KECKSBURG CRASH CONTROVERSIAL
 
                                         By Kim Opatka
                                         Bulletin Staff Writer
 
     This final article in a six-part series on unidentified flying
objects (UFOS) examines one of the most talked about and controversial
incidents in the area, what has been termed a meteorite by some and an
alien craft by others, which crashed in Kecksburg December 9, 1965.
 
     The object was first seen streaking across the sky, with
thousands from Michigan to New York witnessing a brilliant ball of
fire which left a smoke trail, visible for about 20 minutes after it
passed.
 
     Many, including pilots who observed it, thought it was an
aircraft which was on fire.  Reports of debris from the object were
made in many states, and an Ohio fire department was called to
extinguish 10 small fires in an area where witnesses said they saw
flaming fragments falling from the sky.
 
     Shock waves were reported by pilots, and a seismograph near
Detroit recorded a shock, wrote investigator Stan Gordon, of
Pennsylvania Association for the Study of the Unexplained (PASU) in a
recent journal article.  The crash has been a pet project of the
Greensburg man "since the night it happened," he said, noting he is
still trying to obtain information on the incident.
 
     Although the military eventually labeled the object a meteor, as
did the Associated Press account published in The Bulletin the day
after the crash, Gordon says recent evidence, including the discovery
of a man who saw the object, supports the idea that the object was a
true UFO.
 
     "I was a teen-ager then," said John (not his real name).  "It was
in the early part of December and there was a little snow and a little
rain, and mud."
 
     He was called to the scene after the 4:44 p.m. crash as a fireman
from the Latrobe area, to search for the crashed object.
 
     "I had seen a fiery object in the sky.  I can't say exactly which
direction but it was coming from the north.  It was not too much
longer and the fire whistle went off," he said.  "I answered the call
and was told they needed a search team because at the time they
believed it was a downed aircraft.  And I thought, 'My God, this is
what I have just seen'."
 
     When firemen arrived at the Kecksburg Fire Hall, maps were
reviewed and groups were given sections to search.
 
     "It was getting semi-dusk and we had flashlights.  We were taken
in the back of a truck and dropped off and told to go 'this way' which
we did.  I was not on the initial contact team.  Another team found
the object.
 
     "It was definitely, unequivocally, positively, absolutely no
aircraft, plane, helicopter or rocket, at least not to my knowledge.
It was in an area that was part field and part woods and we went down
to investigate," he said.
 
     "We found the object had crashed at a 30 to 40 degree angle, and
had broken off numerous tree branches in its impact path.  My initial
reaction was 'This is no airplane.' I observed no shrapnel, no
breaking up of the fuselage.  It was one solid piece, no doors, no
windows.
 
     "Preliminary searches found no bodies or casualties.  It was
shaped like an acorn, laying on its side, like the acorn nut is in its
shell when it's on a tree," he explained.  "I've been a machinist for
24 years and I've worked with a tremendous amount of different metals,
and I have never seen any type of metal that looked even close to
that."
 
     John said the object was not broken, "not even cracked, just
dented a bit.  It did not give off smoke, steam or vapors, at least
none that we could see."
 
     Reports from neighbors in the area said it had given off a faint
trail of blue smoke, which disappeared after the crash.
 
     He described the portion visible as between eight and 10 feet
long, six and seven feet across, and said a man of average height
would probably have had little trouble standing up inside it.  The
crater it plowed into the ground was "rectangular in shape."
 
     John said the state police were there and the area was soon
quarantined.
 
     "They drove us out.  It was late at night when we finally got
back to the fire hall and it had been completely taken over by the
military.  They were carrying in large pieces of equipment, radios and
such, and they had armed guards posted outside so nobody could get in
or out.  The firemen were thrown out.  We weren't even allowed in to
use the bathroom.
 
     "The military had control of the whole operation," John recalled.
"After a while we saw a flat bed truck come by with some other
military equipment, a crane or something.
 
     "It was not too much longer, an hour, an hour and a half, when
the trucks came back and there was a large object on the back of the
flat bed, covered by a tarp, with military escorts front and back.  I
got the feeling that if you had stepped on the road you were dead
meat.  They weren't stopping for anything."
 
     Although the object was later said to be a meteorite, John
doesn't buy that explanation.
 
     "It had writing on it, not like your average writing, but more
like ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.  It had sort of a bumper on it,
like a ribbon about six to 10 inches wide, and it stood out.  It was
elliptical the whole way around and the writing was on this bumper.
It's nothing like I've ever seen, and I'm an avid reader.  I read a
lot of books on Egypt, the Incas, Peruvians, Russians and I've never
to this day come across anything that looked like that."
 
     John notes that later it was denied that the object was even a
meteorite, and the military "denied they were even in the area.  But I
know there were Air Force and Army personnel involved.  It was like
they just came out of the woodwork."
 
     Gordon's research has revealed that one of the military groups
involved was most likely to be the 662nd Radar Squadron, based at the
Oakdale Armory, located near Greater Pittsburgh International Airport.
 
     The squadron was found to be under the control of the Aerospace
Defense Command, and attempts to get information on the Kecksburg
crash, through the Freedom of Information Act, have not provided much
to go on.
 
     One response said there had been no record of the squadron being
activated on that date, Gordon said, wondering how so much equipment
and personnel could be activated while the monthly report showed no
entry on Dec.  9.
 
     Through his research, Gordon says he knows the Air Force was
still investigating UFO cases at the public level then, and that it
was apparently the Project Blue Book staff which contacted the 662nd
squadron.  Subsequent reports have led him to theorize that even the
Project Blue Book staff was not made aware of objects which could
"affect national security," and that some intelligence teams
investigated crashes of "foreign space vehicles."
 
    Another strange occurrence that night, Gordon said, was reports by
some civilians that radiation was released.  He explained that some
children playing in the area had reportedly been told by military
personnel that that was a possibility, and men in decontamination
suits were allegedly seen at the site later the next day.
 
     Although he has considered the possibility that the object could
have been space debris or a test device, Gordon says documents and
evidence obtained in the last few years lead more in the direction of
it being a "true UFO."
 
     John concurs.
     "It was definitely not of this planet.  At the time I was a
skeptical teen, but when you see something like that you don't forget
it.  When you get called out like that from the fire department you
think you're going out looking for an aircraft of some sort, not a
UFO.
 
     "I'll never forget it.  I still want to know what the hell it
was."
 
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