Willow Grove, PA - Light

Willow Grove Naval Air Station, PA.

Myself and two other Navy Corpsmen were on duty at the Naval Air Station, Willow Grove, Pa. in the spring of 1956. The weather was warm and the sky was clear with stars being visible. We were sitting outside the base medical facility on a step. We were facing west north west when we first sighted a light brighter than the other stars in the sky. We noticed that the light did not seem to be remaining "in place". The movement we detected was obvious in comparison with stars that were in the vicinity. The phone rang at the duty desk, and we went inside. The crews quarters were at the north end of the building by the medical store room. Immediately outside was a loading dock. Before bedding down we were curious as to whether the "light" was still visible. We stepped out on the dock, but could not immediately locate it; this is because in the course of not more than ten (10) minutes the light had changed position to almost due east and the movement we detected was more demonstrable. We called the radar shack and they did not have anything on their scopes. We rousted the duty photographer out of bed. The photo lab was in the control building just below the control room itself which was unmanned. The photographer set up a camera on a tripod, in the open doorway of the lab which faced the area of sky we were interested in. He took still photos and time lapse photos. The time lapse photos demonstrated the light/object to maneuvering; changing position (up/down, right/left. The duty officer in charge of the station was notified and he advised that we hold everything until morning (he had been sleeping). The following morning the photos were given to the Operations Officer and he took them to the Radar Control Officer. They went over the photos with the three of us present. They did not know what to make of what they were seeing. They contacted the Commanding Officer with all of the information they had and he advised that we all stay availble. The CO's office phoned and told us that Naval Intelligence had been contacted, and someone was on the way to interview us. In addition we were asked to report in writing what had transpired. The intelligence officer arrived, interviewed everyone who had anything to do with the "incident", took the photos and our written reports, and that was the last we heard of that. I know we saw something and what we saw was documented. I make no claims as to what we saw because we were told by the intelligence officer that the lest said, the better. Thank you. ((name, specialty, and academic degree deleted))

((NUFORC Note: Witness indicates that date of sighting is approximate. PD))