THE YEAR OF THE HUMANOIDS, 1973: THE PASCAGOULA ABDUCTION

FROM THE UFO CASEBOOK  http://www.ufocasebook.com/Pascagoula.html   The 1973 Pascagoula, Mississippi Abduction (Hickson/Parker)  

The strange case of nineteen-year-old Calvin Parker, and forty-two-year-old Charles Hickson actually began a day before their famous encounter. On October 10, 1973, fifteen different people, including two policemen reported seeing a large, silver UFO slowly fly over a housing project in St. Tammany Parish, New Orleans, Louisiana. Only a scant 24 hours later, Hickson and Parker would have the scare of their lives; a frightening encounter with an eerie UFO.
The two men were both from the town of Gautier, Mississippi, and were doing some fishing in the Pascagoula River on a dark night about 9:00 P.M. They suddenly heard a type of buzzing behind them.
Both men turned around to see the source of the sound, and were amazed to see a glowing, egg-shaped object with bluish lighting on its front side.
The unusual craft was hovering just a few feet above the ground, and about 30 feet from the shore of the river. To their unbelief, a door opened in the object, and three strange beings began to float just above the water straight toward them. Though the beings had legs, they did not use them, they simply floated across the river.
Parker and Hickson would later describe the beings as "about five feet tall, had bullet-shaped heads without necks, slits for mouths, and where their noses or ears would be, they had thin, conical objects sticking out, like carrots from a snowman's head. They had no eyes, grey, wrinkled skin, round feet, and claw-like hands."
Hickson, frozen in fear and unbelief, was grabbed by two of these creatures, and the third one took Parker, who fainted from fright. Hickson would later relate that when the beings put their arms under his body to support him, he felt numb all over. He was then floated into a a brightly-lit room inside of the UFO. Inside this room, he floated, along with an eye-like device which examined him all over.
After his ordeal, Hickson was left floating, while the beings left the room, probably to examine Parker. Approximately 20 minutes after the ordeal had begun, it was over, and Hickson was floated back outside of the strange craft. Parker was crying, and praying on the ground. Only a moment or two later, the craft rose straight up into the air and disappeared.
As the two men began to regain their composure, they were uncertain as to what they should do. Reluctant to report their harrowing experience, they felt obligated to tell someone. Despite fearing ridicule, they telephoned Kessler Air Force Base in Biloxi. Kessler referred their problem to their local sheriff's office.
Afraid of what reaction they might get from law enforcement, they opted instead to drive to their local newspaper. Finding the office closed, they decided to take their bizarre story to the sheriff after all. Naturally the sheriff felt the two men's story was some kind of hoax, and to get to the truth, he put Hickson and Parker into a room which was wired for sound, hoping that they would slip up, and reveal why they were perpetuating such a strange tale.

Soon news of the event began to surface. The local press released the story first; quickly followed by the wire services. Within a few days, the Pascagoula incident was major news all over the USA. The Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO), sent University of California professor James Harder to investigate; Dr. J. Allen Hynek, representing the US Air Force, also arrived to look into the story. Harder and Hynek interviewed Hickson and Parker together. Harder hypnotized Hickson, but he became so frightened that the session had to be aborted. The two abductees were encouraged to take a lie-detector test, which they both passed. Harder and Hynek, both highly respected in their professions, believed the two men's story.
At a later date, Hynek stated; "There was definitely something here that was not terrestrial".
In what may be a related incident, a couple of weeks after this chilling account, Coast Guardsmen and fishermen had an encounter with an underwater metallic object.
This strange object had an amber light on it, and the Guard chased it in the Pascagoula River. The object was close enough to touch, but each time it was prodded with a large boat hook, it would turn off its light, move a distance away, and turn its light back on. This unusual encounter lasted about 40 minutes before the craft disappeared.
The Pascagoula encounter is one of the most unusual accounts of all UFO reports. Though the sighting and abduction involved only two witnesses, there were several other sightings of unusual flying objects on the same night. The two men have held to their story, though no earthly explanation has been offered for the strange events of the night of October, 11, 1973.

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Pascagoula Abduction Audio Files

AT THE INTERNET ARCHIVE

LINK:   https://archive.org/details/PascagoulaAbductionAudioFiles

These recordings relate to the claimed alien abduction of Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker in 1973.

Coworkers in Pascagoula, Mississippi, Parker and Hickson were fishing one evening when they claimed a UFO appeared nearby. Strange humanoid creatures took them onboard the craft and forced them to undergo an examination.

The case earned much publicity in the mainstream media. Both men passed polygraph examinations, which seemed to establish that Parker and Hickson believed their story was true.

These ten zipped MP3 files include radio news coverage, hypnosis sessions and other recordings related to the "Pascagoula Abduction." Included is the original recording of Parker and Hickson's first interview with police. Unbeknownst to Hickson and Parker, police were secretly recording the interview. Police left the duo alone, expecting that if the story were a hoax, Parker and Hickson's demeanor would change. But Parker and Hickson continued discussing the abduction experience and their response to it: they expressed disbelief and awe at the event, and Parker repeatedly mentioned his wish to see a doctor.

These recordings were compiled and edited by Wendy Connors, who operated the now-defunct Faded Discs website. The recordings are in the public domain, and may be redistributed free of charge or reappropriated for other uses.

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Spring Heeled Jack

(How Stuff Works) The attacker was tall and thin, had pointed ears and fiery eyes, and wore a cloak. He tore at his female victims' clothes and ripped their flesh with hands that felt like iron. When he escaped, he did not run; he bounced away. Those who saw his feet swore he had springs in his boot heels. At first, the authorities had a hard time believing what victims were telling them. But by January 1838 so many Londoners had seen the figure that the Lord Mayor formed a vigilance committee to capture "Spring Heeled Jack."
In one especially notorious incident, he tried to snatch 18-year-old Jane Alsop right out of her own house. According to the London Times (February 22, 1838), he "presented a most hideous and frightful appearance, and vomited forth a quantity of blue and white flame from his mouth, and his eyes resembled red balls of fire. . . . [H]e wore a large helmet, and his dress, which appeared to fit him very tight, seemed to her to resemble white oil skin." The young woman was saved by family members.
One day in 1845, in full view of frightened onlookers, Jack tossed a prostitute off a bridge; she drowned in the open sewer below. Sightings of a comparable figure were recorded elsewhere in England in 1877. In 1904 more than 100 residents of Everton saw a man in a flowing cloak and black boots making great leaps over streets and rooftops.
Who -- or what -- was Spring-heel Jack? Some suspected that he was a rowdy nobleman, Henry, Marquis of Waterford, who died in 1859. Doubters countered that Jack-like leaps are physically impossible. During World War II German paratroopers who put springs in their boot heels got broken ankles for their efforts. Was Jack an alien? In July 1953, three Houston residents reported seeing a tall, bounding figure "wearing a black cape, skintight pants, and quarter-length boots." For a few minutes he remained visible in the pecan tree into which he had jumped. He disappeared shortly before a rocket-shaped UF­O shot upward from across the street.








WIKIPEDIA
Spring Heeled Jack (also Springheel Jack, Spring-heel Jack, etc), is a character from English folklore said to have existed during the Victorian era and able to jump extraordinarily high. The first claimed sighting of Spring Heeled Jack that is known occurred in 1837.[1] Later alleged sightings were reported all over England, from London up to Sheffield and Liverpool, but they were especially prevalent in suburban London and later in the Midlands and Scotland.[2]
Many theories have been proposed to ascertain the nature and identity of Spring Heeled Jack. The urban legend of Spring Heeled Jack gained immense popularity in its time due to the tales of his bizarre appearance and ability to make extraordinary leaps, to the point where he became the topic of several works of fiction. Spring Heeled Jack was described by people claiming to have seen him as having a terrifying and frightful appearance, with diabolical physiognomy that included clawed hands and eyes that "resembled red balls of fire". One report claimed that, beneath a black cloak, he wore a helmet and a tight-fitting white garment like an "oilskin". Many stories also mention a "Devil-like" aspect. Spring Heeled Jack was said to be tall and thin, with the appearance of a gentleman, and capable of making great leaps. Several reports mention that he could breathe out blue and white flames and that he wore sharp metallic claws at his fingertips. At least two people claimed that he was able to speak comprehensible English.

The first accounts of Spring Heeled Jack were made in London in 1837 and the last reported sighting is said in most of the secondary literature to have been made in Liverpool in 1904.^[3][4]
The first report of Jack was from a businessman returning home late one night from work, who told of being suddenly shocked as a mysterious figure jumped with ease over the high railings of a cemetery, landing right in his path. No attack was reported, but the submitted description was disturbing: a muscular man with devilish features including large and pointed ears and nose, and protruding, glowing eyes.
Later, in October 1837, a girl by the name of Mary Stevens was walking to Lavender Hill, where she was working as a servant, after visiting her parents in Battersea. On her way through Clapham Common, according to her later statements, a strange figure leapt at her from a dark alley. After immobilizing her with a tight grip of his arms, he began to kiss her face, while ripping her clothes and touching her flesh with his claws, which were, according to her deposition, "cold and clammy as those of a corpse". In panic, the girl screamed, making the attacker quickly flee from the scene. The commotion brought several residents who immediately launched a search for the aggressor, who could not be found.
The next day, the leaping character is said to have chosen a very different victim near Mary Stevens' home, inaugurating a method that would reappear in later reports: he jumped in the way of a passing carriage, causing the coachman to lose control, crash, and severely injure himself. Several witnesses claimed that he escaped by jumping over a nine foot-high (2.7 m) wall while babbling with a high-pitched and ringing laughter.
A few months after these first sightings, on January 9, 1838, the Lord Mayor of London, Sir John Cowan, revealed at a public session held in the Mansion House an anonymous complaint that he had received several days earlier, which he had withheld in the hope of obtaining further information. The correspondent, who signed the letter "a resident of Peckham", wrote:

It appears that some individuals (of, as the writer believes, the highest ranks of life) have laid a wager with a mischievous and foolhardy companion, that he durst not take upon himself the task of visiting many of the villages near London in three different disguises — a ghost, a bear, and a devil; and moreover, that he will not enter a gentleman's gardens for the purpose of alarming the inmates of the house. The wager has, however, been accepted, and the unmanly villain has succeeded in depriving seven ladies of their senses, two of whom are not likely to recover, but to become burdens to their families.

At one house the man rang the bell, and on the servant coming to open door, this worse than brute stood in no less dreadful figure than a spectre clad most perfectly. The consequence was that the poor girl immediately swooned, and has never from that moment been in her senses. The affair has now been going on for some time, and, strange to say, the papers are still silent on the subject. The writer has reason to believe that they have the whole history at their finger-ends but, through interested motives, are induced to remain silent.

Though the Lord Mayor seemed fairly sceptical, a member of the audience confirmed, "servant girls about Kensington, Hammersmith and Ealing, tell dreadful stories of this ghost or devil". The matter was reported in The Times on 9 January, and other national papers on 10 January, and the day after that (January 11) the Lord Mayor showed a crowded gathering a pile of letters from various places in and around London complaining of similar "wicked pranks". The quantity of letters that poured into the Mansion House suggests that the stories were widespread in suburban London. One writer said several young women in Hammersmith had been frightened into "dangerous fits", and some "severely wounded by a sort of claws the miscreant wore on his hands". Another correspondent claimed that in Stockwell, Brixton, Camberwell and Vauxhall several people had died of fright, and others had had fits; meanwhile, another reported that the trickster had been repeatedly seen in Lewisham and Blackheath. The Lord Mayor himself was in two minds about the affair: he thought "the greatest exaggerations" had been made, and that it was quite impossible "that the ghost performs the feats of a devil upon earth", but on the other hand someone he trusted had told him of a servant girl at Forest Hill who had been scared into fits by a figure in a bear's skin; he was confident the person or persons involved in this "pantomime display" would be caught and punished. The police were instructed to search for the individual responsible, and rewards were offered.
A peculiar report from The Brighton Gazette, which appeared in the April 14, 1838 edition of The Times related how a gardener in Rosehill, Sussex, had been terrified by a creature of unknown nature. The Times wrote that "Spring-heeled Jack has, it seems, found his way to the Sussex coast", even though the report bore little resemblance to other accounts of Jack. The incident occurred on April 13, when it appeared to a gardener "in the shape of a bear or some other four-footed animal". Having attracted the gardener's attention by a growl, it then climbed the garden wall and ran along it on all fours, before jumping down and chasing the gardener for some time. After terrifying the gardener, the apparition scaled the wall and made its exit.
Perhaps the best known of the alleged incidents involving Spring Heeled Jack were the attacks on two teenage girls, Lucy Scales and Jane Alsop. The Alsop report was widely covered by the newspapers, including a piece in The Times, while a single paper covered the Scales report, presumably because Alsop came from a comfortably well-off family and Scales from a family of tradesmen. This coverage by newspapers fuelled the collective hysteria surrounding the case.

Alsop case

Jane Alsop reported that on the night of February 19 she answered the door of her father's house to a man claiming to be a police officer, who told her to bring a light, claiming "we have caught Spring-heeled Jack here in the lane". She brought the person a candle, and noticed that he wore a large cloak. The moment she had handed him the candle, however, he threw off the cloak and "presented a most hideous and frightful appearance", vomiting blue and white flame from his mouth while his eyes resembled "red balls of fire". Miss Alsop reported that he wore a large helmet and that his clothing, which appeared to be very tight-fitting, resembled white oilskin. Without saying a word he caught hold of her and began tearing her gown with his claws which she was certain were "of some metallic substance". She screamed for help, and managed to get away from him and ran towards the house. He caught her on the steps and tore her neck and arms with his claws. She was rescued by one of her sisters, after which her assailant fled.

Scales case

Eight days after the attack on Miss Alsop, on February 28, 1838[11], 18-year-old Lucy Scales and her sister were returning home after visiting their brother, a butcher who lived in a respectable part of Limehouse. Miss Scales stated in her deposition to the police that as she and her sister were passing along Green Dragon Alley, they observed a person standing in an angle of the passage. She was walking in front of her sister at the time, and just as she came up to the person, who was wearing a large cloak, he spurted "a quantity of blue flame" in her face, which deprived her of her sight, and so alarmed her, that she instantly dropped to the ground, and was seized with violent fits which continued for several hours.
Her brother added that on the evening in question, he had heard the loud screams of one of his sisters moments after they had left his house and on running up Green Dragon Alley he found his sister Lucy on the ground in a fit, with her sister attempting to hold and support her. She was taken home, and he then learned from his other sister what had happened. She described Lucy's assailant as being of tall, thin, and gentlemanly appearance, covered in a large cloak, and carrying a small lamp or bull's eye lantern similar to those used by the police. The individual did not speak nor did he try to lay hands on them, but instead walked quickly away. Every effort was made by the police to discover the author of these and similar outrages, and several persons were questioned, but were set free.

The legend spreads

The Times reported the alleged attack on Jane Alsop on March 2, 1838 under the heading "The Late Outrage At Old Ford".[9] This was followed with an account of the trial of one Thomas Millbank, who, immediately after the reported attack on Jane Alsop, had boasted in the Morgan's Arms that he was Spring Heeled Jack. He was arrested and tried at Lambeth Street court. The arresting officer was James Lea, who had earlier arrested William Corder, the Red Barn Murderer. Millbank had been wearing white overalls and a greatcoat, which he dropped outside the house, and the candle he dropped was also found. He escaped conviction only because Jane Alsop insisted her attacker had breathed fire, and Millbank admitted he could do no such thing. Most of the other accounts were written long after the date; contemporary newspapers do not mention them.
After these incidents, Spring Heeled Jack became one of the most popular characters of the period. His alleged exploits were reported in the newspapers and became the subject of several Penny Dreadfuls and plays performed in the cheap theatres that abounded at the time. The devil was even renamed "Spring Heeled Jack" in some Punch and Judy shows, as recounted by Henry Mayhew in his London Labour and the London Poor:

"This here is Satan,-we might say the devil, but that ain't right, and gennelfolks don't like such words. He is now commonly called 'Spring-heeled Jack;' or the 'Rossian Bear,' - that's since the war."

—Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, p. 52

But, even as his fame was growing, reports of Spring Heeled Jack's appearances became less frequent if more widespread. In 1843, however, a wave of sightings swept the country again. A report from Northamptonshire described him as "the very image of the Devil himself, with horns and eyes of flame", and in East Anglia reports of attacks on drivers of mail coaches became common. He was linked with the so-called "Devil's Footprints" that appeared in Devon in February 1855.In the beginning of the 1870s, Spring Heeled Jack was reported again in several places distant from each other. In November 1872, the News of the World reported that Peckham was "in a state of commotion owing to what is known as the "Peckham Ghost", a mysterious figure, quite alarming in appearance". The editorial pointed out that it was none other than "Spring Heeled Jack, who terrified a past generation". [14] Similar stories were published in The Illustrated Police News. In April and May 1873, there were numerous sightings of the "Park Ghost" in Sheffield, which locals also came to identify as Spring Heeled Jack.
This news was followed by more reported sightings, until in August 1877 one of the most notable reports about Spring Heeled Jack came from a group of soldiers in Aldershot's barracks. This story went as follows: a sentry on duty at the North Camp peered into the darkness, his attention attracted by a peculiar figure bounding across the road towards him, making a metallic noise. The soldier issued a challenge, which went unheeded, and the figure vanished from sight for a few moments. As the soldier turned back to his post, the figure reappeared beside him and delivered several slaps to his face with "a hand as cold as that of a corpse". Attracted by the ensuing noise, several men rushed to the place, but they claimed that the character leapt several feet over their heads and landed behind them. One of the guards shot at him, with no visible effect other than to enrage his target; some sources claim that the soldier may have fired blanks at him, merely used to make warning shots. The strange figure then disappeared into the surrounding darkness.[15] Lord Ernest Hamilton's 1922 memoir Forty Years On mentions the Aldershot appearances of Spring Heeled Jack; however, he (apparently erroneously) says that they occurred in the winter of 1879 after his regiment, the 60th Rifles, had moved to Aldershot, and that similar appearances had occurred when the regiment was barracked at Colchester in the winter of 1878. He adds that the panic became so great at Aldershot that sentries were issued ammunition and ordered to shoot "the night terror" on sight, following which the appearances ceased. Hamilton thought that the appearances were actually pranks, carried out by one of his men, a Lieutenant Alfrey.[16]

Lincolnshire

In the autumn of 1877, Spring Heeled Jack was reportedly seen at Newport Arch, in Lincolnshire, wearing a sheep skin. An angry mob supposedly chased him and cornered him, and just as in Aldershot a while before, residents fired at him to no effect. As usual, he was said to have made use of his leaping abilities to lose the crowd and disappear once again.

Liverpool

By the end of the 19th century, the reported sightings of Spring Heeled Jack were moving towards western England. Around 1888, in Everton, in north Liverpool, Spring Heeled Jack allegedly appeared on the rooftop of Saint Francis Xavier's Church, in Salisbury Street. In 1904 there were reports of appearances in nearby William Henry Street.

20th century

A similar figure known as Pérák, the Spring Man of Prague was seen in Czechoslovakia around 1939-45. This character, like Jack, went on to become a folklore hero, even starring in several animated superhero cartoons, fighting the SS. On June 18, 1953, a figure in part resembling some descriptions of Spring Heeled Jack was sighted in a pecan tree in the yard of an apartment building in Houston, Texas. Mrs. Hilda Walker, Judy Meyers, and Howard Phillips described a man in a "black cape, skin-tight pants, and quarter-length boots", and "grey or black tight-fitting clothes". In South Herefordshire, not far from the Welsh border, a travelling salesman named Marshall claimed at some unspecified time until as late as 1997 to have had an encounter with a Spring Heeled Jack–like entity in 1986. The man leaped in enormous, inhuman bounds, passed Marshall on the road, and slapped his cheek. He wore what the salesman described as a black ski-suit, and Marshall noted that he had an elongated chin.[19] Finally, Jack also resembles in appearance and behavior (though Jack is more mischievous than malicious) the Japanese thunder god, Raiden. Stories gave Raiden a black appearance with red eyes and prodigious leaping abilities, but unlike Jack, Raiden was predatory, allegedly consuming men's navels. Theories No one was ever caught and identified as Spring Heeled Jack; combined with the extraordinary abilities attributed to him and the very long period during which he was reportedly at large, this has led to all sorts of theories of his nature and identity. While several researchers seek a rational explanation for the events, other authors explore the more fantastic details of the story to propose different kinds of paranormal speculation.
Sceptical investigators have dismissed the stories of Spring Heeled Jack as mass hysteria which developed around various stories of a bogeyman or devil which have been around for centuries, or from exaggerated urban myths about a man who clambered over rooftops claiming that the Devil was chasing him.[20]

Other researchers believe that some individual(s) may have been behind its origins, being followed by imitators later on.[21] Spring Heeled Jack was widely considered not to be a supernatural creature but rather one or more persons with a macabre sense of humour.[3] This idea matches the contents of the letter to the Lord Mayor, which accused a group of young aristocrats as the culprits, after an irresponsible wager.[3] A popular rumour circulating as early as 1840 pointed to an Irish nobleman, the Marquess of Waterford, as the main suspect.[3] Haining suggested this may have been due to him having previously had bad experiences with women and police officers.[22]
The Marquess was frequently in the news in the late 1830s for drunken brawling, brutal jokes and vandalism, and was said to do anything for a bet; his irregular behaviour and his contempt for women earned him the moniker "the Mad Marquis", and it is also known that he was in the London area by the time the first incidents took place. But The Waterford Chronicle was able to report his presence at the St Valentine's Day Ball at Waterford Castle, giving him an alibi for the reported attacks on Jane Alsop and Lucy Scales that are central to Jack's alleged existence. Nevertheless, in 1880 he was named as the perpetrator by the Rev. E. C. Brewer, who attested that the Marquess "used to amuse himself by springing on travellers unawares, to frighten them, and from time to time others have followed his silly example".[23] In 1842, the Marquess of Waterford married and settled in Curraghmore House, Ireland, and reportedly led an exemplary life until he died in a riding accident in 1859. Spring Heeled Jack remained active for decades after, which leads the aforementioned modern researchers[who?] to the same conclusion as Brewer's.
Sceptical investigators have asserted that the story of Spring Heeled Jack was exaggerated and altered through mass hysteria, a process in which many sociological issues may have contributed. These include unsupported rumours, superstition, oral tradition, sensationalist publications, and a folklore rich in tales of fairies and strange roguish creatures. Gossip of alleged leaping and fire-spitting powers, his alleged extraordinary features and his reputed skill in evading apprehension captured the mind of the superstitious public — increasingly so with the passing of time, which gave the impression that Spring Heeled Jack had suffered no effects from aging. As a result, a whole urban legend was built around the character, being reflected by contemporary publications, which in turn fueled this popular perception.

Paranormal conjectures

A variety of paranormal explanations have been proposed to explain the origin of Spring Heeled Jack, including that he was an extraterrestrial entity with a non-human appearance and features, (e.g., retro-reflective red eyes, or phosphorus breath) and a superhuman agility deriving from life on a high gravity world, jumping ability and strange behaviour[25] and that he was a demon, accidentally or purposefully summoned into this world by practitioners of the occult, or who made himself manifest simply to create spiritual turmoil.

The vast urban legend built around Spring Heeled Jack influenced many aspects of Victorian life, especially in contemporary popular culture. For decades, especially in London, his name was equated with bogeymen, as a means of scaring children into behaving by telling them that if they were not good, Spring Heeled Jack would leap up and peer in at them through their bedroom windows, by night.
However, it was in fictional entertainment where the legend of Spring Heeled Jack exerted the most extensive influence, owing to his allegedly extraordinary nature. Almost from the moment the first incidents gained public knowledge, he turned into a successful fictional character, becoming the protagonist of many penny dreadfuls from 1840 to 1904. Several plays where he assumed the main role were staged as well.

The 1967 Wave

The Sighting Wave of 1967 - Indiana
A NICAP Subcommittee Investigation
By Francis Ridge
http://www.nicap.org/papers/wave1967local.htm

Francis Ridge

Abstract

The Indiana-based NICAP Subcommittee, Indiana Unit No.1, headquartered at Vincennes, was authorized in November of 1960. The unit had investigated many cases on a local and regional level, and had been involved in the "concentration" in S. Illinois in 1963, but the wave of 1967 was one of the largest in history. The 7-man NICAP rapid deployment team, one of four in the state, was very busy that year. Since the news media was not covering the UFO subject very well, and communication with NICAP HQ in Washington was by newsletter distributed only four times a year, very few knew what was going on until long after the wave had subsided. The report on the local wave was published privately in the spring of 1967. This paper is a major update of that report. Here, in chrono order, is what investigators were able to piece together 36 years later. To view a Regional Sighting Information Database printout of over 200 incidents investigated by the Indiana group, click on the link below: RSID printout for six-state region in 1967

The event on or around January 3, 1967, at Richmond, Indiana, marked the first of many sightings for Indiana. At 2:00 AM an inverted mushroom-shaped object hovered over a car for 10-15 minutes. The area ahead was brightly lighted. Forward motion of the vehicle slowed, it was unable to accelerate, and there was a loss of steering control. (1)

The region was also experiencing strange objects in the sky. On an unknown day in January 1967, city, county, and state police were dispatched to an area west of Galesburg, Illinois after reports of sightings of a large UFO, "bigger than a trailer", with blue lights and a funnel on top were received. One Knoxville farmer and several motorists reported that the UFO "was round, big as a house, had no flying lights, but let off a greenish-blue light." Vibrations from the craft could be felt in the farmer's truck as it followed him along the Victoria blacktop about 7:00 PM. ( 34) And on January 7th, things were happening near St. Louis, Missouri. There was a sighting of a domed disc with lights on the dome, which hovered, tilted and sped away. (31)

The first sighting that the Vincennes, Indiana, NICAP Subcommittee investigated, occurred on January 10th.

January 10, 8:30 PM; Bruceville, Indiana
Mrs. Pam Ridgley and her son, Joe, were driving down the lane leading from their cabin when they observed an unusual object. It was dull gray, elliptical in shape, and glowing a sort of bluish color around the rim. It was low enough over the car and utility pole to get a good estimate of size. It appeared to be about 30 feet in diameter and about eight feet thick. It hovered for a few seconds, then accelerated slowly at first, then moved fast toward the east (east-southeast). It vanished in 6-8 seconds. The object exhibited a disc-shape as it banked slightly and several dim lights were seen on the rim. (2)

January 16, 6:00 AM; Vincennes, Indiana
On this date there were numerous reports of a glowing, bluish-green object which we were able to identify as a barium cloud launched from a rocket fired from Wallops island. The question that arose was, why are there, many times, barium clouds and radar chaff tests conducted during real sighting periods? Is this just a coincidence or does someone have these tests ready to deploy when people start seeing real UFOs? As you will see, something WAS going in in 1967, and all over the world. (3)

Jan 17, evening; Freetown, Indiana
Francis Bedel, Jr., (23) of Portland, Indiana, was driving on State Highway 135, a two-lane blacktop road, north of Freetown, he later reported to State Police, when a brilliant glowing white light darted into his field of vision. It apparently hovered over the road for a few seconds, then slowly reversed its course. Bedel was so busy staring at the spectacle that he lost control of his car, which left the road and was badly damaged. State Police who investigated said that Bedel was not drinking and was not injured in the crash.. (4)

Same evening; Freetown, Indiana
On the same stretch of highway on the same night, Mr. & Mrs. Phil Patton of Freetown, reported to State Police that a brightly lighted disc-shaped craft, about 30 feet in diameter, came down alongside their car. Mr. Patton told State Trooper Conrad that the object moved along the highway right in front of their car and about one hundred feet distant from it. They estimated that it was about 100 feet above the road and they described it as a circular in shape and about the size of a small house. The Pattons reported to police that they heard no sound from the object but that its outstanding characteristic was the extreme brilliance of its lights, predominately red but with flashing yellow and white along the side or bottom of the thing. After a half a minute, it flashed up and away. According to state police who investigated, the description given by the Pattons was identical to that given by Francis Bedel, the young man who wrecked his car while watching a similar spectacle, about a mile from the scene of the Pattons' experience. (5)

Controversial photo

Jan 19, 3:00 PM; Milan, Indiana
A photograph was reportedly taken of a UFO by Reed Thompson, a 15-year-old boy from Milan. The town constable stated that the boy was reliable and said that he had seen the photo himself. However, the boy refused to submit copies of the print or negative (35) mm to this unit after correspondence and long-distance telephone interviews. His report to us stated he watched the object for 5-7 minutes before it sped off. Later, one of our Indiana field investigators, Don Worley, obtained further information and a black & white copy of the original color photo, along with a report and drawings. (6)

The incident occurred about 3:00 PM. The sound of a "train" passing and a very bright light outside the window attracted his attention. The object had a silvery quilted surfaced and was about 6' by 8' in size, and was shaped like a "jar" with a top opening. It moved slowly by the witness' home, moving about 10' above the ground, keeping the ground contour and making angled turns around trees. Thompson said he grabbed a small camera and got one good photo of the object out the bedroom window. The object disappeared instantly when it got near a pine tree. The original photo, according to FI Worley, shows tree limb reflections on the sides of the object. He also stated that in the top of the object is a faint shadow of a figure's head and shoulder!!!! We never got to see a better version of the picture. Also of interest, the tree limbs where the UFO hovered finally died.

The Indiana State Police also investigated the incident and Reed was questioned. The initial report was taken by trooper Jim Harris who came back later after the film was developed and spent considerable time with Reed and his parents. The Air Force sent investigators from Dayton, and Robert Lowe from the University of Colorado analyzed Reed's negative. Reed was later visited by Frank Edwards and Don Worley.

According to a press report, on the same day (no details) two girls from Dillsboro reported seeing the same object or a similar one. (33)

January 29, 7:00 PM; Eckerty, Indiana
Mr. John Sturm, a linotype operator for the SPRINGS-VALLEY-HERALD at French Lick, and his neighbor, observed a bright red object descending from the northwest. It was traveling approximately three times the speed of a jet and had a tail or trail extending about 10-15 feet to the rear of tie object. The object descended at a 45-degree angle, leveled off at low altitude and turned a bright green. Observation time: 15-20 seconds. Final bearing: southwest. Range: 3-4 miles. The object appeared to be controlled. Meteors don't "level out at low altitude" (7)

FEBRUARY

February 2, 10:30 PM; Sumner, Illinois
To the west of Vincennes, and just across the Wabash River in Illinois, is a little town called Sumner. A well-known craftsman, who requested anonymity, reported to the Lawrenceville-Vincennes Airport that he observed an object for one and a half hours that was doing some pretty good stunts. It hovered, accelerated, changed shape and color, was observed with the naked eye, 7- power binoculars, and a 20x spotting scope. It was described as a very bright red object, flashing like a red neon sign. The upper portion was a very bright white and red and green lights were observed around the object. The object was seen in the east northeast and noticed because of its brightness arid erratic movement. It seemed to have a very thick rim. In a letter dated 13 April, the observer mentioned that the LAWRENCEVILLE DAILEY - RECORD had an article on UFOs seen farther south about the same time. The airport stated during a telephone conversation that no conventional aircraft were in the area at the time. This one sounds suspiciously like a star or planet, but there were no candidates unless he had his bearings completely wrong. (8)

At the time, we had no idea what was going on elsewhere in the six-state region, or the United States, or even further away. But the record shows that something truly unusual was happening.

On that same day, but at Lima, Peru, at 12:30 AM a cone-shaped object approached and paced a Fawcett Airlines airplane. The cabin lights dimmed, there was radio interference, and the radio compass oscillated. (25)

Before the year was out there would be at least 28 pilot chase reports.

Back home in Indiana......

February 4, 1967, 7:30 PM; Norman, Indiana (68 miles NE of Vincennes)
State Trooper Hollace Chastain was checking his rural mailbox right after patrol when he noticed an unusual and very bright object in the western sky. It was elliptical in shape, about the size of a dime at arm's length and self luminous. Chastain, after observing a few minutes radioed Trooper James Blevins. The object then ceased to move and hovered for a while, then sped up suddenly, changed colors in the process from white to orange to greenish-blue back to white. It appeared to pulsate at times during the observation. No sound was detected during the 30-minute observation and the object finally disappeared behind a tree-line in the southwest. The object appeared solid and seemed to change shape. Estimated range: 5 miles. Estimated speed: (at acceleration) 1,000 mph. (9)

That same evening, 7:30 PM; 10 miles SE of Norman, Indiana
Trooper Blevins, also of the Seymour Post, followed the object for fifteen minutes to Lawrence County. The object was reported as "soft ball-sized" and changing colors from blue to green to white. "It was stationary when I first saw it, " he said, "but it was too big to be a star. Suddenly it started to move." The interrogation form completed by Trooper Blevins stated that the object had flickered & wobbled during observation and finally dropped straight down behind a tree-line. The object appeared solid and was observed at least once through binoculars. It moved from southwest of his position (8 miles west of Brownstown) to due south above the tree line. Estimated range: 2-10 miles. Estimated speed: 1,000 mph at acceleration. (10)

Within hours of the previous sightings & 65 miles southwest of Brownstown, something unusual was being observed.

"Boomerang" observed near Oakland City, Indiana

February 5th, 1:45 AM; 10 miles east of Oakland City, Indiana
Seven members of a band were returning home from a performance in Huntingburg when they observed an object described as "pale green with a bluish tinge" with a cluster of white lights, It was observed for 5-6 minutes from the side of highway 64. The object changed brightness and shape and appeared at first as "boomerang-shaped", then somewhat "teardrop-shaped" as it moved from east to northwest. The object was first observed as they drove up over a hill and was last seen fading in the northwest. Another car with 5-6 occupants also observed the object. The original group requested anonymity and the latter observers were unidentified. (11)

2:30 AM; Crothersville, Indiana (75 miles to the north east)
Richard D. Barker of the Seymour State Police post reported he followed a huge ball of greenish-blue and white lights for some 10 miles about 2:30 AM before the light moved west towards Bedford. "It had a flat bottom, just under basketball size, and had a brilliant blue-green light rotating around it counterclockwise. Barker said he was in the vicinity of Crothersville in Jackson County when he first spotted the changing lights, "It was maybe 300-500 feet high and had three red flashing lights under it," he said. "I got within what seemed like about a mile of it and it started moving south. Barker said he never did lose sight of it and it didn't leave any trail. He said when it got to Littleyork it hovered for a while and then took off fast, "It wasn't like any airplane I've ever seen, " he said. "I know it wasn't a plane." (12)

6:00 AM; Bedford, Indiana (35 miles northwest)
The woman reporting requested anonymity. The report she gave to the DAILEY HERALD-TELEPHONE provided the most vivid description of an unidentified flying object observed as far southwest as Oakland City and as far east as Crothersville......35 miles away. At this time she arose because of noises on the roof roof. She thought it was raining. That's when she saw what looked like a quarter moon that was moving toward her. "I watched it for a half hour," she said. "It would more, then hover, getting closer all the time. It had a bright light on the bottom. The light kept going around and back and forth an the ground like it was looking for some place to land. As it got closer I could see a bright band around the middle of it," she continued. "It was oval-shaped, sort of like a cigar. The top was shiny, like metal, and the bottom was kind of orange. There was a crater on the bottom of it--and bumps, like legs." It hovered near a utility pole behind her house for ten minutes. She said when she started to dial her telephone to call someone about it the object "turned real bright orange and then blue and took off." (13)

That very evening there was a humanoid sighting at Hilliard, Ohio. An object that was described as an ellipse, landed, humanoid beings emerged and placed small spheres on the ground around the craft. Witnesses observed them interacting with humans. Further, up-to-date research, would show many more HR cases for the year, but at least 14 were found without much effort. (32)

February 7th, 8:00 PM; Owen County, Indiana
An egg-shaped object was reported by Paul Poorman on a farm near some strip mines. Poorman was a 33-year-old specialized police officer and qualified pilot. The object was white and well-defined, turned to a blood-red color, then a pale blue. It arose from the White River bottoms and strip mine area, hovered, "yo-yo'd", then zipped south then back, etc., then went down below a tree line. (14)

February 9th, 7:50 PM; Eight miles south of Seymour, Indiana (35 miles east of Bedford)
Another State Trooper to see and report a UFO in the Seymour area was D. E. Swider at Crothersville, This ended a sighting group for that area and appeared to be somewhat similar to the reports of the 4th and
5th of February. At about 7:50 PM when trooper Swidar was patrolling Interstate 65, 8 miles south of the Seymour State Police HQ, they advised him of a UFO reported to the post. He, himself, saw the object in the west for about 10 minutes before it finally went out of sight further west. It was described as a huge, round object, moving left to right (slowly) changing colors from white to red to orange. This sequence corresponded with a decrease in speed, followed by an increase in speed of the object, typical of a UFO. (15)

The direction and elevation of the UFO put it near the position of Venus. The Seymour Post stated during a long-distance telephone conversation (with this unit) that some people were reporting Venus. However, the description of the object, its lateral movement and short period at visibility, rules out this possibility.

February 14th, 7:00 AM; Jefferson City, Missouri. A CE-III
Going from a local to a regional sampling of UFO activity, a disc-shaped object was seen resting on a shaft in a field at Jefferson City, Missouri. Small beings were reportedly moving around rapidly beneath it. They disappeared behind the shaft, the object rocked back and forth, took off, and sped away. (26)

On February 19th, registered letters were sent simultaneously to Bakalar Air Force Base at Columbus, Indiana and the Nike Missile Station at Dillsboro, requesting possible information on these reports; either visual or radar. On the 24th we received the following letter from the Department of the Air Force, dated 23rd Feb 1967:

Dept. of the AF HQ, 434th Troop Carrier Wing Bakalar AFB, Columbus AFB, Indiana 1. In accordance with AFR 200-2, paragraph 7, this base must submit the following: "The Office at Information, Office of the Secretary at the Air Force, will release to the public or unofficial persons or organizations, any information or releases concerning UFO's, regardless of origin or nature. This includes replies to correspondence submitted direct to the AFSC (FTD) and other Air Force activities by private individuals requesting comments or results of analysis and investigations of sightings." 2. Your report dated 19 February 1967, is noted and will be passed to the appropriate personnel. FOR THE COMMANDER Elbert E. Wade, Major, AFRes Deputy Director of Operations Plans and Training Branch

Checking our copy of AFR 200-2 revealed the following:

1) AFR 200-2 makes no mention of the AFSC Foreign Technology Division in its text. On September 19, 1966, the Air Force Systems Command took over the UFO Project. Thus, we have a change from 20 years of investigation by Air Force intelligence through ATIC (Aerospace Technical Intelligence Center) to an Air Force research & development program. The order that produced that change was AFR 80-17. Major Wade was quoting from an outdated directive.

2) We were requesting information, not reporting.

3) We did not get the requested information, either to confirm or deny knowledge of the events.

4) The mention of the "report" (our request) being passed to the "appropriate personnel" indicated a possible statement from, or authorized by, the Secretary of the Air Force. This is according to instructions provided in AFR 200-2, Section B, paragraph 8, dated 14 September '59. No such answer has been received to date.

On February 20th, we sent a letter to the NICAP Indiana Unit # 4 at Anderson to check to see if they were investigating any of the reports. Instead of a letter, on March 2nd we received a long-distance call from the unit's director, Dennis Simpson. He stated that they had no knowledge of the reports, which indicated that the press had not "stimulated" any other reports. Quite to the contrary, only the Bloomington DAILEY HERALD-TELEPHONE covered the sightings. Even then, only a few were mentioned. The Oakland City case was known only to us and about a week before we received word of the Staten Police reports.

The reports continued.

February 22, 6:30 AM; Milton, Indiana - Dogs React
As Mrs. Jarnes A Clevenger, stood by her kitchen sink, she saw her collie dog jump against the kitchen window, then race around the yard, "barking and jumping."(16) Then she saw the UFO. "It appeared as [the) headlights of a car except there was only a solid light in an oval shape," the housewife told NICAP. She also saw a white row of lights along the object. Mrs. Clevenger let her dog into the house. The frightened animal raced into the living room and hid. The witness, clad in only her night clothes and with no shoes, ran to the end of her walk in front of the house in the near-zero weather. She saw the object moving slowly at approximately 100 to 200 feet altitude, which followed the course of a creek. Returning to her house, Mrs. Clevenger called a neighbor one quarter of a mile to the south, Mrs. Judd Alford. "I could see a circle of white lights some 200 or 50 feet in the air," Mrs. Alford said. "The object appeared like a saucer to me." Several minutes later, she added, the UFO disappeared behind some trees. Mrs. Alford also said her fox terrier ran into the house "at full speed" and hid under a chair. (16)

On that same evening, Rev. and Mrs. Leonard Lutz and their son, David, saw an oblong UFO that looked like "two headlight-looking affairs" with colored lights near Hagerstown, Indiana. (17)

On the 29th we received the answer to the letter to the Dillsboro Nike Missile Station (40 miles east of Seymour). Instead of the typical professional looking government letterhead, the letter was typed on plain paper and was addressed from the Department of the Army:

Original copy of letter, dated February 24, 1967
.

Department of the Army HQ, 88th Artillery Group (Air Defense) Wilmington, Ohio 24 February 1967 Dear Sir, This organization cannot confirm any of the UFO reports mentioned in your letter of 19 Feb 1967, addressed to Btry C, 5th Msl Bn (HERC), 56th Arty, Dillsboro, Indiana. Sincerely, John D. Penrod WO1, USA Adjutant

Radar at the NIKE Hercules base did not operate all the time, but it was/is in the Air Defense system. When we wrote to this base we assumed that the radar must have been on. This was an error. The type of radar used would pick up any high altitude aircraft, but probably not any low flying objects. At this base the equipment used for detection is continuous wave acquisition radar. Tracking is accomplished by pulse acquisition radar which guides the missile to the target. The tracking denial was probably legitimate, but there was a directive that covered that situation, too.

Issued by the Secretary of the Army, AR 30-13, dated 31 January 1957 states:

Sightings Of Unconventional Aircraft (UFOB) "Persona involved in sightings will not discuss or disseminate such information to persons or agencies other than their superior officers and other personnel authorized by the Acting Chief Of Staff, G-2, this headquarters. BY ORDER OF THE CHIEF OF STAFF, Colonel Charles L. Olin

Previous correspondence with the missile base on November 25th, 1960, requesting data on a sighting covered by the press, also died a quick death, when after the base stated that they HAD tracked an object to Indianapolis, denied it on December 1st. That letter was signed by Lt. Charles A. Millick, Exec Officer. State police units had been rushed out to look for evidence of a a plane crash, but could find none. This made it a UFO, not an airplane...which changed the circumstances and rules regarding release of information.

MARCH

March 1st, 10:06 PM; Poland, Indiana
A dark-colored disc with a dome, performing slow and low flights in Owen County, was reported to have followed persons in an auto for miles until they reached their home at Poland, in Clay County.. The dome was either reflecting or emitting dim red light, and the object had two white lights on the ends and two larger red lights together in the middle. The flight was reported as as low as 40' and two automobiles had their hoods up, indicating possible E-M effects. (18)

While we were checking out "routine" UFO reports on a local level, and not aware of anything going on elsewhere, the situation was getting more serious. On March 2nd there was a radar/visual sighting of three or four silvery objects at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. At 10:30 AM that morning those objects were tracked at 2,000 mph). There were at least nine radar cases in 1967 that were memorable. (27)

That same day we had sent a letter in rebuttal to the February 23rd, Bakalar Air Force letter, stating that we wanted a simple yes or no regarding their official knowledge of UFO activity in the area. Air Force regulations state that only the names and identifying information, classified equipment procedures & frequencies, be deleted in order to declassify a UFO report. A report stripped of this data (which is of no interest to us, anyway) should be readily available to serious researchers and the public. We also mentioned that AFR 80-17 had replaced AFR 200-2 in September. The answer to our letter (which came later and was dated March 21) was very interesting, but somewhat confusing:

Gif of original letter dated March 21, 1967
.

"1. This headquarters submits a negative radar capability and negative report of positively identified sighting. 2. Suggest you recheck section B, Paragraph 5C, AFR 80-17, dated 19 Sep 1966. Quote 'In response to local inquiries regarding UFO's reported in the vicinity of an Air Force Base, the base commander may release information to the news media or the public AFTER THE SIGHTING HAS BEEN POSITIVELY IDENTIFIED. If......thru the entire paragraph.. 3. Suggest contact with SAFOI for desired information." FOR THE COMMANDER Albert E. Wade, Major, AFRes

This much we can gather from the sightings reported beginning on Feb 4th. The witnesses were reliable and the testimony provides information that suggests that something truly unusual was going on in Indiana. At that time we were totally unaware that this was part of a major sighting wave that extended across the Country and into other parts of the world. In the cases we investigated, the acceleration of the object produced the same effects, a brighter spectral color. Upon deceleration, the reverse was noted. The greatest change occurred during a relatively swift velocity change. The basic colors reported were orange and greenish-blue from or TO white. In some instances one object could have caused all the reports for that period. No aircraft, balloon, cloud, or astronomical phenomena could, in the opinion of these investigators, be responsible for the physical or flight characteristics reported by the witnesses involved in these sightings.

Continuing to escalate, on March 5th there was a major broad daylight encounter at Minot AFB, North Dakota. Radar had tracked a metallic disc with a ring of bright flashing lights that descended over a Minuteman missile site and hovered. This was seen by security guards. When jets were ordered to scramble, the object climbed straight up and streaked away. (28)

UFO filmed at Moline, Illinois, on March 9th, a sample of
incidents outside Indiana during the wave of 1967.

March 9th, afternoon; Moline, Illinois.
A regional report, and one showing very graphically what was going on around the country, is the Moline, Illinois incident where a policeman spotted two UFOs in the afternoon. Police officer William Fisher said he was riding his motorcycle on patrol when he spotted a boxcar-sized object hovering at about 3,000 feet. He said a second UFO materialized as he watched, and both sped from sight. Fisher took color motion pictures of the objects, one frame of which is displayed at the top of this page. (29)

A major event in March was a glowing red saucer-shaped object which hovered over another Minuteman missile silo on March 16th. This time it was Malmstrom AFB, Montana. The object was seen by security guards and the missiles inexplicably shut down. Missiles later resumed functioning on their own, and no explanation was ever found. There was a similar experience the very next day at another missile site 20 miles away). (30)

March 23rd, 11:30 AM; Lawrenceville, Illinois
Another man requesting his name be kept confidential reported that he observed an object, near the airport, in the west that appeared to be an aircraft fuselage (DC-3) without wings. It was white in color, and after a minute of observation, took off fast towards the northwest into a cloud. The observer is a well-respected individual who has been employed for years at Lawrenceville-Vincennes Airport (formerly George Field). He expressed the fact that he could recognize and identify most aircraft. This one was different. It looked like it was coming in to land (sideways), then sped off, always exhibiting the elliptical shape. (19)

APRIL

April 1st, 5:45 AM; Wayne County, Indiana
A farm wife was putting milkers on cows in a barn when she observed a round, red-yellow object the size of the full moon for about a minute. It hovered about 200 yards away, then climbed and disappeared in about three seconds. (20)

April 10th, 3:00 PM; Fayette County, Indiana.
A bright white oval object with lights in a row were observed for 30-minutes by two witnesses. The object performed "falling leaf" maneuvers, slowly, many times, rising into clouds and coming out of them. Witness finally got a camera and took 12 photos. By then the objects were too distant to capture. (21)

Same day, 9:45 PM; same county.
A glowing orange-yellow ball that swung in a large arc was observed by two witnesses for 20 minutes. It moved closer and became a huge dark object which reminded the witnesses of a passenger coach of a train with seven tall windows emitting light. (22)

MAY

May 15th, 11:15 PM; NE of Indianapolis, Indiana
A commercial airline pilot, who prefers to remain anonymous, had just concluded a tour of duty and was driving to his home in an exclusive residential community a few miles northeast of Indianapolis. As he turned into the lane that led to his home, he noticed a strangely lighted craft in the sky. It was moving slowly toward the south, crossing some fields behind his house at an altitude of about one thousand feet, he estimated. The thing that attracted his attention was the lighting arrangement of the object; a brilliant white light in front, a rapidly blinking red light on the rear, and pulsating red lights from front to back underneath what seemed to be a cigar-shaped craft. The pilot phoned the airport control tower. Did they have anything on their scope in his area? The radar man assured him that they did indeed have an unidentified object on the scope - had been watching it for several minutes. The pilot inquired if either of the Goodyear "blimps" was up? Neither. The radar man said he could clearly see both blimps tied down on the airport, only a couple of hundred yards from his position. And he added that there were no planes in that area, and no weather balloons.

The pilot reported the incident to the Marion County Sheriff's office and that office broadcast an alert The dispatcher in the sheriff's office contacted the radar room at the Municipal Airport and was told that they were watching an unidentified return on the scope from an object moving about at very low altitude in the area indicated. Two deputies who answered from the general area of the pilot's home were dispatched to the scene to check the report. The first to reach the scene was Deputy Kenneth Toler, who told Frank Edwards: "It was a sight--- a very strange sight. The light on the front end was brilliant. We (the pilot and the deputy) could see the shape of the thing - like a fat cigar about forty to fifty feet long, we estimated. It was moving slowly against the wind. The row of lights along the bottom was unusual ---I never saw a craft with lights like that. We watched the thing for about 25 minutes, altogether. It was somewhere beyond a mile from us. When it got ready to leave it just took off at a steep angle. It went fast - very fast was out of sight in a few seconds, still rising." (23)

This sighting is noteworthy because of the caliber of the witnesses: a commercial pilot, a deputy sheriff and the radar operator who confirmed the visual sighting with his instrument.

May 21, 3:00 AM; Union County.
A dark object with a circle of red pulsating lights which lit up the area was observed for two minutes by two witnesses. The object moved slowly along a highway below tree-top level. It made two passes. Witnesses experienced retinal afterimage, and a rooster reduced its crowing to a shrill screaming sound. The location: 5 miles west of the NIKE missile base near Oxford, Ohio! (24)

Five hours later, 8:00 AM; same county.
A farmer out hunting looked up when he heard a brief swishing sound. Six or eight light gray watermelon shaped objects in semicircle formation at undetermined height were moving rapidly to the east. The witness was very shook up, rushed home and called the newspaper. (35)

Sometime in the summer, about 4:00 PM in the afternoon; Booneville, Indiana
The date of this sighting is unknown. At Booneville, just a few miles from Evansville, Indiana, a Close Encounter of the First Kind occurred. The witness, who was 29 years old when she filed this report, said: "I was approximately ten years old when I saw the object. I was playing with my brother, about 6, and a neighbor boy, about 12, in the back yard of my house. I had no idea what it was. When I asked him, he said, 'It's a UFO'. The object was hovering about five feet above the trees that lined the back yard. We had watched it for several minutes when we noticed a second object over the empty field behind our house. It
was hovering slightly higher than the first one. There was also a third object, farther behind the second one and a little higher up. We watched the objects for some time, then I went in the house to try to get my mother to look. She wouldn't. I went back outside and the three of us watched the objects for perhaps twenty minutes. Then, my mother called us into the house, we ate dinner, took a bath, and went into my bedroom at the end of the house and watched the first object until bedtime. Perhaps another hour. At no point could we get my mother to look out the window." The Form 1 indicates the first object was as close as thirty to forty feet at one point. (38)

August 23, time unknown; Hamilton County, Indiana
No details on this one, except that it was a computer entry for a landing report, one of 70 such reports for 1967. (36)

November 9, 1:45 PM; Near Erin, Tennessee
Two nurses driving home from a Waverly, Tennessee hospital stopped for a traffic light in Erin, Tennessee. While stopped they saw a large UFO approach and land on the highway in front of them. Without the driver "feeding gas or anything" the car began to move of its own accord until it stopped a mere thirty feet or so away from the semi-transparent craft. Inside the craft there were at least five small figures looking at them. The women felt completely unafraid and transfixed. The craft rose up and moved away and the women began eagerly to follow it. It "led" them to a rural road where they saw it land. The lights on their car went out. The next recollection was of the object high in the sky leaving them, but they perceived no time lapse nor did they ever check the time. (39)

November 27, 9:00 PM; Fayette County, Indiana
The object was first seen at 9:00 PM by four witnesses at a rural home. The object dropped down near three other witnesses in a car on a rural road northwest of the Philco-Ford Manufacturing Plant. The object was larger than a house. It was a silver, domed disc with masses of red lights pulsating in an erratic fashion underneath it. The witnesses in the automobile stopped and observed windows inside the dome with computer lights behind these. The witnesses fled the scene, tearing down the gravel road at high speed. The duration of this sighting was ten minutes. (37)

FINAL COMMENTS

In 1967 NICAP received 3340 UFO reports. Ted Bloecher and David Webb reported that there were more than 100 humanoid reports. This paper presents the Indiana cases and briefly mentions incidents in the region from and including Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. The Regional Sighting Information Database now lists over 200 cases in the region alone and this represents only the more substantial ones. Laced in with the "localized" incidents are brief accounts of key U.S. and global cases, to illustrate the size and seriousness of this major sighting wave. As Dick Hall reported in Volume II, The UFO Evidence, 55% of the incidents occurred in January through April. The same trend was evident here in Indiana. My father passed away on April 7th of that year and I was writing a report on the wave that very week. Little did we know that the wave was a global one and that even more interesting and serious events were taking place elsewhere.

I wish to thank my team members who helped with this investigation back in 1967: James Catt, Phillip Studler, Jerry Sievers, and Alan Sievers. Also, we all wish to thank police, sheriff, state police and news media who cooperated so well with the effort. Last, but not least, I wish to dedicate this report to my father, Roland Lee Ridge. There were times when he had some serious doubts about his son who was a "ufo chaser", at a time when it wasn't fashionable to believe in UFOs. Not long before his passing he expressed his belief that UFOs were real and they "weren't ours", but remarked, "but what can you do about it?". What we DID do was make it possible for the large percentage of people today to take the subject more seriously than they did 35 years ago. We've come a long way.

Francis Ridge
NICAP Site Coordinator
Former NICAP Subcom Chairman, Indiana Unit No. 1

1967 Sighting Wave - Comments by Richard Hall

During the one full year of operation of the University of Colorado UFO Project, a major sighting wave-one of the largest of all time occurred. The irony of the situation is that, despite assistance in screening reports provided to a Colorado University "Early Warning Net" by NICAP personnel, the project was totally unable to cope with the wave. The Condon Report addresses only 59 cases from 1967 (and most of them inadequately) out of the many hundreds reported directly to the project. Furthermore, 15 of the 59 were left unexplained (see section XV, Colorado UFO Project).

In 1967 NICAP received 3,340 UFO reports. Ted Bloecher and David Webb have established that there were more than 100 human UFO occupant reports during the year, with a peak of 18 cases in August. Among many other oddities of the Condon Report, it is noteworthy that the 1967 cases selected for study did not include any of the 17 Air Force "unidentified" cases for that year.

According to NICAP data the wave started strong in January, peaked in March, and tapered off in May. However, sightings continued at a steady pace throughout the rest of the year, and the sightings in October were comparable in number and quality to those in January through April.

A NICAP rating of 'substanual cases' (containing detailed information and remaining unexplained after preliminary screening) indicates that 55 percent of the 1967 cases occurred in January through April, averaging about 38 cases per month. There were 30 cases in October. Sightings in the remaining months (May-September, November-December) averaged 13 a month.

A special study of 179 solid object cases indicates that the 1967 wave was concentrated east of the Mississippi River; about 51 percent of the sightings occurred between 6:00 P.M. and midnight; there were two or more witnesses in 58 percent of the cases. These reports occurred on the average of 15 per month for the year, conservatively indicating what sort of information was readily available to the Colorado investigators. Of the 179 solid object cases, the Condon Report discusses only seven.

Regularly occurring features of the 1967 wave included vehicle encounters (an average of three per month), landings or near-landings (an average of four per month), and audible sound (an average of four per month). About once or twice a month, on average, witnesses reported humanoid beings, light beams, electromagnetic effects on vehicles, physical traces, and physiological effects on witnesses. The performance features included hovering and rapid acceleration, rapid departure upwards, sharp (noninertial) turns, zigzag and other erratic flight (see section X, Motions and Flight Patterns). (42)

References

1. Vol. II, The UFO Evidence (Hall), page 325
2. Unit (Indiana Unit No. 1) & NICAP HQ files
3. Unit & NICAP files
4. NICAP files
5. NICAP files
6. APRO & NICAP files
7. Unit & NICAP files
8. Unit & NICAP files
9. Unit & NICAP files
10. Unit & NICAP files
11. Unit & NICAP files
12. Unit & NICAP files
13. Dailey Herald Telephone, Bedford, Indiana
14. Don Worley files
15. Unit & NICAP files
16. NICAP SE-34
17. NICAP SE-34
18. Worley files
19. Unit & NICAP files
20. Worley files
21. Worley files
22. Worley files
23. Flying Saucers: Here & Now, Edwards, pages 152, 153
24. Worley files
25. Vol. II, The UFO Evidence (Hall), page 326
26. Vol. II, The UFO Evidence (Hall), page 327
27. Vol. II, The UFO Evidence (Hall), page 330
28. Vol. II, The UFO Evidence (Hall), page 331
29. NICAP & MUFON files
30. Vol. II, The UFO Evidence (Hall), page 333
31. Vol. II, The UFO Evidence (Hall), page 325
32. Vol. II, The UFO Evidence (Hall), page 326
33. Dearborn County Register, March 19, 1992
34. Skylook No. 41, page 13
35. Worley files
36. UFO magazine, issue and date unknown.
37. Worley files
38. UFO Filter Center files, Francis Ridge, MUFON
39. MUFON Symposium Proceedings, 1981
40. UFO Filter Center files, Francis Ridge, MUFON
41. Volume II, The UFO Evidence (Hall), page 323
42. Volume II, The UFO Evidence (Hall), page 323,324