From page 1, "The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse, UFOs:  A History, 1957:  October 1st -  November 2d" by Loren Gross

   "1 October.  Rochester, Pennsylvania.  (about 7:00 p.m.)

   "Circled Shippingport Atomic Plant"

"A former Rochester councilman, John Karcher, owned a farm in Daugherty township, outside the city of Rochester.  On October 1st, about 7:00 p.m., Mr. Karcher was with a friend, Lee Plunkett.  The men were outdoors with a clear view of the sky.

"From the direction of the nearby town of Ohioville something strange approached at an altitude of 2,000 feet.  The two men spotted it and were astonished.  The thing was a big luminous torpedo they estimated was 200 feet long.  The top half was green-colored and the bottom half was reddish-orange.  These two colors were separated by a strip of yellow.  The thing was moving slowly, perhaps as slow as 15 miles per hour.  Karcher had enough time to get a pair of binoculars and to also phone some neighbors, a Mrs. Norderbugger and her daughter and son-in-law.  These three neighbors managed to observe the object as it passed by on a steady course to the south, in the direction of Shippingport Atomic Plant.  Karcher saw nothing worth mentioning with the binoculars and like everyone else believed the show was over when the UFO moved out of sight.  To the surprise of all, the torpedo reappeared after a few minutes, retracing its course, apparently
returning to its home base, if it had one.  In Mr. Karcher's opinion, the mystery ship made a U-turn over the nuclear facility, considering its speed and distance involved.  This suggestion was taken seriously by the Air Force and the FBI."  (The Beaver County Times, Beaver, Pennsylvania, 8 November 1957.)

Gross' comments in a footnote:  "The newspaper said the FBI and the Air Force investigated.  Where are those records?"

Created: Oct 20, 1997