Ohioans report dozens of UFOs

The Columbus Citizen Journal, 17 October 1973, p. 1

Two Greenfield, Ohio police officers chased separate unidentified objects more than five miles Tuesday night, and a woman near Chillicothe said three objects forced her car off a road as dozens of UFOs were spotted in Central and Southern Ohio for the second week. Greenfield Police Sgt. Hugh Oyer and Patrolman Mike Conklin said they chased separate objects in their police cruisers. "The one I chased was about 100 feet in diameter and glowed with a real bright white light," said Conklin. "It had a red area on top of it, as if it was overheated. There was a dull humming sound that increased in frequency as the object increased its speed." Conklin said he was able to drive his cruiser to within 100 feet of the object as it hovered over a house. "There were about 20 people out there looking at it at the time I was, so I know I'm not crazy," added Conklin. Oyer said the object he chased also was white in color with a yellow glow at the end part of the circular object. "I never believed in UFOs until tonight," Oyer said. "Some guy tried to tell me it was a star, but no star I've ever seen made a humming sound or jumped up and down in a direction like that or was so near the ground." Oyer said his department received so many calls reporting objects they finally had to stop keeping track of them. The objects, varying in color from red, white and green to orange, were also reported in Coshocton County, and near Middletown. Here in Columbus, Jesse Dunagan, 21, of 4814 Timber Wood Drive N., says he saw a UFO land in a field near his home Sunday night. Dunagan, an Air National Guard flight controller, said the UFO was moving at about 25 - 35 miles per hour at 500 feet above Hall Road when it suddenly zig-zagged across a soybean field, hovered a few minutes above some trees, and then dropped straight down. Dunagan said he told his girlfriend, who was in the car with him as they returned from a drive-in theater, that he wanted to investigate, but didn't until Monday morning. Dunagan said the "pulsating bluish-white object made all the stars in the sky look dim." When asked if the object could have been a helicopter coming in for a landing at nearby Bolton Field, Dunagan said he knows the light configuration on 'copters and the lights were not the same. Dunagan denied his UFO could have been a police copter landing with its floodlights on at the northwest corner of the air field. He said: "The object glowed from within just like it was a crystal." Dunagan said he walked about a quarter mile through waist-high weeds Monday morning to where he believes the object landed. Dunagan said a 20 by 30 foot area near some trees in weeds south of Hall Road indicates a "very heavy" object landed there. He said the weeds were matted down and broken in a semi-oval form, but the area was not scorched and there were no signs of a helicopter or farm vehicle. Dunagan is one of about 20 persons who reported seeing a glowing object in the Southwest side. Reports have been made across the nation concerning UFOs.