The year is 1957. A strange year indeed for Americans as it appears a nationwide UFO flap has been underway. From California to the thickets of Central Texas, from the Smoky Mountain region to upstate New York State, the unknown has come calling. With Project Blue Book acting only as a paper tiger now that it’s investigative powers have been turned over to other agencies the public now only has APRO and NICAP, two civilian UFO reporting agencies to gather data from field reporting anytime a flying saucer appears.

The scene of the incident

The place is Yonkers, New York where the night sighting of a UFO has been previously photographed and exposed on the pages of the newspapers. A young boy is gazing out the rear bedroom of his parent’s house over a stretch of countryside behind the yard of the property. A darkened night sky bejeweled with stars meets the eyes of the enchanted child. Suddenly his eyes are assaulted by the bright light of a fiery aerial object that streaks across the nocturnal sky. Instead of merely shooting across the sky like a meteor the boy notices that the unknown craft comes to a sudden midair halt and slowly descends to the ground hidden behind trees that cover the landscape bordering the tract home lot of his Mom and Dad’s.

The hunt is on

Excitedly, he calls out to his parents telling them about what he’s seen and then runs out onto the suburban street outside to see if anyone else can confirm what he’s witnessed. It is a warm might and many couples often stroll along the sidewalks when the air is clear and the temperatures is pleasant. The boy tells a local National Guardsman who lives close by about his sighting and the young man brings along a flashlight as the two make their way into the woods that sit adjacent to the neighborhood development. The unlit area and densely wooded acreage is a playground for local boys during the day when they’re not at school, but at night the area is hard to navigate.

The law appears

Eventually a squad car appears on the scene and police question some of the residents who are outside thinking that perhaps an airplane might have crashed. Still the boy accompanied by the National guardsman make their way through the wooded lot. Suddenly, they come across a startling sight. Two red glowing eyes glare at them from a cluster of thick brush. The eyes are as luminous as to be like two hot coals burning through the darkness. Now it seems to move up into the trees behind the cover of tangled vines and branches. When the guardsman focuses his flashlight beam on the strange creature he and the boy are overcome with some type of foul smelling gas that sickens them both. They are forced to withdraw from the area.

Frustration

Police that have arrived now begin a search through the woods in the direction that the boy and guardsman had just been, but find nothing. The young man and National guardsman are admitted to the local hospital for examination. The neighborhood has now transformed from the bliss of a quiet routine summer’s night to being abuzz with onlookers and rumors of a UFO landing. Yet, the police can come up with nothing out of the ordinary. There is no helicopter with a searchlight to scan the area so there is no definitive proof anything happened or didn’t happen-only the account of one witness and his accompanying adult neighbor.

Typical dismissal

Although Project Blue Book rarely investigates via field reports of any spectacular sightings anymore thanks to a newly adopted policy via the “Robertson Panel” response now recommending denial as the major tool in dismissing these reports, the US Air Force does make a public statement. Describing the unusual blazing skylight as most likely a celestial object of natural origin, the glowing red eyed creature is pronounced as most likely a raccoon or some other nocturnal animal emitting eye shine and the mysterious sickness of the little boy and his adult companion as being due the leak from a pipeline with all these events happening in tandem giving the illusion of a landed space craft, an entity spotted nearby, and a mystery gas unleashed by the alien. Though people there are mystified by the official findings especially when the US Air Force never made an appearance at the scene such was the typical response by the authorities in these strange cases. To those who were there the official explanation most definitely does not address their concerns, yet the entire encounter seems to mirror some scene from a science fiction movie.

East Texas sighting

In close proximity to that time and date, this writer was made aware of an encounter that occurred in East Texas near the Tyler area. The man reporting this to me was a teenager at the time giving his recollection in 1996. Being in the agricultural business during the week his friends like to work on their drag racers on the weekends and have contests taking the old Flat Head Ford V-8’s and boring out the cylinder heads to make the engines faster with more horse power. Their hot rods are often seen and heard thundering down some old bumper cropper’s road on a beer soaked Saturday night contest just to blow off some steam. 

Reluctance to report

The man has just dropped off his date and is heading home when he spots a bizarre sight in the night sky. A reddish glowing disk is slowly moving over a field of crops with a powerful beam of light that is methodically scanning the landscape. As he stops his car and gazes spellbound by the strange incident there is only silence. As he sits in his old car by the roadside peering up into the night sky it strikes him that whatever or whoever it is may be conducting a search of some kind. The event goes on for several minutes as the quiet overhead sweep of the unknown aerial vehicle continues. Finally, the young man has had enough after feeling bewildered and slowly drives away hoping not to get the attention of the nocturnal intruder. From that point he thinks twice about revealing his odd encounter to many local people for fear of being branded as a hoaxer or nutcase and due to his familiarity with the local sheriffs doesn’t want to make himself anymore notorious than he already is due to his penchant for racing. So, he, like many others, waits years to recall the weird events of the past locked forever in his memory.