I too believe these poor folks were in the wrong place at the wrong time when a secret American-made craft was tested--maybe it even falls into the same category of domestic psychological experimentation that Gene has speculated the Betty and Barney Hill case was.
In the end, it certainly helps blur the lines for those attempting to determine the terrestrial vs. extraterrestrial nature of the UFO enigma.
The government got its cake and ate it to. The gov. said none of its aircraft were in the area and there was no ufo there either. Yet the road was taken out and repayed, the trees were cut down so all physical evidence at the location was removed.
What explanations, if any, were available at the time for the repaving of the road and the cutting out of the adjacent trees?
It's excellent that the physician's son has posted here and offered to present @Sentry's questions to him.
Isn't it just a guess at this point whether what was seen was a dangerous failure of a nuclear-powered US craft leaking radiation, being accompanied to some base or landing site by Air Force helicopters? Did the US have a craft such as this one capable of flight of some type and producing the apparently brilliant light witnessed? It seems equally possible that the object/craft was not ours and had been partly disabled by US jet fighters scrambled to pursue it, subsequently surrounded/monitored/guided to a landing by the military helicopters. How much do we have to know about experimental aircraft produced in the US at the time before we can justify a conclusion concerning this case?
I'm going to read all that @Sentry has collected about the case on his website.