Kecksburg, which was the location of something mysterious -- some would say something extraterrestrial -- 40 years ago, isn't Southwestern Pennsylvania' s only connection to unidentified flying objects.
Uniontown native Gen. George C. Marshall was chief of staff of the Army during World War II, secretary of defense and secretary of state in President Harry Truman's administration and the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of a Europe devastated by the war.
Some extraterrestrial experts believe that he was also part of a government coverup of alien visitors, although he couldn't be blamed for the handling of the purported Kecksburg landing since it happened six years after his death
Larry Bland, the editor of the Marshall papers at the George C. Marshall Foundation Library in Lexington, Va., said there has been a stream of UFOlogists visiting the library to authenticate Marshall's signature on various documents.
But Bland doesn't believe there's anything to a UFO coverup, and he said that Marshall's signature could have been added to the bottom of some documents with the aid of scissors and a copying machine.
Marshall does have a connection to outer space in NASA'a Marshall Space Flight Center at Huntsville, Ala. But Bland said the center was named after him because it was originally an Army facility and it was opened at about the time of his death, not because he had any particular interest in outer space.
There are a number of reminders of Marshall in Uniontown, including the George C. Marshall Highway bypass around the city, a park and a memorial plaza at Uniontown's Five Corners intersection at Main and Fayette streets and Mt. Vernon Avenue.
The latest likeness is a mural of the general draping the side of a city building and calling attention to Joe Hardy's Marshall Plan II for the revitalization of Uniontown.
Local statuary of Uniotown's favorite son includes a bust, a "monumental-scale" bronze of Marshall on horseback and another of him seated on a park bench across from the memorial plaza.
There are no plans as of now for a statue of Marshall looking into the sky for a flying saucer.
