Central to the Dulce Underground Base mythos is Thomas Castello, a flash gun wielding security guard at the base who—according to legend—led a revolt against the ET overlords there conducting ghastly genetic experiments, all part of a traitorous secret treaty between the U.S. Government and those dastardly “White Draco” Reptilians! The aforementioned revolt—consisting of lab workers and security guards—led to the tragic Dulce War where sixty-six humans were killed at the hands (or claws?) of these diabolical ETs, although Tom Castello was able to escape with videotapes and other materials which would allow him to blow the whistle on the whole rotten deal.

Afterwards, Castello supposedly shared this bombshell Dulce Base material with a number of researchers, one of whom was “Anne West.” After Castello came up missing in the late 1980s, West (real name Cherry Hinkle) shared this material with gonzo ufologist John Lear, which, in turn, led to the release of The Dulce Papers. It probably should be noted that Tom Castello was a fictional character (a story to be expounded upon by yours truly in a forthcoming book, so stay tuned!)

In the mid 1990s, a fellow named Phil Schneider picked up the Tom Castello torch, presenting himself as a whistle-blowing former Dulce Base employee with a laser scar on his chest to prove it.

Prior to his Dulce Base revelations, Schneider had been immersed in ufology for a number of years. Along with his buddy—a guy named Ron Rummel (aka Crestor)—Schneider was involved with a ‘zine called The Alien Digest that ran the gamut of the ufo-conspiracy smorgasbord: alien bases on the moon, Alternative 3, MJ-12, Richard Shaver’s Deros, Dr. Tellers’ Anti-Gravity research, etc, etc, the whole kit and caboodle of the conspiratorial-saucer set.

Schneider claimed that the reason he decided to come forward and blow the Dulce Base whistle was due to the death of his ‘zinester pal, Rummel, who Schneider identified as a former Air Force intelligence officer. Police determined that Rummel committed suicide in a public park in Portland, Oregon, in 1993, shooting himself in the mouth with a hand gun. Schneider claimed that Rummel’s death was actually a murder by Deep State forces designed to silence his UFO and mind control investigations.

After rolling out his take on the Dulce Base story in the early 1990s, Schneider became a rising star on the UFO-Patriot lecture circuit with claims about how he‘d worked at Dulce and apparently even had some laser burn scars on his chest which he’d show-off at conventions as proof that he was a survivor of the Dulce fire-fight. According to Schneider:

“Back in 1954, under the Eisenhower administration, the federal government decided to circumvent the Constitution of the United States and form a treaty with alien entities. It was called the 1954 Greada Treaty, which basically made the agreement that the aliens involved could take a few cows and test their implanting techniques on a few human beings, but that they had to give details about the people involved. Slowly, the aliens altered the bargain until they decided they wouldn’t abide by it at all. Back in 1979, this was the reality, and the firefight at Dulce occurred quite by accident. I was involved in building an addition to the deep underground military base at Dulce, which is probably the deepest base. It goes down seven levels and over 2.5 miles deep. At that particular time, we had drilled four distinct holes in the desert, and we were going to link them together and blow out large sections at a time. My job was to go down the holes and check the rock samples, and recommend the explosive to deal with the particular rock. As I was headed down there, we found ourselves amidst a large cavern that was full of outer-space aliens, otherwise known as large Greys. I shot two of them. At that time, there were 30 people down there. About 40 more came down after this started, and all of them got killed. We had surprised a whole underground base of existing aliens. Later, we found out that they had been living on our planet for a long time, perhaps a million years. This could explain a lot of what is behind the theory of ancient astronauts. Anyway, I got shot in the chest with one of their weapons, which was a box on their body, that blew a hole in me and gave me a nasty dose of cobalt radiation. I have had cancer because of that…”

After high-tailing it from Dulce, Schneider landed a gig at Area 51 where he witnessed Bob Lazar type scientists reverse-engineering ET craft and ultimately decided that enough was enough, he was going to blow the whistle on this whole rotten government-working-with-the-ETs-deal as well as everything else going down at Area 51 that included a mash-up of Montauk and Philadelphia Experiment conspiracies.

Phil Schneider’s family background was chock full of supposed paranormal intrigue, including claims that his father, Otto Schneider, had fought for both sides during World War II, first as a German U-Boat Commander and then later became a repatriated (ala Project Paperclip) U.S. Naval Captain who was involved in nuclear testing programs as well as serving on the U.S.S. Eldridge during the fabled Philadelphia Experiment disappearing act.

According to information passed on to Norio Hayakawa (from someone Hayakawa described as a “highly reliable source”), Schneider’s father was indeed a naval captain, but the whole German U-Boat story was a fabrication, along with Schneider’s other fanciful Philadelphia Experiment yarns.

Hayakawa also learned that the official looking Navy documents Schneider was famous for trotting out at ufo conferences (as evidence of his dad’s connection to the Philadelphia Experiment) were actually forgeries created on blank Navy letterhead that Schneider purloined from his father’s estate. These spurious letters—allegedly written in Otto Schneider’s own hand during the 1940s and 50s—conveniently name dropped many of the purported MJ-12 members like Rear Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter and Lt. Gen. Nathan Twining. Even Nikola Tesla and J. Edgar Hoover got thrown into the mix as it was evident Schneider had steeped himself in MJ-12 and Philadelphia Experiment lore to embroider his own fantasy world.

Schneider claimed he had worked for many years as a private contractor on black budget projects like Dulce—in addition to a stint with the Office of Naval Intelligence—all of which Hayakawa’s source dismissed, stating that for most of Schneider’s adult life he was terminally unemployable, subsisting on Social Security benefits. Schneider claimed he quit working as a government contractor in 1993 after which he started his whistle blowing Dulce Base survivor bit. Hayakawa obtained a copy of Schneider’s SSI benefits statement, which stated that he received disability payments starting in 1981 at the same time he was supposedly working on black budget projects. Norio’s source further alleged that Schneider suffered from mental illness and was a self-mutilator, which explained the chest scars and missing fingers he claimed came from some ET laser weapon that purportedly zapped him during the Dulce War shoot ‘em-up.

These allegations that Schneider was a mentally ill self-mutilator have been corroborated by a recent FBI-FOIA release which revealed that:

“Schneider was a former patient of Dammasch State Hospital, Wilsonville, Oregon from July 30 1968 to January 29, 1969. While at Dammasch, Schneider was characterized as schizophrenic with chronic and differentiated traits. Under stress Schneider would mutilate himself for self attention and had amputated two fingers and a thumb…”

However, the strangest fact to emerge from these FOIA files was that Schneider came into possession of a large quantity of radioactive material, which in turn came to the attention of the FBI who investigated the matter. This strange story began in December of 1974 when Schneider apparently met a fellow named George Meyer at a tavern in Portland, Oregon, who asked him if he was interested in certain “minerals.” Meyer took Schneider to a house in Portland where:

“Schneider removed approximately 300 pounds of material…since then [Schneider] claims to have suffered from nausea, hemorrhaging and soreness in his extremities. He had kept the material under a bed in his room…some of it was given or sold to unknown individuals in Portland….

“On 3/22/75, a Portland source advised that he had been in the house of one Philip Schneider…at which time Schneider displayed a quantity of material that he (Schneider) described as being material he was going to use to make a ‘nuclear device’…[Schneider] lives in Portland in a very dilapidated house alone and is allegedly conducting unknown-type experiments in an adjacent building. Source claims he is keeping the material under his bed and supposedly had to get rid of the bed because it had become contaminated with radioactivity.

“[FBI Special Agent] O’Rourke advised they were unable to locate subject’s father who is a retired Navy captain but they were able to locate the subject’s uncle who is a medical doctor in the Portland area. The doctor was interviewed and stated that his nephew had given him two chunks of the material which the doctor readily produced from his office. After checking with Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA)…they contacted the State Health facility in Portland and, under secure conditions, transported the above material to their laboratory for examination. The material was examined and our Agents were advised that the material was indeed radioactive and at least one piece was identified as thorium…The doctor advised our Agents that subject claimed to have 80 pounds of this material.”

On January 17, 1996, Schneider’s no longer breathing body was discovered at his apartment in Wilsonville, Oregon, with a rubber catheter wrapped around his neck, and his death was ruled a suicide. For quite some time Schneider had been telling people about supposed murder attempts on his life, and to not be surprised if he suddenly wound up dead.  Schneider’s widow, Cynthia Drayer, contacted Gabe Valdez, most likely due to Valdez’s association with Dulce, and requested his help in investigating Schneider’s death. At the end of the day, Valdez found no evidence of foul play.

Whatever the case, Schneider’s legend lives on in UFO lore as a heroic freedom fighter and survivor of the fabled Dulce War.

Download the Schneider FOIA files here.