Sighting record / 1949
July 5, 1949. About 9:30 at night. Two sisters sat on a lawn on Madison Street in Alexandria, Louisiana. Above them drifted something round and flat, "the size and shape of a large plate," with a yellow light glowing at its center. It made no sound. It floated north, lower and slower than an airplane, and passed behind the trees. Within weeks, more people in Alexandria reported strange objects, and word came from Tullos too. A local columnist began planning a national convention for saucer witnesses. The Air Force, the FBI and military intelligence all took notice. Then the witnesses never came.
Summer 1949. Alexandria sat on the Red River in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, with Pineville just across the water. Like much of the country, its residents had been reading about flying saucers in the papers. Soon they would be writing to the papers themselves.