USAF Detachment 5, Ikitos
USAF Detachment 5, Ikitos (also spelled Iquitos) is a highly secretive United States Air Force radar installation located in Iquitos, Peru, in the northern Amazon region of the country. It is theorized by UAP Gerb to be the primary operational base from which Lance Corporal Jonathan Wagant and his fellow MAC G28 Marines were stationed during Operation Laser Strike in 1997, and from which the group departed to reach the site of an alleged UAP crash in the Peruvian jungle.
UAP Significance
Detachment 5 is one of three known significant US military installations at Iquitos — alongside NAMRU South (Naval Medical Research Unit South) and the MARFORLAND Riverine Training Team — making the location a hub of covert US military activity in northern Peru during the 1990s. The facility is described in the research of UAP Gerb as exceptionally private, with almost no open-source documentation from the 1990s or later available to researchers.
The theory that Wagant was stationed at Detachment 5 rather than the more frequently cited Pucallpa laser strike site rests on several investigative findings: Wagant's testimony of a multi-hour flight with one stop from Lima, Peru (consistent with the 630+ mile distance to Iquitos but not the shorter journey to Pucallpa), the presence of multiple US military assets and permanent structures at Iquitos consistent with what Wagant described at his base of operations, and narcotics intelligence traffic from Bolivia routed through the Iquitos region matching Wagant's description of the radar station's monitoring mission.
If the crash occurred within a 90-mile radius of Iquitos as UAP Gerb's travel time analysis suggests, Detachment 5 would have been the nearest US military installation — and the likely launch point for a DOE Nuclear Emergency Support Team arrival via CH-47 Chinook helicopters. The facility's connection to the USAF 649th Combat Logistics Support Squadron was corroborated when Wagant named specific Detachment 5 personnel — including Lt. Col. Gayla Biles, Second Lieutenant Randall Rothman, and Staff Sergeant Robert Macau — all of whom researchers identified as real individuals. As of the time of filming, none had responded to outreach.
Geography
Iquitos is the largest city in the Peruvian Amazon and one of the most remote cities in the world, accessible only by river or air. This extreme geographic isolation made it an ideal covert US military hub during Operation Laser Strike, as the region's remoteness and proximity to narcotics trafficking routes from Bolivia and Colombia served as both cover and mission rationale.
Related Facilities
- USF Radar Detachment 5, Iquitos — Related and possibly overlapping installation at the same location; hosts TPS-43 radar systems
- NAMRU South, Lima, Peru — Navy Medical Research Unit with offices in both Lima and Iquitos; theorized holding location for Wagant post-encounter
- MARFORLAND Riverine Training Team — US Marine Forces training element stationed in Iquitos