The Official Guide to UFOs-pages

Page 32 of 161

Page 32 of 161
The Official Guide to UFOs-pages

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After a thorough investigation of all possible conventional explanations of this UFO sighting, the Project Blue Book investigator reported: "No aircraft from England Air Force Base (nearby), or the surrounding bases, was aloft on the night of the sighting, and the witness (Monroe Arnold) is familiar with the sound of aircraft. England AFB does have a firing range, but it is 25-30 miles from the area of the sighting and is not used at night. The aircraft of the 401st (Tactical Fighter Wing) and the ADC (Air Defense Command) were checked for inadvertent firing of a rocket with negative results. The sheriff's office was checked and one eyewitness was determined to be very reliable." The first "most unusual UFO sighting" of this decade and the last one to be described in this article occurred in the early morning hours of March 23, 1960, at Indianapolis, Ind. The wife of a metallurgist, Mrs. Earl I. Larsen, was first to sight the object. She'll tell you about it in her own words: "This happened about 3:35 in the morning of 23 March 1960. I awakened with a sore throat and got out of bed to gargle when I saw this thing out of my window. It would have been in the west- northwest section of the sky. It flew in quite an arc. First saw it, it was going in a westerly direction and thought it was a star going under a cloud. A light would blink on and off. It was approximately 50 degrees above the horizon. It was as brilliant as a star, but not a glittery brilliance. It looked like a lot of things metalled together. It flew back and forth. After it went west, it turned and went east. It would go up and down. There were no clouds, clear sky and stars were bright. I got my husband out of bed and we both watched it for approximately one minute. It was kind of like a comet shape." Her husband, a technical man, gave a much more detailed description of the UFO: "My wife is quite a believer in these flying objects and I have been quite a pessimist until I saw this. Description of the object: the closest I could come to the description, it was like an old-fashioned kite. It looked like it had bars instead of being solid, more like a series of balls. It was more of the size of a The color was about the same as a star, more gold than blue. Appeared to be just one (object). It had somewhat the contour of an old-fashioned kite (as mentioned), but I saw nothing like an exhaust or tail. Description of course: as I looked out the window, looking north, it swung through an arc about 90 degrees from just above the horizon in a matter of a few seconds. There was no reflection on the (window) glass. It moved in a horizontal line and then it went up vertically. It reversed through an angle of about 30 degrees. As I stood and looked out the window I could look straight at it. It tracked straight across from right to left through an arc of about 90 degrees and suddenly stopped. It disappeared for a few seconds and then went back into the direction that it had come. It eventually disappeared. It just blanked out. I saw it for about three-quarters of a minute. The time was a quarter of four in the morning, the sky was clear and the weather cold." From the time given by Mr. Larsen, the UFO must have been visible for at least 10 minutes. His wife first sighted it shortly after 3:35 A.M. He estimated its speed at 1000 miles an hour. He also estimated that it was 75 feet long at maximum. His wife thought that it appeared to be "a little larger than the lima bean. It appeared to be quite a distance away. morning star."