Alternate Perceptions Magazine, April 2025
The Saucer Files
By Rick Hilberg
Advent of The Flying Saucers 1955 - 1956
November 2, 1955 - "Wash Tub" Over Williston, Florida - Two people reported mysterious objects that lit up large areas of ground at night with a light brighter than the sun. One of them, C. F. Bell had been a Williston city police officer for three years.
Bell was on routine duty that evening at about 10:30 and was parked in the heart of the town when he saw six lighted objects approaching from the south in formation, moving slowly. Occasionally, he said, one of the objects would be left behind and put on a burst of speed to catch up. Then after the things passed over town, one of them turned in a gradual bank and began losing altitude.
Bell then drove about a mile and a half north where it seemed the object was heading. Bell said he got out of the police cruiser, and the object, moving very slowly, passed directly over him. For about seven minutes, Bell said he had the object in close view. The light from it was so bright that it lit up an area 50 to 70 feet in diameter. The light was steady and the object so bright that, at that range, it could not be observed directly. Bell said he judged the object to be about 150 feet distant from him and guessed it would have been about three feet wide. It was shaped like a wash tub, was pure white and had no markings on it nor windows or other identification.
There was no sound, no odor, but the heat of the object gave Bell a tingling sensation like he had never experienced. He said his clothing became hot. Part of his body felt like a foot or leg had " gone to sleep, " tingling all over.
Bell had considerable experience with aircraft during World War II. Nothing, he said, resembled the object he saw and felt that Sunday evening. It was also reported that he was interviewed by two Air Force officers regarding his experience.
April 29, 1956 - Family Spots "Flying Cigar" in Arizona - Bud Pecaro, along with his family, were driving from Los Angeles to Greenwich, Connecticut when they had the following experience as told by Bud:
"As we were starting out in the morning on the highway to Tempi, Arizona, my father remarked about an object in the sky to the right front of us. When I first looked, I saw a long silver object with something seeming to shoot away from it and to the right of us. I immediately asked for the large pair of binoculars as I know the smaller ones would be ineffective. When I looked, I didn't have them in focus right away, but I could tell that the object was a long cigar shape with a dark spot, or hole, in the center. I then handed the glasses to my father. After a while he said he saw what looked like a row of windows or ports that kept flashing light or flames along the side of the thing, and that while he was watching, something like a little meteor came shooting out of the bottom. About this same time, I noticed that the thing seemed to flare up, after which it appeared to be farther away "Along the side of the highway were telephone poles, two in a row. This is important because the object seemed to follow with each end touching - at least, for a short time. Finally, after we were out of the traffic, we stopped along the side of the road to get a better look at the object. By this time, it had moved from the right to the left of the highway, and away from the telephone poles. It was now over some mountains in the distance and seemed to have gotten there rather quickly. I got one last good look at it through the binoculars before we and it moved away. It looked like a big ball point pen that was glowing on top and dark underneath. The sighting, in all, lasted ten minutes."
November 25, 1956 - Highway Patrolmen Sight Egg-Shaped "Something" - Don Klem and Jack Peters, South Dakota Highway Patrolmen, we're driving over a hill on Highway 34, about 30 miles east of Pierre, at 12:43 a.m. when they spotted something hovering alongside the road, "almost in the ditch." Whatever it was, it was egg-shaped with a rounded bottom and gave off enough red light to illuminate the highway, the officers later recounted. "I don't know what it was," commented Peters, " but it definitely was there." Peters compared its size to that of a semi-trailer; Klem estimated it was about the size of an automobile.
When they first saw it, the officers were about a block away from the thing, and admittedly frightened. Said Klem, "I slammed on the brakes. We were that close." But apparently the bowl-shaped object was even more frightened, for it took off over the road, it's red color becoming constantly lighter.
Undaunted in their seeming curiosity, the patrolmen threw caution to the winds - and followed the thing in hot pursuit. It was roughly a six- or seven-mile chase, and all of the while the "object" always appeared to remain about a mile ahead of its pursuers, consistently crisscrossing above the highway.
The UFO reportedly stayed about 1,000 feet above ground level and was noiseless and without a visible exhaust. Officer Peters suddenly remembered in his excitement that they had a camera in the patrol car.
After snapping several pictures of it the two officers decided to turn back and see if the object would follow them for a change.
While the thing seemed to follow for a short while, it soon changed course and was quickly lost from view.
Once the photos were processed and enlarged, one image resembled a half-moon and the other an ovoid shape with a bulbous protuberance at one end. This image of the object was about three times the diameter of the moon which was also captured in that particular frame.
