1965 UFO Sighting Is Still a Puzzle

1965 UFO Sighting Is Still a Puzzle

news.aol.com

Government Documents Fail to Resolve Pennsylvania Mystery
By Leonard David, Space.com

(Nov. 25) – In the chronicles of UFO oddness, there's been a long-standing oddity – some say folklore, others deem it reality. This saga, now over four decades old, centers on a reported out-of-the-sky incident involving the small town of Kecksburg, Pa.
The date is Dec. 9, 1965: Residents see a ball of fire shooting through the darkening evening sky and then, seemingly, the object – purportedly shaped like a jumbo-sized acorn after impact – makes some sort of controlled crash into the woods. Fr

(visit the link for the full news article)

This is one UFO story that has always fascinated me as I was just a baby at the time and lived a few short miles away in Acme Pennsylvania and grew up on stories told by the neighbors who had either seen the crash or witnessed the Air Force hauling away the remains of what crashed on a flatbed truck.

To date despite Freedom of Information Act Lawsuits being filed and won by concerned citizens many of the vital documents regarding the incident in Kecksburgh are still being withheld by NASA and the government.

I have always found it an intriguing case because so many of the local people witnessed the event or the aftermath of the event or both and the people of those rural farming and mining communities who would typically be about the last people to believe something out of the ordinary happened truly believe still to this day something out of the ordinary happened.

Hopefully one day the complete truth will come out, recent revelations have brought us a step closer to it. This is one of the most credible documented cases of a possible extraterrestrial landing and craft recovery out there.


news.aol.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Up Against NASA
Whatever took place in Kecksburg, a dutiful look into the episode escalated to a lawsuit against NASA for access to information on the incident.

A central figure in the weirdness is New York-based investigative journalist Leslie Kean. Working with the Coalition for Freedom of Information, she was on the receiving end of loads of documents – an outcome of winning the lawsuit.

This stage of the saga began in 2002, when Kean was asked to spearhead a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) initiative sponsored by the Sci Fi Channel – an effort to acquire government documents on the Kecksburg case. The following year, she ended up as the plaintiff in a federal FOIA lawsuit filed against NASA in Washington, D.C.

"After previously promising to conduct an expedited search for files related to the 1965 Kecksburg UFO crash case, NASA had stonewalled and was withholding documents, leaving no recourse but this one," Kean explained in a just-issued report. "A settlement four years later, in October 2007, required NASA to provide hundreds of new documents and pay my attorney's legal fees."

It certainly is suspicious and interesting that NASA would go to such lengths to block the reports of the investigation being made public.

Word of the crash traveled through the small farming communities for miles around when it occurred and many people had driven from miles around to be kept at a distance while recovery efforts were underway and the debris was removed on a flatbed truck with a tarp concealing what was underneath it.

The secrecy of the government personnel involved in the recovery and the fact that they didn’t want the locals to see what was being recovered sure did not escape the locals.

Still do this day 44 years later locals remain curious and speculative as to what really happened in their little neck of the woods. So am I.

No Smoking Gun
NASA's resulting search, monitored by the court, was completed in August 2009. The outcome of the investigation is available in Kean's paper, which was posted online this month to the coalition's Web site.

The report, flatly titled, "The Conclusion of the NASA Lawsuit Concerning the Kecksburg, PA UFO Case of 1965," explains how the process worked and the results of the search after the 2007 settlement in federal court.
The bottom line: No smoking gun documents were released, Kean notes, but many provocative questions and unresolved contradictions were raised by what was received, as well as by the fact that many files were missing or destroyed.

One open-ended aspect of Kean's reportage is the role of "Project Moondust" – a U.S. government-run activity involved in examining non-U.S. space objects, or objects of unknown origin. Indeed, various State Department documents show that NASA played a role in the recovery and examination of space object debris.

Even after all those years of effor the government still would not release the most critical information to the case.

What is it that they are hiding?

Hey Proto, interesting thread! Thanks for the update on the Kecksburg UFO incident. I have a rudimentary knowledge of the incident after seeing a show on it some time ago, but the particular channel and show fails to come to mind. Something came down that evening in 1965, but could have been a Soviet satellite, Top Secret terrestrial craft, or something of an other-worldly origin? After seeing the show these are the questions I was left as well as many of acquaintances back home, who were actually there. Even with an FOIA request, the true nature of the story remains an enigma even such a long span of time since the incident to the present.

Something big happened that evening, and judging by the military presence, it was meant to be kept locked away and private. We may never now what it was, just like what happened in Roswell in 1947. People still don't have the complete story of what came down on that ranch in New Mexico. I, like you, would love to know what happened as it did, not a watered down version by the military or Nasa. Here is a video of the report to compliment your thread and to provide more background on the incident.



Keep up the good work, friend.

I'm sceptical of the Kecksburg incident, of both sides. On one side you have NASA and the military giving conflicting stories and changing answers as the years go by, from Russian satellite, to meteor, to nothing at all. And on the other side you have witnesses giving entirely different accounts depending on who you talk to. I'm really not sure what to make of it to be honest.

If it really was nothing of importance, there should be no reason to change the official story, and no reason to involve the military at all for that matter. But, it was 1965, and the cold war made trivial things seem important so who knows.

If I had to take a position, I like the Russian satellite for this one, those of the era even look similar to the descriptions of the Kecksburg object.

reply to post by ZombieOctopus


Thanks for the incite, Zombie. Yes, I am on the fence about the incident as well, and there was certainly a chillingly affect going with government transparency at the time. As you have said, we were staring down the Soviet Union and only inches away from total nuclear annihilation. Maybe it was a Russian satellite, but if it was, why the secrecy, still? The Cold War ended in like 1992, but yet an official confirmation remains an enigma? I, like many, would like to know what happened in 1965. Hopefully, the veil will be removed and the conspiracy removed from this incident, once and for all.

[edit on 29-11-2009 by Jakes51]

reply to post by Jakes51


Thanks for posting that Jakes51. Not only was it informative but what a trip down memory lane. I lived my first 11 years of life growing up about 4 miles away from there. I saw those fields and had been to those exact places and traveled those roads so many times. I haven't been back but twice in 35 years.

I was just a baby at the time but one thing is for sure everyone who lives for miles around had/has some kind of take on what happened regarding this incident.

Ah memories! Thanks Jakes51, great addition to the thread!