A Close Proximity UFO Sighting With Physical Evidence: The Greenfield Incident

On a cold November evening in 1978, two sisters witnessed a bizarre glowing object descending towards a field at the back of their property. In addition to the close proximity sighting itself, the following day, the two sisters discovered evidence that something strange had indeed been over the field the previous evening in the form of a distinct impression in the grass and vegetation. Furthermore, this impression also featured details that had been seen in other similar UFO landing cases, which only further heightened the case’s credibility.

It is perhaps surprising, then, that the encounter is not as well-known as we might think, even within the UFO community. The fact is, the sighting of the two sisters, as well as the multiple other reports from other members of the public, could very well be one of the most important encounters on record. Perhaps further, deeper investigations into these sightings might reveal more details and get us collectively closer to the truth of this case as well as the UFO mystery in general.

A “Big Fiery Light” Descending Out Of The Sky

According to the report, at around 9 pm on November 8^th, 1978 (some sources offer the date of the sightings was November 3^rd), sisters Cathy Wilfong and Cindy Bridges were at their home in Greenfield, Indiana, when Cindy ventured outside of the house to obtain firewood. As she was doing so, she noticed a “big fiery light” descending out of the sky towards a soybean field at the back of the property. ^[1] Curious but with caution, she headed to the back of the yard towards the soybean field to investigate what the object was. By the time she had the object in sight, she screamed out to her sister to come outside.

At the same time, Cindy began screaming for Cathy, her dog – Babe – began barking wildly, confirming to her that something truly out of the ordinary was unfolding. She immediately headed outside, seeing the bright, descending object as soon as she stepped out of the house. Cathy later stated to a local news crew (News 4 Indiana) that the object “looked like it was in three sections, like a rectangle”, with the “two end sections pointed down at the ground at a 20-degree angle”. She continued that “in the middle section there was some type of round circle”, although they couldn’t tell “if the circle was even with (the object) or protruding out from it or up into it”.

Cathy further recalled that the object was a “greyish-green color” and had two white lights on it and one red light. She continued that while the object was still, the light remained almost flat. However, as soon as it went into motion, the light appeared to pulsate, becoming brighter and dimmer repeatedly. It also appeared to move in a sideways direction while over the barn and the field, only changing to a forward motion when it headed off into the distance a short time later. She further offered that the object “moved like it was in slow motion”. Most frightening of all to the two sisters, however, was the fact that despite its huge size, the object was completely silent – almost unnaturally so.

After watching it for several moments, Cathy turned and headed toward the garage in an attempt to locate her camera. Not able to find it after several moments, though, she instead headed back inside the house, a surge of fright running through her. Cindy also began to feel unsettled and headed inside a nearby camper van. She remained there for several minutes before finally deciding to make a run for the property to join her sister.

Initial Report Dismissed

From the safety of the house, the two sisters watched the object as it continued to hover around 60 feet above the soybean field. After several moments, Cathy reached for the telephone and reported the mysterious object to the Sheriff’s Department. She then telephoned their mother, who lived around six miles away. After informing her of what they had seen, their mother told them she was setting off immediately to the house.

She would later state that as she was traveling to the property, she could see the strange lights from around four to five miles away as she traveled along State Road 209. By the time she arrived at the house, the lights were beginning to ascend and moving away. They eventually disappeared into the distance.

It would take the Sheriff’s Office just over half an hour to arrive at the Wilfong residence (even though they were less than 10 miles away). And when they did arrive, they were dismissive of the sisters’ report, insisting that they had likely seen nothing more than a helicopter. The sisters protested that there was no sound to indicate a helicopter, nor were there any navigation lights of a helicopter. Furthermore, the object was over 100 feet in length, certainly a lot larger than a helicopter. Despite this, the police insisted they had misidentified a terrestrial aircraft, appearing unconcerned about why a helicopter would be hovering so low to their property in the first place.

Physical Evidence Left Behind

The following day, the two sisters ventured out to the field where they had seen the object hovering. To their shock, almost directly below where the object had been. Later details of the indention showed it was 44 feet in diameter and was, essentially, a “perfect circle”. Cathy continued that the weeds and vegetation were “smashed down” but not completely to the ground, instead they were “intertwined together” around six inches from the surface. In fact, the weeds to intertwined to such a degree that when the women tried to pick it up “the whole thing would come up with it!”

This detail of intertwined vegetation in a perfect circle is highly reminiscent of the Tully Nest UFO encounter that unfolded in Tully, Queensland in Australia, on the morning of January 19^th, 1966. Not only was there the detail of the intertwined vegetation, but the sighting itself was similar – such details as the object hovering close to the ground before heading off into the distance. Furthermore, the impressions in the Tully Nest affair were also “perfect circles” just like the one in Greenfield.

Eventually, news of the sighting reached the Center for UFO Studies in Evanston, Illinois, who promptly sent a field investigator – Allan Hendry – to investigate the incident. He offered that the encounter was “one of the two most significant sightings the Center had investigated” that year (in 1978), not least as the witnesses were both very credible and they viewed the object at such close range, as well as the apparent physical evidence left behind in the field over which the object was seen hovering.

Incidentally, on the night of the sighting there were no less than 19 other reports of strange lights in the Greenfield area, suggesting that whatever the sisters and other residents of the region saw that night, it was very real.

The Remarkably Similar Jim Atlees Sighting

Only several weeks earlier, at around 10 pm on September 25^th, Jim Altees was walking along an alley with his brother, Paul, near his home in Indianapolis when he suddenly heard a strange noise. This noise, already loud to begin with, steadily grew louder and louder, eventually becoming so loud it appeared as though the ground was shaking.

At this point, Jim looked directly upwards and was more than shocked to see a “bright object” around 100 feet away from him, descending toward the ground. Paul, who hadn’t yet turned his attention skyward, was certain the noise overhead was simply a low-flying jet. However, when he also shifted his focus to where his brother was looking, he was more than aware that they were witnessing something out of the ordinary.

After several moments, Jim ran back to the house and immediately contacted The Star newspaper, telling them of the bizarre object and urging them to send somebody to take pictures of it. However, they declined, stating that Jim should contact the police instead. He did so, but they gave him a phone number to call so that he could report the sighting there. When Jim called the number, he discovered it was somewhere in Washington DC, although he gave details of what he and Paul had witnessed.

An Object “As Large As Two Houses Or Two 747 Jets!”

Jim offered in his description that the object was “as large as two houses or two 747 jets” that reminded Jim of a Second World War bomber plane, elaborating that he had “never seen an object in the sky with that many lights!” In total there were 18 lights that “flashed on” and a further 18 that “beamed very brightly upon them”.

Although the two brothers only saw the object from below (so only seeing the object’s underside), they were certain it was in the shape of an octagon, with the exterior being a “shiny, silver material” aside from the outside where the lights were positioned. In the middle of the object’s underside was a “green blinking light” that remained visible throughout the sighting. In total, the object remained overhead for around four to five minutes before it disappeared out of sight.

The brothers’ father, George Atlees, also witnessed the end of the sighting. He offered to investigators that the object “could be one of three things – a secret weapon that the United States has got, something from Russia that doesn’t show up on our radar, or it could be from some place else outside the Earth!”

Jim stated that the episode was a truly “strange experience” and that he “wanted it to land” so he could view it more closely. Whatever it was, all three of the witnesses were certain of one thing: they had not seen anything like it before.

The Rome City Sighting

Around two months after the Greenfield sighting, and around four months after the Atlees’ report, another intriguing encounter occurred in the state of Indiana, this time in Rome City. At around 8 pm on January 8^th, 1979, Marion Ritchie and his wife were driving along County Road 138 close to Fairfield High School when they noticed something strange overhead.

Around 50 feet from the road, hovering over an open field, was a cylinder-shaped object with white, red, and green lights positioned in various places on its exterior. To begin with, Marion believed he was viewing a water tower. However, as he drove under the curious craft, he could tell that the object was something altogether different.

He estimated that the craft was approximately 15 feet in length and was around 75 to 100 feet above the ground. After viewing the aerial anomaly for several minutes, the lights suddenly increased in brightness. This continued, with the lights steadily becoming brighter and brighter with each passing moment. Eventually, with the lights now almost blinding, the craft suddenly shot off into the distance and disappeared in a second.

To begin with, both Marion and his wife remained completely silent as they continued on their way. Then, perhaps out of shock, they both began to laugh. They contemplated the truly bizarre events they had just witnessed, and were agreed that very few people would believe them. Marion later offered to a UFO investigator that there was “no way” he was attempting a hoax and that he believed what he and his wife had seen that evening was “definitely a UFO”.

The Jenkins UFO Landing

It is also worth our time exploring another similar sighting to the sisters in Greenfield that occurred a month earlier in Jenkins, Missouri. ^[2] According to a report in the December 1978 edition of The MUFON Journal, at around 7 am on October 8^th, 1978, a “farming family” (consisting of five adults and a teenager) noticed a strange object seemingly hovering over a field south of their home. They estimated the object was around 300 feet from the property, with a white exterior and “of moderate size”.

The family remained close to the property, opting not to investigate any closer. They watched it for close to two hours, although it did nothing of consequence at that time. At 9 am, with a full days work ahead of him, the farm owner left the property to go about his chores. At precisely the same time, the object suddenly rose into the air at a rapid pace, coming to a stop around 30 to 50 feet above the ground. In response to this, the rest of the family rushed out of the house, eager to see what happened next.

They watched as the object continued ascending once more, moving slowly at first, and remaining completely silent. It was oval or egg-shaped, and while it had appeared white while hovering over the field, the exterior now appeared more metallic and silver. They could also see that one part of the exterior was darker than the rest, which also allowed them to determine that the object was rotating as it moved.

Then, the pace of its ascension increased dramatically before it turned and changed direction, eventually heading off into the distance. As they watched this object disappear into the distance, the family became aware of another object, this one seeming to be much larger than the first one. Eventually, the objects appeared to settle into a two-object formation and then seemed to move off together at the same pace.

Another Case With UFO Evidence

Following the object’s disappearance, the family immediately contacted the Sheriff’s department, who sent a deputy to the farm to investigate. Along with the family, he went to the field where the object was hovering. Upon arriving there, however, it appeared rather than just hovering, the craft had actually landed on the ground, as the deputy and the family noticed a distinct impression measuring around five feet long and three feet wide. Although the grass and vegetation was “depressed” there were no signs of burn or scorch marks at all.

Soil samples were also taken, and radiation was also measured at the apparent landing site. Both were normal. To begin with, it appeared that was the last of the incident. However, as the weeks went on it became clear that there were at least some longer-lasting consequences of the encounter.

The family began to notice that the area of vegetation where the impression was discovered began to deteriorate, despite the area immediately around it being healthy and unaffected (this is a detail that can be found in many other landing encounters).

In the aftermath of the incident, there were suggestions that what the family had seen could have been a weather balloon that temporarily landed in the nearby field. However, when it was checked for any launches either side of the date of the sighting, none were found. Furthermore, the way the object sped up dramatically after its initial slow rise further renders the hot air balloon explanation unlikely.

A Concentration Of Landing Cases

Whether or not there is a connection between the sightings we have explored here or not is perhaps still open to debate. And while we can find landing or near landing cases throughout the decades and around the world, it is interesting to note so many such encounters in the same (relatively speaking) location within a six-month window.

Was there something of interest in and around Indiana in the late-1970s that these seemingly otherworldly visitors were interested in? Were these some kind of reconnaissance over very specific areas? Could it even be possible that these seemingly otherworldly craft were, in fact, vehicles of a more terrestrial nature, perhaps reverse-engineered from alien technology?

While the Greenfield sighting was perhaps not one of the most dramatic, it is one of the most credible, not only because of the witnesses themselves but the fact that there were almost 20 other subsequent reports that very evening. Whatever the craft was that was witnessed by the sisters that evening, it appears clear it wasn’t a conventional one. Of course, whether it was extraterrestrial in nature remains uncertain, but it was most definitely something far from the norm.

You can see the News 4 Indiana report on the Greenfield UFO sighting below.