Incident at Exeter Interview  (Continued)

EXETER STUDENT:
Can you trace where you've been for the last 15 years?

MUSCARELLO:
I was in the Navy from October 4, '65 to September 22, '69. I spent 36 months in Viet Nam, was discharged, was married, lived in town here. Got a divorce, went to California where my dad lives. By the way, he teaches high school too.

I went back to the Navy for a year and a half. It changed too much for me; I'd broken service. I just couldn't hack it anymore. I worked for a motor company building recreation vehicles. I got homesick. Got sick and tired of spending Christmas in 80 degree weather. Missed the snow and seeing my friends, so I came back here. That's about it. I don't know what else to tell you.

EXETER STUDENT:
Did you experience any mild notoriety when you were in the Service and the book came out?

MUSCARELLO:
You mean from my peers?

EXETER STUDENT:
Did someone say, "Hey, there's a book about you! "

MUSCARELLO:
Yup. You see this (UFO incident) happened three weeks before I actually went in. My first command was the USS Boston, out of Boston. My division officer was Lieutenant Larry Bishop, and he and I kind of hit it off. We had hit Singapore, on a liberty in between gun runs to Nam. We stayed at the Singapore Hotel and there is a big open foyer in the middle of the hotel, barbershop here, gift shop over there. Here's Larry in there puttering around, looking at magazines and he picked up a copy of this (taps copy of Incident at Exeter). There was also some cartoon type, caricature thing. They had me running down the street with an attaché case and a three-piece suit. Which is crazy; I dressed pretty much the way I am now. Of course I used to get a lot of hassle in the chow line.

EXETER STUDENT:
There weren't people coming in and trying to get your side of the story, assuming that there was more to it?

MUSCARELLO:
The Executive Officer talked to me on the bridge one night. I had a mid-watch. He wanted about a half hour spiel.

EXETER STUDENT:
Have you ever seen anything else since 1965 that you could not identify?

MUSCARELLO:
No. There is something, I don't know what page it is on that says I've seen something else. I don't even know why he wrote that. I I asked John about that and he says that I don't understand that he said that he did not write that.

EXETER STUDENT:
How did your mother take it when you told her that you had seen a UFO?

MUSCARELLO:
I didn't tell her, Gene did.

EXETER STUDENT:
Is that the first time you'd been brought home in a patrol car?

MUSCARELLO:
I've gotten into little trouble before, nothing serious.

EXETER STUDENT:
Did you have any contact with the Air Force?

MUSCARELLO:
Yes, at the house... This fella Kehoe was erratic, telling me to shut up, don't say anything -- if you want to make any statements, make them with me. By this time there are cops, photographers, some fella from the Manchester Union, Major Kehoe and his sergeant, John Fuller and his photographer.

EXETER STUDENT:
Mr. Fuller was right there on the spot? I was led to believe that he didn't hear about it for a while.

MUSCARELLO:
No, this was the same day. Anyways Kehoe's sergeant had taken this thing off his wrist. He was handcuffed to an attaché case, and set it on the kitchen table. It was unlocked, cocked half open. My mother, she says that she'd better get some more coffee, so she went into the kitchen. She must have gotten curious or something and started flipping through the attaché case. Kehoe spotted her when he came around the corner and he swore at her. I'm not even going to use the language he used. That is when she blew up. She says, "This is my house, that (the attaché case) is sitting on my table and I'll look at it. If you don't like it, then get the hell out of here." And I said, "That's right ma, because if he won't I'll throw him down the stairs. And that's a fact.

EXETER STUDENT:
What do you believe it was that you saw in that field near Exeter that night?

MUSCARELLO:
Very good, I wanted to get to that. I'm a very avid fan of Carl Sagan and his series Cosmos. My personal opinion is -- how naive and ignorant do we have to be to stand here and say that we are the only intelligent beings in this entire galaxy, solar system, and cosmos? I don't believe that we are. It is something. I can't say it wasn't. I don't know what it was.

EXETER STUDENT:
Thank you Mr. Muscarello for coming in and talking to us.

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Originally published in The Talon Exeter Area High School, October 1980 J. Dennis Robinson, Faculty Advisor