Freeport, NY - Other

Rocket-shaped object emitting sparks, making a sputtering noise and moving at 10-15 mph past the observer within 25' to 30'.

My one and only UFO sighting took place in Freeport, NY, on a mid-week evening around 7:15 in February of 1953, 1954 or 1955. I was 10, 11 or 12 at the time. It has been so long ago that I’ve forgotten some of the exact details. Arbitrarily, I’ll say it was Wednesday, February 10, 1954, but it could have been a Thursday night or a Wednesday or Thursday during the following week or one year on either side. I was alone walking south on Pennsylvania Ave. on my way to our church for choir practice. It was a pleasant February evening - seasonally cold in the high 20s to mid-30s with no wind.

As I was about to step off the curb and cross Lena Ave., I noticed a light, some distance down the street to my left. It was about 800’ east near where Lena takes a dogleg to the left. The object seemed to be spewing a profusion of yellow-white sparks. Two brothers around my age lived in a house on Lena just beyond my line of sight. I quickly concluded that it was probably they who had just set off a rocket aimed straight down the street toward me. I stopped and waited for it to approach.

At roughly 120’ from me, it became clear that it was not a common firework. The object was a grey metallic rocket-shaped object about 6’ to 8’ long, 4” to 8” in diameter. It had what seemed like small guidance fins at the rear, proportionally similar to the Redstone rocket of the day but possibly less pronounced. A profusion of yellow-white sparks continued to issue from the object but the exhaust was not a focused blast like a rocket motor. It most closely resembled the crude special effects of the lazy exhaust emitting from the fictional fleet flown by the forces of ‘Ming the Merciless’ in the 1940s Flash Gordon movie serials. It was not silent. The exhaust made a moderately loud sputtering sound at it passed. This object was moving too slow – about 10-15 mph – to sustain flight.

It flew directly down the middle of street about 20’-25’ above the roadway. It continued west past me, maintaining the same altitude and heading. It passed closest to me at a distance I estimate at 25’ to 30’. About 400’ west of Pennsylvania Ave., Lena Ave. begins to a long dip. Rather than continue straight ahead on the same trajectory, one which I could have monitored for at least a half mile further, the object paralleled the curve of the road until it was out of sight at about 500’ to 600’ from where I stood.

During this event, there were no vehicles moving along Pennsylvania and Lena in either direction. After the object passed out of sight, I noticed a middle age woman walking south on the opposite side of Pennsylvania about a half block from Lena. I called out to her asking if she had seen anything just then. I don’t recall whether she responded to my question or just ignored me, but in any event she didn’t confirm my sighting.