19 November 1956
(Aberdeen Daily News, South Dakota)
Source: ufonewspaper.blogspot.com
The whole article:
“ ‘THE PRETTIEST sight we ever saw’ was one man’s
description
of the mysterious ball of light seen west of Aberdeen
early Sunday
(18 November 1956) morning by an Aberdeen farmer and three police officers.
Keith Lowary, who lives 1½ miles south of Aberdeen on U.S. 281, first
spotted the red ball. After watching it for a while, he called the police
station to see if it had any report on the unusual object.
When the call came about 1:50 a.m.; Desk Sgt. Stephen
Oakes radioed the two police cars, which drove out to a spot on Melgaard Road and
U.S. 281 to watch. In the cars were Capt. Irvin Albrecht, and Officers Walter
Hartman and Orville Hanson.
Officer Hartman explained, ‘We watched for a while. It
was the prettiest sight we ever saw.
‘We could pick out the object real quick. It was
pretty darn low and looked pretty big,’ he continued.
The mysterious light wasn’t a round ball; it was
shaped more like a football, Hartman explained. ‘It was a beautiful kind of
red, then changed to orange, green and a real bright color.
‘It looked like someone was clicking switches,’ he
commented.
1,000
FEET HIGH
The object, which was estimated by Hartman to be about
1,000 feet
high, hovered in the sky, maneuvering westward and then coming back. The
officers watched until it disappeared in the west, which was estimated to be
10-15 minutes.
The light was not obscured by clouds. Officer Hartman
reported it was very easy to tell it wasn’t a star or an airplane as are
usually seen. He also said the object maneuvered too easily and and too fast to
be a balloon.
‘I wish we had gotten a shot at it,’ H a r t m a n
commented. ‘Maybe it would have come down or shot back or done
something.’
The Aberdeen police
department, through the state police radio, notified the Ellsworth Air Force
Base at Rapid City.
A patrol unit at Redfield reported seeing a strange light five or 10 miles west of Redfield
at the same time.
The CAA was called but by the time the observer was
ready with the binoculars, the object had disappeared, according to police
reports.
The CAA observer who was called by Sgt. Coleman
checked with binoculars and said he felt it was a star, the officer said.
Calls also were received by the CAA later in the
morning (5:24 and 5:44 a.m.) about another bright light over the city.
The observer who watched with binoculars from the roof
of the administration building at the Municipal Airport
was unable to cite anything unusual, the log entries stated.
PLANET BRIGHT
The planet, Venus, was particularly bright Sunday
morning, he did note.
A Mobridge police officer Saturday night told of
seeing ‘a fireball, whitish in color, and jagged, not perfectly round,’ one
night earlier in the week. He thought it was Tuesday night but made no entry on
the police blotter so isn’t certain.
Another patrolman reported seeing a strange ‘craft’ a
couple of nights later in the McLaughlin area. He described it as ‘cone shaped
and all red.’ This object was ‘traveling fast’ he reported.
The strange objects, whatever they are, also have been
reported in western Minnesota, in western North Dakota, and in the Rapid City area in the past week.
Two Faulkton men saw a strange object in the sky near
Redfield last Tuesday (13 November 1956) night.”
Related posts:
realtvufos.blogspot.com/search?q=1956
Satellite photo of Aberdeen, South Dakota
(tageo.com)
(tageo.com photo)
(lib.utexas.edu image)
(lib.utexas.edu image)
(lib.utexas.edu map)
