This article was published in the daily newspaper The Oklahoma Journal, Oklahoma City, USA, August 2, 1965.
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By BILL STEWART
A rash of unidentified flying objects, confirmed at one point by officials at Tinker Air Force Base, "covered" Oklahoma Sunday night.
The first report, at 8:08 p.m., led to a series of sightings that ranged from Purcell to Tulsa to Guymon.
Sightings came less than 48 hours after a similar report from a police officer at Wynnewood. That object, emitting red, white and blue light, was tracked on two radar screens early Saturday before it disappeared and then reappeared 29 miles south of Tinker.
Sunday's sightings were first confirmed by the base security office, then officials refused to confirm or deny radar tracks.
One sighting, by Sherry Rutledge, 18, 322 SE 19, and Marybeth Tucker, 16, 2504 SW 54 Place, turned out to be a parachute flare which police confiscated.
The radar approach control tower at Tinker, using four radar scopes with a range of 40 miles, reported no contacts during the height of the local sightings.
City police dispatcher Lt. Homer Brisco said "if we had one call, one had 100/9
Most of the first reports were from law enforcement officers, especially in the Shawnee area.
The initial military radar contacted was of four objects flying at 22,000 feet. Later the Air Force said only that it would investigate the matter.
First report was of a "bright, shiny stationary object hanging in the western sky" between Norman and Purcell. Four highway patrolmen at Shawnee, less than 30 miles from Tinker, watched four objects traveling in a diamond formation.
These same patrolmen, in different areas near Shawnee, later reported the objects gone.
But new sightings in that area were not long in coming, again including the OHP units.
Patrol dispatcher Jim West said," If these were just a bunch of people, I could say it was a crank. But when this many officers see something, then there's something there. I don't know what. It could be an airplane or balloons - but there's something there."
West also had reports from patrol cars in other parts of the state.
Most of the reports indicated the objects were generally traveling toward the Shawnee-Chandler area. At one time four objects were reported stationary over Shawnee by the patrolmen, with a "straggler" heading into the area from Tecumseh.
City dispatcher Brisco said most of the local calls came from persons in the south and east of the city, with the reported objects generally in "the west going easterly."
Journal photographer Jim Swatek sighted one object, red and green in color, very high traveling west over IS 40 near Stroud Road. He said it could have been a plane but "there was absolutely no sound." The Highway Patrol confirmed that at the same instant they had one sighting at Harrah and two from Norman.
But the confusion was not without humor. The Highway Patrol shares a state teletype wire with the U. S. Weather Bureau, which dispatcher West said, "has its comedians."
At one point, with the reports jamming the wire, the weathermen cut in with "Duck, there goes another one."
Moments later they added a postscript to West's report with "I think I go to the funny house."
But shortly after 11 the patrol tower [?] conceded they had far too many sightings, to get all on the wire.
Then came a plea to stand by for a summary. The note was signed "Buck Rogers."
