1962: Tucson, Arizona Sighting

THINK ABOUTIT UFO SIGHTING REPORT

Date:  June 25/26, 1962 

Sighting Time:  From 10:25 p.m. local time, June 22, until 3:00 a.m. local time, June 23

Day/Night:  Night

Location:  Tucson, Arizona

Urban or Rural: – 

No. of Entity(‘s):  

Entity Type:  

Entity Description:  

Hynek Classification:  CE-I (Close Encounter I) Observation of an object in close proximity to the witness (i.e. within 500’)

Duration:  

No. of Object(s):  3

Height & Speed:  

Size of Object(s):  

Distance to Object(s):  

Shape of Object(s):  triangular, Number three sported a cone-shaped superstructure above an apparently round airfoil.

Color/Description of Object(s):  

Number of Witnesses:  3

Source:  Dan Wilson

Summary/Description:  “Some doors opened in the bottom and something came out.” An unconventional aerial object hovered for a period of time at Tucson, Arizona and a strange device had lowered to the ground. The boy relating the details was 14-year-old John Westmoreland. IIe and his brother James and next-door neighbor Ronnie Elack had spent the night of June 25, 1962 in the tent in the Westmoreland back yard and during the course of four hours had witnessed a strange but revealing chain of events. On the evening of the 26th of June I opened the Tucson Daily Citizen newspaper.

When I came to the local news section, these words seemed to pop right out of the page:. “Saucers, Rockets Inhabit Night Sky.” I scanned the article briefly and reached for the telephone book. Seconds later I was talking to Mrs. Logan Westmoreland, the mother of John and James Westmoreland. She graciously invited Mr. Lorenzen and me to come to her home and interview the boys.

Three hours later we were seated in the comfortably furnished living room of the Westmoreland home in southeast Tucson. The boys were eager to talk about their adventure, partly I suspect, because they were met with doubt at first. As soon as we got the gist of the story we started the slow process of cross. examination. The three boys had been given permission to spend the night in the tent, so, armed with a deck of playing cards, pad and pencil, they settled down to a game of 500 Rummy by lantern light. Shortly before nine they were bored with cards and not sleepy, so they decided to go outside, watch for meteors and look at the stars and try to catch an errant, cooling breeze.

The summer rains were in the offing and the air was warm and humid. The day had been hot; the night air was a welcome change. At about 9 o’clock John noticed a star at 5 degrees south of due west, 30-40 degrees elevation, which didn’t behave (See NICAP,p age 2) (See Saucer Shoot page 3)  SaucerS hoot (Continued, from page 7) like a star. It was very bright, white in color, and “moved around a little,” in the boys’ words. Soon it dimmed, moved a little toward the south, lost a .few degrees in altitude and then became stationary. The boys soon lost interest and went back into the tent to another game of Rummy.

From time to time they peeked out and took a look at the strange “;tar” but it “just stayed there.” Then at about 11:45 things began to happen. The bright “star” became much brighter and seemed to move closer. Instead of looking like a star, it assumed a triangular shape as it grew larger. Then it became stationary again. How long this process took the boys did not know, but  according the kitchen clock (they kept peeking in the window to check the time), a surprising thing happened at 12:15. Three green flares or rockets were fired horizontally from the main object. At this time, John scrambled into the tent and emerged with the score pad and pencil. He decided to keep notes.

On the pad he wrote: “At 9 o’clock at night we saw a flying saucer. At 12:15 it shot three green things that traveled faster than any plane.” These rockets were too fast to track visually. After the first “rocket” was fired, John noticed the second “saucer” which we will hereafter refer to as Number Two. It came in racing froru west to east across the northern sky, “turned a flip” and came to rest at about 15 degrees east of north at a slightly greater elevation than No. 1. Shortly No. 2, which appeared closer and larger than No. 1, was approached by the “flare-like object,” which came in from underneath and appeared to be absorbed through the bottom of No. 2. Then the first “saucer” spat out another of the small objects.

About three minutes later No. 2 was again approached by the tiny object and again the boys watched as it seemingly disappeared into the bottom of No. 2. No. 1 was still in the same position, appearing to be triangular in shape, and No. 2 appeared much closer and round-shaped with two leg-like or stilt like protuberances on the underside.

A third flare emerged from No. 1, and was shortly “received” by sauce No. 2. Things were getting interesting. No. 2 then shot out a rocket which quickly disappeared into the night sky. No. 2 began to dim and fade into the night sky and was not seen again. No. 1 retained its same position. At this time, Saucer No, 3 was spotted at about 100-110 degrees and about ,45 degrees elevation. It appeared the largest and highest of the three, which suggests that it was closer. The detail re* ported by the boys bears this out. But the best part of the show tvas yet to come. Number three sported a cone-shaped superstructure above an apparently round airfoil. Its color was white and Like the others it made absolutely no sound. At 1:16 a jet plane went over we later decided it was probably in the flight pattern of Davis-Monthan .AFB, a Strategic Air Command installation a scant 3 or 4 miles from the Westmoreland home.

The new visitor closed in and three of the stilt-like protuberances “popped out.” Then the object gained altitude. An elongated dark “something” slid out from above the circular rim and three of the small rocket-Like objects emerged in quick succession. In a few brief minutes they were back. Two doors swung open, down, and back up against the underside of the saucer. As the ‘doors opened, the “legs” receded into the object. The little rockets, now clearly seen, swiftly entered the opening, one by one. The big object elevated slightly, and moved sideways, then became stationary again.

The newspaper had printed only the boys’ notes which were not detailed except for general movement of the objects. In describing saucer No. 3, John had written: “Something lowered from the bottom. Something came out.” I asked John what he meant by that. He said that something which looked like a rope or cable came out and lowered to the ground. I asked him what color it was, and two voices-his and James’, piped up and said “brown.” I wondered how they could tell colors at that time of the night and asked them. “From the Iight,” they said. “What light was that?” I asked. Then then told me that when the doors opened a red light shone down from the inside in a perpendicular narrow beam, that extended to the ground. When the long, ropelike object began to come out, it was clearly visible and appeared to be brown in color.

The boys estimated that the “rope” lvas extended for from three to five minutes, after which it began to come up into the saucer again. After it had cleared the top of the ridge bordering the wash, they realized that something was on the bottom of it. It was slowly pulled up into the large object, the doors closed and the object moved up and into the east until it rvas out of sight. The youngsters stayed up a little longer, watching for more activity in the sky but before long the excitement of  Saucers Shoot the night and their lack of sleep overcame their curiosity and they retired into the tent. As soon as they had awakened in the morning they rushed in to tell Mrs. Westmoreland what they had seen. Pat Westmoreland, about 40, is an understanding mother but a firm one. The thought at first that perhaps the boys had had a touch of imagination and set about using all the “trapping tricks” she knew to trip them up in their story, but to no avail.

She began to realize that they had had a real experience. She decided the newspapers should know what had happened the preceding night and called them. Thus the article which had drawn my attention came about. It should be noted here that the newpaper printed the notes, pointing out that it could be imaginary or real they printed it because it was a sensational story. The matter of the boys’ honesty comes to mind as a matter of course in the:e investigations. After three long visits with the boys, during which time Mr. Lorenzen walked with them to the wash over which they thought the UAO had hovered, and I had sketched the objects from their instructions, we found no indication that the boys were not telling the truth.

Mr. Lorenzen said that he had not caught any signs of strain, rehearsed conversation or trickery during his talks with them while walking to and from the wash. Nor did I ever detect any evidence that the boys were attempting to perpetrate a hoax. Some of the things which impressed me concerning the sighting as well as the honesty of the boys were these: When attempting to describe the object which was brought up by the rope or cable, John Westmoreland said he got the impression that the object was about as long as his father-in other words, its length equalled approximately the height of his father who is about 6 feet tall. If saucer No. 3 was above Pantano wash as the boYs felt it was, we have an idea of its size as well as the size of the rockets or flares and the size of the object which was pulled up into the large object.

The rim of the saucer appeared to have the same angular displacement as a five foot cross-arm on a utility pole at the corner of the Westmoreland lot. If it was over Pantano wash (quarter mile distant) it was approximately B0 feet in diameter. The small objects then would be about 6 feet long, and the object which was taken up into the saucer would be about the same size as the “rockets,” and certainly the same general configuration. (See sketches). It is interesting and tempting to speculate that one of the rockets, at some time or other, had become disabled, a search initiated, and eventually, a recovery effected.

The latter phase of the sighting, in which a device was lowered to the ground and returned to saucer No.3 with a triangular-shaped object at the end of it, could have been that “recovery.” This may further be supported by the fact that after the object was taken into the saucer, the saucer left. The recovery of that object may have been the sole purpose of the presence of the saucers that night. It is interesting to note that after the case was fully investigated, the loca1 newspapers were not interested in further information or a follow-up story. On the 291h, a group of local college students sent up some balloons filled with ordinary kitchen gas and lighted by candles encased in fireproof crepe paper. Although this was not accomplished until three days after the Westmoreland sighting, the idea of saucers had been firmly implanted in the public mind. A local professor of atmospheric physics who is interested in UFO, was told of the strange lighted object in the sky, and went to the U. of A. meteorological lab to track the thing.

The story of his sighting was in the Arizona Star morning paper for Friday 29 June 1962. Upon reading the details, plus his theory that the thing was an “extended source of light,” I wondered if some hoaxers  might have been at work. I called the Tucson Citizen asking that they mention APRO- and ask for further sightings of the Thursday evening object and suggested that the object seen that night might have been the result of a prank. Later, I talked to the physicist who had been viewing the object and found that he had also decided that the object was a hoax. Later news stores stated that the college boys involved in the “prank” were “carrying out experiments dealing with wind velocity and other weather conditions.”

Considering the type of homemade balloon, and the fact that it contained dangerous highly inflammable gas which was tied to a device with an open flame, it is not likely that any such experiment was being carried out. It appears more likely that a childish prank was being played and the “young men” involved did not want to admit their part in it, attempting to write it off as an experiment. It is lamentable that the newspapers were satisfied with the experiment explanation and stated that these “experiments” may have been the cause of the saucer sightings in Southern Arizona in the past few months.

Certainly, the easiest way to dispose of the perplexing UFO problem is to ignore the evidence which prolongs its mysterious nature. A large percentage of the press is inclined to do precisely that. In the case of this latter sighting, the only two observers of the lighted plastic bags who called me felt the object was a balloon. The local press gave the impression that those who viewed the hoax objects were completely fooled, but that certainly was not the case. The events of the week of June 24-30 very aptly demonstrated the contention that I have had lor years concerning the psychology of the disbeliever.

The skeptic is often so intent upon disproving that which he does not care to believe, by attempting to label it a hoax or a misconception of a conventional object, that he sets about to perpetrate a hoax to support his own convictions and allay his subconscious fears. A thorough perusal of newspaper stories concerning the Westmoreland sighting as well as ensuing reports of unidentified sky objects emphasizes the foolhardiness of accepting en toto the information pertaining to UFO sightings as presented by the news media and points up the need for thorough investigation. Had I accepted the Westmoreland story as presented by the Tucson Citizen, I would have had a short dissertation completely lacking in detail. A few hours spent in investigation yielded some very important facts, and enabled APRO to log one of the most detailed sightings of an unconventional aerial object which has ever been observed.