1447 Riviera Drive |
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Dr. J. Allen Hynek |
Dear Dr. Hynek,
I spent a pleasant Sunday-last checking out the July 4, 1967 Corning UFO sightings by a businessman and two police officers.
Officer Jim Overton is now with the Douglas County, Oregon Sheriffs Dept, and Mr. Jay Munger sold his bowling alley two years ago. He is now in the Bay Area but his ex-wife balked at giving me his address. Officer Frank Rakes is still (rather now; with the Orland PD ten miles south of Corning. He is the only one of the original trio I talked to.
The local paper ran extensive coverage at the sighting for two days but did not add materially to the AP wire, except to be redundant and to vouch for the qualifications of the observers.
The paper did have a drawing made by Jay Munger which I'll enclose.
The following items of interest to me resulted from my talk with Officer Rakes. They are in the order they happened to turn up on my scratchpad.
1. It was not on the Red Bluff radar, as far as Rakes knew, but that (military ) station has been touchy since they leaked classified information after the 1960 Scott-Carson thing. -ed mine I have known two GI's stationed there who told me the radar data is normally filtered through a computer which screens out any(thing) but blips from incomming (sic) missels (sic) from the north.
2. The lights did not pulsate or vary at any time. They were like floodlights, not spotlights, and were a constant white.
3. It could not possibly have been early 4th of July fireworks.
4. It could not have been a Vandenberg AFB ICBM. Rakes has observed one (as have I). There's no comparison. The exact time the report was called in was 5:10 AM PDST if you'd like to check this out. The ICBM's we've observed were both at true bearing of about 210° and moved slightly to the right. This UFO was first at a bearing of about 250° and moved relatively to the left. There was no afterglow to the UFO. (I forgot to ask if there was a delay between sighting and call in.)
5. (I forgot to ask Rakes what the apparent size was compared to an object held at arms-length. I also forgot to ask if it ascended as it departed; a hand gesture he made would indicate it departed horizontally.)
Rakes has an unlisted phone so I can't check this now.
6. No other creature was stirring nearby, and cars on the freeway are not visable (sp) from the bowling alley. So none were known to stop. The phone call ending "Oh hell, you'd never believe it anyway" was taken later as a recorded message. Perhaps a local advertisement could bring forth that witness. (An ad might bring forth witnesses of many descriptions.)
7. It was stationary for a few moments; long enough to go outside and watch it. Then it took off due south or perhaps slightly southwest with no gradual accelleration. (sic) All of a sudden it shot south faster than a jet.
8. I (Murph) was in the position of the observers today – Sunday – and can see no possibility of reflection or refraction. Officer Rakes vision is perfect.
9. Several 'official' investigators questioned Rakes, but none were in uniform or admitted AF affiliation. I also talked at length with Officer Murphy (no relation). He was on the switchboard the night the call came in and wrote it up. (Copy enclosed) Officer Murphy was most co-operative and said he would inform me immediately of any significant UFO sightings in the area. But he did seem relatively uninformed about UFO's. He told me, though, of one UFO seen by two truck drivers that I had not heard of.
Officer Murphy said he has pulled 28 months of night duty recently and – alone and with others – has seen "Bright Lights" go up the Sacramento River. He no longer reports them due to ridicule (or humor.) He showed me two examples on the blotter, eg: once he and another officer answered a call about a 'light' east of Corning. They saw the light but on the way had a flat tire. Shot out tires became an in-joke.
Please don't publicize the intimacies of my conversation with Officer Murphy. Keep up the good work.
My wife advises "disregard my spelling"
2 Encl/
