Stephen N. Berberich

Shadows of Reality: the Story of One Young Man's Search for the Truth Stephen N. Berberich

Christmas Day, 3:00 a.m., December 25, 2015 The final chapter in man's search for truth began with a single event that took place in the wee hours of Christmas morning, 2015. A crippling blizzard of epic proportion had blanketed the entire northeastern corridor with an opaque shroud of ice and wind-driven snow. All ground and air transportation was at a complete standstill as residents throughout the Atlantic coastal area hunkered down in their homes awaiting a reprieve from nature's fury. This explains why Ray Hodges was fast asleep at his desk in the air traffic control tower of Dulles International Airport. After doing absolutely nothing for the past six hours, he was bored stiff and had planned to rest his eyes for only a moment. Forty-five minutes later, Hodges was awakened by a high-pitched alarm warning him of an incoming bogey. The aircraft's radar signature was that of a T. W. A. Constellation, a prop-driven plane that he had not seen since the early 1960s. The anonymous intruder was flying dangerously close to the high value targets in Washington D. C., and Hodges was required to establish immediate radio contact with the inbound aircraft. Using multiple radio frequencies, he tried to hail the pilot, with no response. This perilous situation prompted an urgent call to the Strategic Air Command at Andrews Air Base, and within minutes of notification, a squadron of F18 jets had surrounded the aircraft. The team leader contacted Hodges and reported that he too was unable to communicate with the pilot. Then the pilot said something that made Hodges's skin crawl. "Dulles, there seems to be multiple objects protruding through the fuselage of the plane. Understand the visibility up here is marginal, but those objects look a lot like body parts." Hodges instantly felt a gnawing pain centered in the pit of his stomach. Thus began one young man's journey into the crypts of the unknown. It was a place where all reality w