SUBJECT: MUFON REPORTS FILE: UFO2595
PART 5
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Date: Tue Mar 29 18:35:09 1988
From: DALE B. WEDGE (ae511)
Subj: ParaNet:Apollo UFO Sighting:DBW
Well, the Sig is getting boring, so its time for another UFO
upload. This one comes from ParaNet and is entitled "Apollo
Program UFO Sighting from 1960's Comes to Light."
(Washington State MUFON, March 21, 1988.) An interesting UFO
report from the 1960's involving the test firing of an Apollo
space program booster rocket recently came to light as a
result of a follow-up to the January 21, 1988 Whidbey Island
UFO sighting. Dan MacIndoe of Oak Harbor, Washington received
many phone calls from other UFO witnesses as a consequence of
reporting his UFO sighting to a local radio station and giving
out his home phone number. One of them was from Paul J. Allen
of Snohomish, Washington, who told him of his encounter with
a UFO while working for GE/NASA in the summer of either 1966 or
1967.
A quality control inspector working for General Electric
at the NASA Mississippi Test facility at the time, Mr. Allen
was at work during the first captive test firing of the
second stage, Saturn IV-B rocket. He doesn't recall the
exact date but he believes it was probably during the
summer of either 1966 or 1967. (The date should be easily
obtainable from archived historical records of the
Space program.)
At approximately 11:00 p.m. he stepped outside the Data Pro-
cessing Center building for a smoke and to view the test
firing. He noticed a bright light approaching rapidly from
the east, which he took to be a light from a plane at first.
However, it approached the Test Facility at an unbelievable
speed, slowing over the Saturn V-B test stand before contin-
uing on towards the Saturn IV-B test stand, whereupon it
stopped and stood over the exhaust blast from the test
firing for a minute to a minute and a half. He descirbed the
UFO as 200 feet in diameter. It hovered at 3,000-5,000 feet
during the stage 2 captive firing, directly over the
exhaust blast updraft until the firing ended. Then it
approached at about 30 mph, came over the data processing
center for about another minute, and left travelling almost
straight up.
Mr. Allen states there were 19 people who witnessed the UFO
where he stood and another 9 to 11 people on the roof of the
Control Facility Building, who had been filming the test
firing and also saw it. No pictures of the test firing
were ever shown to his group although they were shown film
footage of all other firings. They were told that a weather
balloon with a flashlight attached had been the cause
of the UFO report and that was what they had seen. They were
also told that if they discussed the sighting with the public
they would lose their jobs.
A complete report of this sighting is being sent to
MUFON National Headquarters and to CAUS.
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