Houston, Missouri
September 14, 1972
Field investigation by Ted Phillips on September 25, 1972. The primary witness, T.S is 45 years old, a veteran of World War II, serving with the Navy. During the War he saw considerable combat duty. Mr. S. completed high school & two years of college. His wife is 40 years old. Mr. S. farms & is semi retired.

The S. home is located in a heavily wooded area several hundred feet from the nearest public road. The home is surrounded by oak & evergreen trees. Their knowledge of UFOs is limited, they stated that they had read a few articles in the past several years. T. did state that he had heard of foo fighters sighted during the war. I quote from comments by the couple taped over a period of several hours.
THE FIRST EVENT: 2200
Mr. & Mrs. S. had turned on their battery powered television ( there is no electricity to the farm ) a Panasonic Model TR425R, DC 12v, 11w. “We were starting to watch television when there started this sort of pulsation, I though it was spark plug interference. The light was dimmed & then brightened, it would be as though you were adjusting the contrast back & forth--It would become bright & light--like that. The image would fade to a gray point. the pulses seemed to come & go in about two second intervals--brightest to lightest points. This pulsation lasted for one to two minutes. The pulsation's ceased & the picture started to roll--it was not a simple vertical roll--I’ll try & explain it this way--if you were holding a book in your hand, & you have the mass of it here ( facing you flat on ) & you would turn it slowly where you see nothing but the edge of it, & then turn it back one full revolution. in other words, the picture was turning over & over as if you would take a book & turn it over in your hands. First face up, then edge on. At one point a full picture--then the picture rolled over to show just a line in the center of the screen, then back to a full picture. When the picture was reduced to a central horizontal line, the surrounding screen was dark. The roll lasted for a short time, perhaps a minute.”

After the television disturbance ended, the witnesses went outside, there was no animal reaction at this time. They saw, in the south, a bright light. It was 170 degrees bearing, 30 degrees above the horizon & was stationary. Suddenly it moved upward about 5 degrees & stopped again. Mr. S. watched the light through 7 x 35 binoculars & was sure it was not a conventional aircraft, such as a helicopter. He stated that he could have heard the sound & seen running lights on such a craft. He could see a round shape, slightly flattened at the base. 
When it was stationary, the color was blue-white, when in motion, a pulsation & various colors. 

The light was the size of a pea held at arms length. The next motion was to the right ( west ), it moved about 5 degrees & stopped again, briefly. It then moved back to the east slowly. The light moved an equal distance east of its original position ( about 5 degrees, for a total west to east motion of about 10 degrees ) & paused again. It then returned to the original central position & dropped down. It repeated this complete maneuver five or six times. Mr. s. stated that it seemed to be controlled, the flight was so precise. The object then brightened & suddenly moved away to the west & was lost behind trees in two or three seconds. Its flight path angled upward slightly. after the object had disappeared the television operated normally.
The total observation was 15 to 20 minutes.
THE SECOND EVENT: 0300
Nothing more was seen until the witnesses were awakened by their dogs. They have three large dogs & they are used for security & hunting, & they are well trained. The dogs were barking & howling near the southeast corner of the house. When the witnesses went outside they saw the dogs were looking into the woods in the direction of the site, found later. The dogs “were all bristled up & growling. I took the chain from the collar & told him to go on down there, down in the direction he was looking. This is a courageous dog, but he started whining & pawing the ground, he didn't want to go. I thought this was strange & that something must be around, possibly a big cat. The other two dogs were howling, they kept looking down that way also. Well, the thing that really got me was the flash of light.” The witnesses had been looking around the area with a spotlight & could see nothing. Suddenly they saw a bright light, it appeared to come from a point on or near the ground. It illuminated the area around it & lasted only a split second. He saw nothing more. “I decided not to pursue the matter any further, I was rather skeptical of what was going on. My dogs were tense & excited. My wife was a little bit upset & we just decided to wait until daylight.  My animals told me that something was going on, maybe I didn't sense it entirely, but they certainly did.” The dogs didn't calm down until dawn.
The witnesses were unable to sleep the rest of the night.
THE SITE:
The next morning Mr. S. went to the area where he had seen the flash. 

This place is 300 feet east of the house, down a narrow dirt road which cannot be entered from beyond the house. As he approached the site, not knowing the exact location, he noted an evergreen tree which was discolored.
“I was looking around & I saw these strange little marks in the ground & a place that looked like it was scorched, only it wasn't scorched. It was like a scorch but it looked oily, this also called my attention to the marks. 

No farm machinery or anything has been in there. The road is an inside lane & is not open to outside traffic. 

There were no footprints in the area, just the marks.”
By the time I learned of the event & reached the site on November 25, 1972, there had been several inches of rain & snow. The evergreen tree is located 2.0 feet from the edge of a large oval area where the grass is depressed & dead. The oval area was still clearly outlined & we placed stakes around the edge & outlined it with a string line. The depressed oval was 19.6 feet across north to south & 14.4 feet east to west. The oval is located in the NW corner of a large field surrounded by trees.
The evergreen is still discolored, but only on the side nearest the site.

The side away from the site was still green & normal. Another evergreen some 25 feet from the site appeared quite normal. The blackened area was not visible as such but had a definite “baked” appearance in contrast to the soil & vegetation outside the oval. The imprints were covered by a piece of plastic & cans had been placed over the individual imprints in an effort to preserve them. Imprint A is 6 feet from the tree, 4 feet from the edge of the depressed grass.

It is just off the narrow lane in grass & was just visible. It appeared to be quite shallow compared to B & C. A narrow extension or “toe” is seen pointing toward the edge of  depressed grass. In he dirt lane one finds imprints B & C. Imprint B was in the best condition & showed the toe mark extending outward, it had gone into the ground at least 40 mm. The extension went into the ground at an angle leaving a very distinct hole.
The imprints formed a triangle & showed no signs of elongation.

One has the impression that, if something did land there, it made a vertical ascent & descent.
It is difficult to be sure, as the print had been washed out slightly, but it appears that imprint B carried most of the weight. Judging from the size & depth of the imprints, one would assume that the object was fairly light. The greatest weight is indicated on the rear (?) imprints, B & C. The lane is on a slight slope & the imprint up the slope, imprint B, is the deepest, one might assume that B encountered the surface first & carried most of the weight. this is assuming a great deal after the fact but this is the definite impression one gets in looking at the site. I obtained a sample of the discolored portion of the tree, a sample of the normal portion & numerous samples inside & outside the oval. A plaster cast was taken of Imprint B which clearly showed the rounded configuration of the foot pad base & the toe like extension.
I asked T. S. what he thought the object might have been...”I couldn't make a rash statement, all I know is my observation. I will say this about it, it didn't fly like anything we have, that I know of. it was just totally different. 
I was personally impressed with the witnesses. they did not attempt to color their story at anytime. They simply related the events as they had seen them.

There are numbers of very similar sites reported around the world. several of these cases indicate small imprints in a triangular pattern within an oval depressed or dehydrated area.
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