“Glowing with a White Light”: The Navarre UFO of 1954

While on leave from the United States Navy’s Air Forces in the summer of 1954 a Navarre, Ohio native saw something in the night sky even his knowledge of modern aircraft could not explain.

William Sago (1870-?) and his wife Emma (1875-?) immigrated to Pennsylvania from Poland in 1900 and settled in Western Pennsylvania. The couple lived in McKeesport, Pennsylvania where they had eight children before William found work as a coal miner in Westmoreland County by 1920. The couple then separated and Emma returned the family to McKeesport. One of their sons was named Stanley J. Sago (1914-1970) and he married Anna Elizabeth Berquist (1914-1978) in 1932, shortly after his 18th birthday.

Stanley moved the family first to Akron, Ohio, and then to Stark County, Ohio after 1935 where they lived in the community of East Greenville in 1939. Stanley worked as a molder for the Massillon Steel Casting Company during World War Two and the family moved to Massillon by the time Stanley registered for the World War Two draft. The family enlarged to seven children by 1950, including a son named Edward J. Sago (1933-2005), and had relocated to a home about three or so miles southwest of Navarre, Ohio.

Edward attended school in Tuscarawas Township, Stark County until going to Navarre High School where he graduated with a class of 29 other students in 1951. The quote next to his image in the 1951 yearbook was a Horace Walpole quote: “Men are often capable of greater things than they perform”. The Korean War was barely a year old when Edward graduated and, after graduating, Edward enlisted in the United States Navy. Edward trained as an Aviation Electrician’s Mate, responsible for all of the repair and maintenance of electrical and instrument systems on naval aircraft.

Edward’s role in the United States Navy exposed him to a variety of the United States military’s latest aircraft technology including the Navy’s F9F Panther jet fighter built by Grumman. It is also possible that he may have even received training on the even more advanced F-86 Sabre jet fighter built by North American Aviation and flown principally by the United States Air Force. Regardless, Edward did not look to the sky with the eye of an amateur when it came to aircraft. That is why what he reported seeing in the fall of 1954 is so fascinating.

Edward was home on leave from the United States Navy in September 1954. Edward and his younger brother were outside with their father Stanley the night of Wednesday, September 22, 1954. Shortly after ten o’clock, all three men noticed a strange, saucer shaped object that “glowed with a white light”. The object appeared to hover and then dart about at a high rate of speed. When a plane flew over it the object went dark, only to light up again after the plane had passed. Edward was concerned enough that he reported the incident to the Stark County Sheriff’s Office who, in turn, notified the press.

The Stark County Sheriff’s Office were unable to locate Edward’s original report and what the Sagos saw that night is impossible to know, but Edward was hardly the type of person to fabricate such a story. In the years after the incident, Edward married, had children, pursued his education, and went on to have a very long career in the Massillon Police Department. Edward J. Sago passed away in March 2005 and is buried at Sunset Hills Memory Gardens in North Canton, Ohio. What he saw the night of September 22, 1954 baffled his trained eyes and remains a mystery.

© Noel B. Poirier, 2024.