Fort Riley incident (1964)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 7
| Date | 10 December 1964 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Crashes & retrievals (topic), Beings & bodies (topic), Secrecy & cover-up (topic) |
| People | Leonard Stringfield |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 66 |
| Year | 1964 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1964 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 7 |
The Fort Riley incident is an alleged event of 10 December 1964 in which, according to an anonymous former Army guard, soldiers at Fort Riley, Kansas, were ordered to guard a large object resting on the ground in a remote part of the base. No records or named witnesses confirm it.[1][2]
The account
The source, a former private identified only by initials, told researcher Leonard Stringfield that he was on guard duty at the motor pool when he and three other soldiers were ordered by a senior officer to a remote corner of the base. There a large military helicopter was shining a searchlight on an object on the ground, already surrounded by military personnel. He described it as like a giant hamburger, about 40 feet by 16 feet, with a dark line around its rim and a small tail-fin stabiliser, and said the air near it was very warm on a bitterly cold night. He said they were given shoot-to-kill orders to keep civilians away and warned never to talk about it.[1][2]
Later additions
Researchers later reported a second account from another guard, who said that the next morning he saw a large flatbed truck carrying a roundish object under canvas leave the base under heavy security. Unnamed sources have also been cited as claiming that nine alien bodies were recovered, without any evidence.[1]
Publication
The story appeared in Stringfield's crash-retrieval reports from 1978 onwards. Like most of his material, the witnesses are unnamed, and no documents, other named witnesses or physical evidence have confirmed it.[2][3]
In the testimony
The testimony cites: Retrievals of the Third Kind presented at MUFON 1978, Leon Stringfield, p30.
People and topics
- Leonard Stringfield — Former Air Force intelligence officer and NICAP researcher who collected anonymous crash-retrieval accounts from 1978 to 1994.
On the Timeline
- Big Sur UFO film (September 1964) — An officer says he studied film of a UAP downing a test warhead over the Pacific; the CIA took it.
- Philip Moore's Atlas missile site sighting (Late 1964) — An Atlas launch officer reports a UAP near his missile site in New Mexico.
See every 1964 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Patrick Gross, "Fort Riley, Kansas, December 10, 1964", UFOs at close sight · ufology.patrickgross.org · archived copy
- Leonard H. Stringfield — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Patrick Gross, "Stringfield's 1978 report", UFOs at close sight · ufology.patrickgross.org · archived copy
- Retrobituaries: Leonard Stringfield, ufologist — Mental Floss · mentalfloss.com · archived copy
- Leonard Stringfield's status report at the 1978 MUFON symposium — Podcast UFO · podcastufo.com · archived copy
- Retrobituaries: Leonard Stringfield — Mental Floss · mentalfloss.com · archived copy
- UFO Crash Retrievals: Status Report I — Goodreads · goodreads.com · 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.
No discussion yet.