Alternate Perceptions Magazine, October 2026
The Worldwide UFO Wave of 1965 Part- 1
By: Rick Hilberg
If I were asked for the first report of the huge worldwide wave of 1965 to receive attention in the press, I would say that the sighting of a lens- shaped object at the South Pole would be "it." :
JULY 3 - On that date came official reports that a mysterious lens-shaped flying object, maneuvering and moving at a great speed, was sighted.
Mario Jahn Barrera, commander of a Chilean base, radioed his defense ministry that the object was "something real" and that it caused interference in the electromagnetic apparatus. In Buenos Aires the navy issued a communique saying the object was seen and photographed at Argentina's Antarctic base.
The colors were given as "yellowing red, changing to green, yellow, white and orange."
The Argentine dispatch from a detachment at Deception, said the object was "neither balloon nor star nor aircraft." The report stressed the lack of sound and noted that the object stood still in space at times.
A Chilean corporal took pictures - but in total darkness. Further, the base had no facilities for developing film. The photo was sent back to the mainland some eight months later during a resupply mission.
Portugal -
Strange objects moving through space were reported sighted in two widely separated areas of Portugal. The Azores weather bureau said interference from one stopped its electromagnetic clocks.
The first reported mysterious flying object appeared in Motosinhos, near the northern city of Oporto, where Manuel Fernandes and his wife at first saw "some sort of luminous flattened balloon."
Fernandes, an employee of the fisherman's union, said "The strange object at first looked like a flattened balloon, but then as we both watched, it looked like a plate turned over.
"The thing was very luminous and had orange coloring and was nearly red at times," the couple said. "The saucer stopped at a rather high altitude, near the coast, for about three minutes. Then, with an incredible velocity, it sped towards the north."
Some sort of interference stopped the electromagnetic clocks of the Villa Do Porto weather bureau in the Portuguese Azores archipelago, a spokesman said. He added, "a cylindrical white object" circled around in the sky. He said the object was moving slowly northeast at an altitude of 24,000 to 30,000 feet.
Marion, South Carolina -
UFOs were reported in the Pee Dee River area at night - one case outside Florence and the other outside Marion.
The Marion report said that a "real bright object" flew along outside Marion. Jerry Coleman and Sonny Foxworth, both of Latta, reported seeing the object as they approached Marion from Latta. They said the object was flat and gave off a bright light.
About a half-hour later, Robert Sims of Florence said he sighted an object going west over Florence. The time was 8:00 p.m. and Sims said the object appeared to land near the Timmonsville Highway.
About the object Sims saw, he said it looked like "a big ball of fire and left a smoke trail." It's quite possible that Sims may have spotted a meteor.
Pepper Pike, Ohio-
Mrs. Willian W. Kehres of Chagrin Falls and her 11-year-old son, Grant, saw a brilliant and hovering UFO along Shaker Boulevard near Lander Road.
"I stopped the car so we could watch," she said. "It was oblong and very shiny - sort of metallic- and appeared to be hovering at about 5,000 feet."
In a moment the object disappeared, she reported. As the car started the object reappeared. It began accelerating at a rapid rate of speed and disappeared in the distance, she said.
Greenwood, Indiana -
Two youngsters in northeast Greenwood viewed unidentified lights in the sky at about 11:00 p.m. that evening.
"The first looked cigar-shaped and was larger than the second one, which was more round and was only half as far away," described Michael Hughes, an 18-year-old, who was visiting his aunt and uncle Mr. And Mrs. William C. Miller.
Teresa Owen, who was putting her bicycle into the garage, said she only saw the first light which she too described as cigar-shaped. She viewed the strange sight at her home in Greenwood. Teresa, was a sixth grader, and the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Warren Owen.
Teresa said the cylindrical light "moved fast and was pretty high. It didn't look like an airplane to me. It looked like a long streak and kept moving about. It didn't make any noise."
"The first one looked like a cigar in shape and moved faster and higher than any jet I've ever seen," said the Hughes youth, who had in interest in science since high school.
"I watched it fly toward the moon and cut across a bright star before it was gone."
Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland -
An unidentified flying object - or objects - spotted in the sky had thousands of persons and numerous agencies in at least four states baffled.
The general consensus of "experts" was that the object was a weather balloon. But if it was indeed a balloon, no one was able to find out where it came from.
The Federal Aviation Agency, which is generally informed on such matters, said it had no reports of any weather balloons being launched that day except one in Tyler, Texas. A spokesman said, however, that the Tyler balloon was launched only a short time before the first UFO report was made in Ohio that morning.
Late that night, the FAA at Columbus said to disregard its earlier information that the object was a weather balloon. It would not comment further.
A spokesman at Lockbourne AFB near Columbus, said the object spotted in the Mideastern states was a satellite. He too declined further comment.
A report that the object was "definitely" Venus came from Friend Kierstead, orbit analyst for the Akron-Canton Satellite Tracking Group which traces satellites for the government. Kierstead said the planet had become visible after moving within close range of the sun.
There was speculation by the FAA and research officials at Ohio State University, however, that the object spotted in Akron may not have been the one seen in other states.
Lockbourne sent up a jet plane to get a closer look at the object, repotted by several sources to have been hovering at about 60, 000 to 80,000 feet. The pilot reported that he was no closer to the object at 31,000 feet - the highest he went - than when he was on the ground.
Officials at Wright-Patterson AFB, near Dayton said that they didn't know for sure what the object was or where it came from.
The chief meteorologist at the Columbus Weather Bureau said it appeared as "an inverted flow-through tea bag." Descriptions by others who watched the object through telescopes ranged from "tier-shaped", "cigar-shaped", "bell-shaped" to "round." Reports on the color varied widely from white to silver to orange.
Thousands of bewildered persons who saw it telephoned news media, weather bureaus, police - jamming switchboards.
