COLONEL DALE LEAVITT--Revisited

...Close to retirement as Commander of the West Virginia
National Guard. What could he have known he wouldn't
share with Feschino, and what could have slipped out anyway...

COLONEL DALE LEAVITT—Revisited

by Alfred Lehmberg

Late last century, the constant reader will recall, Frank Feschino, Jr. interviewed retired Colonel Dale Leavitt. This is the storied commander of the West Virginia National Guard, we can recollect, who was involved in the "Flatwoods Monster" case of 1952. The constant reader needs little reminder.

Feschino video-interviewed the retired Colonel at the various locations where the incident had occurred on the now-infamous Fisher Farm at Flatwoods. Though, it was not until this seminal interview; however, that exotic, new, and corroborating information was to be revealed! 

See, it was thought until this time that Leavitt's only participation in the Flatwoods case was but for crowd control in the days following the unsettling incident of the 12th! Documented, of course, is the matter of the extreme interest generated by the press! Thousands of people visited the subject farm in oncoming days. ...But Leavitt's role was to the contrary! Leavitt was there for much more than merely that! 

Leavitt and his near battalion-sized National Guard outfit were actually in Flatwoods shortly after the "monster" incident" at the direction of the Air Force (!!! more on this momentarily) and also in nearby Frametown as it turns out, to investigate an alleged "airplane" crash as we've written about before. 

Remember that late on the night of September 12, 1952, Colonel Leavitt received a call at his home from Washington, D.C. and was ordered to Flatwoods by the United States Air Force, and out of all protocol the constant reader is reminded! The Air Force Top Brass won't just call directly on the WV National Guard, out of the blue! That's not the way things work. No, heralded by this strange lack of "red tape," something undefinably "twitchy" was afoot!

At about 1:30 am on September 13, Leavitt went to the Fisher Farm with some 50-odd armed troops, to start, and cordoned off the farm from public access. Leavitt also examined the farm, directed the collection of samples and debris from the tree area where the encounter occurred, and had the surrounding field combed. He... found stuff!

Leavitt told Feschino, "They called me on the phone, and asked me to get them what they wanted and I told them I would send it back to them. I did. I came up here and got it. I dug some dirt and all that sort of thing... leaves off the tree and sent them in." Colonel Leavitt also stated, "I got some of this 'oil,' the little bits of this and that to see what it was." Meaning, he was finding stuff that he didn't know what it was? He also told Frank he took "some of the wood" from the nearby (now famous!) tree where the encounter occurred. He would discover other things.

Feschino videotaping his interview with Colonel Leavitt at
the site... tree and famous overhanging branch in the back.

Feschino asked Leavitt, "Where did you have to send all this? Did you send it to Washington?" The Colonel answered, "...The Air Force. That's what they wanted me to do." Feschino asked, "Now, when these samples were sent out, they were sent to Washington directly?" Leavitt answered, "Air Force people, that's who wanted..." Frank respectfully interrupts and reiterates, "Now, they contacted you?" Leavitt answered, "Yeah." Frank asked, "Through Washington?" Leavitt, "...Yeah and they wanted to know what it was."

Colonel Leavitt stayed on the Fisher Farm for "about 45 minutes," but left his troops there departing for another location in nearby Braxton County, Frametown, to investigate another subsequently reported incident, as has been mentioned. That incident involved an alleged "plane" that was witnessed to be "on fire," which had been seen crashing into a wooded area around Frametown along the Elk River... where it was reported burning, still! This was a real report! They had the guy!

Leavitt would set up a group contingent of troops throughout these Sugar Creek and Frametown areas to search for any "crash survivors"; he then proceeded back to Flatwoods with some 50 additional troops to investigate the apparently more imperative "monster" incident on the Fisher Farm. Evidence of the "burning airplane crash" at Frametown was not immediately presenting itself!

Leavitt had gone to this Frametown crash area subsequently, as it was taken to be the more serious, one would presume... vis a vis its "burning airplane crash"... though it remains odd that it would not be a civil search and rescue effort responding to a civilian "plane crash," but an armed military loaded for bear, reader, from boats to bazookas... and how did they know to brings the boats? Consider, where and why does one send the war hammer... when a dust-pan would have sufficed? 

Leavitt was there with his over-kill contingent of troops to search for "crash survivors"?! Some salt was required! 

No, they were lookin' for the twitchy shiznit! The reader will recall that UFOs were ordered shot down, at this time, and there were UFOs festooning the skies for hours... and some of these UFOs were acting like they were in distress... Frametown and Flatwoods are two cases in point! 

Leavitt then proceeded to Flatwoods with his 50-odd more troops to investigate the "monster" incident on the Fisher Farm. There was found near Frametown to be no evidence of any "burning" OR "crash" as we'll see. All the real activity would be back at Flatwoods.

We would remind the reader that the following transpired when Feschino asked Colonel Leavitt how long his troops stayed on location at the Fisher Farm that night. 

Feschino, "Now how long was everybody up here, a total time?" Leavitt, "Well, we had about 50 people here, and I don't know how long... Well, they stayed the night." Shocked, Feschino responded, "They did?" Leavitt replied, "Yeah. To see if something else was going to happen!" One wonders what Leavitt had been briefed had the possibilities for a potential "happening"!

Concerning the alleged plane crash that Leavitt investigated with the original group of troops at Sugar Creek in Braxton County around Frametown, Leavitt told Feschino, "We didn't find anything." 

Uh-huh... well, given that there was a UFO in the sky for almost every minute of a contiguous near 24 hours on September 12th, in distress or not, there is offered a plausible reason that a crashed plane wasn't found. 

The "flaming object" seen going down earlier and "burning" was actually a UFO, perhaps shot up by the United States Air Force, which had crashed, self-repaired, and then already taken off by the time the area was searched. No evidence of a reported burning crash was found as we've pointed out...

Furthermore, Feschino discovered this this Frametown UFO, which was damaged evidently, had actually crash-landed twice along the Elk River, only a few miles apart! It first crashed in Sugar Creek, then took off (it must have; it was reported crashed and not there on inspection) followed the Elk River and crashed again in nearby Frametown some eight miles away. It would take off again... or all this was a mirage of mass hysteria?

Leavitt stated the following about his troops along the Elk River looking for a crashed craft, "They had to fan out and try to find that airplane... but there wasn't anything there..." This damaged UFO had actually crashed two times and already taken off by the time the entire area was searched along the Elk River by Leavitt's troops. No one had made the leap that there were two crash-landing sites in the same area because airplanes don't usually crash... then take off again!

Colonel Leavitt expressed his opinion about the "Flatwoods Monster" incident and the alleged Frametown plane crash he'd  investigated in Braxton County that night. He stated, "Something was a cover-up [here in Flatwoods]! There was something down below too, but I don't really know what it was." By "down below," The Colonel meant geographically down in Frametown. He had a documented witness reporting a burning plane crash! Yet, he could find nothing! That would perplex this writer to his dying day.

Colonel Leavitt's exclusive interview with Frank can be read in its entirety in his book:  The Braxton County Monster Updated & Revised Edition... The Cover-up of the “Flatwoods Monster” Revealed [Expanded] (Please avoid Amazon, get it at Lulu link above so Feschino can realize more of what is and has been revealed... the fruit of his arduous labors. Thanks.)

A decorated hero of WWII and returned home, Leavitt's day job was at a Texaco Station, explaining the quaint uniform. But Captain Dale Leavitt commanded the Contingent of WV National Guard headquartered at Gassaway, WV and he was the man of the hour on site answering fate's call. He would eventually command the whole of the West Virginia National Guard.