The Flatwoods Monster Incident And UFO Wave Of September 12, 1952

Eastern Seaboard Canada to Florida...
West Virginia is outlined

The Flatwoods Monster Incident 
And UFO Wave of September 12, 1952

by Alfred Lehmberg


Upcoming, the anniversary of the 62 year old "Flatwoods Monster" meme seems right out of the Science Fiction of the 1950s.  So?  It has its own built in "cognitive dissonance, see?"  It is wholly dismissible... if you need it to be.   Errantly, many do.

It remains that there is solid logic, abundant citation, un-stretched evidence and decided circumstance highlighting the startling actuality of even 1950s Science fiction.  It very well may be, the reader might come to find, a matter of the truly existential occurring in the real world.  Such appears to be so.

I remind everyone of two things: it is 1952, and revealing itself in the well documented activity of that year is the biggest UFO flap in United States history... "The Summer of Saucers, 1952," one, and two, a person is going to describe astonishing and unspeakable events happening to them in the language that they have... or merely be pointing back into the darkness and incoherently exclaiming, "Gaa Gaa, Gaa... ...Gaa!"  I understand there was a little of that, too.  Remains, 1952's language of its described true incidents is just going to have a 1950's SyFy flair. How can it not?

September the 12th, 1952 remains a seminal date whatever the language. Whatever it was to have occurred was documented to have occurred, and so indeed occurred, in fact. What actually occurred, exactly; however, is wholly unknown and only described, as noted, in the inadequate language of the day... but there is a lot of that language, reader. There is written language, an oral language, a language that has been video-taped or otherwise recorded that Frank Feschino has intrepidly sussed out...

Prepare yourself.  It is language making every indication that there was, indeed, an air-war wholly undeclared on ET, by us, last century but for a single directive to wage that war... were ET not to unconditionally surrender and turn themselves and their machines in to be rendered by authorities... This is an undeclared war where "being" and machine were perhaps lost to both sides.

But for Feschino all this language would have been lost.  All crazy, I know, but two things: impossibilities eliminated, what remains is likely truth, one, and two, one is directed to follow a leading evidence where it leads... not where one would have it lead.

Fact: In 1952, the restricted airspace of Washington, DC was effortlessly impinged upon, and with impunity, so often and so threateningly by UFOs... that the military was charged and duly ordered to shoot those UFOs down... where they, laughably, did not follow instructions to ground themselves for capture and arrest.  "Shoot them down" was of course the business end of our intention. Tasked?  We wanted one and would have actively sought one out.

It is logical and well supported that one such UFO, so engaged, may have been forced down for a time on the old Bailey Fisher Farm in Flatwoods, West Virginia that night.  This, reader, would be the end of the story on the whole "summer of saucers" flap of 1952 and not an isolated incident regarding an altogether "singular" or "one-off" Braxton County Monster "incident," happening exclusively on September 12, one finds. No, one finds only a first-wash and abject weirdness component in a larger system of weirdness given what'd occurred there before and since... all in a decided whole of unspeaking weirdness wholly unspeakable.  UFOs have been, are, and will be. We don't officially and with seriousness speak of them YET!

It is 62 years later, now, and during the course of Frank Feschino Jr.'s now 22 year long investigation into the Flatwoods Monster case he had proved, then, that the "Flatwoods Monster" incident was NOT an isolated incident, by any means. Yes reader, there was very much more UFO activity that day besides the well-known incident involving an encounter between a downed ET occupant and some small town residents on that farm in Flatwoods one Indian Summer the middle of last century.

Feschino introduces the witnesses...

During Feschino's due diligence investigation and while writing his stunning books, he'd combed the Country's myriad archives for relevant clues. He revealed and then compiled numerous Sept. 12, 1952 UFO reports from reliably credited, credible, and crediting sources.

Feschino also worked diligently with other researchers, archivists, historians, and librarians to find that wealth of information always contained in obscure national and regional newspaper articles and from which named newspapers had been quoting. Taken together these quotes are hugely unsettling even as they paint the overall compelling picture described: undeclared war with seeming aliens... ...Though, resist the temptation to dismiss all this out of hand, won't you, as strong as that temptation gets.  You're perhaps laughing a little too loudly a little too shrilly, eh?  Follow the data remember; besides, take heart.  My feeling is that there is more good incorporated in the affair than bad.

Back to the story, Feschino interviewed many first-hand witnesses in Braxton County, persons seeing UFOs pass overhead that day. He has audio and video recordings of these interviews providing for an astonishing evidentiary path. Additionally, being a talented, school trained and well accomplished artist, he was also able to sit down and make composite drawings of the objects these witnesses saw that night. Some of these objects were indeed seen "at close range" and flying "at tree top level"!

Feschino at a photo-doc shoot in Flatwoods...

Moreover, provoked by his appearance on many radio shows and at book signings over the years, Frank has also been provided with newspaper articles from listeners and readers who had so kindly searched their own local libraries for more information regarding these undeniably existential unidentified objects.  All of the articles gathered by Feschino indicate that a plethora of UFOs, sky objects, flying saucers, mysterious lights or so-called meteors, were unquestionably seen during that day by a mass of sincere individuals. Things get weirder, reader, stay the track.

The sheer amount of sightings occurring in the effected time period circa 9/12/52 was absolutely staggering to say the least as the reader will see up ahead! Furthermore, much of the most abundant UFO information Feschino found was actually contained in the heretofore un-sifted civilian and military reports of the September 12, 1952 Project Blue Book files! This is officiality of unassailable authority as regards the highly strange, reader. Even with Government's heavy handed and purposeful gaffs and seeming misdirections found within it, to start:

1). According to the September 12, 1952 Project Blue Book records, a large flaming UFO flew west over the Capitol and was labeled by the Project as the "well known Washington area meteor." This appears to be a conscious and deliberate misinformation.

2).The Akron Astronomy Club report, which was contained in Project Bluebook had also documented the alleged object. That report stated that this alleged "FIREBALL" (not "meteor" proper) was sighted at "Approximately 19:00 E.S.T." Noted!

3).This same report also stated the length of time for which it was sighted. The object was recorded as having a, "Duration: 5-6 seconds." Note that too, reader!

See, contrary to the Air Force's Bluebook evaluations and findings regarding this alleged "single Fireball meteor," Feschino discovered numerous wrinkles in the officially touted "authoritative account."  The official "Stuff" just didn't add up.  One plus One never sums at 25!  Watch!

See, that "duration of 5-6 seconds" was to endure for quite an unreasonable stretch in the first place... a stretch decidedly longer than 5 or 6 seconds... as the reader will see up ahead! Interesting to note: The New York Times called the Object, "The Flame Over Washington" in their article dated, September 13, 1952. It was reported by Washington witnesses that, "the blazing object moved horizontally across the sky and came awfully low." This is noted, in the second place, as decidedly unmeteor-like behavior!

Additionally, in the third place, vetted documentation discovered by Feschino actually shows us that American civilians and Military officials in the United States had reported, not meteors, but numerous UFOs to a multitude of authorities on September 12, 1952, causing quite a stir and commotion for an alleged meteor passing overhead for "5 or 6 seconds, follow?

Whatever the case, Feschino's map is very much a testament to the ludicrous assessment that such monstrous activity can be attributed to a single fireball meteor lasting for a mere 5 or 6 seconds in the sky, eh?  ...And advised UFOs are officially reported as meteors?  Thus appears so!

One such example is a military report made by an Air Force pilot flying a C-46 military aircraft.  He reported a flaming UFO passing over and in front of his plane and in a "steady dive." He stated he saw an "Unidentified aerial object directly over Greensboro, North Carolina at 7,000 feet." This same unknown object was also seen and reported by control tower personnel at Greensboro Highpoint Airport.

The pilot, a battle hardened colonel, witnessed the object along with an observing USAF Major and Captain. Hugely moved, the colonel promptly filed a, "CIRVIS" report: "Communications Instructions for Reporting Vital Intelligence Sightings."

A "JANAP, Joint-Army-Navy-Air Force publication 146 (D)" description of a CIRVIS report reads: "102. SCOPE-A. This publication is limited to the reporting of information of vital importance to the security of the United States of America and Canada and their Forces, which in the opinion of the observer requires very urgent defensive and/or investigative action by the United States or Canada." Italics mine.  Most meteors, one must agree, do not qualify as of vital importance to the security of the United States of America, Canada, and their Forces.

Now reader, buckle up for the coup de grâce. The official "Project 10073 Record Card" evaluation of this very same case, prompting a CIRVIS report filed by the Air Force colonel, remember, was recorded by Bluebook as a "Meteor"!  "Meteors," reader, don't provoke CIRVIS reports!

Figures lie and liars figure...

Conversely, additional "officail" information concludes that this well observed UFO was very likely the "12 September meteor sighting throughout the east coast area." What would support this unsupported stretch by Bluebook, reader, but a desire to contribute to a cover-up? A single meteor in the sky for a few paltry seconds is not justification for the near panic and frenzy alluded to, it's appearance all over the States for many hours at different times, the official reports filed, and the fretful concern of a reporting populace...

Sometimes "fishy," reader, is a real fish!

Strangely enough, this sighting occurring directly over Greensboro in a "steady dive" at /20:00 EDT, had actually occurred at the same time the "flaming object" passed west over Washington, DC!  The "object of concern" is reported to have "moved horizontally across the sky and came awfully low."  Meteor?  I don't think so.

Moreover, how can two meteors be in two different places at the same time... when they're not anywhere at all? The short answer is they can't.

No, these objects were seeming to be two separate damaged UFOs flying over two different cities, on different flight paths and having different trajectories. More on this in a moment.  Remains, a blatant cover-up, reader, becomes increasingly obvious.

Resolved, the preceding UFO activity caused quite a kafuffle with observers. The following agencies and departments were documented as fretfully contacted in the time period alluded to with regard to sighted UFOs... not meteors:

1. The Pentagon
2. USAF Bases
3. The Air Defense Command Headquarters located at Ent AFB, Colorado Springs, Colorado.
4. The United States Navy
5. State Police Headquarters
6. Local Police Headquarters
7. Airports
8. Civil Aeronautics Administration
9. Newspaper offices
10. Government Agencies
11. The FBI

Again, meteors don't generally provoke a significant kafuffle that everyone seems to get the facts wrong on.  Curious!

Now, a result of two decades plus of impressive research, Feschino compiled all of the September 12, 1952 UFO sighting informations into categories by each State. He then began to analyze the information in each sighting and made comparisons as to similarity and differences between the UFOs in each of these determined groups. This included their locations, their shapes, their sizes, their flight characteristics, their trajectories and their time stamps where each sighting occurred. The reader sees perhaps the potential of this more focused information.

 If one can account for "what" was "where," when... one can account for activity again! Feschino accomplishes just that.

A record of stunning UFO activity...

By making these comparisons, Feschino, a more than competent illustrator, had also figured out the actual number of different UFOs seen that day and could use his drawings and paintings to assist him in his work.  Then, on a huge seeing-is-believing 1:250,000 scale "Master Map," Feschino plotted the numerous sighting locations of these UFOs in flight, the locations where some landed, and the areas where some had been reported to have crashed.  See reader, by piecing together a meticulous time-line of documented events occurring that night and "connecting the dots," he formed trajectories in a real-time audit trail that could be seen! Feschino is able to discover that there were actually twenty-five different and distinct UFOs, all of which flew over ten eastern States of the US that day.

Feschino establishes a definite pattern from the data showing that four of these 25 UFOs passing over the United States that night had displayed very different characteristics than the others. These four UFOs regarded had pieces falling from them, they were exploding while in flight, they were on fire, they displayed sparkling showers of flaming detritus, all while flying erratically and seemingly in distress! Many of these sightings were made no higher than tree-top level.

Yes reader, these four UFOs were apparently damaged, as if in combat even, and most important of all, they had all made repeated crash-landings... only to take off again as they hobbled across the United States like wounded birds. To the point, reader, these damaged craft were puddle-jumping across the US trying to exit the area or avoid their harassers and pursuers: us, in other words!

Us against Them...

Combined, these four objects demonstrated that they had crash-landed a total of thirteen times in three different states: West Virginia, Tennessee and South Carolina.

Subsequently, and with the help of others, Feschino is then able to reconstruct a precise scenario of events based on the facts as to what very likely happened on that fateful date. Still, what remains so astonishing about this mapping initiative, reader, is this: were this data populated map to be a depiction of UFOs comprising their activities over a decade... it would be impressive enough. It must wholly shock if a only one year is depicted! A mere month's depiction and it becomes difficult to get your head around... a single day is simply inconceivable... but less?!

On September 12, 1952, there were actually 21-hours reported of sustained UFO activity over ten eastern states between 1:30 am. and 10:30 pm! This very demonstrable time-line tells a far different story than the short-duration "single Fireball meteor" explanation as explained by Project Blue Book. The reader perhaps can begin to see the disconnect and seeming cover-up by the extant official version... Feschino's map is very much a testament to the ludicrous assessment that such monstrous activity can be attributed to that single fireball meteor lasting for that mere 5 or 6 seconds in the sky, eh?

See, in mind numbing astonishment one discovers that, overall, the majority of the ufological activity depicted on Feschino's map is measured, not in decades, years, weeks, or even days... but in right around an hour... in and around the time of the "Flatwoods Monster" incident! Sincerely, this is where the ominous music is usually cued.

This and more occurred in under an hour...

See? These UFO sightings CANNOT be attributed to a lone Fireball meteor only "said" to have passed over Washington, DC that night at 19:00 EST for a duration of 5-6 seconds! Pause a moment, reader, to let that sink in. The official USAF explanation in no way fits the facts!  This writer will not apologize for that.

 It's not my cultural cowardice.

Meteors don't hang in the air for almost a full day, eh? We better hope they don't! Furthermore, it was documented by a commercial airline pilot who actually reported a UFO very nearly clipping the wing off his passenger plane near Wheeling, WV, that very night!

This "meteor"? It was actually one of the four seemingly damaged UFOs. ...And hold your laughter, please... pause for a moment and ask yourself: what if all this were true?

Pause to consider where the laughter actually goes upon the discovery that, in parallel with seven categories of very compelling evidence as regards UFOs in the aggregate, undeclared war is seemingly waged on unknown entities for which a provenance has not been determined (that we know)! "We" don't know if the entity proscribed is a time traveler, a social exercise, a military intelligence scenario, dead ancestors, "Agnes," or "Angus"!

See reader, the "well known Washington area meteor of 12 September" remains to appear to be but one of four damaged UFOs going down that night—I repeat again for meaningful emphasis.  This is all we can reasonably say unreasonable as that is.  Bird's, bolides, balloons, and rocket boosters seem to recuse themselves.

Something engulfed in flames passed over the Capitol at a low altitude on a western heading at about 19:00 EST. Something continued West, flew over Virginia proper, passed over West Virginia, then abruptly redirected south above the State to fly over Flatwoods, reader, where it redirected again to then finally land on the Fisher Farm 206 miles later as Feschino's maps illustrate... Such can be seen to seem so.

In short—and let's cut to the gob-smacking chase—the numerous other UFO sightings occurring that night over the ten eastern States can be attributed to two conservatively considered "Alien Search and Rescue" efforts. These are seeming efforts and initiatives made apparent by the activities of several other UFOs as witnessed and plotted on the aforementioned aeronautical MAP used by the military, remember, to interdict themselves vis a vis their distressed comrades.

This writer advises that all the aforementioned appears to this old combat aviator as a rescue initiative: rescuers descending all over the South Eastern United States in a seeming attempt to retrieve their downed craft and occupants in the Wheeling, WV and Flatwoods locations, just as I would attempt to do, and have attempted to do as a military professional in combat: with blocking actions, feints, misdirections, strategic retreats, and even a show of force once when extracting some wounded personnel from a fire base in Vietnam circa 1970. No apologies here either.

Laugh if you will but the evidence seems to have a klieg light on this series of peculiar events as happening, and from a plethora of disparate reportage initiatives, all first person, at the time! This is truly overpowering!

Note too, several east coast newspapers actually reported "meteors" and "meteor showers" over their areas as an explanation to the September 12, 1952 phenomenon. I quote some headlines here; "Flashing Meteors Scare Residents In Three State Area," also, "Fireballs Shower City Area," as well as "Balls of Fire in Pittsburgh" additionally, "Residents Over Ohio Valley Excited as Heavenly Meteor Hurls Off Bright Fragments" and "Big Meteor Flashes Over Four States."

Well reader, "It's what they must have been ... ET is frivolously impossible!"  Is it?  Again, the seven categories of evidence alluded to above would discount that.  These categories include:

1. The Historical textual documents glyphed in soot and cut into stone or otherwise writ in ancient inks on cracking vellum,
2. The extant Artistic Historical from primitives on the walls of their caves, through Middle-Age wood-cuts, to the masterpieces of the masters on rough canvas and slick gesso later on
3. The quality Anecdotal reports backed up by multiple vetted witnesses and corresponding radar
4. The genuine Photographic efforts prior to digital photography provided by Dr. Bruce Maccabee, et sig al
5. The extant Physical Traces of landing UFOs as laboriously outlined by Ted Phillips and others
6. The "wholly Personal" evidence, if you have any as I do and
7. Even the Mathematical, reader, as it is described in modern physics regarding the consequences of satisfying requirements accounting for "the formality of the actual occurrence" of something physical in this multi-verse (humanity "happened" so "others" must) but, specifically, as it is described in Probability One by Amir D. Aczel, PhD.

Alien intelligence, reader, seems a certainty!  Moreover, the evidence—entirely if ironically in concert with Fermi—is that they are here!  Pack that pipe and spark it.

On the other hand, now, other newspapers actually strayed away from the far-fetched and unsupportable "meteor" explanation in their reportage; I quote the following headlines, "Four States Bombarded by Meteor-like Objects," also, "Mystery Lights Zip Through Skies Here Stirring Mild Furor," as well as "Saucer Talk in Four States," and "Strange Lights Observed Over Four States." Curiouser and Curiouser.

One witness in West Virginia stated that one of these flaming objects, thought to be a "plane aflame," had actually landed atop a high hill between two radio transmission towers in the Wheeling, WV area, but when the State Police went to the scene, they "failed to find a plane." It had taken off! A Washington witness said, "Suddenly this thing came swooping down from the eastern skies. It looked like it was just above the treetops," and Mr. Rosenthal, a witness in Baltimore, told the press, he first saw it "swinging 'treetop' level," and said it resembled "a plane on fire."

One of my favorite reports was made by a Baltimore witness, an "Army veteran" who stated, "It was a flying saucer... the darned thing swooped down... and then up again. It seemed to follow the contour of the road."

In Virginia, a witness reported his sighting to the USAF and said, "I don't know what it was I saw and will insist on what it was NOT.  I have seen meteors, and the press will have a hard time telling me I was looking at a meteor on 9/12...This THING was being flown."  Well, there you have it. Meteors are not self-directing.

Yet despite these UFO reports and the many, many more that Feschino has discovered, numerous people still thought of and labeled these strange maneuvering objects as "meteors."  This seems official lie well inculcated as truth.

In Arcadia, Tennessee, near Kingsport, there was a "fruitless search for a wrecked plane." A "Baltimore, Sept. 13-AP" report stated, "An aerial object was reported to have struck the ground after streaking across the sky. A spokesman at Tri-cities Airport near Kingsport said the object had been identified as a meteor.  Operations personnel at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington put a similar label on it. And Naval observatory officials said reports received made it sound to them 'like a typical meteor.'"

Oh, by the way reader, and before I forget, the Tennessee object—said to be a "typical meteor"— was flying southwest before it went down in Arcadia... It had actually penetrated the "Oak Ridge National Laboratory Air Defense Identification Zone" by seventy miles before it landed!  This reader, is only 90-miles northeast of this security sensitive national laboratory for nuclear research. Furthermore, by extending the object's southwest flight path, we can see that this UFO was on a direct course toward it!!!  Now, what was up with that?

On course to Oak Ridge?

To finally smother this continued reference to meteors and flaming bolides—officially and for the record books people: there is NO record in a learned and professional astronomy of any bona fide meteoric activity that night, really, ANYWHERE!

ANYWHERE!

Provided, then, is the updated information of the plotted 116 locations—yellow stars on above maps—where witnesses sighted and reported different UFOs flying directly over the following ten eastern region States of the country. The plain red stars indicate the UFO crash landing sites of the damaged objects. The green stars in the eastern Ohio, Northern West Virginia, and western Pennsylvania areas indicate other UFO landing—presumed—search sites. The blue stars indicate airports and the red stars with silver dots are USAF bases and Naval Air Stations. The 116 sightings occurred over the following ten eastern states:

1. Delaware
2. Maryland
3. North Carolina
4. Ohio
5. Pennsylvania
6. South Carolina
7. Tennessee
8. Virginia
9. Washington D.C.
10. West Virginia

There were two additional states where UFOs were sighted on September 12, 1952:

11. California
12. Illinois

Curiously, the Project Blue Book records did not include the sightings occurring over four states; Delaware, Ohio, South Carolina or Tennessee. To date, meteoric impact pits have yet to be found in any of these areas.

A reader provoked and alerted by the iterated "weirdnesses" to read more about this fascinating story in Frank's book can go to: www.FlatwoodsMonster.com to order... follow the link to Lulu Press:

The Braxton County Monster—Updated & Revised Edition

The Cover-up of the Flatwoods Monster Revealed

Also, for a focus on the United States Air Force UFO air-war history, as effecting suspect alien, man, and machine, look for Shoot Them Down, a parallel research concentrating more on the air-war. Remember, too, as you consider the preceding: 1950s Science Fiction might very well have actually occurred!

Sincerely, very reasonable reader, given repeated incursions by multi-observed and bona fide UFOs into critical and so restricted airspaces in the Washington area (fact!), orders to shoot down these intruders WERE issued (fact!), furious UFO and Military air activity occurred in and around West Virginia on September 12, 1952 subsequent to these orders of deadly force (fact!), and a heavy, loaded-to-the-gills-battalion of Army infantry led by Colonel Dale Leavitt of boots, boats, and bazookas was dispatched to look for something peculiar in the Flatwoods and Frametown WV area that night, NOT barn owls or cross-dressing space ghosts seen by impressionable hillbilly kids. Fact.

Additionally, and on videotape, Colonel Leavitt told Feschino, "Something was a cover-up."

Closing: a certain frankness is required and sincerely used to tell a perceived ridiculous and seemingly unspeakable story... ...that all the credible evidence says is true.

Heavy sighs all around, eh?  Read on.

More than we know...
More than we can know...