Lockbourne AFB object and Kecksburg
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 9
| Date | 10 December 1965 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Crashes & retrievals (topic), Bases & Area 51 (topic) |
| People | Leslie Kean |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 67 |
| Year | 1965 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1965 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 9 |
A former U.S. Air Force member stationed at Lockbourne Air Force Base near Columbus, Ohio, has said that in the early hours of 10 December 1965 he guarded a flatbed truck carrying a large, tarpaulin-covered conical object, said to be bound for Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. His account is usually linked to the Kecksburg incident in Pennsylvania the previous afternoon.[1][2]
The Lockbourne account
The man, who is not named in published accounts, came forward after the television series Unsolved Mysteries featured the Kecksburg case in 1990. He said a truck arrived at the base's little-used back gate, that he was ordered to patrol around it, and that he was told to shoot anyone who tried to get too close. He saw a large conical shape under the tarpaulin and understood the truck was going on to Wright-Patterson. His story has not been corroborated.[1]
The Kecksburg incident
On the afternoon of 9 December 1965 a bright fireball was seen across several U.S. states and Ontario, Canada, with reports of sonic booms and falling debris. Witnesses near Kecksburg, about 30 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, said something crashed in the woods. Fire chief Robert Bitner and others said they came within about 200 feet of an object, and local residents reported soldiers sealing off the area and a flatbed truck leaving with a large tarp-covered object, which some described as acorn-shaped with strange markings.[1][2]
Official explanations
State police and Air Force personnel said they searched and found nothing. Project Blue Book's file notes that a three-man team was sent to pick up an object that had started a fire, a team later identified as part of the Moon Dust space-debris recovery program, and concluded that the fireball was a meteor. A 1967 study using photographic and seismic data concluded the object descended steeply and probably came down near Lake Erie. In 2005 NASA said experts had identified fragments from the area as part of a Soviet satellite, but that the records had been lost; after a Freedom of Information lawsuit by journalist Leslie Kean, NASA agreed in 2007 to search for them, and an official testified that two boxes of papers from the period were missing. NASA later said the path was too steep for the Soviet probe Kosmos 96, which re-entered hours earlier.[1][2][3]
Legacy
The case has been called "Pennsylvania's Roswell". Kecksburg now displays a replica "acorn" built for Unsolved Mysteries and holds an annual UFO festival.[2][4]
In the testimony
The testimony cites: Majic Eyes Only, p160.
People and topics
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- Wright-Patterson Air Force Base — The Ohio air base that housed Project Blue Book and is linked to the Hangar 18 legend.
- Kecksburg incident — The December 1965 fall of an object near Kecksburg, Pennsylvania.
- Kecksburg — The Pennsylvania village where an object was said to fall in 1965.
- NASA — The U.S. civilian space agency, created in 1958.
- Leslie Kean — Journalist who co-wrote the 2017 New York Times story on AATIP.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
On the Timeline
- F.E. Warren missile site sightings (1965) (31 July 1965-2 August 1965) — An Air Force memo logs 148 objects reported by 143 personnel at F.E. Warren missile sites.
- China Lake surveyors' sighting (1966) (18 January 1966) — Two surveyors at China Lake see a UAP pass low overhead and maneuver.
See every 1965 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Patrick Gross, "Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, December 9, 1965", UFOs at close sight · ufologie.patrickgross.org · archived copy
- Kecksburg UFO incident — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "Is case finally closed on '65 UFO mystery?", Fox News · foxnews.com · archived copy
- Kecksburg, Pennsylvania — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Leonard H. Stringfield — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Stringfield's 1978 report — Patrick Gross · ufology.patrickgross.org · archived copy
- Kecksburg UFO case file — The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · archived copy
- Kecksburg UFO continues to draw interest — TribLive · archive.triblive.com · archived copy
- The mystery in Kecksburg: what fell from the sky 60 years ago? — Daily Courier · dailycourier.com · archived copy
Further reading
- Wright-Patterson Air Force Base — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Hangar 18 (the legend and 1980 film) — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Kecksburg UFO incident — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- John Podesta — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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