The Great UFO Wave:
October, 1973

October 1973: What Happened?

Perhaps one day through future revelation or discovery, history may acknowledge the bizarre blitz of UFO sightings across America which happened in the shadows of Watergate. But for today, most people are unaware of the extraordinary UFO Wave of 1973. For most, it will not spur a memory comparable to the trauma of JFK’s assassination or the shock of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. All implications aside, present history books do not recount this strange episode, as the UFO situation is currently viewed as an erroneous and suspect enigma. The true significance of October 1973 is not currently understood... the majority have no concept.

As for me, I was barely a first grader in October of 1973 who thought only of Hot-Wheels and Shazam. While in my backyard playing with toys, Sandy (not her real name, of course), a 40-year old neighbor who lived across the street from me, appeared suddenly and asked for my dad. As I looked at her, I could tell that she was upset. Her face was blushing, red in places and possibly bruised... and she had tears in her eyes.

"Daddy," I called out, "come here."

My dad, who had been building a 'barn' in the back of our house, entered the scene and began comforting the weeping neighbor. I remember that she was very frightened, and cried on his shoulder.

"They're trying to get my daughter," she said.

At the time, the whereabouts of her daughter, a childhood friend of mine and the same age as myself, was unknown. Perhaps she was home, perhaps at a friend’s house. I don’t remember. But I wondered: ‘who was out to get her?’

My Dad had those same questions in mind, and as the neighbor wiped tears from her eyes and nose, she replied: "I don't know, but I just know that they're out to get her."

"Who's out to get her?" demanded my Dad. He seemed alarmed.

The neighbor hesitated, her quivering lips poised to speak, but she was having trouble doing so. Her right hand came to her mouth as she exploded with more crying and faltering.

"This THING,” she uttered with dread, “It was flying in our backyard... it was a big BLUE... DIAMOND. They were going to get her, I know it. It was in the sky in our backyard."

I looked around but there was nothing up in the sky, there couldn't have been, for I had been outside playing with my toys for the last two hours, at least. If something was around, I would have seen it (but perhaps not if I were oblivious to everything around me, being lost in my own little world of Shazam and Hot-Wheels).

Admittedly, I was in my backyard and she was in hers. If something was there, I mused that it must have been quiet, sneaky.

Sandy went on: "It came down behind those trees there. They've gone, I think. I don't know what happened, it just took off and disappeared. I hid behind the couch the whole time."

From my memory, I wondered how she could hide behind a couch, as I had been in her house before and knew the layout of her living room. With all due respect, she was a rather large, robust woman, and with the backside of her couch positioned against the wall, she couldn’t have possibly hid back there without sliding the couch out.

"I'm sure its nothing," I remember my dad as saying... or something like that. I remember his interest in UFOs, and that he looked in the sky while comforting her. After some time, she was calm and left. Perhaps she finally went home after her husband had returned from work or from the store.

Regardless, I saw her daughter at grade-school the following day. Everything seemed fine with her. From this point, I only recall hearing all of the talk about widespread UFO sightings all over the neighborhood.

This sighting sparked my interest in UFOs. Sandy went on to become a good friend of my family, and I have always known her as a solid, sober and trustworthy person. From time to time in the years afterward, I would bring up the issue with Sandy. It always seemed to be a touchy situation.

"What happened?" I would ask.

"It was kind of strange," she would say. "It was something... we'll just never know."

To my dismay, she never shared my interest in talking about such matters. As time passed, I noticed that her perception of the event had changed.

Sometime around 1988, I sat on her front porch and enjoyed a neighborly chat with Sandy for about an hour. Before crossing the small 'no-outlet' street to head back home for the night, I decided to drop that uncomfortable question to her one more time.

"What happened?" I asked, recalling that evening in 1973 when I was a confused first grader and she was a terrified parent. I think she knew the question was due.

"Oh, it was nothing. You know how things are..." she said. "I really don't believe there's anything to that. I believe all that stuff is the devil, and he's out to steal, kill and destroy."

Today I review her change of attitude with suspicion. I wonder if she has denied the incident in her own mind, opting instead to rationalize or dismiss it as a Satanic attack/hallucination in conformity with her since-acquired religious beliefs. But I remember her emotion and fear back in 1973 ... that was real.

In the years since this unusual drama, my involvement with this strange subject has become more than a passing interest. I have read literature about UFOs, collected information about strange events, and have investigated alleged UFO sightings.

Through several trips to the library over the years, I have managed to collect and store numerous newspaper articles from October of 1973, all retrieved from various microfilms. Other generous researchers have also passed along multitudinous articles. The details are staggering, too unreal.

After several weeks of typing these articles and assembling various reports, I began the process of arranging them for inspection on the Internet, which despite its many flaws, is a fine tool for anyone to use if he or she desires information. Arrangement of data and design of the site was quite difficult, even challenging. The end result, I hope, will leave the patient reader with more questions than answers. Fittingly, this site is unveiled on the 25th anniversary of this strange event.

The unusual aerial events happening during the October 1973 time-period remains one of the most fascinating of all UFO happenings, an intense and disturbing siege that no dismissive hypothesis or explanatory venture will easily rob of its strangeness.

Kenny Young
UFO Researcher
Cincinnati, Ohio