In the then-contemporary scheme of things, the incident at Exeter was not very involved or prolonged. As far as details go, there is nothing that precise regarding the object involved. Yet the incident rated lots of news. It did so because of those who saw it. Also, quite quickly, John Fuller, a Saturday Review writer, got involved. The Exeter incident became a benchmark for these three reasons: something tangible was seen by a number of witnesses and their excited reactions made it plain they saw something they didn’t think was of this world; the police saw it too; then the established media followed it and wrote it up positively.

  A Google Earth showing the precise location of the Exeter Incident.

     The Second Great Flap was underway, but little did anybody know the extent it would reach over the next two years. Among UFOlogists it was already being called the Western Flap because of the events over the Midwest. But now a month later, September 3, 1965, it began over New England.

     Norman Muscarello, 18 years old, was hitchhiking home to Exeter from nearby Amesbury. He was near the Russell farmhouse on rural route 150.

     From behind the dark cutout silhouette of a line of trees set against the indigo, starry night, a glowing red oval arose. Across its center were 5 red lights. One large one toward the front, then 4 others, smaller, less brilliant. They flashed in sequence. First the biggest red one, then the others in turn. Then they reversed sequence. Thus if numbering them from biggest to smallest as 1,2,3,4,5, they blinked 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1.

     As NICAP’s The UFO Investigator (Aug-Sept 1965 issue) portrays the UFO seen by Muscarello, Bertrand and Hunt.

     Muscarello thought the craft was about 80 feet long, bigger than the Russell farmhouse. It made no sound, but it yawed and dipped and careened. Then it seemed to lunge toward him. He dived in a ditch. It coasted over. He panicked and ran to the Russell front door, banged on it and begged to be let in. Old man Russell wouldn’t open the door. When Muscarello saw headlights skimming over the old country highway, he ran out, flagged down the couple inside and got a lift into Exeter.

     At 2:25 a.m., shaking and upset, Muscarello told his story at the Exeter police station. He had seen a UFO! One of those nuts thought Reginald “Scratch” Toland, the deputy. He asked Muscarello how many beers he’d had tonight. But the kid was genuinely scared out of his wits, so Toland said he’d call a police car to have them check out the country route.

     Norman Muscarello, 1965, high school senior picture.

     Just now, officer Gene Bertrand came into the station. He had heard enough of the story to add his own. While cruising the outskirts of Exeter he came across a woman sitting alone in her car. She was badly shaken. She had been driving from Epping and for 12 miles a red glowing object had followed her and then shot straight up into the sky.

     Bertrand believed Muscarello and drove him back to the field across from the Russell farmhouse. They parked by a telephone poll. The night was deadly silent. They got out and quietly listened and scanned about. Bertrand called Toland and reported in. They were going to walk around.

   “Roger.”

     They walked through a field and then by a horse corral. Bertrand energized his powerful flashlight and shined it around. Its cold circle of white light swept the deep green foliage. He insisted that Muscarello had seen a helicopter. If not a helicopter then one of the aircraft from nearby Pease AFB.

     Muscarello was adamant. He had seen something strange. No need to belabor the point. The point was now made for him. Horses nearby started to whinny and kick about. Dogs started to bark and howl, agitated.

     “I see it! I see it!” screamed Muscarello.

     Bertrand turned to where the lad was pointing. Bertrand gaped. A red sphere rose above the trees and wobbled toward them. Bertrand grabbed his revolver, but then thought he better not fire. They rushed back to the patrol car. He grabbed the mic:

     “My God, I see the damn thing myself!” he blurted.

     His voice came over the receiver at the station. Toland waited for more.

     Bertrand and Muscarello were mesmerized at the glowing red sphere. It was slowly closing in. About 300 feet away it stopped, just about 100 feet off the ground. The red lights flashing sequentially were so bright that neither could figure out the exact shape of the thing. Bertrand likened it to trying to figure out the outline of a car at night while looking straight at its headlights.

     Officer Dave Hunt had been speeding to the scene, having heard Bertrand’s voice excitedly shriek over the radio. He now pulled up. “I could see those pulsating lights. I could hear those horses kicking out in the barn there. The dogs were really howling. Then it started moving, slow like, across the tops of the trees, just above the trees. It was rocking when it did this. A creepy type of look. Airplanes don’t do this.”

   The picture that has come to symbolize the modern UFO experience— Officers Hunt and Bertrand (in background), awed,  gazing off near the telephone pole where they had parked that early morning September 3.

     Not believing what they were seeing, Bertrand said: “What is that, Dave? What do you think?”

     “I don’t know,” replied Hunt. “I haven’t seen an aircraft like that before, and I know damn well they haven’t changed that much since I’ve been in the service.”

     The red object moved off eastward over the ocean.

     Adding some distant noise to the event, there was an Air Force bomber flying high overhead; its jets just a low, hoarse purr in the background. There was no comparison between it and the UFO, the officers noted. Whatever that red glowing object was, it was something totally different from an aircraft.

     Officer Toland was now receiving another call at the station. It was the operator. A man had just called her from a phone booth in Hampton by the coast. Before he was cut off, he had said a flying saucer dove at him. He was panicked and then the line went dead.

     This fit with what Hunt and Bertrand had seen. The object went east, over the ocean, and Hampton was a few miles east of Exeter.

     These above are the nuts and bolts of the Incident at Exeter. Within a few days more people were calling from parts thereabout reporting a strange light or craft with blinking lights. It was never identified.

    National news followed the incident. NICAP’s local lead investigator, Ray Fowler, came from Massachusetts to probe further. John Fuller wrote up a popular piece in the Saturday Review and Look started to investigate closer. Too many people saw it. Too many of these people were credible.

     Taken by a couple on August 21, 1965, this object hovered off Island Park, Long Island, NY, in company of 3 others. Blue Book dismissed it as ground light reflections. We will probe into this later.

     In essence, the events at Exeter, New Hampshire, were inspired by an object making a point. The thing came in close and was seen by credible people. It was something that seemed otherworldly.  It came in close enough that it couldn’t be a misidentification of a helicopter or known aircraft. This thing must have landed and then hovered over the trees, just over the trees. It had followed the woman on the road. It had hovered and watched Muscarello. It had, among other people, frightened a man near Hampton. In other words, it clung to the roads and didn’t mind being seen.

     The Incident at Exeter has helped shape our image of the UFO experience— an iridescent light hovers over a lonely late night rural road. It comes closer. There seems to be a saucer or spaceship behind it. Awed, those at hand gape upward. It is the quintessential example of Close Encounters of the Second Kind.

     This was not an isolated incident. The flap would continue over the USA for two more years. This was merely one of the closest encounters.

     As we continue, we’ll be able to trace the beginnings of the Second Great Flap to events over Francis E. Warren AFB near Cheyenne, Wyoming. Nine such craft were involved. Five went back west, and four went east, split up and perhaps rejoined. From sightings and photographs these 4 objects’ journey to New Hampshire can be roughly followed. Along with the other 5, they would create the greatest flap in UFO history over 1965-1967.

     The impact is found at Lightcraft II: Significance.