On August 23, 1955, a military UFO encounter took place over Cincinnati, Ohio. Personnel at the GOC tower in Hamilton County noticed three white spheres between Columbus and Cincinnati. Tracking the objects on radar, they notified Strategic Air Command at Lockbourne AFB, which scrambled jets to investigate. The UFO soon approached the tower and hovered in pendulum-like motions directly above it. The interceptors then swooped in and gave chase, but the craft disappeared at “incredible speed.” Meanwhile, UFO reports were coming in from throughout the region to Leonard Stringfield’s filter center in Cincinnati. The Greater Cincinnati Airport also tracked unidentified blips on radar. To his surprise, Stringfield obtained clearance to write about the sightings in his newsletter. A mistake or a big change in policy, he thought. But when he tried to get the story to the press, “the Cincinnati newspapers weren’t interested.” A spokesman at Wright-Patterson not only denied the incident to a newspaper, but claimed to know nothing of Stringfield’s relationship with Air Defense Command. Stringfield was bewildered.161
Stringfield remained in touch with the air force during the late summer and into the autumn. One air force officer on active duty broke the law and told Stringfield privately, “What bothers me is what’s happening to our aircraft.” He then described a crash of a U.S. jet while it chased a UFO in Iceland. “We couldn’t explain the crash.” Officially, the men died during a routine training mission. The officer gave Stringfield the impression that this kind of event was not unusual.162
Other interesting UFO sightings occurred sporadically during the summer of 1955. One was a multiple-witness sighting of a long silvery object emerging from the water in Santa Maria, California. Another involved a brilliant round object with a long trail approaching National Airport in Washington, D.C. The object stopped, oscillated, and moved off at high speed. The airport ceiling lights went out when it approached, and turned on when it left. Other close-range sightings were reported in America and England.163
SENATOR RICHARD RUSSELL SEES A UFO
One of the key UFO sightings of the year involved U.S. Senator Richard Russell (D-Georgia), head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, during a trip to the Soviet Union on October 4, 1955. Russell was on a Soviet train from Kiev and passing through the Transcaucasus region. He was accompanied by Armed Services Committee consultant Ruben Efron and Lt. Col. E. U. Hathaway. Shortly after 7 P.M., Russell looked out his window to see a disc-shaped object slowly ascending vertically. Its outer surface revolved slowly to the right, and a spark or flame emanated from the bottom. It reached an altitude of about six thousand feet, then headed north at a very fast speed. Russell rushed over to tell his two companions. Hathaway looked quickly enough to see the UFO; Efron missed it. To everyone’s astonishment, a second disc then appeared about two minutes later and performed exactly the same maneuver as the first. This time all three men saw it. A distraught Soviet trainman then closed the curtains of the car, and directed the three not to look outside.
The report went past Blue Book to much higher levels, and someone leaked it to the
I have discussed this matter with the affected agencies of the government, and they are of the opinion that it is not wise to publicize this matter at this time.
The matter was classified Top Secret until 1959 and remained Secret until 1985 when Stanton Friedman was able to get it declassified following a FOIA request. Interview notes about the sighting stated:
[T]here were two lights toward the inside of the disc, which remained stationary as the outer surface went around.... The lights sat near the top of the disc. If a line representing the diameter of the disc were divided into three segments, the lights would have been located at the two points of division between the middle segment and the two outside segments.... The aircraft was circular. The aircraft was round, resembled a flying saucer.
