UFO’s Over Owensboro?

Moon Mullins here. In my role as Brand Manager and co-host of WBKR's morning show, I receive a lot of inquiries about country music, especially from those wanting air play.  Recently, I was contacted by Alex Stuart, of Phoenix, a former Owensboroan, who was promoting a a song he wrote. More about that later, but what really intrigued me was Alex asking me if I ever heard of the Owensboro UFOs. No, tell me more. So, Alex sent me complete details which I'd like to share with you.

OWENSBORO’S FIRST UFO?  By: Alex Stuart

First, some disclaimers should be taken care of:  my memory of what I saw, many years ago, is still fresh in my mind.  However, details of the newspaper account, and the exact time and date of the event are only approximate.

One morning, around noon, probably in the fall, I was crossing Lewis street from east to west, when a bright object caught the corner of my eye.  Just as I shifted my view towards the river, the object passed out of view behind a two or three story brick building.  The object was out over the river, about 150 feet above ground, and angled down about five to ten degrees.  The sky was cloudless, there was little or no wind, and there was no noise.  What I saw, in a split second, was not swamp gas or a weather balloon because it was moving at perhaps 75 to 100 mph, whereas a balloon moves at the speed of the wind.  It was a nearly flat vertical surface of what I assumed was polished aluminum.  My view was so clear that rivets, or some other type of attachment points, were visible.  It was slightly convex and the two trailing corners were slightly rounded.  It was too late to see the leading part of the object.  I may have seen ten percent of the object; I may have seen ninety percent.  My immediate reaction was that it was probably an Army B-25, which had twin vertical tail assemblies with rounded corners.  The year is not clear to me today, but was probably between 1942 and 1944.  During WW2, it wasn’t uncommon for military pilots, if they were passing near their hometowns, to reduce power, glide down over their home, then feather the propellers and apply full power.  The resulting noise was sure to scare Mom and Dad half to death!  It was this possibility I was thinking about and the event soon faded from my mind.

The next morning, much to my surprise, the Owensboro Messenger carried a front page, below the fold, story of a mysterious airplane that possibly had crashed, but no one knew where.  According to the story, dozens of citizens along the Ohio Valley from near Louisville down to Owensboro had phoned local law enforcement to report an aircraft that appeared to be in distress and about to crash.  Most assumed that it was a military aircraft, since at that time, very few civilian aircraft were of all-metal construction.  One glaring omission from the witnesses, or perhaps an oversight of the reporter: no one reported the ‘type’ of aircraft: single engine; dual engines; four engines; monoplane; bi-plane; high wing; mid-wing; low wing.  However, all reports concerning the ‘craft’s’ attitude were consistent: it was silent, it was low, it was on a downward path.  This is not possible!  At best, the craft would make contact with the ground in one or two miles, so how did the craft remain aloft for 100 miles, or more?  That may be the most puzzling aspect of the event.

After reading the story, I re-examined in my mind what I had seen.  It occurred to me that the ‘tail’, if that’s what I saw, did not have any markings as was common on all aircraft, especially the military types.  I had assumed that what I saw was a vertical tail assembly which consists of a vertical stabilizer and rudder, yet I did not notice a hinge line between the two parts.  During this period of time, two of my brothers and myself were aviation enthusiasts and built model airplanes.  Our family subscribed to two model aircraft magazines and Flying Magazine, which was full of color photos of all types of military aircraft.  Had I been able to see the entire ‘craft’, there is no doubt in my mind that I could have identified it as a particular type and model, if it actually was an aircraft.  The fact that none of the witnesses could make an identification raised a huge question in my mind.

To sum up, what I saw was unidentified, it was obviously flying and it was a very solid object.  In other words, it was an UFO!  However, it was not until the event at Roswell, New Mexico in 1947 that the terms UFO and Flying Saucer became part of our daily language.

About ten years ago, I wrote to the editor of the Owensboro Messenger to tell him about this event and suggest it might make an interesting story if they could find in their files the original report.  I never received a reply.  I also contacted Linda Moulton Howe, an investigative reporter who covers a lot of UFO sightings, and told her about this event.  She suggested I contact the Messenger!  I had thought perhaps the paper would pay more attention to her than to me.  She did tell me that there had been a few sightings in this country before that event, so Owensboro wasn’t the first site, but almost.  It would be very interesting if there are any other residents of Owensboro who are still living who might have seen what so many of us saw at that time.

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