An investigation later determined the missiles came from U.S. fighter planes whose pilots thought they were firing at the mysterious lights. The missiles missed their intended targets and hit the Australian destroyer instead. The next morning, American helicopters airlifted the injured sailors off the Hobart, and the heavily damaged destroyer headed to Subic Bay in the Philippines for repairs.
What was it that appeared over the DMZ that led to the Hobart being attacked? Wyatt points out that Australian history books mention unusual atmospheric conditions over the DMZ the night of the tragedy — but this seems an unlikely cause. Whatever the “lights” were, they were sighted many times after the Hobart incident. The Melbourne Sun said: “[Subsequent] sightings were reported by radar men in Quang Tri Province about five miles below the DMZ. It was the sixth time since [the Hobart was hit] that such sightings have been reported. U.S. command ordered its fighters and artillery to withhold fire not wanting a repeat of the incidents in which the Allied ships were fired upon.”
Adding to the mystery, no evidence of any enemy helicopters was ever found — no wreckage or landing sites. Plus, no large offensive linked to the “helicopters” ever materialized. In August 1968, the Royal Australian Navy News confirmed: “Extensive reconnaissance produced no evidence of enemy helicopter operations in or near the DMZ.”
The late General George S. Brown was commander of the U.S. Seventh Air Force at the time of the incident; he was in charge of the jet fighters involved in the Hobart attack.
Years later, Brown became chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest position in the U.S. military. As reported by John Wyatt, in 1973, Brown was quoted as saying: “UFOs plagued us in Vietnam. They weren’t called UFOs, they were called ‘enemy helicopters.’ They were only seen at night and only in certain places. They were seen up around the DMZ in the early summer of 1968, and this resulted in quite a battle. And in the course of this, an Australian destroyer took a hit. There was no enemy at all involved, but we always reacted. Always after dark.”
George Filer, who later became a UFO researcher, served as an air force intelligence officer under General Brown during the Vietnam conflict. He was also reported by Wyatt as saying: “In 1968, I briefed General Brown most mornings on the intelligence situation in Vietnam. A lot of times we’d get UFO reports over the DMZ.”
The origin of the mysterious lights was never determined.
PART SEVEN
Other Sightings
18
Three Enduring Mysteries
While the Vietnam War raged with the whole world watching and bizarre UFO incursions were secretly plaguing America’s ICBM bases, other UFO incidents were occurring, including several of a highly unusual nature involving the U.S. military.
One is known as the Kecksburg incident. It has remained one of the most enduring UFO mysteries to date, perhaps because so many people believe that unlike Roswell, in this case, the U.S. military did indeed retrieve an intact UFO — or something that looked a lot like one.
It all started on December 5, 1965, a cold late autumn afternoon across the upper portion of the United States. People in Canada, Michigan and Ohio saw something strange flying through their skies. Described as bright and fiery, it caused sonic booms over Detroit and was spotted by pilots over Lake Erie.
Many eyewitnesses thought it was a meteorite, but others would say later that the object seemed to be under intelligent control, moving as if it was being steered and apparently turning at a sharp angle over eastern Ohio before finally crashing to earth. By most reports, whatever it was came to rest in western Pennsylvania about 40 miles southeast of Pittsburgh near a small town named Kecksburg.
Several Kecksburg citizens saw something fall into a heavily wooded area around 6:30 P.M. These witnesses claimed that instead of coming in at full speed as a meteorite or a piece of space debris would, the object more or less glided in, avoiding some obstacles before finally coming down in the woods. A column of blue smoke was seen rising over the trees shortly afterward.
The local radio station was called, and they in turn contacted the Pennsylvania State Police. A volunteer fire unit went into the woods along with the local fire marshal and some state troopers. Meanwhile, anxious residents waited nearby wondering what they would find.
When the fire marshal finally emerged, he ordered the woods sealed off and indicated to witnesses that “the army” would soon be holding a news conference on the matter. But a short time later, the state police made a contradictory announcement: They’d found nothing in the woods. Nothing at all. This left residents more confused than ever.
But then, a third player came on the scene: the U.S. military.
According to many witnesses, military personnel — both army and air force — flooded into the small town, sealing off the woods and taking over the fire hall and other buildings. Soon afterward, a flatbed truck was brought in, only to be seen later on leaving town, carrying something covered by a tarpaulin.
Despite all this intrigue, many people believed the original statement from the state police that nothing unusual had been found in the woods.
And this was pretty much how the incident stayed — until twenty-five years later, when a national TV show did an episode on the Kecksburg mystery.
It was revealed on this broadcast that before the police and the military secured the woods, several civilians had made their way to the crash site and got a glimpse at what had come down there. Though their accounts varied a bit, for the most part, they came up with a fairly cohesive description: The object was actually some kind of capsule, shaped somewhere between a saucer and a huge acorn and at least 12 feet in length. It had a gold band around its middle and was copper in color. There were also claims that hieroglyphic-style writing was seen on the object.
No surprise then that the incident has been called “Pennsylvania’s Roswell.” But even after the show’s revelations, further inquiries to the military went nowhere.
The story had another troubling aspect. John Murphy was a local radio reporter for the Kecksburg area. He was on the scene of the incident even before the police were, and way before the military arrived. He’d supposedly taken photographs of the object in the woods. He was also there when the fire marshal cleared the woods and when the state police announced nothing had been found. Like many townspeople, Murphy wondered if nothing had been found, then why had the woods been cordoned off? And why had the small army of military people descended on tiny Kecksburg?
Murphy prepared a special radio documentary on the incident, titled Object in the Woods. But just before he was going to broadcast the report, Murphy was visited by two mysterious men in black, an event corroborated by other radio station employees. Murphy was taken to a back room at the radio station and questioned. When he emerged thirty minutes later, he appeared shaken. Plus, his photographs of the crash site had been confiscated. Later on, when Murphy finally aired his report, it had been so heavily censored, the “object in the woods” of the title wasn’t even mentioned.
Murphy was said to have become extremely despondent after this. Apparently whatever the men in black told him had disillusioned him to the point that he refused to talk about the incident to anyone.