What exactly soared through the late afternoon skies of Canada, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania on December 5, 1965? Eye witnesses described the unknown object as a "fireball," but it seemed to be under some type of intelligent control, as it veered somewhat in Ohio toward the Quaker State. One of the first official reports of that day came from Frances Kalp, who phoned in her experience to radio station WHJB in Greensburg at 6:30 P.M. She related seeing a fiery object crash into a wooded area near her home in Westmoreland County. Kalp and her children had approached the site within a half-mile, and there they saw an odd object resembling a "four-pointed star." Radio station employee John Murphy immediately phoned in the report to the Pennsylvania State Police Department. The Police phoned Kalp and arranged to meet her in Kecksburg.
Murphy also raced to the site of the alleged crash. He interviewed Kalp and her children for his report, while the State Police searched the woods for the crashed object. Murphy eagerly awaited the return of the searchers. When they finally completed their search, Murphy was unable to get any clear information from either Carl Metz or Paul Shipco, who headed the search. They only stated that they were calling in the Military to handle the case. Undaunted, Murphy made phone contact with Captain Dussia at State Police Headquarters in Greensburg. Murphy was instructed to visit the office to receive an official statement on the search party results. Upon arriving at headquarters, Murphy noticed that the Military had already arrived in force. Murphy was startled when he received the "official" statement;
"The Pennsylvania State Police have made a thorough search of the woods. We are convinced that there is nothing whatsoever in the woods."
By this time, Murphy was convinced that there was a cover-up of some kind. If there was nothing in the woods, why would the Military be in force at Pennsylvania's Police headquarters? After turning in his report to the radio station, Murphy overheard one of the policemen involved in the search describing a "pulsating blue light" in the forest. Murphy was told that Officer Metz and the Military were going back to the woods, and to his surprise he was given permission to join the second search. Murphy's excitement soon turned to disappointment when after accompanying the party to the outskirts of the woods, he was kept from going any farther. Murphy was an eye witness to the Military sealing off the area, and banning all civilians from the scene and its immediate surroundings. The story of the crash soon made newspapers and television, and the area was quickly overflowing with people wanting to get first hand information on what could possibly be a historic event. What had actually crashed into the woods? Was it just a fragment of a comet? Or space debris reentering the Earth's atmosphere? If the explanation was so simple, however, why had the Military cordoned off the area? Could it have been a secret Military craft? Or something far more mysterious?
An extremely intense day of activity was followed by a quiet morning, and it seemed that what had occurred was just a dream. The Air Force concluded their investigation with the "official" statement that a meteorite was responsible for the report of a glowing craft, and subsequent crash in the woods. The media as a whole accepted this explanation, and the matter seemed for all intent and purposes, closed. Had it not been for a 1990 television program, the Kecksburg crash would have been just another fancied report by a few overly excited witnesses.
The actual witnesses of the event prevailed, stating that the petitioner's list did not include any eye witnesses to the original event. Opposite sides were also taken by those officially investigating the facts of Kecksburg.
The other witness was a building contractor who was asked two days later to take a load of 6,500 special bricks to a hangar inside Wright Patterson. When he sneaked a look inside the hangar he saw a bell-shaped device, some 12 feet high sitting there. Several men wearing white anti-radiation style suits were inspecting the object. After he had been escorted out he was told that he had just seen an object that would become common knowledge in 20 years time.
Investigator Robert Young, for one, became an advocate of the Military's official explanation. Stan Gordon, on the other hand, believed the eye witness accounts, and the cover-up theory. Gordon took his findings to the next level, producing a 92 minute documentary video of his findings, titled "Kecksburg: The Untold Story."
As to be expected, alternative theories were put forward by skeptics and debunkers, such as the reentering of the Russian VENUS probe, but this scenario was rejected by the American and Russian governments. One interesting footnote to this haunting tale came from the widow of John Murphy, who shortly after his death, publicly stated that her husband had been one of the first on the scene, and had actually photographed the strange craft. Supposedly, these valuable snapshots were confiscated by Military officers, and Murphy was instructed not to discuss what he knew, unless he wanted to suffer severe consequences.
In January 1980 UFO investigator Clark McClelland interviewed the assistant fire chief of Kecksburg, James Mayes, and Melvin Reese, another fireman. They reported that their team had come within sixty meters of the object. They had seen an object on the ground that had smashed its way through the trees. Mayes explained how the military had cordoned off the woods and had established a temporary base, complete with telecom link. Fire chief Robert Bitner would later confirm this story. He also said he had seen an object that was about 6 feet high, 6 feet wide, and some 15 feet long, clearly not an aircraft. It was resting at an angle on the ground as if it had impacted nearly horizontally. Another fire officer, 'Pete', stated he had seen a ring of bumpers around it into which were described some pictorial symbols.
 Stan Gordon | In 1990, researcher Stan Gordon from the Pennsylvania Association for the Study of the Unexplained, traced an apparent first-hand witness, James Romansky. He recalled seeing the object on the ground some 25 years previously, when he was an 18 year old fire fighter. He had been called to duty that night following concerns that an airplane had crashed. He described the object as bronze coloured and shaped like an acorn-some 12 feet long and 25 feet in diameter; it had slightly raised "blunt" end and strange markings.
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On 08-29-05, the UFO Casebook received this information from a person who was an eyewitness to the object that soared over Kecksburg.
B J, I was on some site about the Kecksburgh sighting. It told the story and asked if anyone had an opinion about it. Well I lived in Pittsburgh at the time that this occurred. Brian Vike wrote about his experience, and when I read it I was floored. I had forgotten about this ever happening until I watched the Brian Gumbel special. Brian Vike also said he recalled the incident. His sighting and mine are so simular.
I was at a drivein movie that night with my boyfriend. He wanted to get there early to get a good spot. I can't remember how long after we arrived there when it happened. All of a sudden the sky lit up. "What the heck is that I ask?"
The sphere or the ball like object was very low in the sky and was burning and had a long firey tail. The color to me had a greenish color to it. I would say it was in my view for at least 4 seconds, maybe 5 seconds. But of course in those days we thought it was only a meteor. And the next day it was confirmed on the radio it was. After all these years that have passed it's truly amazing to me how much of it I can still remember. Thank you BJ, and getting this computer is wonderful. And know I can relate what I"ve seen, and hope what I will see in the future I can relate them to you, and everyone else out there that is interested in the UFO phenomenon.
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