The National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (Nicap)

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# Approved For Release 2001/04/02 FEDERAL AVIATION AGENCY

Redmond Oregon

Jan. 15, 1960

## TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN.

The following in the original records on file at this facility and is all the information contained in this record concerning UFO sighted September 24, 1959. Taken from log of this date. 1259Z

Robert Dickerson Redmond city police reported strange bright light descending rapidly north of the station. At several hundred feet it stopped and hovered for several minutes. He drove toward it on the Prineville highway and turned in toward the airport. At this time the light turned orange and it moved to the northeast of the station very rapidly. Relocated approximately 10 miles northeast of the station estimated 3000 feet.

## 13102

Reported object to Seattle Air Route Control Center. We continued to observe UFO. Stayed very steady and projected long tongues of red, yellow and green light. These tongues of light varied in length and extended and retracted at irregular times. Observed high speed aircraft approaching from southeast. As aircraft approached UFO took shape of mushroom, observed long yellow and red flame from lower side as UFO rose rapidly and disappeared above clouds estimated 14,000 feet, scattered layer. UFO reappeared south of Redmond approximately 20 miles estimated 25,000 feet. Seattle Air Route Control Center advised radar contacted UFO at 1420Z located 25 miles south of Redmond at 52,000 feet. No further sightings made at this station. 1511Z

Seattle Air Route Control Center advised UFO still 25 miles south of Redmond, various altitudes from 6,000 to 52,000 feet.

L.E. Davis

Chief, Redmond Air Traffic Communication Station.

# OLDEN MOORE

At the height of the November, 1957, "flap," [See Section XII], a resident of rural Montville, Ohio, had a close-range sighting of a UFO. The report quickly spread to newspaper reporters, area Civil Defense officials and others. The witness, Olden Moore, stated that not only was he interrogated by representatives of the Federal Government, but also he was taken to Washington, D.C., and questioned repeatedly over a three-day period. At the conclusion, he was sworn to secrecy.

After more than three years' observance of this, he decided the need for revealing his story superceded the need for secrecy, so he told his story to newspaper reporter Don Berliner, then of the Painesville (Ohio) Telegraph, on Jan. 21, 1961.

Moore stated that, within two weeks of the sighting, he was taken to Youngstown (Ohio) AFB by car, then to Wright-Patterson AFB by helicopter, and from there to an air base within 20-30 minutes drive of Washington, D.C. (probably Andrews AFB) in a small Air Force transport plane. At all times he was accompanied by two government representatives.

During his stay in Washington, he was quartered in a hotel-like room with one of the government men, who impressed Moore as being there for the purpose of keeping an eye on him. Questioning and interviewing took place in the basement of the building in which he stayed. (The U.S. Court House fits the description. Upstairs are hotel-like jury rooms; in the basement are many offices, including those of U.S. Marshals.) The only time he was permitted to leave the building prior to departure was for a brief guided tour of some historic and scenic areas (which proved highly impressive to one who had never before seen the Nation's Capital.)

The interrogation, according to Moore, was not so much a question-and-answer session, as a corroboration by him of details of his experience, i.e. "was the thing you saw a such-and-such?" His answer, in almost every instance, was affirmative. This led him to conclude that his questioners were less interested in learning what he had seen than in finding out how much he had detected. He said he got the definite impression that those asking the questions were quite familiar with what he had seen.

At the end of the third day of questions, Moore was required to sign a statement promising never to tell of his trip to Washington. Upon returning home, all he would tell the newspapers was

## CIA RDP81R00560R000100010001-0 that he had talked with some officials at home and

where. His wife said he was taken to Washington, but Moore did not confirm this at the time.

Don Berliner, who interviewed Moore in 1961, was highly impressed by his sincerity, lack of sensationalism, and his awareness of the seriousness of revealing information he had promised to keep secret. This material was not published by Mr. Berliner at the time because of its sensitive nature. However, Mr. Moore did offer to tell his story to any Committee or Subcommittee of Congress which might be interested.

Allegedly, the Air Force (government spokesmen on this subject) has withheld nothing from the public. The implication of Moore's story is that considerable information has been withheld. A Congressional inquiry into this matter would appear to be fully justified.

The 1956 sighting of a huge disc by the crew of a Navy transport over the Atlantic [See Section IV] was followed by the personal visit to the aircraft commander by a government scientist. The man took a set of photographs out of a briefcase and showed them to the pilot, asking him to point out the object he saw. The Commander quickly identified one of the pictures as the machine he had seen, whereupon the unnamed scientist put the picture back, refused to comment further, and departed. [Report obtained by R. Adm. D. S. Fahrney, USN, Ret.].

The obvious implication of this incident is that someone in the government has considerably more information about UFOs than has been released by the Air Force. It tends to substantiate Olden Moore's report.

## The Sheneman Case

On Aug. 1, 1955, W. M. Sheneman, proprietor of a radio and TV store, arrived at his home near Willoughby, Ohio, (20 miles east of Cleveland). As he got out of his car, he saw a large circular object, with a red light on the front rim, descend rapidly over a nearby field. It stopped at an estimated 800 feet altitude and shot two beams of light toward the ground. As the glow illuminated the ground, Mr. Sheneman saw several "windows" around the edge of the hovering disc. He fled into the house, but returned after a minute with his wife for another look. The craft had become dark and was hovering about 200 feet above the house; from this vantage point, he estimated its diameter at 80-100 feet. It then began to move away, revealing a dome on top lit by a white glow from within. Mrs. Sheneman reported hearing a soft humming sound.

Following report of the incident to the Air Force in 1956, the Sheneman's were visited by a major from ATIC, who told them they had seen a test of a Canadian Avro vertical-lift device developed for the U.S. Air Force. To back up his claim, the officer displayed a glossy print purportedly showing the craft in flight. This was, in fact, an artist's conception of what the Avro disc might look like, as the first example was not completed until 1959. The major tried for three hours to convince Mr. and Mrs. Sheneman that they had seen the Avro and to sign a statement to that effect, but they refused.

While definitely resembling the public idea of a "flying saucer," the 18-foot Avro VZ-9V failed to achieve its design performance of vertical take off and high-speed flight. Wind-tunnel and free-flight tests demonstrated that it would not fly out of ground effect, and was therefore limited to an altitude of several inches and top speed of about 35 mph. [5]

## The Kinross Case

On the night of November 23, 1953, an unidentified flying object was detected over Lake Superior by Air Defense Command radar. An F-89C all-weather interceptor was scrambled from Kinross AFB, near the Soo Locks in northern Michigan. Guided by radar, the jet sped northwest across the lake on an intercept course. On the radar screen, ground controllers saw the F-89 close in on the UFO blip, and then the two blips merged and faded from the screen. From all appearances, the aircraft and the UFO had collided. No trace of the jet has ever been found.

The last radar contact with the F-89 showed it to be at 8000 feet, 70 miles off Keeweenaw Point, and about 160 miles northwest of Soo Locks. Later, the Air Force reported that the "UFO" was identified by the F-89 as a Royal Canadian Air Force C-47. After identifying the friendly plane, the Air Force states, the F-89 turned back to base. From that time, "nothing of what happened is definitely known."

Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R00560R000100010001-0