- It was 33 years ago today, that an event
occurred about 40 miles from Pittsburgh in a rural area of western Pennsylvania,
that even now remains controversial for some, and mysterious to others.
At the time many people saw a brilliant object moving across the sky.
The news media focused on a young boy, who while playing outside, said
he saw an object fall from the sky into some nearby woods. The media pursued
his story since there were numerous accounts from others, that an aerial
object was seen over a large area including many reports from the greater
Pittsburgh area. Besides the police authorities, various newspapers, and
radio and tv stations around Pittsburgh, had their phone lines jammed with
calls about the object in the sky. Coincidentally, author Frank Edwards,
who had written some popular books on UFO's, was a guest on a KDKA radio
talk show in Pittsburgh that evening, hosted by the late Mike Levine.
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- During my years of investigation into
the matter, other witnesses who saw the object go down into the woods that
day have been located. It has been stated that moments after the object
fell, blue smoke rose up among the trees, but dissipated quickly. Many
people say that the military, including members of the Army and Air Force,
began to arrive in the area around the village of Kecksburg within a few
hours after the reported landing. During the evening, reporters from numerous
media sources went to Kecksburg to investigate the event. The area around
the alleged impact site was cordoned off, and a search for the object was
conducted in the woods. Neither civlians nor reporters were able to get
near the spot where the object had reportedly fallen. Hundreds of spectators
looked on from a narrow country road which circled around the area, unaware
that the object appears to have fallen on the opposite side of the woods.
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- As time passed that evening, many people
left disappointed that they couldn't see the object. A few curious folks
tried to sneak down into the woods, and later told me that they were turned
back by the military. Late that night, others say they observed a military
flatbed tractor-trailer truck, carrying a large tarpulin covered object,
leaving the area at a high rate of speed. Reporters are among the many
witnesses who verify that they saw military personnel in the Kecksburg
area that night. The front page of the Greensburg, PA Tribune-Review county
edition dated December 10, 1965, ran the headlines "Unidentified Flying
Object Falls Near Kecksburg" and "Army Ropes Off Area."
The city edition of the same paper however, on the same day ran the headline
"Searchers Fail To Find Object."
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- Officially, no object was found in the
woods by searchers. It was suggested that the most likely explanation
was that the brilliant object in the sky was a meteor. But word that something
was removed from the site by the military that night, quickly circulated
around the county. The Kecksburg incident remained a topic for area radio
talk shows for years as it does today. As the years passed, I would receive
various accounts from sources who claimed knowledge of the event. Many
of those involved with the incident even today, wish to remain anonymous.
Others have gone public and stand by their accounts. Some have faced personnal
attacks and ridicule. Many important witnesses have passed away.
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- What we now know is that there are individuals
who say that they went down into the woods that December day in 1965, before
the military arrived, and came across upon a large metallic acorn-shaped
object partially buried in the ground. The device was large enough for
a man to stand inside of it. The object was a bronze-gold color, and appeared
to be one solid piece of metal, displaying no rivets or seams. At the
back of the acorn shape was what witness Jim Romansky calls the bumper
area.
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- Upon this area were unusual markings
that Romansky says looked similar to ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. Romansky
who has been a machinist for many years, says the object itself, looked
as though it had been made from liquid metal and poured into a big mold.
Since the object was impacted in the ground, the bottom portion was not
visible, but what could be seen appeared well intact. The late John Murphy,
was the new director of WHJB radio in Greensburg at the time, and is believed
to have been the first reporter on the scene. His former wife says that
she was in radio contact with him from the site that day, and that he told
her that he went down into the woods and saw the object. Various informants
have approached me with information. Some of these were people who had
military or government affiliation and wish not to be identified at this
time. Some information is expected to be revealed in the future, when these
sources feel that they are safe to disclose what they know.
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- I have also received anonymous tips that
pointed me in the right direction which helped to uncover other details.
Before Unsolved Mysteries broadcast their story about Kecksburg in 1990,
I was contacted by a former Air Force security policeman who told me that
he was among the unit that guarded the object from PA, when it arrived
in the early morning hours of December 10, 1965 at Lockbourne Air Force
near Columbus, Ohio. He remembers extreme security measures at the time,
and says that the object was only a the base for a short time, and then
continued on to Wright-Patterson Air Force base near Dayton, Ohio.
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- We later learned that the object was
allegedly sealed up inside a building at that base. After years of searching
for government documents relating to this event, the only official record
located was in the Air Force Project Blue Book files. Included in the
report it was stated "A further call was made to the Oakdale Radar
site in Pennsylvania. A three man team has been dispatched to Acme [Some
residents not far from the site have an Acme mailing address] to investigate
and pick up an object that started a fire." While the report shows
a lot of interest from various agencies concerning the aerial object, the
report also indicates that the search found nothing. I have learned a lot
about the Kecksburg case over the years, yet there remain many unanswered
questions. I surely don't have all of the answers.
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- Based on the accounts of multitudes of
eyewitnesses which I have interviewed, I am convinced that an object did
fall from the sky and apparently was removed by the military. Other witnesses
say they saw NASA personnel at the scene that night also involved in the
search. Many have asked me what I believe that the object was, and my reply
still is "I don't know." As I have stated in the past, the two
most likely possibilities are (1) a highly advanced man-made space probe
with some reentry control capability (2) an extraterrestrial spacecraft.
It has been confirmed that a faulty Soviet Venus probe identified as Kosmos
96, reentered in Canada on the same date, but at about 3:18 A.M. The sightings
around Kecksburg occurred at about 4:47 P.M. many hours later. The Russian's
have told me that Kosmos 96 was not the source of what fell that day.
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- Other researchers have provided me with
interesting but unverifiable information, that they have talked with former
NASA sources who claimed to have examined the object which fell in PA,
and determined it to be Soviet in origin. I have also talked with two former
miltary men who are unknown to each other, that told me that during different
years, and at different installations, they saw the recovery report on
the Kecksburg object, and both said the report indicated that the object
was extraterrestrial. From what the observers tell us, the object whatever
it was, appeared to be slowing down a few miles before it impacted. During
it's flight, it appears to have made some turns, and those who saw the
object drop from the sky, say it was moving quite slowly as it moved towards
the woods. This might account for the good condition of the object itself,
and the little damage at the impact site, except for trees which were reportedly
knocked down.
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- One question we must ask is what was
it that fell which was so important that it caused the military toi act
the way they did at the scene? Various witnesses have now gone public
confirming that armed soliders were around the village, and were preventing
anyone from trespassing near the crash site. Jerry Betters, a popular
jazz musician from Pittsburgh, has gone public and told his story that
soldiers aimed rifles at him and his friends, ordering them from a back
road, as an Army flat bed tractor-trailer with an acorn-shaped object on
board, was making it's way up from a field. More recently, a prominent
businessman contacted me and told me how he and his friends, then teenagers
in 1965, tried to get near the site and were stopped my military personnel.
He was frightened at the time of the experience, he thought the soldier
was going to shoot him. Would armed soldiers respond to the scene of a
meteorite crash? Who issued the orders for such an operation to take place?
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- Some of you are aware that earlier this
year, I released a 92 minute video documentary on the incident called "Kecksburg
The Untold Story" which I produced at my own expense. Many key witnesses
are getting up in years, and some are not in good health. This was an
opportunity for those involved to tell their own experiences about what
occurred. For the first time some new and startling information is revealed
about what allegedly occurred. Some of these people reveal details which
strongly suggests a coverup. Also included in the video, are audio excerpts
from the original 1965 WHJB radio broadcast "Object In The Woods."
One man details his claim of seeing a partially covered body inside a
building at Wright-Patterson, at the same time the Kecksburg object was
being examined.
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- This case is much to involved to cover
here in detail. One good source of information on the case can be found
in Kevin Randle's book "A History of UFO Crashes." The Kecksburg
mystery remains. Was the object a man-made space device or did we receive
a visitor from outside of our world? Recently while visiting an area business,
a worker recognized me and asked about the Kecksburg case. He told me that
he has had an interest in the incident for years since he had a relative
who worked at the pentagon at the time, and this relative had made a special
trip to this area to investigate that matter. When this person asked his
relative about what had happened, he refused to give any details, but his
words were remembered "There was more to it then you'll ever know."
I have no doubt that there are other individuals who have important information
on this case. It's time that the truth is revealed, regardless of what
the source of the object was. It's been 33 years, it's time to break the
silence. If you have any information and would like to talk with me confidentially,
contact me by email or mail and we can make arrangements to communicate.
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- Those who would like information on how
to obtain the Kecksburg video can see ordering information by connecting
to my website at www.westol.com/~paufo My mailing address is P.O. Box 936,
Greensburg, PA 15601. UFO Hotline 724-838-7768
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- Stan Gordon
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