Missile Security Policeman Tells of Apparent UFO Abduction at ICBM Site,\" UFOs & Nukes, September 10, 2017](https://www.ufohastings.com/index.php/articles/former-usaf-missile-security-policeman-tells-of-apparent-ufo-abduction-at-icbm-site)\n[^4]: [Matt Ford, \"UFOs and Nukes: Whistleblower Mario Woods (USAF Retired) testifies to Pentagon's UFO Program AARO,\" The Good Trouble Show, May 24, 2023](https://www.iheart.com/podcast/53-the-good-trouble-show-uap-s-110354611/episode/ufos-and-nukes-whistleblower-mario-115819710/)\n[^5]: [Martin Willis, \"563. Mario Woods, AARO Testimony,\" Podcast UFO / Spreaker, June 28, 2023](https://www.spreaker.com/episode/563-mario-woods-aaro-testimony--56322538)\n[^6]: [All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, \"Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, Volume 1,\" March 2024](https://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/FOID/Reading%20Room/UFOsandUAPs/Historical_Record_Report_Volume_1_March_8_2024.pdf)\n[^7]: [Michael Shellenberger, \"Written Testimony,\" House Oversight Committee, November 13, 2024](https://www.congress.gov/118/meeting/house/117722/witnesses/HHRG-118-GO06-Wstate-ShellenbergerM-20241113.pdf)\n[^8]: [Congress.gov, \"Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth\" House Committee Hearing, November 13, 2024](https://www.congress.gov/event/118th-congress/house-event/117722)\n[^9]: [George Knapp, \"Air Force UFO Cases / Sky Monsters,\" Coast to Coast AM, September 19, 2021](https://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2021-09-19-show/)\n[^10]: [Martin Willis, \"512. Mario Woods Air Force UFO Encounter,\" Podcast UFO, June 21, 2022](https://podcastufo.com/512-mario-woods-air-force-ufo-encounter/)\n[^11]: [Ty Roberts, \"MARIO WOODS: The Nuclear Base Security Policeman Abducted By Non Human Intelligence,\" Total Disclosure Podcast, January 20, 2025](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mario-woods-the-nuclear-base-security-policeman/id1544297063?i=1000684691045)","readingTime":"8 min read"},"relatedRecords":[{"ref":{"type":"documents","slug":"2024-aaro-historical-record-report-volume-1","title":"AARO Historical Record Report Volume 1 (2024)","url":"https://disclosdex.com/documents/2024-aaro-historical-record-report-volume-1"},"direction":"outbound","weight":1},{"ref":{"type":"people","slug":"michael-shellenberger","title":"Michael Shellenberger","url":"https://disclosdex.com/people/michael-shellenberger"},"direction":"outbound","weight":1},{"ref":{"type":"locations","slug":"malmstrom-afb","title":"Malmstrom AFB","url":"https://disclosdex.com/locations/malmstrom-afb"},"direction":"outbound","weight":1},{"ref":{"type":"people","slug":"robert-hastings","title":"Robert Hastings","url":"https://disclosdex.com/people/robert-hastings"},"direction":"outbound","weight":1}],"citation":{"canonicalUrl":"https://disclosdex.com/people/mario-woods","title":"Mario Woods","publisher":"Disclosdex","retrievedFrom":"https://disclosdex.com/api/v1/people/mario-woods","license":"CC-BY-4.0"}}