Alternate Perceptions Magazine, August 2023
FROM THE SAUCER FILES - The 1966 Flap
by: Rick Hilberg
Here's a few of the cases from the rather significant Midwestern saucer flap of 1966 that I reported on in my UFO Magazine at the time, that are representative of what was happening and being reported on by the news media.
March 20 - Ann Arbor, Michigan
At least forty persons - twelve of them policemen - reported seeing a UFO over Ann Arbor, Michigan. Two sheriff's deputies said they saw eerie blinking lights - apparently on a flying object- rise above the trees, then dip again. Another policeman said he saw a formation of four or five saucers pass over his car. Six patrol cars chased the formation until it vanished. One of the things got to "within ten feet" of a patrol car, said Patrolman Robert Huniwell. Farmer Frank Mannor got within 500 yards of a football-shaped saucer with a waffled skin and red lights. Mannor, who with his son observed the strange machine in a nearby swamp area, said the saucer took off with a sound like a ricocheting bullet. Dr. J. Allen Hynek and the Air Force later tried to explain this and later reports as glowing "swamp gas."
March 21 - Michigan
A county Civil Defense director and 87 coeds said they watched a hovering saucer settle in a hollow near Hillsdale College in Michigan. William Van Horn, who served as County Civil Defense director for ten years, said he watched the object through binoculars for some three hours. He said it looked round and oblong.
Miss Sara Robechek, a Hillsdale student, said that it appeared "as big as a house with a lot of lights around it." She reported that after the floodlights on it went out, yellowish lights became visible on it as well as a red glow in the center. Some weeks later I was able to speak with Robechek, who was a resident of Cleveland, when she was home for summer break.
March 25 - Ohio
Everett Will, who lives near Upper Sandusky, Ohio told authorities he saw an object that looked like a top or Christmas tree upside down. Sheriff's deputies who examined the scene of the report found nothing in the way of evidence.
In Lucas County, Ohio, near Toledo, Deputies Robert Schultz and Stanley Nelepa reported seeing a huge object that had glowing red lights and a halo at tree-top level. It disappeared when they moved in closer to the strange object.
March 28 - Georgia and Wisconsin
An airport control tower operator at Columbus, Georgia reported seeing a glowing, oblong object maneuvering high in the sky. The object was also tracked on radar in Columbus and in distant Atlanta. Doyle Palmer, who worked at the Muscogee County Airport, said he observed the greenish-white cigar-shaped machine and tracked it on radar for over an hour. Six Columbus policemen also observed the strange object.
Four police officers and a high school science teacher sighted a glowing green and white saucer over Green Bay, Wisconsin.
April 1 - Ohio
Two Berea, Ohio policemen said the saw "an orange glow as big as a house" floating above some trees that morning. "It must have been one of those UFOs seen in Michigan," said Patrolman Clarence T. Janowick when informed there was no moon out at the time. Patrolman Janowick and John R. Galik Jr. said the saw the object on the morning of March 29th also. The object was noted over Baldwin Lake in the south section of Berea at that time, and was visible for about 45 seconds. On April 1st it was sighted six blocks from the lake over the Ohio Turnpike administration building.
Ted Scott, a newsman at radio station WNEX in Chillicothe, Ohio said he saw two objects in the western sky and one in the east during the evening. All were described as red, green and blue pulsating lights.
In Springfield, Ohio a farmer said that he had no idea what caused a burned spot in his five-inch-tall wheat field. Charles Schnider, 76, said the burned spot in the wheat was about twelve feet long, two feet wide at one end and wider at the other end.
The patch of wheat is dark brown in that area, he said, and the wheat around it is healthy and green. The earth seemed to be exceptionally dry and crumbly in the burned area. Schnider said neighbors suggested it might have been caused by a UFO. He said a neighbor, Dorothy Newsome, was driving along the road near the spot and saw a large, strange light momentarily, but could not identify it.
