PROJECT 10073 RECORD ~ 1. o;.-;;: Tlt~E GROUP 2. LOCATION ,, ; 17 June 66 18/ 0300Z North Vernon & ColumbuG, Ind lana ( 2 wi tneGses) : : . SOURCE 10. CONCLUSION I : Ci vilio.n Probable (aircraft) . I .; . (\~:.:u::R OF OBJECTS Object was probable a n A/C comin g Landing put Lern 1 s ln t,he area of i n for o landing Gightin g , at Columbus. ; 5. L~NGTH OF OBSERVATION 11. BRIEF SU~ARY AND ANALYSIS '6. T'f?E OF OOSERVA TION l Crot.:.nd Visual Observerc were traveljng NW whe n object came into view out of their rj l~ht f r ont. wlndow j n the west. Object had r e d blinking ligh to. '1 hey uppcarcd beh Lncl the woodr:;. The one observer stated Ghe did r.ee one wine on the object. The object was very .large and ooll rl. F'TD ( TDE:l'R) Wright-Patterson ~VB, Ohio 45433 Marion, Indiana Deer Jtr. and Reference your recent unidentified observation of 17 June 1966. The information which we have received from Lt Col Spr1Dgie was not sufficient f'o r evaluation. Request you complete the attached FTD Forms 164 and return them in the envelope provided. We wish to thank you for reporting your observation to the Air Force. Sincerely, li!:CTOR 'J]INTANILLA, Jr, Major, USAF Chief, Project Blue Book Major Hector ..tuintanilla , Jr., u. s . A . F . Chief, Project Blue Book, 'i:right-Pa.tter s on AFB, Ohio 45433 J uly ~SJ, 19 oti. It wa s F~iday n ight, June 17, 19oo, at precisely 10 P . M., that m7 h usb9.n.d. and I left North Vernon, Ind i ana, and headed northwest on Route 7. It is a distance of sixteen miles to u. s . 31, where we turn right to go to Indianapolis, on our way home. l\:y husband was driving. Approx i:nat ely eig.."lt or nine mile s north west of l.orth Ver n on , on ute 7 , we b o t h saw two startling , bri lliant flashes of c r im- s on red light, off to the west , a little distance ahead of us. The flashes o f light made su c n a g low--and only f o r an instant--tha t it 1~l~inated tre e t aos, a s i f i t ca~e from somewhere l ow behind a. wood ed area . ~:e both exclaimed abou t it, and .>onder~d what i t coul d t e--even speculate c i f it c ould hav e b een an e~plosion, or ~n air crash , ough it r eall y looked different t han eith er of those. After t u rnin.< :':!Zht, on ::,. 31, thls was still on our mi!.dS t o au ch ::1n e;~t:an~, :.~at I ~'l:':1ed 1n t h e c a r radi o t o listen fo;:~ uny n ews ~h~t ~iz~: ~ertain t o it. J1at nort!l :>f _ .:l u.'nbus, . ...:. 3 1 becomes a dual hif~.:."l.way. .'1e had just e ::tered c:-.~s stretch ~f hi.>:hway, b etween Uolur.bus and :>~a.nklin. Tne ... i:::c J."!~t '::;.Je bee:-.. about 1J:~5 J:l. :. I .va s looki n g 01tt o f the :-ight fran~ wi::'io w o f t h e car, and looking u9 a~ the stars. The !li~ht -rs.s C.ar k ( n o ooon a t all ) but i t VIaS ver y clear, and d r y , and the sta:~ ::ere unu su a l l y Qrilliant. I t see:-:ed that th~re were more s -';a~ s -c!lc:.:-1 I h ad e ver seen before, a.na I :-anar ke d to 1.y ht. s - b~d atQut it. It wa s a b e autiful night. AS I looked u p , all o f a sudden , ver y r.i gh and slightly t o t h e r ight o f m:; r-ight shoulder, it looked :!.ike a straight line of pale gold s t ars I was looking a t j ust l e t loose ~ and headed straight for our car. Th e speed ~as u ncanny. It eee med that they n o more t han n let loose " until they took the for:ll of some kind of aircraft that swooped right over the top o f car, at about an altitude of one hundred fiftyfe~t, made a pass coo~letely over the opposite lane of the dual h ignway , than slowly tu~ed slightly up~ard as it crossed bac k over the h i g h way ln front o f us, then t ook of f at about a 45 deBree angle f rom t h e r o a d , ahe a d of us . It was very larg e , and lookee as solid a s the automobile ve were i n . Thinkin~ I was bein g a little ridiculous, and perhap s see- ing reflections o f lights i n the windshl~ld or wi nd ow g lass, I quick- let the wind ow down o.nd turned one r ad i o of f . I t wa s sti l l ther e Ihis c)cect--cr craft- - had one wtn g , I t was shaped. ( the wing ) exactly like a length o~ 2 x 4 lumber. On the back edg e of the wing ( or thickness } it had a multitude of what looked like brilliantly lighted windows, from win gtip to 11ingti p . Just brilli t ~hite light, seeming t o come through winao~s. It reminded me of a lighted dining car on a passenger train, as see~ from a distance at night . V.here cabins are , on conventional cra.ft, this craf't seemed t o ~ave a short, cotr.pletely unlignted structure, that served only as a connection f or a fan tastic tail. 'rhe tail was h i g h , and perpendic- ular--- -just went straight up " . The first thing I thought of, b y comparison , was a scorpion' s t ail, though this did not " curl over" a t the top like that. I t just reminded me of the annular segments of a scor~ion's tail---one very long one ( and dented in, on the side facing ~e, as the craft crossed back in front of us), then some kind of "spo~ledrt look ( as seen on furniture), then ended at the top as a.."'l enor:::.c~.l .s red lig_ht. I j ust never have seen anything like it. The craft was simply covered with brilliant red, green and white lights. By t hi3 'tL~e, I was leaning as far out the car window a s possible. SuddenlJ, another craft appeared, and performed exactly like the first one. In all, there were six of t hese craft that passed over our car, across the opposite lane of the dual high.vay, crossed bac k over in front of u s , and too k off at about a 45 de6ree gle, ahead of us. They 'A'e":'e ider-tical craft, in absolute identical precision fli[;ht . And there Nas absolutely no noise. Only once did I think that I b.es r d a !' aint w:::.:r-:--rr , but I can't ':le sure. My husband ke p t drivin~, 9.nrl. there was ::o need to s too, t~cau se all the crai't were ahead of us. I did notice that 0:1 our lane s of highway, going n orth, t here was v e r J 1:. ttl e :.raff ic. T~ere 7/a s no one ahe ad or' us, '".lnc. I no tic"=d th~t tr1e t~affic behind ~s was a t leas t half a mile bac k . hO'ever , tnere :Jas ~ l ot. c f traff~c on tr:~ '2.anes ;:>ing soL th, 'illd 3 !'"3l y 3)::-:.e of th~::t ~2.:! t o see the ;:-a!ts .. hsn they '.ven t ov~t our car .. :-d c r ossed A s S ;)'::':"l .iS : : . e .::..!..xth c r:..r:':: ;>assed over OL:.::' ~ar, t0..ef ilnnec.!.la':.ely '\Vent fo~-:a.tion. 'l'he to::J o f t n.; inver~ed tilte d s:.ig::t'2.y d ownwarC., like c::is: -.A. f:;... 'I'he truth is, they :!.!.C. not: '30 i::i:o for:!lation''----eve n '3.S 1. ;-,.a'tc~ea, t hey were alreac!Y._ i:1 f o:-:nation. I h:::d e ve::--; chance t o obse r7e t:1ese crate, a s tney re- :::a~nea. ~ead J!'~ ~'1d o:"~ ~o the right, in open countryside, for at least f!.fteen :niles. T~air fornation was perfect. T:1ey ,::-assed by s or::e kind of electrical tower, all t.nis time moving rather slowly, a nd che l~rge clL~ing ~ail l i shts at the top of their tails bler:ded ~ith :he red li:zhts on the tower, as if for a :')ment it -were )art of the for=atio:1, too. These crai't .vere never ou t of sig::;.t , thoug! l at one p::>i:-1-c they "Nere farther to the right, ahead of us. "' They cene back ( still looking like a n inverted ) ar:d at once were in perfect for.nation, over a wooded area, ol'r' to t h e rig~t of the hi,.znway, s.bout a cuarter of a nile away. They were exacly tne s e distru1ce apart, ~xac~ly the s~e altituee ( very low, just au ove the wood s ) , and parallsl to the highway .All that was vlsible was B straight line or large blinkin g brilliant red lights. They wdre co~pletely !l'lOtionless, except for those red , blinking lights, a s far back as we c ould ~ee. I think two !!lore craft from somewh ere ,j ~ined t~et:'.) because I co, ... nted t:.r~e or four c~:::es, sna it l o okerl like t1ere '"fer'3 elsh t b linking ".e drove on, and suddenly , coming towards u s at tre.rr.endous speed, no more than two hundred feet above the right bern of the h ighway, was a co~pletely different craft. It simply stop~ed in the air, a-'1d stayed t h ere, while we drove by and looked up a t it. I t was a flat triangle, with one side much longer than t h e other s , and looked like t his: ~ -:: '>-:_ It had red, green, and white l ight s comple~ely around i It just s tayed there----nparked , or "sus- - -- -in the air, for a s long as we could look b~clc and see it. All these craft moved effortlessly, a nd there was no sound. At first, I thought the triangle coming towards us was a Jet , but it y:asn' t . It was silent. And I've never seen a Jet stop on a dLme, so to speak, without even seeming to stop, and uhang still" i n the air. All these craft wer e so low, and so c lose to u s , and so b rill iantly lighted. don': ~ow w~y, b u t neithe~y husbe.n d nor I felt afraid , It seemed like a fa..tas-cic Christmas show, in the air-----all t h e lights \7ere red , 3re9~ and .v::i te, and it wa s one o f the most b eautiful thi n g s ever h o J e to see. As s ocn a s we arrived ho~e, I Qa d e notes of everything I co11l d think -:>f , regarC.~ng -::-..ese cra:' t . The purpose or' 0ur vi3it t o ~orth Ve::-non in the fir~t :)l a c e vas to 3ee my or o t h er, L t . Col. i il::..iam C . Sn:-inkle, and. his r'~:-ily, f!'om Fl':):-ida, .tho were s t a.:ing a few da:Ts Jlt:n my mother, : .r : . c . ...:. Sp:--in:de. Ee ..vas with :.A3A for fiv e year s , o n ~-.d Centaur a::C. E:t..l:-Ve']:lr p rc:ects, :a:-.d j ust reca:1tl:7 bac k wi t h tne ts . ._._;~ at Patri c k Air F o::--c;3 ~as e, in Florida. A.ft~r debating all the next day about ~;nis, I de c ice~ t o re;ort t~i s to hi~, d h e t~en reported it to you . He t o l d ~e t.~e _::..;-,.: shoul d :mow about i t . ru= no art~st- ---jus~; c~ ~ d~aw anytning----but f ollowi n g are so~e bits a _.:. -:iece.s -z.hat ma:r:le sornecn~ ca:: put to :;et~er and a t l e:...st hav e e:. idea of ,.._.::_at I s aw t:-_at !1ig::tt . If I can be of .fur ther h.elp, , l e a s e :~t r:1e :~ow. I'd a:pprec.:.~te Greatly, h eo.rin 6 frm:: you . . , ery t :-uly FONTANA VILLAGE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAIN VACATION RESORT f ONTANA DAM, NOtiTH CAROliNA