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Texans say Air Force kept them off public land

Two Texas men who said they were blocked from public land near the Air Force's secret base at Groom Lake filed a complaint Friday with the Lincoln County Sheriff's Department.

Richard Bailey and Ray Addingdon, both of Garland, were driving on the county-maintained gravel road to Groom Lake about 4:30 p.m. Thursday when they were blocked by an unmarked security patrol with U.S. government plates.

An Air Force security officer, dressed in camouflage fatigues and wearing a sidearm, refused their passage because, he said, there were bombing runs nearby, according to the men's complaint.

They were stopped on Bureau of Land Management land seven miles from the military's restricted zone.

Bailey and Addingdon _ who were visiting Rachel for a UFO conference at the Little A `Le' Inn _ filed their complaint with the sheriff's substation in Alamo. Undersheriff Gary Davis said he will submit the complaint to the district attorney's office early next week.

Davis called officials at the Nellis Air Force Range, 100 miles north of Las Vegas, and he said they told him it was not their policy to restrict citizens' access to public land.