HISTORICAL

Exeter incident — Teenager Norman Muscarello and two police officers in Exeter, New Hampshire watched a large round craft with red pulsating lights hover at low altitude over a horse field.

In the early hours of September 3, 1965, an 18-year-old hitchhiker, two police officers, and several other witnesses near Exeter, New Hampshire, separately observed a large, low-flying, brilliantly red-pulsating object that approached a farmhouse and a wooden corral. The case became the subject of John G. Fuller's best-selling 1966 book "Incident at Exeter" and was the highest-profile UFO event of the mid-1960s. 【Background】 Norman Muscarello, 18, was hitchhiking home along Route 150 outside Exeter shortly after midnight when he reported being approached by a glowing object he initially mistook for an aircraft and then realised was hovering silently a short distance away. 【The Encounter】 Muscarello flagged down a passing car and was driven into Exeter, where he reported the incident to police officer Eugene Bertrand. Bertrand drove him back to the field. Bertrand and Muscarello both witnessed a brilliantly red-pulsating object about 90 feet across rise silently from behind a wooded ridge and approach to within about 100 feet, causing nearby farm animals to behave erratically. Officer David Hunt arrived shortly after and saw the same object. The Pease Air Force Base, the closest installation, denied any aircraft were operating in the area, although a separate report from a small civilian aircraft reportedly mentioned a similar object. 【Investigation】 The case was investigated by the US Air Force Project Blue Book, which initially attributed the sighting to high-altitude US Air Force exercises, then to stars and planets. The witnesses, including the two officers, publicly rejected both explanations. Their letters to the Air Force are part of the declassified Project Blue Book record. The case is widely cited as a key factor in the 1966-67 University of Colorado UFO Project commissioned by the US Air Force. 【Modern Assessment】 Exeter is regarded as one of the strongest mid-1960s "low and close" UFO encounters because of the multiple credible witnesses, the institutional documentation, and the persistence of the witnesses in challenging the official explanation. The incident is commemorated annually by the town with a UFO festival, and Bertrand and Hunt remained outspoken about the case until their deaths. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exeter_incident

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Source: Wikipedia