"That's where they touched down!"

Back in the mid-'60s, I was an Air Intelligence Specialist assigned to the Alaskan Command. One of the tasks my outfit was tasked with was to investigate suspected UFO sightings.

One sighting we looked into was reported by a couple of bush pilots (civilians who were flying piper cub airplanes). They reported a rather large scorched area on a flat part of one of the Wrangell Mountains on the coast of Alaska about 350 miles (the way the crow flies) outside of Elmendorf Air Force Base. One of my Captains flew 104s, so we flew out to the area of the sighting. We rendezvoused with one bush pilot who flew over  a circular spot that was about 50 yards wide, and radioed us, saying, "That's where they touched down!" Since we couldn't get as low (or slow) as the piper cub, we couldn't get low enough to see much more. We did, however, get a pretty good idea of where the site was by getting a vector from both Eilson AFB (near Fairbanks) and Elmendorf, and we took several photos with a hand-held camera (a Nikon that we fixed up to take pictures of the Russian Bear aircraft that routinely flew up and down the Alaskan chain of islands).

When we got back back, we pinpointed the location (I was also a photo interrupter), and flew a rescue chopper out to the sight. Once we got close enough to land, we could see the remains of a meteorite in the middle of the scorched area. 

Thus, the UFO was officially identified as a meteorite.

Created Aug. 4, 2000. Updated June 10, 2003.