When the Sky Turned Red: The Exeter UFO Incident

[00:00:05] Officer Reginald Tolland answered the phone again. It was ringing non-stop that night and the phone calls kept getting more and more strange. This time it was a woman though. She was scared and upset. She had been driving on Route 101 when she saw a red light in the sky. And out of nowhere, the light headed straight for her.

[00:00:27] She was being chased by a mysterious flying object. And she tried to get away, but when she realized that she couldn't, she pulled over to the side of the road and then she saw the object fly away.

[00:00:38] Officer Tolland tried to calm her down and he told her that he would send a patrol car to check out the area, even though, of course, he didn't believe her. He didn't say that part to her though.

[00:00:49] He wondered what was going on. Still, a man had just called a few minutes before that woman. And that man had an almost identical story.

[00:00:58] He never said where he was driving, but he had seen a strange light while out on the road. That light started to chase him. And Officer Tolland asked the man where he was located, but the man never told him.

[00:01:10] The officer was able to find the number the man was calling from and dispatch the unit over.

[00:01:15] And when the officers arrived at the phone booth, it was empty. Only the dangling phone remained.

[00:01:22] So at this point, he started wondering if all of the local teens decided to prank him just on that day, September 3rd, 1965.

[00:01:30] A day that they would all get together and take turns pranking the station.

[00:01:34] So he sighed and took a sip of his coffee when the station doors flew open.

[00:01:39] 18-year-old Norman stood at the entrance. He was pale and shaking.

[00:01:45] Officer Tolland knew Norman wasn't someone easily scared, so something was up.

[00:01:50] And what Norman went on to tell him made him wonder if all the calls he had received that night were real.

[00:01:58] It turned out that indeed something was happening.

[00:02:01] In Exeter.

[00:02:04] In this episode, I'll be exploring one of the most publicized UFO sightings in the United States.

[00:02:09] This was a long time ago.

[00:02:11] And it's time for all of us to remember it.

[00:02:16] My name is Edwin.

[00:02:18] And here's a horror story.

[00:02:26] Norman Muscarello had lived in Exeter his whole life.

[00:02:29] But he was getting ready to finally leave.

[00:02:32] He was three weeks away from his shipping date to serve in the US Navy.

[00:02:35] He would miss his hometown, but he was ready to go.

[00:02:39] He had graduated the year before and felt like he was the only one of his classmates still sticking around town.

[00:02:45] But still, leaving was not easy for him.

[00:02:48] He still had his parents and his girlfriend to worry about.

[00:02:52] He had been hanging out with her and her parents in Amesbury, Massachusetts.

[00:02:56] It wasn't far, only 10 miles, but it was a long trip without a car.

[00:03:01] But since he was no longer gonna need it, he sold the car.

[00:03:04] And since then, he either walked or hitchhiked.

[00:03:06] On this particular night, it was past midnight.

[00:03:10] Almost two in the morning, and there were less cars out there.

[00:03:14] At least it wasn't raining and the sky was clear.

[00:03:16] He could see the stars and moon clearly as he stuck his thumb out and walked.

[00:03:21] He passed the farm on Route 50, and he was only a few miles away from home.

[00:03:27] That's when he noticed five flashing red lights in the distance.

[00:03:31] At first, he thought it was a police car or a fire truck.

[00:03:34] But as he got closer, he realized that he was wrong.

[00:03:40] He realizes that the five lights were part of an object in the sky.

[00:03:43] He can't make out the shape of this thing, the lights are too bright.

[00:03:47] But it looks wider than the houses next to it.

[00:03:50] It has to be at least 90 feet long.

[00:03:52] It was hovering above the trees.

[00:03:54] The fields and the houses next to the trees were bright red as well,

[00:03:58] illuminated by these lights.

[00:04:00] The dogs and the horses were going crazy.

[00:04:03] And then the object shot straight up, leaving a red beam underneath it.

[00:04:08] And then everything went silent.

[00:04:11] The dogs were not barking anymore.

[00:04:13] The horses stopped whining.

[00:04:15] Even the crickets stopped chirping.

[00:04:17] But the thing was still there, and it didn't make any sound either.

[00:04:20] It started moving toward him in a weird pattern.

[00:04:24] He had never seen anything move like that before.

[00:04:27] It swayed side to side, almost like a feather floating down.

[00:04:32] Norman stood there, frozen, looking at it.

[00:04:35] He felt hypnotized.

[00:04:37] The thing passed over him and then seemed to disappear.

[00:04:41] He was in a daze, still seeing spots in his eyes,

[00:04:44] like when someone takes a picture with the flash on.

[00:04:47] When his eyes cleared, he saw the thing again.

[00:04:50] It was heading straight for him, fast.

[00:04:53] He had never felt so scared, so he turned around and started to run.

[00:04:57] Then he tripped on something and fell into a ditch.

[00:05:00] He lay there at the bottom and could see the thing above him.

[00:05:03] It was making the houses glow bright red.

[00:05:06] The lights were pulsating, flashing in a pattern, one at a time.

[00:05:12] One, two, three, four, five.

[00:05:15] Four, three, two, one.

[00:05:19] And then it took off.

[00:05:22] The night was dark again.

[00:05:24] And Norman couldn't tell what direction it had gone.

[00:05:27] So he got out of the ditch and ran to the nearest house.

[00:05:31] He knocked and knocked, pounding desperately on the door.

[00:05:35] He saw the light turn on, but no one opened it.

[00:05:38] He didn't blame them.

[00:05:39] They probably thought that he was up to no good.

[00:05:42] And so in a panic, he ran into the middle of the street and there was a car coming.

[00:05:46] But he still stood there, waving his arms and blocking the road.

[00:05:50] He was not going to let this car get away.

[00:05:52] When the car came to a stop, Norman realized that he knew the driver.

[00:05:58] And so they gave him a ride to the Exeter police station.

[00:06:08] Norman had one cigarette after another to try and calm his nerves.

[00:06:13] Once he was able to, he told Officer Tolland what he had seen.

[00:06:17] It kind of threw Norman off, but the officer was not surprised and did not think that he was crazy.

[00:06:24] The officer told him before he walked into the station that he had several weird calls, also reporting red lights.

[00:06:31] The officer got on the radio and called Officer Eugene Bertrand.

[00:06:36] Head back. You're going to want to hear this.

[00:06:38] And the reason why he called him is that, well, at one in the morning, Officer Bertrand was cruising along.

[00:06:45] And he came across another similar encounter.

[00:06:48] It was on Route 108 and it was quieter than usual.

[00:06:51] There wasn't a lot of traffic or anything.

[00:06:54] And as he drove, he came across a car that was pulled over on the side of the highway.

[00:06:58] He pulled up behind her and knocked on the window.

[00:07:01] This woman rolled it down and he noticed that she looked terrified.

[00:07:06] She had been crying.

[00:07:08] He asked if there was a problem.

[00:07:09] And she told him that a huge object with flashing red lights had been following her car.

[00:07:14] She tried to get away, but it followed her for 12 miles.

[00:07:18] When she reached an overpass, the object sped away.

[00:07:22] It was too fast for her to know what way it had gone.

[00:07:25] He thought that she was crazy, but he stayed with her until she was ready to drive again.

[00:07:29] Okay, so back at the station, Officer Bertrand arrives.

[00:07:35] And Norman is forced to share his encounter once again.

[00:07:39] The officer told Norman to get up and follow him.

[00:07:42] He needed to see what Norman was talking about.

[00:07:45] And the only reason he was doing this was because of all the other similar calls.

[00:07:50] If it was on any other night, they would have just sent him away.

[00:07:53] But this was not normal.

[00:07:56] Something was happening in Exeter.

[00:07:58] It was around 3 in the morning when Officer Bertrand and Norman arrived at the same spot where Norman saw the thing.

[00:08:07] They parked on the side of the road next to the telephone pole.

[00:08:11] They sat in the car waiting for something to happen.

[00:08:14] And though nothing seems out of place,

[00:08:17] they begin to hear the horses still kicking and neighing.

[00:08:21] The dogs are barking like crazy.

[00:08:24] Something was starting to spook the animals, but they still don't see very much.

[00:08:29] Officer Bertrand tells Norman that they need to get closer.

[00:08:33] The pair exit the police car and walk into the field.

[00:08:37] And just as they're about to head back, the animals get louder.

[00:08:43] Officer Bertrand looks up and he sees it.

[00:08:46] 30 feet above the trees.

[00:08:48] This huge dark object bigger than the barn.

[00:08:52] There's red flashing lights on it.

[00:08:55] The lights are flashing one at a time in the same pattern.

[00:08:58] 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

[00:09:02] And it starts moving toward them, swaying side to side.

[00:09:07] Relying on only his instincts, Bertrand gets down on one knee and draws his revolver.

[00:09:14] But then he thought, a gun is no good here.

[00:09:17] So he holstered his weapon, grabbed Norman by the shoulder and told him to run.

[00:09:23] They ran back to the patrol car and Officer Bertrand radioed back to Exeter Station about what they had just seen.

[00:09:30] And so they sat in the car.

[00:09:32] And then they saw another patrol car pulling up.

[00:09:35] It was another Exeter police officer, Officer David Hunt.

[00:09:39] He knocked on their window with a smile on his face.

[00:09:42] He had overheard the call back to the station and thought that it was a joke.

[00:09:46] Then Officer Hunt started to laugh when the sky turned red.

[00:09:51] All three men looked up.

[00:09:53] The thing was back, hovering about 100 feet from them.

[00:09:58] It was rocking back and forth and the lights flash in the same pattern.

[00:10:02] From right to left and then left to right.

[00:10:06] And then it shot up above the trees and flew.

[00:10:09] It was at an impossible speed.

[00:10:11] And a few seconds after that they saw a B-47 bomber pass by.

[00:10:16] The difference between the thing and the bomber was clear.

[00:10:19] There was no mistaking them, especially for Officer Bertrand.

[00:10:23] He was a veteran and he knew military aircraft very well.

[00:10:28] The men drove back to the station and both officers filed separate reports about what they had seen.

[00:10:34] Officer Bertrand drove Norman home, but no one slept that night.

[00:10:39] The thing in the sky was now in their minds.

[00:10:45] Back at the station, the Exeter police chief went over the different reports.

[00:10:49] He had Officer Bertrand's, Officer Hunt's, Normans, and the different calls that Officer Tolland had taken.

[00:10:56] He reviewed them all and decided to contact the nearby Pease Air Force Base.

[00:11:01] The military denied knowing anything and refused to help.

[00:11:15] The reports continued and UFO researcher Raymond Fowler got word of the situation.

[00:11:20] He wanted to help and began to investigate.

[00:11:22] So he found even more witnesses.

[00:11:26] Ron Smith was in the back seat of his mom's car.

[00:11:29] She was driving and his aunt was in the passenger seat.

[00:11:32] It was 11.30 PM when they saw a glowing red light.

[00:11:37] It was spinning.

[00:11:38] It passed over the car once, and then it passed over the car again.

[00:11:42] But this time it stopped in mid-air, right in front of the front windshield.

[00:11:47] They went over the car again and then shot up in the air and sped away.

[00:11:51] And as they were driving away, they saw more red lights over the hill.

[00:11:56] Mrs. Lindsay, a teacher at the Exeter High School, saw a big orange ball outside of her window.

[00:12:03] It seemed to be as big as the moon, but it wasn't the moon.

[00:12:06] Her kids saw it too.

[00:12:08] It just hovered there until it flew up and sped away.

[00:12:11] Local reporter for the Haverhill Gazette claimed to have seen a red light hovering above her neighbor's house.

[00:12:18] Another man who wished to remain anonymous claimed to have been followed by the glowing red lights.

[00:12:24] There were over 60 reports over the next several weeks.

[00:12:30] So Raymond Fowler was collecting story after story, including the officers and Normans.

[00:12:35] But once he was talking to Norman, he found out about something even stranger.

[00:12:42] This is where things get a little bit weird.

[00:12:45] You see, the day after seeing the thing, two ununiformed men knocked at Norman's house.

[00:12:52] They were from the nearby Air Force Base.

[00:12:55] One of them had a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist.

[00:12:59] Norman's mom offered the men coffee and they accepted.

[00:13:03] The one with the briefcase removed it from his wrist to grab some documents.

[00:13:07] And they followed Norman to the living room and forgot the case.

[00:13:11] Norman's mom happened to peek inside it and she saw pictures of objects in the sky and strange imprints on the ground.

[00:13:18] The man that had this suitcase must have realized that he left it in the kitchen, so he sprang up from the couch and ran to it.

[00:13:25] They saw Norman's mom snooping and he started yelling at his mom for looking.

[00:13:30] Norman didn't like how they were treating her and screamed at them to get out of his house.

[00:13:35] The men told him that he was wrong about what he saw, that it wasn't what he thought it was.

[00:13:40] And so they told him to keep his mouth shut about the incident.

[00:13:44] Then they left.

[00:13:50] Norman never found out who these men were, but Raymond Fowler's investigation shed some light.

[00:13:56] He found out that even though Pease Air Force Base had refused to cooperate, they did send two officers to Exeter.

[00:14:03] These officers told local law enforcement not to talk about this with the media.

[00:14:09] But it turns out they were a little late.

[00:14:12] These officers had already talked to them.

[00:14:14] And when they tried to buy out all the newspapers with the headlines about the mysterious object,

[00:14:19] the officers also talked to local farmers.

[00:14:22] They asked about the farm animals, if they had been acting strange,

[00:14:26] things like suddenly not producing milk or producing a weird amount of eggs.

[00:14:30] Raymond Fowler thought that it was odd that the military would be asking things like that.

[00:14:34] This had to mean that they believed that there was something happening in Exeter.

[00:14:40] Because the officers sent from Pease Air Force Base failed to calm things down,

[00:14:44] Project Blue Book got involved.

[00:14:47] Project Blue Book was headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

[00:14:52] It was a code name for the systematic study of unidentified flying objects by the United States Air Force

[00:14:58] from March 1952 to December 17th, 1969.

[00:15:03] And it had two goals.

[00:15:05] The first was to find out if UFOs were a threat to national security.

[00:15:10] The second was to scientifically analyze UFO-related data.

[00:15:15] And over the years it was active, and Project Blue Book collected thousands of UFO reports.

[00:15:20] This would be including the ones from September 1965 in Exeter, New Hampshire.

[00:15:26] Project Blue Book offered an explanation for the events that left locals frightened and confused.

[00:15:33] They said that what everyone had actually been seeing was Operation Big Blast, a military training mission.

[00:15:40] They stated that in addition to the thing with red lights, there was also five B-47 bombers flying around that night.

[00:15:47] It was clear that the objects observed between midnight and two in the morning were associated with this military operation.

[00:15:54] But this explanation didn't sit right with Norman, Officer Hunt, or Officer Bertrand.

[00:16:00] The officers felt so offended by this that they wrote a letter directly to Project Blue Book.

[00:16:07] And it read,

[00:16:09] As you can imagine, we have been the subject of considerable ridicule since the Pentagon released its final evaluation of our sighting of September 3rd, 1965.

[00:16:19] Both Patrolman Hunt and myself saw this object at close range, checked it out with each other, confirmed and reconfirmed that it was not any type of conventional aircraft.

[00:16:29] And went to considerable trouble to confirm that the weather was clear, there was no wind, no chance of weather inversion, and that what we were seeing was in no way a military or civilian aircraft.

[00:16:42] There were even more discrepancies.

[00:16:44] Operation Big Blast happened a whole hour before officers Bertrand and Hunt and Norman saw the UFO together.

[00:16:52] Project Blue Book didn't reply to their letter, so they wrote a second one.

[00:16:56] And in this one, they mentioned the following.

[00:17:00] The object we observed was absolutely silent with no rush of air from jets or chopper blades whatsoever.

[00:17:06] And it did not have any wings or tail.

[00:17:09] It lit up the entire field.

[00:17:12] And two nearby houses turned completely red.

[00:17:16] Finally, in January of 1966, Lieutenant Colonel John Spaulding replied to the officers.

[00:17:22] He wrote that based on the additional information that was submitted to the UFO investigating officer at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base,

[00:17:30] they are unable to identify the object from September 3, 1965.

[00:17:36] For Norman and the officers, this was their confirmation.

[00:17:39] They really had seen a UFO that night.

[00:17:44] Forty-six years later, Joe Nickel, a private investigator and search fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry,

[00:17:51] and James McGaha, a retired U.S. Air Force major and pilot, offered a different explanation.

[00:17:57] They claimed that the thing was actually a KC-97 tanker aircraft.

[00:18:03] The refueled aircraft in flight and Pease Air Force Base had them.

[00:18:07] The red light pattern matched the lights on the refueled aircraft.

[00:18:12] They said that before refueling, the underbelly of a KC-97 tanker flashed five bright red lights in that pattern.

[00:18:20] Same one everyone kept reporting.

[00:18:22] 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1.

[00:18:26] But still, things don't really match up with this explanation either.

[00:18:31] The officers and Norman maintained that whatever they saw made zero noise and these aircrafts were known to be loud.

[00:18:39] Also, Officer Bertrand would have recognized a KC-97.

[00:18:43] It's what he worked with during his four years in the Air Force.

[00:18:46] It was impossible for him to confuse what he saw that night with something that he was very familiar with.

[00:18:53] Whatever happened that night still remains unexplained.

[00:18:58] Officer Bertrand spent time in combat during the Korean War and he never felt fear like he did on September 3, 1965.

[00:19:06] Norman went on to serve during Vietnam.

[00:19:09] There were different moments during this time that his life was in real danger and still, the fear that he felt when he saw the thing in the sky in Exeter did not compare to anything else.

[00:19:20] For the officers, for Norman, and for everyone else that saw that unknown object in the sky, only one question would stay with them after the entire ordeal.

[00:19:30] So, what was that thing?

[00:19:33] And why was it an Exeter that night?

[00:19:45] If you know of any unsolved paranormal mysteries or haunted places you'd like to share with me, send it over.

[00:19:51] I'll have my contact information in the description of this episode.

[00:19:55] Also, remember to leave a review for the show if you liked it.

[00:19:58] And if you want to support us, you can try out Scary Plus.

[00:20:00] I'll link to it as well.

[00:20:02] Thank you very much for listening.

[00:20:05] Keep it scary, everyone.

[00:20:07] See you soon.