For a detailed story of eyewitness accounts that you won't find in this article that was published in the mainstream media click on the right..
Sunday, March 09, 2003
KECKSBURG, Pa. -- Dec. 9, 1965. A day that will live in incongruity.
That was the late afternoon when something -- or nothing -- shot from the heavens over this south edge of Westmoreland County and landed -- or didn't -- in a gully a mile outside of town.
Really. It came down, an acorn-shaped something a size up from a Volkswagen Beetle, some insist.
Bunk, say others.
In the intervening 37 years, the dispute busted up a few friendships. Even now, pair Kecksburg and UFO in a sentence and it kick-starts a back-and-forth, said Kathy Leeper, bartender at the local firefighters club.
"They were talking about it just the other night," she said.
So, now come UFO sleuths, figuring to settle this by getting as much of the public behind them as they can and demanding a look at the record.
Except that key elements of the record, if there is much of one, may be locked away in government files. And the UFO sleuths, a coalition of cash, legal expertise and ardor for probing the supernormal, figure that getting at it will take a major petition drive, a congressional investigation and maybe some legal muscle.
"This case is so incredibly fascinating," said Leslie Kean, a San Francisco-area freelance journalist whose writing on UFOs appeared from opinion pages of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to news pages of the Boston Globe. "Even now, the trail is not cold."
For years, retiree Robert Bitner, former Kecksburg fire chief, a man who believes that something noteworthy fell from the sky, hasn't spoken with his brother-in-law. He maintains only a nodding acquaintance with neighbor and fellow ex-fire chief Ed Myers. It's a cold war born of the UFO dispute.
"I'd love to know what the government knows about it," Bitner said. "It might help us end this thing for good."
That's end, not forget.
Sunday, March 09, 2003
KECKSBURG, Pa. -- Dec. 9, 1965. A day that will live in incongruity.
That was the late afternoon when something -- or nothing -- shot from the heavens over this south edge of Westmoreland County and landed -- or didn't -- in a gully a mile outside of town.
Really. It came down, an acorn-shaped something a size up from a Volkswagen Beetle, some insist.
Bunk, say others.
In the intervening 37 years, the dispute busted up a few friendships. Even now, pair Kecksburg and UFO in a sentence and it kick-starts a back-and-forth, said Kathy Leeper, bartender at the local firefighters club.
"They were talking about it just the other night," she said.
So, now come UFO sleuths, figuring to settle this by getting as much of the public behind them as they can and demanding a look at the record.
Except that key elements of the record, if there is much of one, may be locked away in government files. And the UFO sleuths, a coalition of cash, legal expertise and ardor for probing the supernormal, figure that getting at it will take a major petition drive, a congressional investigation and maybe some legal muscle.
"This case is so incredibly fascinating," said Leslie Kean, a San Francisco-area freelance journalist whose writing on UFOs appeared from opinion pages of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to news pages of the Boston Globe. "Even now, the trail is not cold."
For years, retiree Robert Bitner, former Kecksburg fire chief, a man who believes that something noteworthy fell from the sky, hasn't spoken with his brother-in-law. He maintains only a nodding acquaintance with neighbor and fellow ex-fire chief Ed Myers. It's a cold war born of the UFO dispute.
"I'd love to know what the government knows about it," Bitner said. "It might help us end this thing for good."
That's end, not forget.
1 comment:
I follow the kecksburg incident closely as my wifes uncle is Robert Bitner who you cite as wanting to find out what it really was. Let us hope the government comes clean soon as Robert is getting older each day.
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