Today is the 45th anniversary of the Kecksburg UFO incident. The incident refers to a UFO sighting where a large fireball was witnessed by thousands of people across six U.S. states,  as well as Ontario, Canada.

As the fireball streaked over Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, the fireball dropped debris over Michigan and northern Ohio, which stared some grass fires. Pennsylvania residents reported sonic booms.. Explanations quickly discounted included, a missile test, satellite debris or a plane crash. The media reported the incident as a meteor.

Eyewitnesses in Kecksburg, PA reported things differently from their vantage point. The residents in village of Kecksburg (30 miles from Pittsburgh) stated that something crashed in the woods nearby. A boy said that he witnessed the object land, while his mother saw a wisp of blue smoke from the area and alerted the authorities. Local volunteer fire department members reported that the object was as large as a Volkswagen beetle and shaped like an acorn. Around the base of the object, a band containing symbols much like Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Intense military personnel quickly descended on the site, secured it, and ordered civilians out out of the area. Witnesses stated that the object was removed on a flatbed truck, but the military contradicted their accounts by stating that they found “absolutely nothing” in the woods.

“The Tribune-Review from nearby Greenburg had a reporter at the scene; the headline in the newspaper the next morning was “Unidentified Flying Object Falls near Kecksburg — Army Ropes off Area”. The article continued with, “The area where the object landed was immediately sealed off on the order of U.S. Army and State Police officials, reportedly in anticipation of a ‘close inspection’ of whatever may have fallen… State Police officials there ordered the area roped off to await the expected arrival of both U.S. Army engineers and possibly, civilian scientists.” However, a later edition of the newspaper stated that nothing reportedly had been found after authorities searched the area.” – Wikipedia

Due to the similarities between the Kecksburg and Roswell events, the incident is often referred to as Pennsylvania’s Roswell. Read more about this incident on Wikipedia.

Last year, journalist and author Leslie Kean released her final report on the conclusion of the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against NASA that concerned the Kecksburg UFO case. Read her full report at The Coalition of Freedom of Information.

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ANNOUNCEMENT: Cherlyn’s Paranormal Old Pueblo website outside of the Tucson Citizen has officially launched. She will continue to post on the Tucson Citizen, but will include even more content via her own website, with additional news contributors! If you follow Cherlyn’s posts here via RSS Feed or bookmark, make sure to also follow posts on her Paranormal Old Pueblo website

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Copyright © 2010 Cherlyn Gardner Strong

Two notable UFO waves began on November 29th, 35 years apart. One of the waves is considered to be one of the most well-documented and intriguing flaps in history. The other is notable for the man who claimed to have witnessed the UFO activity, while conducting bizarre weather experiments meant to bring rain to a community in the midst of a drought.

The Belgium UFO Wave of 1989 to 1990

As written about in Leslie Kean’s book, UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record, Kean wrote: “the UFO wave in Belgium was handled rationally, openly and responsibly by the government.”

The wave included a series of sightings of triangular UFOs in Belgium, which lasted from November 29, 1989 to April of the following year.

There is no one better to tell the story of the Belgium UFO wave, than the late, great Robert Stack. I remember watching this episode of Unsolved Mysteries nearly 20 years ago. The YouTube clips that follow (a two-part post), do include some commercials of the day.

View Part 2 on YouTube
Further reading: Wikipedia, Bellgian UFO Wave

Wilhelm Reich sees UFOs in Tucson

In 1954, the world was fascinated with UFOs, and so was William Reich. In fact, much of what was wrong with the world, according to Wilhelm Reich, was due to repressed sexuality and UFO invaders.

Reich was an Austrian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who trained under Sigmund Freud in Vienna. He was known for forging ahead with work for which the world wasn’t quite ready. He was labeled as a “quack” by the FDA and deemed mentally ill.

Reich relocated his family to Tucson in 1954 to conduct weather experiments. On his way to Tucson, he drove through Roswell, NM, feeding his fascination with UFOs. Though Reich called the otherworldly life forms EAs (”E” for Energy and “A” for Alpha). EAs impacted the weather, according to Reich. With the aid of a “cloudbuster”, Reich was determined to bring rain to Tucson.

On November 29th, Reich observed a cigar-shaped craft through a telescope aimed at the eastern sky. He clearly observed windows in the object and continued to observe it through December 17th. While at first theorizing that UFOs were “benign observers”, his views shifted to believe that they were impacting the weather, (intentionally or unintentionally) contributing to pollution.

During Wilhelm Reich’s stay in Tucson, he deduced that a mountain range prevented rain from reaching Tucson. So for the next several months, Reich would travel further west with his cloudbuster until it rained in March 1955. Reich packed up and returned to Maine. In August of that very year, Tucson experienced the wettest month on record. No one can really say that Reich was responsible for clearing the way for the record rainfall. It rained in August 1955 like it hasn’t rained since, as documented on the National Weather Service website.

Further Reading:

Wikipedia, Wilhelm_Reich
Wilhelm Reich Museum
Dr.James  DeMeo’s Research Website
Tucson Citizen, UFOs, Orgasms and the Occult: The Tucson Connection, 11/3/2009

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Copyright © 2010 Cherlyn Gardner Strong

Read more of Cherlyn’s posts at her Paranormal Old Pueblo website

On November 11, 1987, Ed Walters began snapping photos of objects in the skies above Gulf Breeze, Florida. During the three weeks that followed, Walters reported and documented a series of UFO sightings.

One of the things that struck people as unusual about the photos, was the clarity of the objects photographed and the frequency in which Walters captured them. Walters’ sightings caused others to look toward the sky, which caused a great wave of UFO sightings that some claim haven’t stopped since 1987. The ‘UFO flap’ of Gulf Breeze did bring more than 200 people forward with UFO reports during a three-year period.

Walters’ sightings have generated good deal of skepticism over the years, though. The discovery of a ‘UFO’ model in a house where Walters once lived, since turned the majority of believers into skeptics, related to this particular case.

The case also turned UFO researchers against each other through publicized clashes.

Jerry Black, a Cincinnati-based UFO investigator, didn’t buy Ed Walters’ story. Black followed the money and drew some interesting conclusions. He alleged a lack of ethics demonstrated by MUFON and, in particular, UFO researcher Bruce MacCabee, for profiting from the case. A 2003 interview of Jerry Black by UFO researcher Kenny Young outlines the reasons for the allegations. MacCabee shot back in an open letter, in response to the allegations.

The UFO community mourned the passings of Kenny Young in 2005 and Jerry Black in 2009. The Gulf Breeze UFO Incident, whether it was a hoax or not, continues to live on.