Georgia Senator Richard B. Russell was a major figure in the U.S. Senate. As head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, he exerted enormous influence over the American defense establishment. 

When he spoke, the military listened. So when Russell reported what he had seen while traveling through the Soviet Union, no one laughed-and hardly anyone outside official circles knew of his remarkable experience until years later.

Just after 7 P.M. on October 4, 1955, while on a train in the Transcaucasia region, the senator happened to gaze out a window to the south. To his considerable astonishment his eyes focused on a large disc-shaped object slowly ascending as a flame shot from underneath it. The object then raced north across the tracks in front of the train. Russell scurried to alert his two companions, who looked out to see a second disc do what the first had just done. At that moment Soviet trainmen shut the curtains and ordered the American passengers not to look outside.

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