[IV-8] Keyhoe, D. E. _Flying Saucers: Top Secret._ New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1960. [IV-9] Menzel, D. H. _Flying Saucers._ Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1953. [IV-10] Ley, W., and von Braun, W. _The Exploration of Mars._ New York: The Viking Press, 1956. [IV-11] Main, O. Personal correspondence. _Chapter_ V OUT OF THE SKY: METEORS AND FIREBALLS About one o’clock in the afternoon on November 30, 1954, a spectacular meteor flared across the southeastern part of the United States and exploded. Many persons in Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi saw the bright flash high in the sky, followed by a trail of smoke, and heard three violent detonations. Over the town of Sylacauga, Alabama, a nine-pound fragment of the falling meteoric body crashed through the roof of a house, bruised the left arm and hip of the unlucky resident, and came to rest on the floor. Members of the American Meteor Society collected detailed descriptions of the event from many witnesses and added this daylight fireball to the official list of observed meteorite falls from which meteorites are recovered[V-1, p. 128]. UFO addicts, however, apparently regarded both the meteor and its fragments as unnatural phenomena, implied some doubt that the fragment was really a meteorite, and characterized the incident as peculiar[V-2]. To the astronomer who specializes in the study of meteors the only peculiar aspect of the episode is that saucer publications list so few mysterious UFOs for that particular week when similar spectacular fireballs were almost a commonplace in the southeast states. On November 29 a meteor flew over Alabama at 5:30 P.M., and about two hours later another with a long trail soared over Florida. On November 30 at 5:00 P.M., a few hours after the fall at Sylacauga, another bright fireball flashed over Alabama. Shortly before midnight the same night a meteor flamed over North Carolina, so brilliant that its copper-green light illuminated the interior of cars on the highway; blue-green fire shot out above the treetops, changed to magnesium white, and then slowly faded. Detailed observations of all these appeared in the scientific journal _Meteoritics_[V-1, p. 128]. _Stones from Heaven_