UFOs in the daily Press:

Valley residents have reported UFOs
Newspaper articles from 1940s, '50s and '60s describe sightings.

By Frank Whelan

Q: It was on the very hot night in August 1968 when I was working in Bethlehem across the Lehigh River from Bethlehem Steel that I saw an unusual shiny, spinning flying object in the sky hovering over the steel plant. I have no idea what it was, but I have often wondered.

My question is are there any documented UFO sightings from that time about people seeing objects in the sky in this area? Whatever it was, it was there and I saw it.

Donald W. Parks
Allentown

A: After reading your letter I went immediately to The Morning Call's flying saucer file. You knew we had to have one, right?

The file begins with an Evening Chronicle story from July 8, 1947. The first known UFO sighting recorded locally was credited to Bethlehem resident Edna Lynn of 36 W. Laurel St., who said she saw an unidentified flying object on July 6, 1947.

Over the years the articles came thick and fast, including one with a photograph purported as a high-flying UFO taken July 9, 1952, by Berks County farmer John Mittl over his family's 300-acre farm near Kutztown. It ran in the Evening Chronicle on July 30, 1952.

To answer your question, on Aug. 4, 1968, there was an article in The Morning Call about the sighting of a UFO over the Lehigh Valley the day before. An unidentified man in West Catasauqua reported seeing "a red light in the sky."

Through his binoculars he saw "a bright, round object. ...It was red and had no tail or any flames following it." The weather station at Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton Airport said they had not seen anything but reported a call from a young man asking for information about temperature and visibility. "Sounded as though this might tie in with the UFO report," a meteorologist said.

The article noted there had been many previous sightings that spring and summer. On May 27, 1968, a former Navy corpsman reported a brightly lit object hovered over his car as he drove on Third Avenue in Hellertown.

"On last Monday, four Bethlehem policemen responding to a call from Richard Sedler of 508 Hess St., who reported a UFO sighting, confirmed that they too had spotted the object," The Morning Call said.

"Officers John Ladics and Vincent Carrodo reported that the round object had greenish-white and revolving lights with a red glow coming from its tail." They saw it about 1:21 a.m., it disappeared for a half-hour and "then returned briefly for an encore."

Ask Frank appears on Wednesdays. Have a question about Lehigh Valley history? E-mail questions to frank.whelan@mcall.com or write to Frank Whelan, The Morning Call, 101 N. Sixth St. Allentown 18105.