The UFO Wave That Shocked the Nation —
Exeter, New Hampshire (1965)
In the early morning hours of September 3, 1965, eighteen-year-old Norman Muscarello was walking along a highway three miles south of Exeter, New Hampshire when a brilliant glowing red craft swooped down overhead. He watched it perform fantastic maneuvers for almost 15 minutes until it moved off. He flagged down a car who brought him to the local police station. Norman spilled out his story to Officer Reginald Toland, who was skeptical until Officer Eugene F Bertrand arrived and said that he had just talked to a woman who said a UFO had swooped down over her car only minutes earlier. So Norman Muscarello and Officer Bertrand headed to the scene where Norman had seen the UFO and to their amazement, it was still there. Shortly later, Officer David Hunt arrived and he saw the UFO too. The Exeter UFO wave had begun!
As word of this amazing sighting leaked out, other people in the area began to report seeing UFOs. It turned out, the wave had begun some weeks earlier, but nobody was talking about it. Now, however, the phones at the Exeter police station began to ring off the hook as so many people were reporting UFOs that the police were unable to handle all the calls. People all across Exeter were reporting silent craft with multicolored lights that would maneuver over fields, chase cars down highways, and hover over people’s homes. In a few cases, people reported the craft landing on the ground. Within a few weeks, there were scores of cases.
Soon the wave spread to the towns around Exeter including Kensington, Hampton, Fremont, Seabrook, Epping and more. The activity was so intense that the roads in the area became lined with cars as residents and others gathered to watch the UFO activity. Meanwhile, officials at nearby Pease AFB only twelve miles away were not only receiving calls, they experienced UFO activity themselves. The objects appeared on radar, chased planes, hovered over the base and allegedly landed on one of the runways. Numerous residents reported seeing the UFOs being chased by military jets. Many witnesses noticed a strange pattern with the UFOs traveling along the high-tension electric lines.
In October, journalist and author John G. Fuller arrived to investigated the Muscarello/Bertrand/Hunt sighting and instead found himself inundated with UFO reports and people wanting to share what they had seen. As John Fuller collected the reports and recorded interviews, he realized that the story had grown to huge proportions. Before long, he himself had a sighting.
More investigators arrived to document the activity. The Air Force Project Blue Book, officials at Pease AFB and even the Pentagon did their best to debunk the sightings, causing outrage among the local citizens. As the number of cases continued to grow, interest in the encounters increased and were soon generating national headlines. Newspapers and magazines printed numerous stories and UFO publications did their best to keep their subscribers informed with the ongoing UFO wave.
Controversies raged as residents, investigators and the military struggled to deal with all the activity. Many of the witnesses were certain that the small town of 8000 residents was being invaded by aliens from outer space. Others speculated that the military was flying their own secret craft. Debunkers arrived in full force, doing their best to explain the activity as reflections of light, temperature inversions, meteoritic activity, or conventional aircraft seen under unusual conditions. Meanwhile, military officials were forced to admit that they were unable to explain the activity. The activity continued strong through the beginning of 1966, but slowly began to slow down, or people simply stopped reporting the activity. John G. Fuller wrote a full-length book on the case titled “Incident at Exeter” which began a huge hit, soon selling a half-million copies. Sometime in 1966, the sightings trickled way and the wave came to an end. But the town would never be the same.
This video presents a detailed day-by-day accounting of the mysterious events that occurred in Exeter, New Hampshire in 1965, including recordings of firsthand witnesses, and photographs of sighting locations and witnesses. This unprecedented wave of UFO activity put the small town of Exeter on the UFO map forever. Even today, the residents hold an annual UFO festival in the town to commemorate the activity. The UFO wave is one of the most intense and best-documented UFO waves in United States history. It has yet to be fully explained.
YouTube link: https://youtu.be/cnJVxHn_EJQ?si=Qae3bg5lFWBnnRe1