Do you have stories of these times or more recent events?
6 the 1960’s – part 2
1965-
1966-
1967-
1969-
7 - the 1970’s
Delphos – November 1971
Larnered, Kansas and March – February, 1972
Minneapolis – July 1972
Colby – August 1972
Dighton – 1972
Monday, March 22, 2021
ENCOUNTERS IN KANSAS: UFO'S AND THE SUNFLOWER STATE, LATE 1960'S AND 1970'S. MARILYN A.HUDSON
ENCOUNTERS IN KANSAS: UFO'S AND THE SUNFLOWER STATE, "The Lake", PART , 1965-66. AUTHOR'S PERSONAL ACCOUNT. MARILYN A. HUDSON
Copyright, 2021/ Marilyn A. Hudson.
ENCOUNTER: THE LAKE: 1965-66
[Sumner County, Kansas; Date: 1965-1966; 4-5th grade time frame; Residence(s): Sanford Hughes Place, and the Pettigrew Place on N HWY 81.]
At Wellington Lake, west of town, there were small dirt tracks meandering through stands of pine and other trees planted much earlier to stop erosion rather than provide an attractive lake view. I recall being with some of my family, perhaps for a picnic or church event or just a happenstance of a pleasant day, but definitely something where other people were present.
Again, there was the odd silence that muffled sounds and a cloudy caste to the sky I would swear had been sunny – lighter- a short time earlier.
The silence was that cotton-in-your-ears kind of absence of sound.
I could hear the throb of my heart and the tide – the ebb and flow of blood flowing - - of my breath.
Movement is next. I recall a slow speed movement in myself and slower than normal movement in others I saw.
The sky draws my attention and I gaze upwards. It is a dome. I seem to recognize that or have some familiarity with that notion. No words just a concept of a hazy clear bowl upside down overhead. There is a hazy and gray cast to it that seems to explain the decrease of light and the muting of the hues and colors seen earlier. The wind has died down to utter stillness and the sweater I had worn because of the cool breeze now needless.
I glance upwards again. Something is up there. I sense it and feel it to be there. Something is ahead as well. The sandy road seems very detailed to me as if I can count and touch every pebble and grain. The road stretches out in infinite detail and dimension yet nothing changes. My soundless steps in the sandy loam of the road is distinct and I can feel the shifting as my feet move forward. I move yet do not actually progress forward.
Then there is a memory of cars and other people crowded to the side of the narrow curving lane. Tall pine like trees beyond them. Everyone is standing as if frozen. I walk past them... They stand motionless looking toward something and do not see me. One is a young woman in a wide floral skirt who is half in and half out of an old car (similar to an old converted hotrod).
I was scared...but it was – distant, as if I was drugged or cut off from all emotion...
As I dug through some old family pictures to scan and preserve, I ran across several showing a trip to the lake in the fall of about my 5th grade year. They appear to be early fall and there is no memory associated with the circumstances of the pictures being taken.
Oddly, for many years, the night sky would seem to call to me. There was a strange longing as I gazed into the inky blackness dotted by small glittering lights. That feeling, unlike the memories enumerated here, faded after some years. All I know is these were my experiences as completely and as factually detailed as I can make them. Perhaps it is all, as Charles Dickens, once suggested in ‘A Christmas Carol’ all caused by an undigested portion of poor beef or perhaps it is caused by some undiagnosed brain malady.
Some might say the over active imagination of a child. Yet, it is the nature of the memories that give pause. They are sharper, clearer, and more significant seeming than any other memories of dreams or childhood play.
The Reports 1965 [fourth grade- fifth grade]
In Kansas July 22, 1965 a report of military witness (es) from Forbes AFB covered 13 pages in Blue Book. The trend seemed to be tossing out scientific terms to impress and astound. At a stop sign the witnesses got out to observe the object described as a small elongated object looking like a dime on its narrow side was observed and estimated to be about 15 miles away. It was shiny silver in color and the left side was brighter than the right side although the sun was shining on the right of the stationary object. It was finally obscured by clouds moving in and the witness left noting that there had been no motion and familiar with celestial bodies and aircraft could not identify the thing, Winds were clocked at 16 knots from 050 degrees. Inside the report the noted that no weather balloons had been reported by Topeka or Forbes. Small showers were west of Kansas City but did not show on radar. There was seven miles visibility and 6/10 cloud cover. Investigation had no scientific or technical background which would aid evaluation. Object was one half the size of a dime (held at arm’s length), was seven degrees above horizon. The summary conclusion for this sighting was “object astronomical (perihelia). Object was stationary. Position of sun in relation to reported object consistent with perihelion sighting.” Just what was in perihelion is unnamed. Perihelion denotes the time when an object is closest, or aphelion, to the sun (planet, asteroid, and comet) which occurs in December at the solstice and furthest in June. So the use of the term appears incorrect without naming what was close to the sun; what they end up saying is basically something was close to the sun. Well, duh. Also, unaddressed is the fact that the side of the object opposite to the sun shone brighter (65-07-7437955 Forbes AFB,KS. PBB).
August 1, 1965 was a Sunday and reports of UFO’s cropped up over eight western states and Monday officials at Wright Patterson said they and Project Blue Book they represented were “satisfied they were the result of natural phenomena,” except for one radar blip in Wichita, Kansas. The military spokesman from Tinker in Oklahoma City also had a blip but indicated that what hundreds of people saw had been the planet Jupiter or assorted stars. The writer added, “Ordinary radar does not pick up planets or stars.” Local planetarium director in Oklahoma also noted the stars and planets suggested were not in the sky to be seen at the time.
Closer to home on that first Sunday of August 1965, however, was the report that a Deputy Sheriff Everett Tucker of Wellington, Kansas, along with his wife had seen a “cigar shaped silvery thing in the sky” about 4:50 a.m. CST. It had a reddish vapor trail and moved rapidly to the north. A Wellington police officer had observed one object through binoculars and said it was about the length of three cars, was egg-shaped, and moved in an erratic manner along a straight path.”[i]
Again as evidence of strange things in the neighborhood - August 8, 1965 ten miles east of Seneca, Kansas a 22 year old from Kansas City, Missouri observed an object for about 1-2 minutes. It was described as oval-fat, almost round object grey-white in color noted because it was a light object in a night sky and because it remained near the ground. Estimated it to be about a half mile away from observer but moving toward him to within ten yards. Object then made a sharp turn to the right and disappeared suddenly. Size of an automobile about ½ mile away. Windy, cloudy with moonlight. Noted inversion at 8000 feet. Summary conclusion was “insufficient data” since FORM 164 sent but not returned with further information. (1865-08-7472489 Seneca, KS. PBB).
As summer was winding down in 1965 and the first days of August arrived headlines bloomed with the news “Flying Objects Zooming Over State” by a Bill Stevens from an Oklahoma City paper informing readers of sightings from Purcell (southcentral), to Tulsa (northeast), and to Guymon (in the panhandle). A similar article by a Jack Taylor in an unidentified newspaper was “Sky Objects Excite Region.”
In northeastern Kansas and the community of Prairie Village on August 10th something strange happened when a civilian witness saw an object for 3-5 minutes. The night was clear with a moon when the witness saw a silver-white triangular object- with a red glow above the triangle. Red light appeared larger than an airplane. It came from the SE then turn sharply north before it disappeared from sight. An airplane was seen a few minutes after the object disappeared. Plane was clearly visible and contrasted with object. (1965-08-7473144, Prairie Village, Kansas, PBB).
In mid-September near Lyons in central Kansas an observer sighted an oval-shaped silver object with white lights extending out in all directions. The summary page of the Blue Book file read a “single object” and it was labeled with ‘insufficient data” and a probable sighting of Venus except for the duration and positional data omitted because the witness had not filed a FORM 165. Inside the report was a letter the witness had sent to someone at the Department of Defense (dated 14 September) “I saw aircraft which was unlike anything that the general public is aware of…This was witnessed by thirty other people…one was a police officer… I am very concerned...” and the President (dated 15 September 1965) where the witness stated “…three round objects flew over my community…not airplanes.”
These letters earned a response that would become standard with requests to fill out the FORM 165: “In 18 years of investigating over 9000 reports” the Air Force was noted as the report agency for such phenomena, “the evidence has provided almost conclusively that “they are “objects either created and sent aloft by men, generated by atmospheric conditions, or caused by celestial bodies or residue of meteorite activity…” (1965-09-8677117, Lyons, Kansas. PBB).
ENCOUNTERS IN KANSAS: UFO'S AND THE SUNFLOWER STATE, "THE SCAR. cont." PART , MARILYN A. HUDSON
 |
| The Scar (not to scale) |
Copyright, 2021. Marilyn A. Hudson
Continued....from 'THE SCAR"...
....was first
diagnosed with asthma and it was attributed to the proximity of the
elevator. I remember walking home with
kids from school, cutting through the park and going under the street to cross
Harvey (even though we were not supposed to do that). In later years, I recalled the fear we all
shared but refused to acknowledge as we crept through the tunnel dripping with
water or sluggishly flowing across the concrete bottom of the tunnel, emerged
whole out the other side, and then ran triumphant up the hill to the grassy
verge and home.
I remember
– because memory is so much a part of this catalog of events - that on the 22
of November 1963 the teacher and principal informed the class that the
President had been shot and school was being dismissed. All the students
shouted in happiness; a response I remember things was rather shocking and
crass – later I realized they had missed the social implications, the political
nuances, or cultural fallout of a dead president and were merely excited for a
little holiday.
As 1963
appeared a sighting of a bright orange to red object was reported from Forbes
Airforce Base at Topeka, Kansas. It was at 20 degrees elevation in the SW
moving east with no trail and no sound. It was estimated to be two miles
distant and was observed for 2-3 seconds in a foggy light drizzle. Inside the
report it read that the bright light increased from low level to headlight held
at arm’s reach size. Brightening from orange to red. Inside Airman Russel R.
Newton, FAFB, suggested reflection on the fog. A Lt. Lampert saw a similar
object the year before in a clear pre-dawn sky but did not report it. That August
would be the Wayne County, Ill UFO chase (4 August 1963) where police chased
the object and electromagnetic and radiation presence were investigated by
NICAP and the Air Force. The Air Force explained it as a sighting of Jupiter.
On September 30 in Muleshoe, Texas, a stone’s throw from the New Mexico state
line in the Texas panhandle, report of two shiny objects, round with a
red-orange glow, on a course heading SW were reported.
In January
of 1964 the only grandfather I knew – a step grandfather – died in Nebraska. I
would miss his circuit visits as he left the great northern cold, went to
Georgia to visit a son, and then heading back to Nebraska would come through
Kansas to visit us. He taught me – with gentle patience and willing ear, to
play checkers and we had many a marathon game.
The
mid-years of the sixties were the time of the UFO’s. In 1964 there were
sightings in many locations. Historians recognize several “flaps” – major
sighting events – occurring in 1952, 1960, 1965. These flaps were all part of a
buildup of sightings.
Limiting the list to the area in and around Kansas where I
lived sightings occurred In: Ardmore, Oklahoma (April 9 – insufficient data)
the object showed an apparent “maneuvered course” and a drawing of the same
showed an object with windows, appeared large, resembled an old blimp, appeared
over trees in the west. It made a sharp turn and disintegrated (disappeared?).
The Air Force conclusion was an aircraft pulling a banner but labeled it
“insufficient data”; Sayre, Oklahoma (July, an apparent sighting of ECHO 1 for
6-7 minutes); Oklahoma City (November 6) where a rare 23 pound meteorite was
found after the sighting in the area of suspected landing, rock was considered
odd because of the lack of ‘space residue’ (sent off to a lab for analysis it
revealed a high concentration of silicon; final disposition of sample unknown).
ENCOUNTERS IN KANSAS: UFO'S AND THE SUNFLOWER STATE, "The Scar" 1960'S cont. Author's Personal Accounts. Marilyn A. Hudson
Copyright, 2021. Marilyn A. Hudson
ENCOUNTER: THE SCAR, 1963-64
[323 South Ash Street, Wellington, Kansas; 1963-1964, 3rd Grade, Roosevelt]
My father had taken an older bike he had acquired somewhere and had plans to refit it for me to use. It was still a little tall for me and I had been told not to ride it yet. He still wanted to make adjustments. The temptation was simply too much.
We had moved from the 412 E. 4th address to south Ash Street late spring of 2nd grade and I looked forward to 3nd grade. That year, however, is largely a blank to me. I had my tonsils taken out. That is about all I remember of that school year.
On the west side of Ash was a huge wheat elevator and the streets on the east ended there. Just to the north of our house was 4th Street (several blocks removed from the old house) and a delightfully scary hill all the kids loved. It ran straight down into Ash Street in a T-bone. If you missed the turn, you bounced over the curb, and either crashed into the grass or the ten-foot chain link fence around the grain elevator. Either one was a mark of accomplishment for neighborhood children.
No one could remember any such injury. Not my elder siblings, some with children of their own, none of my neighbors, teachers, or church friends. In fact, my parents swore there had never been such an injury. I must have just scratched myself. Did you look at the scar, I asked, that did not come from me scratching myself!
I pushed the bike up the 4th street hill, took the bike to the curb, leaned it enough to hoist a leg over and – wobbling – pedaled to the middle of the street. A deep breath and I was off! My too short legs did me in and my feet slipped off the pedals. I just did not have legs long enough to grip and gain control of the bike. I tried to turn enough to sort of slide but instead I bumped into the curb at nearly full speed and sailed over the ground to slam against the chain link fence. Clutching the chain link, feeling the fence shudder from the impact, I slowly slid down into the grass and kicked away the bicycle.
As I sat there in the dead grass and collected myself, feeling tender and a little stupid, I saw I sported a faint pattern of a chain link fence – reminded me of a waffle - on the front of my thigh. It had broken the skin slightly in a few places but was not bleeding. All I had on my legs were shorts because my first grade pants and dresses did not fit anymore and- hey – it was summer! In the fall new school clothes would be coming but for summer the shorts were what I wore.
As I sat there getting over the exciting and scary incident I noted a scar just behind my knee. I admit to being much more flexible at that age and could easily see the scar when I lifted my leg up and twisted around to view the back of my leg. Lifting my white tennis shoe clad foot upward and twisting around I could see the skin just behind and above the crook of my knee. On closer inspection I saw it looked a lot like the scar a friend at school had after cutting her hand and needing stiches. This was exciting!
I had a friend who had fallen off their new bike and had an impressive cut. This scar had tiny web marks as if skin had grown together as if knitted by a loom and around the edges tiny mark that looked like suture marks.
I had seen those scars before from friends at school and church who had made exciting trips to the emergency room or a doctor’s office for stitches. I admit I was a little jealous; the second grade equivalent of tattoo envy. Excitedly, I jumped up and ran home to query my parents and my much older siblings. What had happened? To leave a scar like that something had happened! When? What is the story behind this scar?
 |
| The Scar (not to scale) |
No one knew? My mother’s frown showed her total puzzlement. No one else knew anything about it. I had not been injured. I had no stitches (would not have until several years later).
It was not long, it had a center section that looked like tiny lines of skin and joined together the cut. Around it were tiny holes similar to the stitch marks seen on my school friend’s scar. Surely an injury requiring stitches would have warranted remembering – by someone. It was toward the outside of the back of my thigh, right leg, just above the knee bend.
The incident might have been forgotten as just another childhood event but it stayed with me because a week later I found this amazing stuff called “angel hair.” Someone had thrown out with old Christmas decorations this glittering and magical stuff. I picked it up, amazed at the scintillating nature of the fiberglass, and learned that “angel hair” and open scrapes (even ones looking closed on the back of a leg) when they met produced an uncomfortable and unforgettable discomfort. It seemed weeks before all that glass was removed from those exposed bits of skin.
Bike rides down hills, chain link fences, and close encounters of the angel hair kind all served to bring one thing in my mind and that was the question, ‘where did I get the scar?’
I remember this house on Ash Street because it was across the street from a huge concrete grain elevator. It was there that I was diagnosed with asthma.
ENCOUNTER OVER KANSAS: UFO'S AND THE SUNFLOWER STATE. 1960'S CONT. WITH AUTHOR'S PERSONAL ACCOUNTS. MARILYN A. HUDSON
Copyright, 2021. Marilyn A. Hudson
[1407 N. Jefferson Street, Wellington, Kansas; Washington School], 1962-63, 2nd Grade]
I ran across a class photo from 1962-1963 for Washington Grade School, Second Grade with teacher Mrs. Long and a total of ten students. Some of the faces look familiar but I can’t recall any names. I remember sitting at my desk listening to a story being read by the teacher. I recall working through copies of the “Weekly Reader” newsletter we used to improve reading and comprehension. I recall the fun little cellophane wrapped ‘bricks’ of gray art clay in class. I had a colorful collection of ‘Capri Pants’. I walked blocks to and from school. I remember the playground on the west side of the school but not a lot more. I was given my first ‘perm’ that year and went from a shoulder length straight bob with bangs to a curly head. With bangs; my mother seemed to feel a naked forehead was mortal sin. My mother continued her work as a Nurse’s Aide, a brother married and joined the Army, and I enjoyed going to the roller rink to practice falling down. I became very good at that part. The skating not so much…
I do remember, however, playing with neighborhood kids at this address, they were both energetic and creative! One had found an open ended oil drum and we rolled it across the billiard table flat yard into the ditch with one or more of us laying inside. If you were lucky it stopped in the ditch and if you were really lucky it bounced across the street and into the empty field there. Crawling out, staggering like a drunk after a long weekend, you joined the whoops and hollers and felt proud to have answered the dare.
A few weeks later, in a fit of anger at my mother, I “ran away” from home and sat in my hiding place with a hobo scarf filled with crackers and cookies and listened as my family called for through the neighborhood. I got thirsty and decided to go home and face the music. Another time, our “leader” – who wanted to design things when he grew up – led us in collecting bricks, pieces of boards, and anything else to craft a futuristic city. When completed the city was a least ten feet long and five feet wide. The streets were wide enough to drive all sizes of toy cars and trucks. Landing zones for airplanes and helicopters noted our awareness of the aerial craft flying over our heads all the time with Boeing Aircraft and McConnell Air Force Base just thirty some miles to the north. Many of the parents in town worked for one or the other. Our leader-architect created tiny trees from weeds and twigs and he found a piece of blue flooring and created a “lake”.
Then, one summer evening, several family members were present. I remember catching fireflies earlier in a jar with holes cut into the top and watching them glow.
We had gone inside from visiting outside so we could enjoy some ice cream. A sound or a light drew our attention and they went to the side door that looked out into the yard. I recall standing behind them, craning, trying to catch a glimpse between jean clad legs of older males at whatever they were seeing through the old wooden screen. I could see, high over their heads, the dark of the sky and a something else.
Then as they moved further from the opening, I saw – the light. A red light. Similar to the dark room light used by my brother. Red, but muted with hints of yellow or orange, shining down on the back yard. I recall the squeak of the screen as first one and then another of the adults moved back to the yard to stare upwards murmuring words of wonder and confusion. The light was a soft but very bright red and seemed low to the ground but taller than my height. Once outside, I sensed others but see only shadows in my memory.
The drawings are some attempts to capture the sense and the scope of the event remembered. These are close-but-no-cigar as the saying goes.
Then it was gone, like a light being switched off. Details of the source were not visible; you could only see the red-orange round source of the light itself. I remember looking out the screen door, walking outside, looking up and then the next thing I remember is looking back into the house with the light gone.
That is where the memory ends and the next memory is being back in the house. People are gathered round the small kitchen table and eating slightly melted ice cream or making ice cream sodas from bottles of soda. No one in the family ever recalled that night. They never accused me of making up tales or dreaming. They just moved on as if I had not spoken. I admit that I was used to that. Being the baby in a family spread out over three decades I was conditioned to being “seen and not heard.”
Not until later did I realize that they did not have any memory of the light. When I asked them, right after and then years later, they vaguely recalled an evening together…but nothing of what I saw.
Fearful Dreams
One of the worst punishments was to be sent to bed with no television or fun times outside. At some times it could be a severe punishment indeed. An odd thing during this year was the extreme – almost phobic – reaction I had when school started whenever I saw the deep red cover on the “Big Chief” writing tablet.
This red covered notebook filled with lined newspaper print paper was a staple of every school child’s life. This red covered tablet was sold in department stores such as the local Woolworth’s, the office supply store and small local mom and pop stores (they were sidewalk walk-in convenience stores minus the fuel pumps). I had begun to have dreams featuring the “Chief.” I do not recall the content of the dreams merely the anxiety and fear they engendered. My mother was working nights in a local nursing home and this might have been worrying to me somehow.
I do remember that after weeks of these night terrors that something gave me the key to making the nightmares stop. “Something” told me that I had to confront the scowling, serious faced man in the headdress. I had to say I was no longer afraid of him. I had to let him know he had no power over me anymore and there would be no more bad dreams about the “Chief” on the red cover of the tablet. Ever.
The next dream was different. It was as if part of my mind remained awake to remind me of the advice. The dream surged back to the camp, with a raging fire, and a circle of tall, pristine white tepees. The “Chief” stepped forward but this time I was awake (in a manner of speaking). I looked at him, held up my hand, and repeated the directions I had been given. Suddenly, the entire dream morphed into a calm scene where the Chief and I were sitting in a friendly manner on a log beside a blazing fire, the tepees around us and misty lavender mountains with tall pines in the distance. All about us people were talking, eating, and having a good time in a normal manner.
The dreams stopped that night and never again did I ever have nightmares of the serious faced man on the intensely red tablet. No longer did the very sight of a “Big Chief Tablet” bring a wave of alarm, anxiety, and apprehension.
It was not until many years later that I realized that prior to this time red had been a prominent color in my life. When my grandfather asked me to select a small wooden chair from several he had made and painted, I chose the red chair. I loved my bright red rain boots and wore them constantly. I loved my bright red corduroy jumper dress, a sweater, and many other items of red. Yet, strangely, at the start of this particular school year, I had a such deathly fear of the red writing tablet I would walk away from it in the store, even, going around aisles, to avoid getting too close. My clothes turned drab with my once favorite red sweater becoming one I detested.
It lingered too, I recalled in sixth grade music for a concert my mother had purchased a trendy dress with gold buttons and draping chain detail in a red so infused with yellow it bordered on orange. Wearing that dress – every time – made me ill. An anxiety so fierce it made me feel nauseated resulted. I ended up wearing it only a few times and then pushing it to the back of the closet.
I never did go back to loving red the way my younger self did. Now, well, now I wonder if it is connected to the night when the red glow filled the back yard.
Reports from 1962-1963 [2nd grade school year]
The next two years (1962-1963) would continue accounts of high strangeness over the skies of Kansas, Oklahoma and elsewhere.
Two from Oklahoma are especially interesting given how they reflect elements of my own accounts and their proximity to where I lived in Kansas. I did not discover them until recently as I began to pinpoint dates of the events. In June of 1962 (an approximate date) a person in the Bartlesville, Oklahoma area reported that they had been visited and had experienced a series of strange thing. These included a “possible implant”, “small creatures”, an intense “light” and a “scar” (MUFON/NICAP reports). Another report for early June or late May of 1962-1963 was from Pittsburg, Oklahoma of a red, circular, silent object (MUFON/NICAP). Also, in Oklahoma City that year 3-5 objects buzzed over the city (MUFON/NICAP).
August of 1962 was a time of sightings across several states. One in Liberal, Kansas on 2 August 1962 was of multiple objects, initial report of blue-green moving west at terrific speed in sight for a mere 3 seconds. The second report was an extremely bright light comparable to landing light brightness only stationary in eastern sky. Comments on the summary page indicate the objects were “probably meteors” and the stationary object was deemed as “Jupiter”. That planet, it was noted, was at the time at its maximum (-2.4 magnitude). As repeatedly is the case while pursuing these files, a look inside showed there was both more and different inside.
Inside the report it was noted that similar reports had come in from Pueblo in Colorado, Garden City, Kansas, New Mexico and Oklahoma. The objects were moving E-W at great speed. As part of the file was a newspaper clipping from an unnamed source, “Liberal, Kansas Sighting” that added details absent from the report. The event occurred at 8 p.m., the objects were higher and faster than airplanes and lights were auto headlight size. The colors varies from blue, white, green and orange but brilliant. There were four objects seen at the airport in Liberal with one object becoming stationary over the airport with a landing light type of beam under it. One description was of a silver object with white lights extending out in all directions. The summary page of the Blue Book file read a “single object” and it was labeled with ‘insufficient data” and a probable sighting of Venus ‘except for the - -.’
ENCOUNTERS IN KANSAS: UFO'S AND THE SUNFLOWER STATE, THE 1960'S CONT. MARILYN A. HUDSON
In contrast to those prosaic events, in January 1961 sightings popped up across several states (Texas to Nebraska) that covered several days. Passing though the southwest town of Roosevelt, Oklahoma on his way home with his wife, a television programmer from Wichita Falls, Texas observed ‘objects.’ The summary sheet for the January 14-15, 1961 sighting classed the objects as meteors. Inside the witnesses, however, described them much differently. The three objects had been shaped like footballs with smashed centers. The sighting was one of many from that month.
In Eastern
Kansas (Location identified as 3855 N – 9540 E) January 20, 1961 came a
military witness report. Viewed for all of 10-12 seconds with course of SW-NE
this one was quickly labeled a Meteor and probably one of the impressive Bolide
variety. It was noted the descriptions used keywords “burn out” and
“explode”. The investigators had checked
the sighting against satellite reentries and had found none. A similar report
from 9 January 1961, Altus AFB, Altus, Oklahoma shared the information that
UFO’s had been reported in the area of Shepherd Field, Wichita Falls, Texas on
January 9,10,11,14,15. Two key witnesses had been Major Warren R. Aiken and
Major Donald P. Taylor. These events had been classed with the phrase “cause
and identity remain unknown). The Shepherd Field cluster was significant
because of several witnesses, including staff of a local television station,
the KFDX-TV station programmer on his way home who sees objects in Roosevelt, a
local woman whose account of a cigar shaped object (similar to the squashed in
football shape of another witness) was discredited for some reason, and the
military witnesses.
In August
of 1961 the strangeness continued with a sighting by two civilians, students
from Drake University, of an object in Kansas City, Kansas. The object was
circular, one-half a football field in length, and lighted around the edge with
whitish yellow lights. They were too nervous to note color of the object, it
had a high tail running vertically from center to end and what looked like sled
like running boards. There was no sound. They were in a car stopped
underneath the object and could not see around the object. It was first
sighted from three blocks away and they estimated it to be 50 feet off the
ground. It was stationary for some 3-5 minutes.
Comments
from the summary coversheet included a note that no weather inversions, wind,
or clouds reported as weather was clear and dry. This sighting was classed as
“unknown…Description…would indicate a possible balloon except for altitude of
50 feet off ground and sudden rising. Completeness of description and details
given by the two observers gives little information upon which to class object
into known categories and explain sighting.”
Inside the report the witnesses had stated that the object moved up and
sharply away toward the east. The object, although color escaped them, looked
metallic and had depth to it. (1961-8-829915-Kansas City, KS 12 August 1961,
PBB)
[Note:
Project Blue Book records indicate that in July of 1962 reports came in from Hutchinson
and Wichita of objects or object seen.
In the skies north of Sherman, Texas July 2 Blue Book noted a report of
a sighting. The file contained computer printouts, very faded, and the entire
file was hard to read and seemed incomplete. July 3, a witness in Hutchinson,
Kansas reported seeing something ….the file
noted the object showed up and was also recorded as an Echo at 1124 pm
North of Wichita. There was a notation of
it being “Echo I”. Remember this was an
early satellite merged with balloon technology and Echo 1 went up in August of
1960 and was used until 1964 before being replaced by Echo II until 1968. [See
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/about/project-echo.html. Circular orbit at
1,000 miles and the ‘sateloon’ was used in early triangulation. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Echo-satellite
Britannica indicated. “The satellite remained in orbit for almost eight years
and was visible as a rapidly moving “star” in the evening skies.” This might explain high altitude fast moving
objects but only those.]
ENCOUNTERS IN KANSAS, 1960'S . "The Grey Men"- Author's Personal Account. Marilyn A. Hudson
THE AUTHOR’S ENCOUNTERS
ENCOUNTER:
THE GREY MEN, 1960-62
[412 E. 4th
Street, Wellington, Kansas; 1958-1959 (Prekindergarten), 1960-1961
(Kindergarten), Madison School; 1961-1962, 1st Grade, Madison School]
As fond as my memories of dawdling journey’s home with stops at friends’ houses or long ways home to avoid going home as long as possible and extending visiting and play time, there is one memory of coming home, however, has always been…different.
This memory has remained throughout my life as a
strange image set apart from similar events of childhood. The separateness has
always been a mystery. ‘Something’ about the memory has always had a feel of
truth rather than fiction. Reality rather than a dream. A lucidity that is rare
among other memories or events.
It is the
twilight time of what seems to be a fall afternoon, the sun is lowering but it
is not yet dark. The sky is overcast with a bright dove hued tone to the
heavens. The scent of moist leaves and recent showers lingers in the cooling
air.
I am
wearing my favorite of two red sweaters. The buttons are small and I had
trouble aligning them all the time. I had a keen love of the color red: red
rubber boots before Kindergarten, red jumper dresses in Kindergarten, red
wooden chair, and the red sweaters.
I also have
a pair of red corduroy slacks because I am sometimes called a ‘tomboy.’ Tomboys
are girls who climb trees and run. Girls play with dolls and wear fancy
dresses. Since I do both of those I am a ‘tomboy.’
That is
what I am doing that afternoon. Usually I am hurrying down that short street
from the rail yards. I remember the feeling of running as fast as I could,
skidding around the corner, and then hurrying home. I have done it a hundred
times.
As I turn
that corner, this time, something is different. I am not running, not an
all-out and joyous spurt, but I am hurrying very quickly. I am moving in slow
motion but I am trying to get farther away from the things behind me.
It is as if
I do not want to attract their attention. So I hurry but I do not run. I feel
my heart beating very fast. I look up, drawn somehow, to the strange sky. I
feel as if I am in a gray, silent, and very large box placed over the world. No
sounds fill my ears but my own small gasp of breath.
I sense
again the feeling of being in a case – a fish bowl – or snow globe. As if the
sky has folded its wings down and all the inhabitants are the strange creatures
moving so oddly and silently. I sense I am not alone. Someone is beside me,
also hurrying, seeking home and safety. I do not know who though…
“They” are
gray, pale, and “light” or near transparent because they give a sense of small
size but also small density or mass. Their features, build and body detail are
indistinct – the longer you look the harder it seems to be to see them or gain
any details. There is merely a sense of dark eyes that see everything. I try to look at them, but it is like my own
eyes cannot find a purchase in those dark orbs or in that misty space.
So, I hurry
on without running, a grotesque slow motion race. As I move away, I swivel my head to check
where they are, fearful of drawing more attention. I cannot stop myself and I
keep looking over my shoulder. They are
back there, fluid movements that carry them toward me, until I reach the midway
point of the block and almost make it to the familiar brown house…
There is
nothing more. The memory halts there as firmly as an encounter with a brick
wall. There is neither beginning or ending to this strange and hauntingly vivid
memory of sixty years. All the decades this memory has had a place on my mental
shelf that says with no words, “this is important – do not forget it.”
As I began
the task of remembering and finally beginning to build a timeline and a
chronology of my life I made several startling realizations. One was that when I put events together a
startling sense began to emerge. Gaps I
had unrecognized, blanks for which I had no answers, rose to the surface and
had me frowning with puzzlement about how I could have not realized their lack
all these years?
I believe
that sometime around 1959 - 1961 something happened that resulted in the
lingering memory of being chased by some very odd and strange creatures. I
lived at 412 E. 4th Street from pre-Kindergarten to end of school
second grade matching those dates and the context of the memory/dream. During
those dates at least three unidentified flying object events occurred in the
region and some very close to where I lived.
ENCOUNTERS OVER KANSAS: UFO'S AND THE SUNFLOWER STATE, The 1960's - The Author's Personal Accounts. Marilyn A. Hudson
Copyright 2021. Marilyn A. Hudson.
ENCOUNTERS OVER KANSAS; UFO'S AND THE SUNFLOWER STATE: 1960's, part 1. Marilyn A. Hudson
Copyright, 2021/ Marilyn A. Hudson.
5 the 1960’s – part 1
The decade brought in vast changes across the country as well as a new youthful feel based on the vast numbers of children, teens and college age people. In Kansas there were also come very fascinating cases of the strange and the bizarre. One was even labeled “UNKNOWN” by Project Blue Book.
On August 23, 1960 at 3:34 a.m. an aeronautical engineer with
Boeing Aircraft manufacturing company, C.A. Komiske, saw something he could not
explain.
He reported a large sphere with lighted openings (windows), dull
orange with yellow light coming through what appeared to be three triangular
shaped opened low on the sphere toward the bottom. His sketch is very clear and
he noted it was moving in an arc for about two minutes.
The Project Blue Book report form states the object was, according
to the witness, the size of a golf ball held at arm’s length. This was the standard
format for describing size for most of these years. According to the summary
cover sheet the object was a yellow light that came from the three sources.
These “sources” were windows that were described as being 1/10 the size of the
total sphere. The overall color of the object was dull orange and the
appearance similar to a Japanese lantern. It appeared from the north at 40
degrees and disappeared to the north at 45 degrees. It was noted it flew a
pursuit curve on ECHO.
ECHO was launched that month destined to attain an orbit of one
thousand miles. ECHO was a massive (a
balloon as big as a ten story building, especially constructed to withstand
that altitude, and serve as the first telecommunications satellite).
The explanations offered in the conclusion included the statement,
‘witness could see light source to details suggest it was a tanker with its
special lights on while the crew was trying to get a better look at ECHO.” In view of the fact that the witness should
have been familiar with such an object, “this case class unknown.” In view of
the fact that a refueling tanker would not gain much advantage in trying to get
a better glimpse of a satellite orbiting that high the answer falls a little
flat. Consider, as well, that this excuse of refueling missions will be used in
the noted Exeter, New Hampshire UFO case as well and others in Michigan and
Missouri.
The tone of the paragraph in the report is intriguing because a
refueling tanker would never appear as a sphere, had no triangular lights
according to sources consulted, no “special lights” and, as noted, an aircraft
crew would have little better view by
plane than someone on the ground for an object orbiting at 1,000 miles.
Also inside was a delightfully peevish comment that may speak more
to the frustration and desperation of the investigators: “the object was in
sight two minutes and must surely have been traveling great speed, but the
witness didn’t note this fact?” Is it possible an engineer – one who was around
fast planes all the time – might not have considered that the most unique
feature of the object viewed?
It should also be noted that the prevailing winds at the time were
only 6-7 knots from the southeast. At the conclusion of one page was a notation
that suggested a “possible satellite other than ECHO.” To date no evidence of
such a low orbiting and/or large object has been found to support that
suggestion.
A story comes with some vagueness from the witness. Around
September 10, 1960 in the Wichita area a young girl recalled playing in her
backyard in Wichita, just north of Friends University, when she observed an
object overhead that was multi-colored and about 75 feet in diameter hovering
by a tree. She called for her mother and the object flew off. She said that the
next day there was a story in the local paper (Wichita Eagle and Beacon) about
a “Businessman and Farmer See UFO.”
As September rolled around came another report, this one from
Salina in north central Kansas’s Saline County.
An experienced pilot reported seeing something odd in the skies. He
acknowledged he thought it was probably a bit of space debris returning to
earth or maybe a meteor. He described a silver flash but something about it
appeared “off.” The object displayed a wide array of colors so he was curious.
The final notations in the report are clear that this sighting was
most probably the re-entry of “Kappa (Discoverer XVI)” that “reentered that
date.”
Inside of the report someone – where the consultants often wrote
notations – had penciled “probable meteor.”
This, however, was obviously rejected because the cover sheet went with
the Discoverer XVI explanation.
There is, however, a problem with that because the NASA records
note that Discoverer XVI (16) was “lost in launch 26 October 1960.” It could not have been versions # 13 or #14
either, because they were lofted and lost on re-entry in August.
Discoverer XV (15) burned up on re-entry on 17 October 1960 as did
Discoverer XVI (16) (Corona 9011),”lost in launch failure” on 26 October
1960. “Kappa” may have been a corruption
– intentional perhaps to cover some secret aspect – for the Corona 9011 but the
date of the sighting does not correspond to lift-off and re-entry. One source
indicates that there was a recovery of a ‘Discoverer XV’ about September 16
from the ocean.[i]
Other sources have no mention of that date related to any re-entry of craft.
How could the T-33 pilot have seen a re-entry that had not yet
happened for a craft that had not yet been sent aloft? More importantly, why provide such an
explanation when one had been suggested already in the report? A meteor would have made sense, explained the
colors, the movement in general, and been a simple way to close this particular
case.
One possible explanation presents itself. At the time of this
sighting the majority of those satellite launches were labeled “secret.” In
filing this sighting under that heading there was a stronger probability of the
report being unavailable to researchers, reporters, politicians and others with
a “need to know.” Categorizing this as one of the top clearance projects
insured that it was kept deep in the files.
At the time Air Force regulations only allowed the release of
information by approval of higher ups and only if there was an explanation for
the sighting.
Some might easily theorize that for some reasons, this report and
this sighting needed to be kept under tighter control than others. Since only
recently have many of the records of those once top secret projects been opened
for public consideration the answer to the questions raised by this case may
yet be answered.
HOW MUCH TO
PARK A UFO? Wichita, November 1960
In early November a UFO with lights “parked” near Wichita all
night. The object was witnessed by several people as it rapidly descended from
the northwest on Thursday evening, November 3, 1960.
Sheriff Patrol Officer Lt. Hollis Nichols approached within a
quarter mile of the lights around 4 a.m. the morning of November 4. He noted
three lights that winked out just north of 37th Street North, west
of Andover Road in eastern Sedgewick County.
Other witnesses were all agreed that they thought a plane was
crashing because the object came fast out of the northwest. Witnesses included
Edgar Boslaugh of 1519 Lulu, Wichita, Kansas and Mrs. George Enlder of 1753 E.
24th Street North, Wichita. They saw blue-green lights and thought
it must be crashing.
Ernest Feeler, 2206 W. McArthur Road, also reported seeing three
lights in a field: one was blue, one in the middle was a vivid purple, and one
was yellow. The lights were described as
being ten feet apart and setting about ten feet above the ground. The lights
Feeler saw were stationary as if the mysterious object had parked in the field.
A police officer also reported seeing the lights. Boslaugh, who
had pilot experience, thought it had crashed as he was driving eastward in the
2400 block of East Harvey at about 7:50 p.m. on November 3rd. His
brother-in-law Marvin Wray of 6602 E. 9th, was looking at the full
moon that night when his attention was diverted to a bluish-green light. He too
thought he was seeing a plane that was in the process of crashing somewhere
north of Harvey and to the east.
Mrs. Enlder (also spelled Enlertin) was driving east on 24 North
at Minnesota Street at the same time.
She rolled down her window to see if there was a crash.
Ernest Feeler said he saw a falling star. “Brightest one I’ve ever
seen.” The light was gone in three
seconds. That light began at 60 degrees above the horizon and fell down over
the area of the Boeing Aircraft Company plant. It stated the “falling star” had
a tail ¾ of a mile long.
Many calls came into local authorities including one from a Derby
Man. Derby is a suburb of Wichita to the southeast. He was driving east of
Beech Aircraft’s plant in east Wichita when he saw the object. He reported it
to the Sheriff’s dispatcher, Frank Hensley. Other calls were also received
about the same object.
The pulsating glow emanating from the mysterious object resulted
in emergency calls to the Butler County (to the east) and to the Sedgwick
County (where Wichita sits) about concerns of a large fire. Patrol cars from
Augusta, El Dorado, and Andover all responded and began searching the area for
a large fire.
Lt. Nichols, Sheriff’s Department, said it was the glow that
attracted his attention. As he approached the object, it appeared to die down
in intensity. He observed three lights in the field: one bright blue, a middle
one that was the “most vivid purple” he had ever seen, and one a bright yellow.
He too noted that the lights were about ten feet apart and about
ten feet off the ground. He and another
officer watched the lights as he was driving until he nearly went into a ditch
in the pre-dawn darkness. When he got himself and his vehicle back under
control on the road he glanced back to where the object lights had been but the
lights were either off or the object had left.
Elsewhere about that time, numerous authorities had been searching
for a fire to explain the vivid pulsating glow people were reporting. No house,
building, field, vehicle, oil well, or other structure could be found on fire.
When the lights disappeared, the fire reports ceased from the area. The sirens
went off and puzzled they all went back to their various stations.
Meanwhile, the officers who had seen the odd lights up close
realized “something”, they had been unable to make out any shape or form beyond
the bright lights.
As dawn brought clarity and a means to get closer to the location,
all that could be seen was a normal and empty landscape. The source of the
mysterious pulsating lights was gone.
This story appeared in a Wichita newspaper in the file of Project
Blue Book for a different case. It is filled with specifics, names, addresses,
and similar details. It has been
suggested that this was an experimental craft from one of the aircraft
development plants or from McConnell or some other base.
Boeing in the 1960’s did have a secret stealth plane, “Quiet Bird”
but from information found it never took flight. Its size was approximately 33
feet by 33 feet and stood about 7 feet tall. This craft, Model 853 only began
in 1962 and only a half-size prototype was ever produced. The existence of this
project, however, does not exclude the possibility that another or different
craft might have set down in a field east of Wichita that November evening.
The fact that no “cover story” emerged to prevent the needless
response and investigations of local law, fire, and rescue units and the
apparent absence of a guards or similar barriers is perplexing. And those
lights; top secret experimental craft goes down in a field – maybe because it
was too big for the local runways? – and leaves all those attention grabbing
lights on. That does not seem to make sense.
There were numerous secret projects developed under the auspices
of the CIA, the DOD, military branches and several other agencies so a top
secret project may be an explanation. Note too that this event occurred in the
backyard of McConnell Air Force Base, Forbes Air Force Base, Schiller (old
Smoky Hills) Air Force Base, Ft. Riley and old Marshall Air Field, as well as
the Naval Weather Tracking center at Hutchinson and a busy municipal airport –
someone had to have known company had come to the county.
Yet, according to the news article, it remained unchallenged and
unexplained several days later.
The purple light is also worth noting because in 1965 in Damon,
Texas and in Exeter, New Hampshire reports by police of mysterious objects will
include similar purple to purple-red descriptions. Those cases will be marked
“unknown.”
On November 11, 1960 a report was filed from 30 miles west of
Goodland in north western Kansas, near the Colorado border.
A civilian pilot in a Beech Bonanza was flying at 8,520 feet at
night when he observed an object the size of a half dollar held at arm’s
length. The object had what appeared to be a blue-green tail and was traveling
to the west faster than a jet on a level flight path. It disappeared instantly
into the west at about 45 degrees.
The weather was clear with winds from the south at 12 knots.
Witnesses included air crew officers, the pilot and two passengers. The
conclusion offered was that the 4 second sighting by “duration” and “descent”
were characteristics of a meteor sighting.
On November 23, a surveyor in Kansas City reported seeing three
objects moving north to south for 20-25 minutes. Inside the eight page report
were statements that the observer saw three disc shaped objects about 100 feet
long, black against the light. Two of the objects were in front, one object
traveling 1,000 feet behind the other two. The original observation was due
west of the observer. Objects were only visible with naked eye but the trail
was visible through the transit and appeared orange. Estimated speed was
300-400 mph and the time was dusk looking into the west at about a 10 degree
elevation. Witness estimated altitude to
be 1500 feet. All estimates were made through the transit. The explanation offered was the man had seen
“contrails.”
Mid December near Hutchinson a round, bluish-white, pear to egg
shape object was sighted 060 above the horizon by a witness. It then
disappeared at 20 degrees, azimuth 160 degrees. The explanation offered was
that the witness had seen a “meteor” but inside the report was an odd comment
“estimate…sightings were one of the many satellites now in orbit
...non—existent.” There was no explanation for this odd statement in the eight
page report.
1961 –
1962 –
1963 –
1964 -
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