The 1965 Kecksburg, Pennsylvania UFO Incident Still Remains A Mystery
From: Researcher Stan Gordon www.stangordon.info
Mockup of the Kecksburg UFO created for the 1990 Unsolved Mysteries TV show episode
I read the recently updated article on The WOW! SIGNAL, that John Ventre and Owen Eichler had published originally in 2015, concerning the 1965 Kecksburg, Pennsylvania UFO incident.
Quite a bit of the details about what had taken place near Kecksburg and related in their report originated from my investigations of the case that I began to document as it was breaking on the news on December 9, 1965.
As a result of the 2015 Ventre/Eichler report released at that time, I also released a report to respond to them. You can find that report at this link.
https://www.stangordon.info/wp/2015/12/04/kecksburg-ufo-witness-says-object-was-not-ge-mark-2-reentry-vehicle-2/ Sadly, the witness (James Romansky) mentioned in my response has passed away.
Also in 2015, I debated John Ventre live on an episode of PODCAST UFO with Martin Willis about the Kecksburg UFO incident. You can listen to that debate at this link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8wEHx2SYz0
I will briefly respond to some of the comments and summaries pertaining to the case that Ventre and Eichler mentioned in their updated report.
They discussed a sulphur smell around the impact site after the object fell.
My Response: Yes, there were some local residents that I interviewed who did tell me of such an odd smell. The authors mentioned in their report that the unusual odor was likely related to the technology of certain space launches from that time period. There is, however, a long history of a sulphur smell sometimes related to other UFO cases.
You shouldn’t depend on the memories of witnesses who saw symbols on the Kecksburg object so many years ago to validate your case. The few people I talked with who saw the symbols so many years ago only had the memory of looking at them but were unable to recall specific details that they could be sure of as to what they really looked like. Those witnesses who could see the symbols on the object were observing from various distances and many saw them under poor lighting conditions.
Jim Romansky, was only a few feet away from the object. He was a young volunteer firefighter looking for a possible downed aircraft. What he and a small group of other firefighters came across that evening was much more unusual. They were focusing on the odd construction of the object, and not the symbols. They were at the site just a brief time before the military arrived and then the firemen were ordered out of the area. Jim was uncertain about some details concerning what the symbols looked like or their arrangement on the object. He had later wished that he had spent more time looking at them.
Summary of evidence from the Ventre and Eichler report.
“It glowed green upon descent due to a copper alloy heat shield. This explains the green fire balls seen over New Mexico in the 50’s since they were testing this satellite.”
My response: A witness near Norvelt only a short distance from the impact site, did report seeing green flames as the object descended. However, various colors of flames were reported accompanying the object along its path and before it fell in the Kecksburg area by various witnesses.
For example, another witness watched the object pass near Marguerite and move towards Norvelt, only a short distance between locations. That object was moving at a rather slow speed similar to a piper cub aircraft on approach to an airport. The object that appeared to be descending looked red hot in the front with flames appearing around its sides and the rear. The flames were orange in color at the outer edges, and white in the middle of the flames.
“The only notarized sketch matches the satellite.”
My response: There are other sketches made by witnesses that the authors are unaware of. This is the sketch of the object drawn by a witness who observed it passed low overhead moments before impact.
(Stan Gordon Files)
This is an updated sculpt depiction of the seamless Kecksburg acorn shaped UFO created by Ron Lanham of Wild & Weird West Virginia www.wildandweirdwv.com
There is one physical detail of the Kecksburg object that is not widely known, that was reported by some witnesses who had a close view of the object. They reported seeing a protuberance extending out from the front of the object. That was possibly a hatch. See the drawing above the sculpt. That detail does not seem to be apparent on the GE MK2 device. Nor is the seamless construction of the Kecksburg object similar to the GE MK2 device.
“It looked like a 4-pointed star upon descent because it had 4 control jets.”
My response: The four-pointed star that the authors mention was not observed as it descended from the sky into the woods that afternoon. I conducted an in-person interview with that witness. The four-pointed star-like object, whatever it was, was observed after the primary object had fallen to the ground. Moments after the object fell, a column of smoke rose above the trees and dissipated quickly. That star-like object was above the trees near the smoke. It soon vanished.
Both Ventre and Eichler did some good research on the GE MK2, but I have seen no evidence that it is the explanation for the object that fell near Kecksburg in 1965.
I will be releasing an updated report on the Kecksburg incident on December 9, 2025, the 60tth anniversary of the case. www.stangordon.info