It was shipped to Ron's home in Madison, Tennessee, and he immediately took it to the customs office at the airport and completed the required forms, which he tucked into the radar case. It was too late to use it that year, but Ron wanted to be ready to go as soon as possible. He wrote his name on the card that came with it and placed it in the glassine window of the large, gray case which held the cables and one of the antennas.

Then, the owner's office contacted Ron and said they wanted to use it on one of their building projects, so Ron drove it down to their offices.

Now, back in August, during the time "20/20" was there, etc., the Turkish newspapers were full of "ark stories." One paper, which is exactly like our "rag mags" here, printed a totally fictitious story about a feud between Jim Irwin and Ron. Jim was sort of a hero in Turkey and was always in the news whenever he was there, and this made him a target for any kind of story that would attract readers. Since Ron headed the team which believed the ark was not on Mt. Ararat, he was chosen as the antagonist.

On the front page were photos of Ron and Jim, with captions that each said pretty terrible things about the other, in Turkish, of course. Well, "Mr. T". took this opportunity to again try to devastate Ron. "Mr. T" gave a copy of the newspaper to the businessman who bought the radar (he knew him) and provided a translation, convincing the owner that Ron was not to be trusted and was up to no good.

In Dec., Ron received a letter from the owner stating that he needed to find someone else to buy him the radar. This was a tremendous blow to Ron, but he was getting used to it by now. It was as if there was an unseen struggle going on constantly; sometimes Ron's side won, and sometimes the dark side gained a few points. He prayed about it and still was convinced that he would get to do a radar scan. He was so convinced that he returned to Ankara on May 6, 1986 and again applied for permits. If he didn't get to do the scan, at least he'd have the permit.

So after this, he called Dave and asked him if he'd like to go to Turkey and do a radar scan - and of course, Dave was all for it. So, on June 21, they arrived in Turkey, but the only radar scanner Ron had was the one Gary had built - however, he didn't tell this to Dave.

Going to the Kent Hotel to check in for the night, they discovered it was full. They finally found one in the area that had a room and after they checked in, one of the men from the hotel came to Ron to tell him that they had some luggage with his name on it. Knowing he'd never stayed there before, Ron asked to see it. When he got to the luggage room, there sat the SIR-3 with his name still in the glassine window on the gray bag!

It was one of those moments that you want to just shout to the world in amazement, but instead, he called the radar's owner. He explained to him that he'd found the radar abandoned in a hotel and asked him if he wanted him to bring it home. Of course, the answer was "yes". Then, he asked if he could go ahead and use it, since he was there and it was there... and again, the answer was "yes".

It seems that "Mr. T" had convinced the owner to let him bring it to Turkey to do the scan- but apparently something happened, and he had simply abandoned it in the hotel. For one thing, he hadn't taken it to Customs prior to leaving the US, and the radar was therefore considered by Turkish officials to be an "import". This meant that in order to take it back out of the country, a large amount of money would have to be paid, exactly like other exports.

Ron and Dave decided to head directly to the site and do the scan without picking up the permit and getting it processed in Agri. It was taking a chance, but they weighed the odds and this seemed like the thing to do. They had little time to waste. Finally, the RADAR SCANS! So, they did the scans, Ron in a state of near - paranoia at having problems, and Dave ecstatic at what was showing up on the printout.

At this time, Ron hadn't received his training on the system, but Dave had, and so they videotaped several passes as they were being done. The results were so spectacular that they then called John Baumgardner and Bill Shea to see if they could come over. It was decided that they would come if Ron could get the permits. He went to Ankara, got the permits, and soon, John, his financier, his wife, and his film crew were on their way. Bill Shea would get there as soon as he could.

John's group arrived, bringing a hot-air balloon which they planned to use to get film of the site from the air. And then, disaster struck. While the balloon was being erected in the hotel parking lot by John's group, it somehow caught on fire and the ensuing blaze caused such a commotion that they were effectively shut down.

When Dr. Shea arrived, the site was closed and he never even got near enough to see the object of his many years of study and efforts. Ron arrived from Agri to find this situation, and it was to be the last time he, Dave and John ever worked together. He took Dr. Shea to see the anchor stones and the other objects of interest in and near the village, but that was all he got to see.

Back home, Ron delivered the radar back to the businessman's company and received a signed receipt, which we still have. In order to keep the name of the businessman and his company confidential (he asked to remain anonymous), we've left all names out in the following quotation of the receipt:

"This is to verify that we have received from Ronald Wyatt the SIR equipment brought back from Turkey at the request of [the businessman/owner]. Received equipment on July 21, 1986. The scanner wheels are in the possession of ["Mr. T"] at his home and were not a part of the equipment returned from Turkey. Also received were copies of the SIR scan of the boat formation in Eastern Turkey and a copy of Mr. Wyatt's permit from the Turkish government under which authority the scan was made. Equipment appeared to be in good condition. [Name] and [Name] met Mr. Wyatt at the elevator and received the equipment."

It is signed by both Ron and a representative of the owner's company, and is dated July 21, 1986.

A little insight can be seen from a portion of a letter Dr. Shea wrote to Ron on Aug. 11, 1986, shortly after they returned home, regarding "Mr. T" (who by this time had: 1 - tried to get Ron and his sons killed in Saudi for being Israeli spies; 2 - contracted with Ron to write a book on his ark research as a ploy to get access to the research only to contract with the BBC to make his own documentary; and 3 - slandered Ron to the businessman who had purchased the radar, which resulted in Ron being told he could no longer use it.)

Dr. Shea related to Ron, in his letter, his recent conversation with "Mr. T", after they had returned from Turkey: " ["Mr. T"] called the middle of last week. He had heard that we did not get up on the mountain. I did not mention to him that you took a scan anyway or that I had written an article about it. I think he was fishing to find out what happened to the radar. I simply told him that the last time I saw it was in the taxi in Ankara and I did not know what happened to it after that (which is true because we did not discuss it during your last phone call.)

He said that he had imported the radar into Turkey so that anyone taking it out would have to pay the government $8,000 U.S.... He had a very distorted story of your work in Saudi Arabia. He said that you were contracting with the Israelis to go into Saudi Arabia to photograph their missile sites and then take the photos back to Israel and sell them to the Israelis...." So much for people who say they are friends.

The statement to Dr. Shea about Ron taking photos of missile bases in Saudi confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was the one who reported the story to the Saudis originally. And the part about the radar being "imported" perhaps explained why he had left it behind- as an import, even HE would have had to pay the $8,000 to take it out of Turkey, and therefore he simply left it. But unknown to him, Ron's custom papers were inside both the scanner's anvil case as well as in the bag which held the cables and the small antenna. Ron had absolutely no problem leaving Turkey with the radar.

There was a great deal of tension between everyone at this point. Everyone was mad at everyone else and this had to stem from the incredible frustration felt by all when the effort was shutdown. But all that anyone could do at this point was either stop or go. Ron wasn't ready to quit- not by a long shot.

He took the video of the radar scan, along with the printouts, to GSSI in Hudson, NH., where he showed them to both Joe Rosetta, vice-president of GSSI, and Tom Fenner, the technician who had been to Turkey in Aug. of 1985. This resulted in a news report on Hudson's Channel 9 in which Mr. Rosetta stated that "This is not a natural object. The reflections are occurring too periodic for it to be a natural type interface."

Several years ago, we received a promotional package from GSSI on the SIR systems in which we discovered was an article included from THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH dated August 3, 1986. There was a photograph of Ron holding a radar scan printout, and the title of the article was "Archaeologist Certain He's Found the Ark." In the article, is the following: "`It's up to him to prove it's the ark,' Rosetta said of Wyatt. `But this equipment gives us another piece of data.' Although Rosetta would not reveal his opinion about Wyatt's claim, he said of the buried object, `You'd never see anything like this in natural geology.... Some human made this structure, whatever it is'."

The verdict from GSSI was that the scans revealed man-made structure, whatever it was. And they should know - it is their business and they see literally thousands and thousands of scans. Ron was elated, absolutely elated. And with things smoothed out with the radar's owner, he stayed in Hudson and completed the course in operating the radar. On July 31, about 2 weeks after leaving Turkey, Ron received his certificate:

"Geophysical Survey Systems, Inc. certifies that: Ronald E. Wyatt Has Completed A Training Course In The Theory And Practice Of Applying Subsurface Interface Radar Technology In Engineering And Geophysical Investigations."

Finally.

By this time, in fact for several years, Ron had ceased to be a full-time employee at the hospital. The only way he could accommodate his travels was to work as a part-time anesthetist, in which he would take "call" as often as he was needed. This method proved to be the most perfect situation for him, and continues to this day to be so. He would work until he had enough funds to make a trip, and then he was gone.

He did borrow from friends on occasion, when he felt it was important to get something done quickly. (I know, because we've repaid numerous of these loans since our marriage in 1988). And sometimes someone would offer to donate to the cause, although this was rare. But when he returned to Turkey in November of 1986, he knew he was going to need some financial help of some type - he was informed that the Turks were to hold a meeting in December 1986 in which a decision would hopefully be made as to whether the site was "officially" Noah's Ark or not.

Everyone else he had worked with had their own cameramen, but Ron never had. The film taken by these others would never even be seen by Ron, unless it appeared on TV or in a documentary. He began to investigate the possibilities of arranging for a film crew - not to film "Ron Wyatt", but to document the evidence that he believed would astound the world.