Paper: “UFOs: What to Do?”
By George Kocher, 27 November 1968
(RAND Corporation, Santa Monica , California
Source: NICAP.org
Quote from the UFO paper:
“To illustrate the character of reports, I will quote
several narratives from the literature. (Narratives, of course, are just the
beginning of any report. Quantitative information, usually not given in the
narrative must be obtained by careful interview of the witness.) The first is
taken from a collection of 160 reports by Olsen. (19) It was originally made to
NICAP.
Date: 24 April 1962
Place: Springfield (Delaware County ),
Pennsylvania
First witness, J. A. Gasslein, Jr. (Lt. Colonel, USAR Ret.)
reports: ‘Time: Approximately 1945 hours, weather: clear, cloudless, medium
blue sky, visibility good.
‘My wife was driving her mother home following the
latter’s visit to our home. They had driven around the block to higher ground
when my wife’s mother looked out the car window and saw a large object. It was
moving slowly and silently in an east-to-west direction at not over 50 ft . above street level.
(Determined by the proximity to and relationship to the size of the
Cape-Cod-type bungalows over which the object was passing.) My wife then
plainly saw the object herself.
‘Anxious to have me see the object, my wife quickly
drove the car back to our house and attracted my attention. I had been working
in the basement. I ran out of the house and up the street for a view. By the
time I saw it, the object appeared to be about a quarter to a half-mile away,
moving in a westerly direction. I saw it as an object smaller at the top than
at the base, seemingly suspended in the air at an angle of about 45 degrees
from my position, and giving off colored lights. I know that the object was not
any kind of conventional aircraft of balloon.
‘Having had the advantage of a closer viewing than I,
my wife describes the object as follows..
‘ ‘The UFO appeared to be about the size of one of the
Cape Cod houses over which it passed, which would make it approximately 30 ft . in diameter and about
the same dimension in height. It was circular, surmounted by a dome giving off
flashes of green light. The center section rotated a series of square shaped
‘windows,’ each giving off a brilliant white light. The base section was somewhat
saucer-shaped, curved upward. Shafts of white light were directed downward from
the base.’ Unfortunately, my wife cannot recall if the exterior was metallic in
appearance. In any event, the object had a well-defined outline. Again, it
moved silently. There was no evidence of occupants of the UFO.
‘Approximately 20 to 25 minutes following the first
sighting described above, the following sighting occurred:
‘Returning from taking her mother home, my wife drove
the car into our driveway alongside the house, headed westward. In the rear of
our home was a wooded park area. My wife walked down the driveway to enter the
house. Coming up the driveway was a neighbor friend, a young lady 20 years of
age. In a tone of astonishment, she called my wife’s attention to the park
area, from which was emerging an object of the same description as outlined
above moving easterly at low level -- not over 50 ft . above ground level, as
judged by the trees in the area -- the UFO proceeded relatively slowly and
without sound. It was approaching the rear of our home and adjacent properties.
‘Again, my wife called me from the basement. By the
time I got outside, the object had made a 90 degree turn northward and was
proceeding parallel to the backs of the houses in the same line as ours. It was
perhaps 150 - 200 yards
distant. My observation of the characteristics of the UFO tallied with my
wife's and the young lady’s. Each of them independently made a pencil sketch
within a few minutes after the sighting, and the sketches were substantially
alike. ‘All told, there were at least 15 persons in the vicinity who
acknowledged seeing the object at about the same time as the sightings made by
my wife and myself.’
Another witness, P. T. Scattergood, reports: ‘Around 8
(p.m.) I stepped out the front door, facing south and saw a brilliantly lighted
object low in the southern sky. At first I took it to be a jet taking off from Philadelphia Airport
‘It appeared to have a row of yellowish lights (which
I took for the windows of the ‘jet’) with a clear green light at the top. As I watched,
the row of lights appeared to be obscured as though a large paddle-wheel were
revolving and blotting them out, beginning with the rear lights and proceeding
forward. Since the object was moving west, I saw the right hand side of it. The
periodic appearance and disappearance of the lights was perfectly regular. The
top green light was constantly visible. I stood on the pavement and watched the
object sail leisurely to the west until it disappeared behind some trees. The
observation probably lasted from 5 to 10 minutes.’
This report has the desirable features of the UFO
being seen by a number of people (about 15) of which two actually made reports.
(Hynek estimates the number of sightings to be about 10 times the number of
reports turned in). Other desirable aspects of this sighting are that it was made
during daylight; that it was near enough that some details of its configuration
were observable; and, it was visible long enough to allow the observers to
consider ‘explanations’ as they watched it.”
Related posts:
(tageo.com photo)