I
was doing some work for my book, The
Government UFO Files, which is a cheap way to give it a plug and I noticed
that I had included a sighting from November 23, 1957 made by an Air Force
officer that included electro-magnetic effects. Given the discussions from the
past several days, this case becomes relevant.
According
to the story told by First Lieutenant Joseph F. Long, a pilot with the 321st
Fighter-Inceptor Squadron, he was near Tonopah, Nevada when his car engine
stalled. He reported:
… Attempts to restart the engine were
unsuccessful, and SOURCE [Long] got out of his car to investigate the trouble.
Outside the car he heard a steady high-pitched whining noise which drew his
attention to four (4) disc-shaped objects that were sitting on the ground about
300 – 400 yards to the right of the highway. These objects were totally unlike
anything he had ever seen, and he attempted to get closer for a better look at
them. He walked for several minutes until he was to within approximately fifty
(50) feet from the nearest object. The objects appeared identical and about
fifty (50) feet in diameter. They were disc-shaped, emitting their own source
of light which caused them to blow brightly. They were equipped with a
translucent dome in the center of the top which was obviously not of the same
material as the rest of the craft. The entire body of the objects emitted the
light, they did not seem to be dark on the underside. They were equipped with
three (3) landing gears each that appeared hemispherical in shape, about two
(2) feet in diameter, and some dark material. Source estimated the height of
the objects from the ground level to the top of the dome to be about ten (10)
to fifteen (15) feet. The objects were equipped with a ring around the outside
that was darker than the rest of the craft and was apparently rotating. When
SOURCE got to within fifty (50) feet of the nearest object, the hum, which had
been steady the air over since he first observed the objects, increased in
pitch to a degree where it almost hurt his ears, and the objects lifted off the
ground. The protruding gears were retracted immediately after take-off, the
objects rose about fifty (50) feet into the air and proceeded slowly (about ten
mph) to the north, across the highway, contoured over some small hills about
half (½) mile away, and disappeared behind those hills. As the object passed
directly over SOURCE, he observed no evidence of any smoke, exhaust, trail,
heat, disturbance of the ground or terrain, or any visible outlines of landing
gear doors, or any other outlines or openings on the bottom. The total time of
the sighting lasted about (20) minutes. After the objects disappeared, SOURCE
examined the place where he had first seen them on the ground. There was no
evidence that any heat had been present, or that the ground had been disturbed
in any other way than several very small impressions were very shallow and
bowl-shaped, triangular in pattern (in equally sided triangles). SOURCE did not
measure the distances between the impressions, but estimated it to be about
eight (8) to ten (10) feet. After his investigation of the impressions, SOURCE
returned to his car, and the engine started immediately
and ran perfectly.
This
is important simply because it was another example of someone reporting that
the car stalled when the UFO was near, but that Long was able to restart it
when the UFO was gone. Or, in other words, it didn’t spontaneously start. Long
had to turn the key.
Yes,
there is much more to this story, including a rather annoying assessment by
Captain G. T. Gregory who was the chief of Project Blue Book at the time. He
made the normal condescending statements about the witness because Long was a
member of the Air Force Reserve. All that is laid out in The Government UFO Files.
As
I say, I found this interesting because the car didn’t spontaneously start when
the UFO disappeared. Long had to start it… which, of course, was the point of
the post about Levelland.
