Charleston Police Officers See UFO

ECHO-1 Satellite
Source: Wikipedia

When dealing with reports of UFOs, the problem of witness reliability is always present. However, few can argue that fraudulent or untruthful claims are an issue when no less than SEVEN members of the Charleston, WV Police Department reported seeing a strange object in the early morning sky!

It all started on Wednesday, May 11, 1966. At around 2:58 a.m. Company B of the West Virginia State Police, stationed in South Charleston began receiving calls about a strange object in the sky. Twelve minutes later, the object apparently had traveled to Charleston, where it was spotted by Patrolmen Bob Easley and Robert King. The two reported a "blazing light of spectacular appearance." 

Easley radioed back to the station, where interested parties on duty stepped out to look skyward. No less than seven members of the police department, including Desk Sgt. James C. Robinson saw the craft. Robinson, who had a clear view of the object, noted that the object was very bright and fast-moving. He states, "When it got almost directly in my line of vision, there was something that went from the side of it at a much higher rate of speed. After about 15 seconds it completely disappeared.

Many of those who saw the object said it took off, straight up at a very high speed. One officer, who did NOT see it this interesting takeoff however, but did claim to see the object had a theory as to what was witnessed. John Bailes believes what the men saw was an ECHO Satellite. According to Wikipedia: 

"Project Echo was the first passive communications satellite experiment. Each of the two American spacecraft, launched in 1960 and 1964, were metalized balloon satellites acting as passive reflectors of microwave signals. Communication signals were transmitted from one location on Earth and bounced off the surface of the satellite to another Earth location."

Sgt. Robinson did agree that the object resembled the ECHO Satellite, but moved way too fast and was much brighter. In 1966, the United States was not only under threat from the Cold War, but was also deep into a Space Race with the former Soviet Union. Did a group of Charleston police officers really spot an extraterrestrial craft...or was it something from either our own or a foreign government?

The Charleston Daily Mail
11 May 1966

The Raleigh Register
12 May 1966

Monroe County UFO Seen by Hinton Woman

 

Pickaway, WV (Monroe County)
Photo from Wiki, by Antony-22

The citizens of Hinton, WV seem to have a knack for spotting UFO's around Summers and the surrounding counties! I recently stumbled upon a newspaper article from the January 10, 1948 edition of the Hinton Daily News highlighting a strange sighting of fireballs in the sky by Mrs. J.W. Bland.

Mrs. Bland and her husband were returning to their home in Hinton from a nice little day trip to see Organ Cave in nearby Greenbrier County. About 7pm that evening, they were passing through the small community of Pickaway in Monroe County and Mrs. Bland noticed something in the sky. She described it as a big, round ball of fire with a dark thing in the center---a thing that resembled a human body. At first, her husband tried to convince her she was just seeing the evening star, but when the strange flaming ball descended straight down rapidly, he decided to pull over for a better look. 

They watched this ball of fire for about 35 minutes as it circled around trees at varying speeds, seemingly governed by the wind. Not only did the speed fluctuate, but the very shape of the thing did as well, going from a perfect sphere to more oblong in shape. After awhile it just zoomed straight up and disappeared.

The following day, Mrs. Bland called the local newspaper office to report her sighting. Earlier that week, the topic of flying saucers and strange lights in the sky was once more a hot issue, as similar reports had been coming in from Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, even being spotted by Air Force personnel. However, Mrs. Bland is credited as being the first to witness this particular flap of aerial phenomenon in West Virginia. 

Interestingly, the summer before when the country was collectively deciding what to make out of the news of a potential UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico, another Hinton housewife, Lee Ramsey (interestingly, who lived on the same street as Mrs. Bland a couple of blocks down) saw a group of saucer-shaped craft over her home. And the story continues...

In 1952, the UFOs returned to Hinton. In July, a group of women on Summers Street (the SAME street that Mrs. Bland and Mrs. Ramsey lived on) saw a big round spinning thing over the New River from their porch. A month later, the passengers on a bus driving through Hinton also had a weird sighting of what they described as an aluminum bathtub-shaped object in the sky near the ballpark. 

I'm not sure what makes Hinton residents so inclined to see strange aerial phenomenon, or maybe just more willing to report it and publish it, but I'm happy that we have these stories preserved. My grandmother grew up just outside of Hinton, and while she tended to tell more tales of ghosts than UFOs, it makes me wonder. Her family had already moved to Beckley by 1940, however, so they missed out on these well-known post WWII UFO flaps. Also...I think I need to do a little more digging into this Summers Street phenomenon. I know that it is a main thoroughfare that runs quite a distance through town with many residences along the way. But, there's something that just sticks out to me about this "Ladies' Summers Street UFO Club." Did these ladies know each other? Did they talk about their sightings? Why in the world did so many women on Summers Street see UFOs???

10 January 1948
Hinton Daily News

*Want MORE Summers County UFO Sightings? Check out these blogs on Theresa's Haunted History for more information on the sightings referenced in this post!*

Lee Ramsey UFO Sighting

1952 UFO Flap Over Hinton

Talcott Sighting 1958

1950 UFO Flap Continues

 

Last night, I posted a new blog on Theresa's Haunted History about three strange, unidentified objects seen flying over Fairmont, West Virginia. The objects were seen about 300 feet up in the air on March 14, 1950. There wasn't a whole lot of information provided in the Hinton Daily News article about the sighting, so I thought that it was somewhat of an isolated incident...until I found ANOTHER article from the same paper, dated just a day after the original article was published.

In the March 18, 1950 edition, the above-seen story was published. This time, the unidentified objects have moved significantly south, as three witnesses in Bluefield, WV came forward to say they had seen something flying through the sky. Although it is mentioned that there was a slight buzzing sound, and that the objects left vapor trails, the article doesn't mention exactly WHAT was seen. Was it the same glass balls filled with light as seen in Fairmont a few days earlier?  Was it some sort of saucer shaped craft? What exactly did they see? 

As alluded to in this article, it does seem that there was a UFO flap of sorts happening in the area, and possibly throughout the state. Another UFO flap would hit West Virginia in 1952, and again in 1967 and in 1973. Over the years, West Virginia would become a hotbed of UFO, paranormal, and cryptozoological activity. These short little newspaper blurbs are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to uncovering the strange and unusual history of the Mountain State. 

Stay Spooky. 

1950 Fairmont UFO

 

This brief newspaper clipping comes from The Hinton Daily News, and is dated March 17th, 1950. It retells a report from a man known only as 'Watson' that ran a day before in a local Fairmont, WV newspaper. Watson claims that on Tuesday, March 14, 1950, he was coming home when he saw THREE big balls in the sky, which appeared to have a very bright light in them. They were moving at a great speed, and were directly above him, about 300 feet up. The witness insists that he is not a drinking man. 

Describing the objects as 'big balls of glass with a very bright light in them,' is quite interesting to me as I've never heard that description used before when describing UFOs, especially during this period. Through the 1950's it was much more common for people to describe actual saucer-shaped flying craft...not balls of glass. I wish there was more information, such as where exactly these three objects were sighted, what time they were sighted, and if there were any follow-ups. Still, I wanted to share it here as part of West Virginia's rich, UFO history!