4. NUMBER OF OBJECTS 5. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 6. TYPE Or OBSERVATION 7 , COURSE 9. PHYSICAL ~VIDENCE. F Ci .~ lo4 PfWJECT 10073 RECORD 2. LOCATIOH Pottstown, Pennaylvania 10, CONCLUSION Possible (HOT .i\IR BAil,OW) (l Witnea:a) It is :f'elt that th& obsarvation could have beea or a gannet ba,i ho~ air balloon. 11. BRIEF SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS The observer sighted a bright red to bright white ora.nge-red light. The light waa first oen about Glo~ation in the NWo ?OR RECORD: f..t. approxln.a::ely o830, had a phone call from Major Wilson, SJ\FLL, ..:.. .:. 57375. He stated that ata retireme n t parLy las L evcni11g for one o f ~.e U:L office r s : Congressman S ch,,.riker, 13th Dis Lrict of Pennsylva niu, ::nted to knm,.r ab.y..:.-r. a UFO sightin g that allegedly took place in t lte ~ongressman s hom;; rtistric t; o n t h e evenj ng of 28 July 1 96t3. Called Wright -Patterson ; they had nothing on it, but called Benton .. -FS, the nea1est bas~ to the Congressman s horne district and nearest the ::ghting (worceste.:, Montgomery Co. , Pa.). Be nton hacl no r e p ort, but Jld \vright - Pat th& t Capt. Underwood, the local UFO investigato r (Area ::)d e 717 -477 - 5910) ,.;ould b e glad t o investigate if one o f the eye witnesses .. :rul d report i t . At 1040, called. t-:ajor Wilson, SATI,L, and c;ave him tl1e above inforrnation. He planned to relay it to the Congressman. OFFICE OF THE SE:CRE:TIIRY DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE WASHINGTON 20330 Reference the August 2 , 1968, letter to you from Mr ro:..t.l')r, POTTST0\1/N (Pennsylvania) MERCURY (copy attached). What was -:.he nature of the mickey mouse treatment he received from NcGuire Air Force Dase? ~fould appreciate a rlLYldmvn as to \vhom he contacted, Y.Then, ani 'r:hat happened. If an official Air Force apology is called for , we will take action to have one made. We \TOuld first, hmrerer, have to have a feH more details of what transpired before Mr s August 2 letter. August 2 , Sincerely, -----H A. SUSSKIND Lt Colonel, USAF C}t.~ef, Operations Branch Public Information Division Office of Information USAF {SAFOIP) ATTN: Lt Col H A Susskind I have absolutely no proof, ex a llega- ~ions, tha t he received "the mickey mouse tment" f=om ~cGuire AFB. The memo ~bich ve received from :>tcGuire does not indicate that ce received undue or ~arsh treatment. Ho~ever, he appears to be perturbed by r.ae tac't. tba.t tbe duty of1'icer couldn't specifically ~den~ity tbe light to vbich he referred to. According 1:.0 A? regulations, UFO inves~igators do not have to sub- ~it repo~s of moving lights a t or near airports . I t appears that the dut y office r failed to satisfy or his repor't.er, and eviden't.ly this too, bas per t him t o some exter.t. I probably used the ,.rong vord '"!en I said that McGuir e bad ac~ed in a n unprof essiona l man- er. I :probably should have said that ?-1cGuire vas derelict in not being able to satisfy an inquisitive re- )Orter, but tben ~ho can. After thinking about this at length, I'm cot too sure tha~ really deserves a n apology. Eoever, I th i't. appropriate that ve acknovled~ his letter adc~essed to me , but then ~hat co I really 'fen an i rate r e;or..e r -any suggestions? TDPI' (UI'u) 1.t Col H Cc.Uintaci11a, J r T..I-P AFS~ Oh!o ~5~33 '!'DPrR/Sgt Kist Request surface weather observations for Pottstolooiil., Pennsylvania, 28 July 1968, 2230 hours., local time. -..:;pr( O!i'O) Lt Ma:-eno SURF ACE OBS3RV 1\TIO T D!>.TA Covineton. L!diana November 18, 1967 ?ucson, J~izona -August 10 , 1968 USAY ( SA FOICC) Maj AL'cnan I think thia man deserves an apology and the base commander needs a reminder. Lt Col -.:~uinta.nill.a Propoaed reply This replies t o yo ur let ter of August 2 , 1968. On behal.f of the Air ?or.::e, let me apologize for the unprofessional manner in "Which your ca~e .,.Fls handled by McGuire AFB. Your letter has been forwarded to McGuire AFB for corrective and appropriate action. Lt. ~ol. Hector Quintanilla Chi , Aeria l Phenomen a Office \-lr.i ~-Patterson AFB, Ohio: ear Col~ Quintanilla: In ~aference to yo~ request for more i nformation concerning an ,_,n.identified flying object '"hich I observed. I r l that if my name in transmission from Benton Air n, Pa.. , to \>Jright-Patterson is change om ewspaper ' s address from an treet tha t any data ch I the ~r come fouled up My s : ghting, incidentally, '"as not reported to the Air Force for the pu:: -1se o f investigation . I contacted the Air Force b ecause c-:: : :erous telepho::le calls The Mercury received. Ba c : ~e of a Mickey Mouse treatment The Mercury receive d from the Ai:-='~ca at Haguire .PJ 'B, I contacted Congressman Richard S . Sch'"eiker w~c. -!:: me in touch w:!.th Capt. Jesse Under-vrood at Benton .. C-::.-; ~ _ ~:nder-...rood b eca-e the first Air Force officer who showed courte~y a ='= ... so i!1v e s t i ga ~i Ye ability. My purpose in c onta c ting him vras not t'.:> .:...::1~ my sight:..:1g . But because he '"as obviously capable I ~e~. ~7~ that I, ~co, observed a UFO and explained b e cause of its act_._:: did not b9lia7e tha t it was a conventional craft . I N'i th the pu tterns of air craft and as:Jt: .. t they flt in different level zones. Private pl a nes l low, :~s3enger crafts higher and Air Force bombers, etc. a t the hig~-::::-:; :e-rel . I outlined that ,.,hat I observed -vras nothing like a~y c~& that I previously observed. I told him all the i nformation ~ spent a good h alf hour explaining to Capt. Underwood .~e details o f the craft I observed. ~n ~ nutshel l , what I did observe was not a conventiona l .t ircraft. If ,,rea ther bal~ons a r e lighted and h ave lights ~hat flare a n d change color and are able to change directions ~n a manner totally unacceptable to pla n e s the n it is oossible tha t I observed a weather balloon. The wind at ~:cound level was blo,,.,ing tmvard the ~ou~west and the craft was tra v eling against the wind. !fmvever, I assume that wind a t a highe~ level could be different than that at a lower level. I also a ssume that the c r aft could h a v e been hit by i:l. sudden frontal system ,.rhich c aused its erratic movements. I ass11me t h i s , but don' t really believ e it. .lld fill out your form if I thought for a minute that it Juld help. But I don't. ::y own philosop~y is against b elief in UFOs as outlined in ~:1e attached col1.!.I!ln written by me. But r~cently I h av e had '0 rr.any people have seen too many things too suddenly for ~= to accept a ~ass hysteria theory. am incli~ed to b elie v e that there is something up ... Iould.n':. :-:..;..zard a guess to what it is I app:ret:::i2.~e the cou~tesy that Capt. Undervrood shmred me. l he was e only representativ e of the Air Force who =~ :ike w~a~ an Air Force office should represent :-.: feel I ca:-1 be of any concrete h elp, please f e e l free to DEPARTMENT O r THE AIR FORC:: H EADQUA RTERS t.38 th AIR BASE GROUt' (MAC) UIRE AIR FORCE BASE, N EW JERSEY 03 041 G438(0) (Lt Col Oeakyne/3360) 2 August 1968 Urn Inquiry Aerial Phenomena Officer (TDPT) (UFO) ght Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio R~ference telephone conversations behJeen Lt Col H. c. Oeakyne, Jr. , ~his Headquarters and Lt Marano, Aerial Phenomena Officer, the attached statement concerning UFO inc idents reported on 28 July 1968 i s f:lwar ded. , J~., Lt Col, USAF Base Operati ons raining Office r DEPARTMEfH OF HiE AIR FORCE 648TH RADAR SQUADRON (SAGE) (AOC) E;NTON AIR FORCE STATION BENTON , PENNSYLVANIA 178 14 1 August 1968 su;mcT: U . F . 0. Report for 28 July 1968 ro: Fv~ -= ::n Technologies Division (TDPT-UFO) W::<; H.-Patterson AFB, Ohio 45433 Th~ .-~.ttached informa:ion is submitted in accordance with AFR 80-17, pare.. 11. This information was received from Mr. Pot:s town, Pennsylvania who also contacted his loca l congrcs sman in ~=d to this matter. A l ette r of acknowledgement was sent to Mr. and attachme n t 2 in a copy for your information. FO? THE COMMANDE:R R~: UFO SIGHTING REPORTS DURING 1600 -2300 SHIFT 28 JULY 1968. '!X-Clear -dry-cool. ~JtS,.lOO miles horizontally and unlimite d vcrti- -~ ' Y Wind west to northwes t 6 kts surface and 90 kts a t 40,000 feet . ~-rst UFO call from man in Trenton who saw a light between Trenton and < 11 ingbor o -seemed to be moving slowly and erratically. No shape - ~ -bstance-sound. Said it coL!ldn't have been Echo Satellite because r.e had helped build it. Told him I had no ide a what it was but woul d call around and than~s for the call. Time 2145L :orE: No report made as a 1 i ght doesn t constitute a UFO -AFR 80-17 ;..CTION: We/!lt to \-IX and asked if north Philadelphia or Hillow Grove put up WX balloons. Answer-d i d n't think so. Called Philadelphia FSS and asked him to call Wi llo.-~ Grove re \~X balloon. Ans .. ser, negative. Second UFO call from man in Asbury Park-been at the beach with friends , flew B-29 during war -thought it would never happen. north and one going south you see behind Never thought the 1 i ght? it ~vould happen. Said I didn' t know what it was but \soul d report it and tha nks for the lhird UFO call from :nan in Trenton ~-Jho made first call . Light i s nO\'i circling near the noon. Have you found out what i t is yet? My answer negative but thin< i will go out and l ook myself. A:I:O ~: Told disJa:=i-ler I ~vas going to roof, took binoculars, \.<sent - oo7, couldn'~ 7inc moon, scanned sky, saw about 30 planes, stars :~inkling br! 1ian~ly various colors, climbed down. Ti me : 2300L = -:-call -Lady in 4illingboro not satisfied with dispatcher ex- ~--= on. Her corcer n was that Air Force Colonel next door had said ~-~ -:~ d comp1e:~ a written UFO Report of her light sighting. I as~--~: ~er that her report was duly noted. Time: 2320L Fi~:~ call -Noticed that the dispatche r completely out of words on the r~lephone-took over call -do not have name of caller. Caller ide ::ied himself as a reporter for the Pottstown Mercury-said his -:>'JSS v1anted an ans\-Jer for the light reported over Pottsto~m. I said l didn't have an answer. Had had mJny calls from New J erse y about the same light. He \'lanted to know what I do about these calls. I explained that we were not forwarding reports of lights, but were tryi,g to concentrate on the shape or substance carrying the light. H! -s:ced why we didn't investigate lights. I answered that we ge t h c;~ds of calls about lights but seldom received useful information a~cL~ what carried the light. He asked if he coul d use my name and I do not 1 i eve I ever spoke to state t hat Mr reporte r had a little t JO to drink causing him to see things. I have never chided a LrO ca 11 e r I b~lieve the gentleman is rankled because I coul d not identify the 1 :;ht and wasn t planning to report it. COM.MENTS ON CURRENT UFO REPORTING: Th~ Base Operations Out) Officer at McGuir e Air Force Base is helpless t o investigate and consequently identify a light over Pottstown Penna. The person \->Jho should take a call and investigate a light is a ma n in Pcttstown, located and appointed by the Mayor of Pottstown and equipped w:th a sighting instrume nt and a night camer a . A citizen of Pottstown co~ld call the Pottstown Police who ha ve a list of these UFO investi- gato r s by town sector . The police coul d then pass t he phone number to the sishter who could then call direct to an appointed, equipped, and ibly trained l oca l citizen who could meet with the sighte r and pos- s ibly come up with an answer. curr ent procedure of calling the nearest Air Force Base is expen- sive of time and money and useless as a n investigati ve program. ?.J3::RT S . CLARK III 3~s~ C?erations Duty O~ficer 2 August 1968 S U O JiCT D EPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE HEADQUARTERS FOREIGN TECHNOLOGY DIVISION I AFSC) WRIGHT.PATTERSON AIR FORC E BASE. OHIO 45433 L?J 0':se!'vation , 28 July 1968 t.t.stown, Pennsylvania 19464 r~:erence your recen~ unidentified flying object sightin g which y :,J. reported to the Air Force. The information whic h \le have r e:eived is not sufficient for a scientific investi gation. Request j complet e the attecn~d AF Form 117 and return i t in the self- e~dressed envelope. Thank you for reportin g your observation to t.ne Air Force. ~;icT6' --:-11ft&~ ' ;'Jr, Lt Colonel, USAF Chief,vAerial Phe~oGena Office Ae~ospace Technolo~ies Division Production Directora~e AF Form 117 w/envelope A Different Slant 1. _, f!rll:! from flying S'l tc.-:-::. 1 c h~ing ov~;Illajed laL::ly, r_ .. , ' mc.3t m~.l oi sci~ncc den': :-: ;n th~m. or. may he pcop!~ ~lrJ ligi1b t:".. !>t'1ndin~ s~ill. "