Fifty-two years ago I walked into the Greensburg Tribune-Review newsroom one evening after covering a local government meeting and my editor put his arm around my shoulders and said, "Bob, I've got the story of the century for you."
I thought he was kidding, or at least planning to send my on a rookie reporter's snipe hunt.
"Oh yea, and what is that?" I asked.
"There's been a report that an unidentified flying object landed somewhere near Kecksburg. I want you to go out there and get the story. I'm serious," he said. "Get going."
So I jumped in my car and drove out to the tiny farm community of Kecksburg, that now is part of UFO lore.
What happened that night in a farmer's field near that western Pennsylvania hamlet is still shrouded in mystery. I've appeared in an independent film by researcher Stan Gordon, on the Sci Fi Channel as well as The History Channel's Conspiracy series in 2005
as part of various attempts to shed light on the Kecksburg UFO story.
When I went to the scene that night, I and other reporters were denied access to the reported landing site by armed Army personnel. There was a report that something with blue flashing lights landed, breaking off some tree branches on the way down. But that was denied by every official source we could talk to.
Why was the military there? That question has always haunted this story.
Check out this video, a reenactment of the events of that night.
Now, young filmmaker Cody Knotts is working on a new film about Kecksburg, which the promos say will "solve a 52-year-old mystery.
It will be a while before the film is made, although the script is finished, actors have been hired, and shooting is about to commence. But its an independent undertaking and they are trying to raise the needed money. Knotts told me their budget is $1 million.
He also said the film won't be exactly factual. In fact, they already have had a space ship made and two little green men who supposedly came from another planet have been created.
"We're going to have some fun with this," Knotts said. "But it certainly will keep the Kecksburg UFO story alive."