Exeter incident draws police and Air Force investigation

On 3 September 1965, eighteen-year-old Norman Muscarello flagged down an Exeter Police Department patrol car after reporting a large, silent object with red lights hovering at low altitude near Kensington, New Mexico. Officer Eugene Bertrand, who had earlier in the night encountered a stranded motorist also reporting an object, accompanied Muscarello to the field where the original encounter occurred. Both Bertrand and Officer David Hunt subsequently reported observing the object directly.

The U.S. Air Force initially attributed the sightings to a B-47 from Operation Big Blast, a high-altitude SAC training mission. After correspondence with the officers and the publication of John G. Fuller's Look magazine investigation, the Air Force revised the case classification to 'unidentified.' The Exeter incident is one of the few Project Blue Book cases formally retained as unexplained after revision.