Strangers From The Skies - Brad Steiger-pages

Page 55 of 128

Page 55 of 128
Strangers From The Skies - Brad Steiger-pages

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bright object appeared over the southwest horizon. It traveled at tremendous rate and gave off a yellowish-orange glow as it streaked through the sky. Several residents near the Wallops Island base confirmed Bruton's sighting by independently reporting it to the NASA installation. Exactly one week later on January 12, a bright yellow-orange object streamed out of the sky and appeared to be heading right for a NASA public relations staff member. The light seemed to streak directly for the woman and her husband as they walked toward their house. The NASA base had been the scene of even more UFO activity earlier. An incident in October, 1964 which had received little publicity was brought to light. Four men, three technicians and an engineer, observed a triangular-shaped object move over the base and execute a 90-de-gree turn. They all agreed that the object moved faster than any conventional jet aircraft and that the abrupt turn was impossible for an ordinary aircraft of any variety to execute. A group of citizens of Marion, Virginia went on an excursion to investigate the reported sighting of a UFO on January 25. Woody Darnell, a Marion policeman, claimed that he and his family and several policemen watched a glowing object that hovered over them for several minutes before it took off in an explosion and a shower of sparks. The group of investigators did not find the UFO, but they did find a number of trees that had had their tops bent over, and one green tree on fire in the area where the object had been reported. At Byrd Field, Virginia, TAC command officials had quickly come up with the explanation that the object was a plane equipped with a new arc light. Though this did not explain the fire, a thoughtful forestry official suggested that the "dead tree" had been set on fire by a hunter trying to claim a squirrel. These explanations were too far-fetched for anyone on the scene to consider. Exactly twenty minutes after the Marion sighting, nine persons near Fredrieksburg, 275 miles from Marion, reported a UFO which they described as a "Christmas sparkler." It appeared to be spinning at a great velocity and spewing sparks from the bottom as it glided over the Rappahannock Valley. On January 26th, the UFO's again visited Marion, but this time they were seen by many residents. Local radio stations and police were swamped with calls. All sightings were of similar fire-spewing or spark- shooting objects. Rev. H. Preston Robinson described a UFO that gave off a buzzing sound and had a