Thread by @mrjeffknox

#ufotwitter #ufohistory #bluebook
Today In UFO History - Car Engine Fails After Object Lands / Radiation / Beehive UFO
December 21, 1964 - Staunton-Harrisonburg-Fishersville, Virginia
1/4:50 p.m. Kenneth Norton Jr., 14, is looking out his bedroom window in Staunton, Virginia,

2/when he sees a “fast-moving object without wings or tail structure.” He describes it as cigar-shaped and about 125 feet in diameter, in view for 5 seconds.
-5:00 p.m. Driving east on US Highway 250, Horace Burns is approaching Fishersville, Virginia, when an enormous object

3/appears from the north and descends slowly in a gradual slant. Just before it crosses the highway 200 feet in front of him, the UFO narrowly misses power lines. It is so huge that when it passes nearly in front of him, it fills his entire windshield. The UFO comes down gently

4/and lands in a field to Burns’s right. Meanwhile, Burns’s car engine has shut off. The object appears to be at least 125 feet in diameter and 80–90 feet high. After 60–90 seconds, it rises up several hundred feet, makes a sound like rushing air, and shoots off to the northeast,

5/ vanishing from sight. A high level of radioactivity is detected at the site December 30 by investigators German professor Ernest G. Gehman and engineer Harry M. Cook. They obtain a Geiger counter reading of 16–18 milliR/hr. Two Blue Book investigators—T/Sgt. David N. Moody and

6/ S/Sgt. Harold T. Jones—visit the site with Gehman on January 12 and take further readings (1.5 milliR/hr on Burns’s left rear car door). They dispute Gehman’s earlier results, but a possible 11x–12x drop in radiation level in 13 days possibly indicates a radionuclide with a

7/3–4 day half-life. [Eberhart]
Sources:
“‘Saucer’ Reports Are Flying,” Staunton (Va.) Daily News Leader, January 15, 1965, pp. 1–2;
Brad Sparks, BB Unknowns File, Case #1595, p. 303;
Mark Rodeghier, UFO Reports Involving Vehicle Interference, case 136;

Sources cont.:
Jacques Vallee, Passport to Magonia: A Century of Landings, p. 303, case # 628;
Richard Hall, The UFO Evidence (Volume II): A Thirty Year Report, p. 3,36-37;
"Huge UFO At Staunton, VA.” The A.P.R.O. Bulletin (May-June 1965): 6;

Sources cont.:
Keyhoe, Donald E., and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., eds. UFOs: A New Look. Washington, DC: National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, 1969. pg.21-22;
Gordon I. R. Lore and Harold H. Dennault, Jr., Mysteries of the Skies: UFOs in Perspective, p. 171;

Sources cont.:
Jerome Clark, "Fisherville CE2", The UFO Encyclopedia, 3rd Ed., pg.491-494;
-- "Radiation Incidents", pg.950;
"Opposition Flap 1965." Flying Saucer Review 11, no. 3 (May/June 1965): 3-6;

Sources cont.:
Hanlon, Donald B. “Virginia 1965 Flap.” Flying Saucer Review 12, no. 2 (March/April 1966): 14–16.
Letter to Hector Quintanilla from J A Hynek.

Donald E. Keyhoe, "I know the secret of the flying saucers." TRUE Magazine (January 1966): 34-36, 94-95; [Case on pg36]
Comments by Air Force Consultant, J. A. Hynek on Keyhoe's Article,
January 1966 Issue of “True Magazine.”
project1947.com/articles/jah_d…

Gehman, Ernest G. Gigantic UFO Lands Near Staunton, Virginia. Harrisonburg, VA: The Author, 1965. [REPRINTED in FSIC Bulletin Vol.2 No.1]

Gehman, Ernest G. Gigantic UFO Lands Near Staunton continued:

FSIC Bulletin Vol.2 No.1:

Case File from the Condon Archives @ APS Library:

Case File from the Condon Archives @ APS Library cont:

Case File from the Condon Archives @ APS Library cont:

NICAP, “Car Engine Fails after Object Lands”;
[With the 50+pg BB File, with alot more newsclippings and letters]
nicap.org/641221harrison…

TRUE Magazine – January, 1966
project1947.com/articles/true_…

PDF of the actual article as it appeared in True:
files.afu.se/Downloads/Maga…

There is much more I could have posted. There is alot of correspondence for this case, including government letters, and personal notes and other back and forth regarding this case. The thread was already 2 long, and it crashed out on me 3 times and I had to start from scratch.😩

From Rick Hilbergs - The Forgotten Flap -- 1964