65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_SUB_A

Text

This text came with the file. It may have mistakes. When the text and the image disagree, the image is right.

•
•
NO SALE
By the time The News talked to
Pk. Viets at Quantico yesterday,
the airplane navigation light theory
already had been offered. The News
asked Pfc. Viets about it, and he
said:
"That was no airplane. I first
thought it might be a weather
balloon, but it wasn't. Either way,
you could have seen the shape."
Pfc.-Viets and Sergt. Salinder saw
the light again at 10:15 the same
night. Five minutes later they called
in the roving guard from a nearby
guard tower, but the light was gone.
CONFLICT
Pfc. Bennett (top front) ~rabbed a butcher knife and said: "It's land­
First reports had It that troops
h1g in Ule tanlt shed!" 1\'la.i. Pomerleau (middle photo) i.s skeptical,
were sent into the area to look for
but still curious. Pfc. Viets (bottom photo) saw enough to convb1ce
the lights. Yesterday Maj. A. B.
hhn "that was no alrplane."
-News stare Photos by Gene ThomBa
\
Ferguson, the base information of­
ficer, said that report was errone- • with troops," the official report sible way to describe the light's
ous.
says.
size, shape and intensity was to
"We did at no time dispatch
Thirty minutes later, the sergeant compare it to "the way a blinking
troops to fight off the invaders or of'the guard saw it again, and at
8:23 p. m. three lights .wet'e seen. red traffic light appears to a motor­
capture then or welcome them (This was New Year's Eve.)
At ist as he pulls up to an intersec­
aboard or anything else," he said.
tlon "
However, this is what the official 9:01 it was seen again, and at 4:20
•
record says:
New Year's
morning it moved
He heard no noise and saw no
"A IS-man detail arrived (at
northeast, then south, theri north shape. He said the light was "sharp­
and remained "over the tank shed ly delineated."
11:15 p. m., Dec. 30) f rom Camp
Barrett and made a search of the at an elevation of about 3500 feet."
"But I have friends and a pro·
area in which the light was first
1'hat was the time Pfc. Vie'ts
fessional reputation," he said, "and
seen. 1'he search proved fruit-
said, "when they saw lt oome u1>
as far as I'm concemed just say
less.''
there and lay under the moon until
it's an aircraft navigation light.''
Fifty minutes later Pfc. Viets' re-
morning."
Sev.eral ail:lines that fly in and out
lief "reported seeing the same red
Pfc. Viets' relief of the night be- of Washington say they began in­
light." Se1>gt. Salinder saw nothing. fore got so excited he "grabbed a stalling new lights atop the tails of
HOVERS
butcher knife and headed for the planes six m011ths ago. They blink
tank shed to help out his troops,'' on and off, are red, and can be seen
The next night the light was seen his barracks mates said.
much farther away than older types.
again, at 6:25 p. m., by a tank
The light came back three times
"Nobody in the barracks knows,''
park sentry and the guard tower. Friday night, once Saturday night, Pfc. Viets said.. ''They're just talking
At 7:10, it appeared again. This five times Sunday night and twice flying saucers, that's a:11. They're
time the sergeant of the guard last night.
talking about men from Mars and
"came out and check~~ the c:,rea
Maj. Pomerleau said the best pos- everything else you could name."
= ­
THE WA~'HIIJGTON DAILY Nl!.'WS
Greater Washington ~-d· t·
1-5-54
~ i ion