John A. Keel WHY UFOS

er systems engineer who holds a bachelor of science degreein mathematics and a master's in philosophy, was alertedby two teen-agers, Shawn Kearns, thirteen, and DonaldBurkhardt, fourteen, his son. They called him outside hishome on Roundtree Drive to look at an odd machinehovering just above the trees a few yards away."It was disk-shaped," Burkhardt said later. "It wassilvery or metallic white in color and seemed to beilluminated by lights—a set of rectangular-shaped lightsthat blinked on and off and seemed to be revolving acrossthe lower portion of the object, from left to right. Anotherlight emanated from the top but was not blinking. Therewas no noise such as an engine would make."The object dropped down behind the crest of a ridge,and Burkhardt returned to his house to get a pair ofbinoculars. Then he and several others set out to find thething again. They drove to a nearby road, spotted it, andwatched it as it flew out of sight. Burkhardt tried todetermine if the object was running the legally required redand green lights which even experimental craft mustdisplay. If it did, he couldn't see them.After phoning the Suffolk Air Force Base in WesthamptonBeach, Long Island, and answering questions for halfan hour, the scientist and the two boys returned to the areaof the sighting and examined the ground with flashlights."We detected a peculiar odor," Mr. Burkhardt noted."It was comparable to burning chemicals or electricalwiring and confined to the immediate area... a sand andgravel-covered clearing."Since this sighting was not made public until a monthlater, few people outside of the immediate vicinity knew ofit. But within days after the incident, Mrs. Burkhardt toldme, they began to receive a series of peculiar phone calls.The phone would ring, but there would be no one on theother end. Sometimes the phone would continue to ringeven after the receiver was picked up. Also, the Burkhardtphone bill began to show a puzzling increase over theprevious monthly average.Melville, we might note, had frequent and inexplicablepower failures throughout 1967, as did Huntington. ForPhillip Burkhardt, unidentified flying objects are no longera controversial subject or a matter of belief or disbelief. Heknows they exist.