

Was a secret Soviet experiment to blame, or was it something else ? Image Credit: DoD

In 1951, an encounter with a strange object near Seoul inflicted an entire company with radiation sickness.

Reports of unidentified flying objects were surprisingly common during the many wars of the 20th century. During World War II, sightings of such objects were so widespread that Allied pilots even had their own name for them - 'foo fighters'. Similar reports would later continue well in to the Cold War.One particularly intriguing incident occurred in 1951 during the Korean War. It involved PFC Francis P. Wall and his regiment who had been stationed near Chorwon, 60 miles to the south of Seoul.The men had been getting ready to bombard a nearby village with artillery when they saw what they described as a "jack-o-lantern" descend from the sky and hover over the settlement."[We] noticed that this object would get right into... the center of an airburst of artillery and yet remain unharmed," Wall later said while recollecting the encounter.When the artillery explosions failed to damage it, the soldiers switched to armor-piercing rounds, however it was no use - the bullets simply rebounded off the object with a metallic 'ding'.Before long, the UFO had started to move erratically while its lights pulsated with a brilliant blue-green light. It shifted from side to side, seemingly in response to the attack.Things came to a head when, without warning, the object reciprocated."We were attacked," said Wall. "[We were] swept by some form of a ray that was emitted in pulses, in waves that you could visually see only when it was aiming directly at you. That is to say, like a searchlight sweeps around and the segments of light... you would see it coming at you."Within seconds, the object had shot off in to the sky and was gone.Three days later, the entire company had to be evacuated by ambulance. Some were so weak that they could no longer walk and most were suffering from symptoms indicative of radiation exposure.To this day, no definitive explanation for the incident has ever been found.