Theories range from high-tech Soviet death rays to extraterrestrials studying human combat to combat-stress-induced hallucinations.

sudden, the soldiers saw a strange sight up in the hills—like “a jack-o-lantern come wafting down across the mountain.”

What happened after—the pulsing, “attacking” light, the lingering debilitating symptoms—would mystify many for decades to come.

... And whereas at first, it had glowed orange, now it was a pulsating blue-green brilliant light. He asked his company commander for permission to fire at the object with armor-piercing bullets from an M-I rifle. As the bullets hit the body of the craft, he recalled, they made a metallic “ding.”

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