Second Aerial Object Reported in Michigan: New Phenomenon Seen by Civil Defense Director, Assistant College Dean, Coeds
Los Angeles Times
March 23, 1966
| HILLSDALE, Mich. (UPI) — A civil defense director, an assistant dean and 87 coeds reported Tuesday that they watched a glowing object zip past a college dormitory and hover in a swamp for hours. Their description of the object seen here Monday night tallied closely with that of one seen by more than 50 persons, including 12 policemen, near Ann Arbor, Mich., the previous night. The Air Force dispatched its top scientific adviser on unidentified flying objects (UFO) to launch an investigation. The witnesses said they watched from the second floor of a Hillsdale College girls dormitory as the object wobbled, glowed eerily and once zipped right at a dormitory window before stopping suddenly. Coeds Took Notes Mrs. Kelly Hearn, assistant dean of women, assistant professor of English and housemother of the dorm, had the coeds take notes as they watched the object for four hours. They and William Van Horn, 41, Hillsdale County civil defense director, said the object dimmed its lights when police cars ap-proached, brightened again when they went away and dodged an air- |
port beacon light. Barbara Kohn, 21, New Castle, Pa., and Cynthia Poffenberger, 18, Cleveland, were the first to see the object. They described its shape as roughly that of a football. It was the same description given by a man and his son who reported they saw an eerie object land in a swamp Sunday night 45 miles northeast of here near Ann Arbor. The Air Forca announced it was bringing in Dr. H. Allen Hynek, chairman of Dearborn Observatory at Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., and scientific consultant to the Air Force's Project Blue Book program to track down reports of unidentified flying objects. Hynek set up headquarters at Selfridge Air Force Base, Mount Clemens, Mich., near the southern Michigan section where UFOs have been reported several times lately, climaxing with the mass sightings at Ann Arbor and Hillsdale. Definitely a Vehicle "It was definitely some kind of vehicle," Van Horn said. "Through the glasses (binoculars) it was either round or oblong." The object's shape was briefly outlined by lightning as it veered over and near the dormitory before retreating into the swamp, Miss Kohn said. It stayed there for four hours before vanishing, witnesses said. At Ann Arbor, U.S. Eep. Weston Vivian (D-Mich.), said Tuesday he planned to ask the Defense Department to investigate reports of UFO sightings. Vivian left for Washington after conferring with Sheriff Douglas J. Harvey of Washtenaw County, who investigated the sightings. |