By Bob Gatty
It was in the early evening of Thursday, December 9, 1965, that the night editor of the Greensburg Pennsylvania Tribune-Review sent me to the little rural community of Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, to cover the reported landing of an unidentified flying object (UFO) in the woods near a farmer’s field.
When I arrived, state police and armed soldiers blocked access to what was the reported landing site. And I was told that if I ventured into that field, I’d be arrested.
Yet, they told me that nothing had happened.
Since then it’s been a huge mystery. Researchers and journalists have tried to uncover the truth about what really happened that night, but there have been no answers. Meanwhile, the mystery continues after all these years.
Despite all of the major stories I’ve covered over the years, this is the story that’s followed me. It just won’t let go. And just prior to the 60th anniversary of the Kecksburg UFO event earlier this month, WTAE-TV, Pittsburgh news anchor and “For the Record” host Michelle Wright wanted my take on what went down on that cold, dark December night.
When Michelle asked me what I thought about the incident, I explained how reporters were stonewalled by the authorities, but that eyewitness accounts led me to believe that “something,” indeed, had happened.
Click here for that interview.
Now…
What do YOU think really happened in Kecksburg on December 9, 1965?
🛸 A crashed extraterrestrial spacecraft
🚀 A secret U.S. military experiment
🇷🇺 A Cold War–era foreign object (Soviet satellite, etc.)
🌠 A misidentified meteor or natural phenomenon
🤐 Something happened — but we’re still not being told
❓ Undecided / still unsure
(Optional follow-up text)
👉 Drop your theory in the comments — eyewitnesses say something came down.