The Great UFO Chase of 1966, Part 2

By Charles Shiver

“Look at the stars! Look, look up at the skies!

O, look at all the fire-folk sitting in the air!”

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)

Last week, we left off with Mona Darden’s story from 60 years ago about “Sally” speeding south in her car during the early morning hours on I-75 to escape from a pursuing bizarre craft.

Mrs. Darden’s account continues:

After about two miles of this wild chase, the lights of a semi-trailer truck came into view, and Sally said she felt relief although she didn’t know why. The truck was on the northbound lane, and there was no possible way to stop it. However, as she met the long, lighted, semi-trailer, the UFO suddenly darted off at an angle and out of sight.

Near Adel, still quaking with fear, she stopped at a roadside phone booth. She wouldn’t ask the attendant for change, but put a quarter in the phone to dial home.

“The attendant would have taken one look at me and asked what was the matter. Then, if I’d told him, he would have thought I was crazy!” she explained.

While Sally, through chattering teeth, was talking with her mother, they had no idea that the same story was being told up the road at a Lenox all-night truck stop. The driver of the semi-trailer had stopped at the first service station he came to. He told of the weird experience from a different angle. From his viewpoint, “this thing was following a car.”

The night attendant had listened politely to another “saucer tale” told over a cup of coffee. He had no idea the truck driver’s name would ever be needed, and he couldn’t remember the name of the trucking company.

A very reliable witness, who lives one mile from Sally’s home, arose early that cold morning to turn on her heaters. Then, remembering she hadn’t thawed bacon for breakfast, she went to the freezer to get a package. Passing the kitchen windows, she noticed a bright light in the direction of Sally’s home. She watched a few moments and thought it remarkably large to be a star and too low for a star. But it was so dark she couldn’t tell where the horizon was and finally called her husband to “come look at this huge star.” He merely grunted and turned over in the bed, she told.

Placing the bacon in warm water to thaw and checking the heaters, she then decided to look again at “the star.” It was moving. She went to open the door for a better look. After noticing the red light on one side, she decided it was a plane with its inside lights turned on and went back to bed. When she later learned of Sally’s experience, she was certain she’d seen the same object. The time, direction, light, and speed of the UFO matched exactly that which was following Sally’s car.

Sally’s parents took the same road without incident, picked up their daughter in Adel, and drove her on to Valdosta for she was in no condition to drive – although she had always been a very calm and collected girl, according to her mother. Leaving their daughter at work, they then found a telephone and informed the Air Force of what had happened.

A lot of USAF planes were circling the area when they got home about dawn, Sally’s mother told. And when Sally got off from work that afternoon, an Air Force officer was waiting to see her home. Other officials were on the spot, still investigating and using a Geiger counter, but civilians were not allowed close in.

The family was never told what, if any, evidence was found – but there is one thing for certain – the incident was recorded in Project Blue Book. Not only Sally but even her neighbor received Air Force papers from “off up in the country” which required their signatures. Too, it was learned that the USAF held a copy of that national magazine where this “flying saucer” tale was printed in more detail.

And according to one Air Force officer, this story can be neither confirmed or denied by the Air Force.

Many years later, I was alerted to Mrs. Darden’s article by an older lady who was aware of my unusual interests by reading my writing for the Adel News. She told me that Sally’s story would “send chills up and down your spine.”

I checked into it, found the article, asked around, and even contacted Sally. She would only tell me that something strange had happened to her back in 1966 and wouldn’t consent to an interview even if left anonymous. I respected and understood her desire for privacy. She either felt the ridicule factor is so high for witnesses to such experiences that she didn’t want to risk exposure, or she was afraid that talking again about the thing, even after so many years had passed, would invite it to come back. I don’t blame her.

My research has shown me that Sally was not alone in having her vehicle chased by a UFO. The late John A. Keel, author of such books as The Mothman Prophecies and Our Haunted Planet, even writes about a flying saucer pursuing a bloodmobile in the late 1960s in West Virginia, which is absolutely creepy.

My connections with UFO researchers led me to a book entitled Georgia’s Aerial Phenomenon, 1947 to 1987, self-published by Michael D. Hitt, a retired Roswell, Ga.,(!) police officer and historian. It includes UFO sightings by very reliable witnesses, including law enforcement officers, military service personnel, airplane pilots, President Carter, and a future Mission Design Manager of the Voyager Space Mission at JPL. Many of the incidents reported occurred in South Georgia. You start seeing patterns. One Colquitt County case tied into the 1966 UFO encounter in Cook County. The incidents were very similar.

The Colquitt County sighting occurred at 11 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 24, 1973, in Sigsbee, Ga. Of course, October 1973 was a red letter month for UFOs in South Georgia and across the nation: Multiple sightings by reliable people ranging from police to newspaper editors. There were also many reported encounters with humanoid creatures that appeared to be piloting the weird sky vessels.

According to Georgia’s Aerial Phenomenon, “a farm program assistant, with the Colquitt County Extension Service, almost hit an oval shaped object sitting in the middle of GA Highway 133.

“The witness was driving home and had just started to cross the Ochlocknee River Bridge when he suddenly came across the object. After stopping 50 feet from it, ‘lights started coming on around the thing.’ The object looked like the top of a grain silo. The lights on it ‘blinked on red, yellow, blue, and green – in that order in a clockwise motion. There was no sound at all. I couldn’t see any type of door, windows, or anything other than just dull gray metal.’ The object was described as about ‘six to seven feet high.’

“When the lights came on, the witness quickly got out of his car and started to reach for his gun under the seat. The object lifted up and slowly flew over the vehicle. Then it passed over some trees and out of sight.

“A half hour later, a group of citizens were northbound on the Sylvester Road when they observed an ‘object appeared just over the road in front of them…the object seemed to be headed towards their car, so they wheeled into a yard and cut their lights off…the object rose from its hovering position and disappeared.

“Source: The name of the newspaper is unknown, but it appears to be a Colquitt County newspaper.”

When I got a copy of Mr. Hitt’s book in April 2000, he signed it, “Thank you for having an opened mind.”

And that’s what I have. If multiple credible witnesses are seeing the same thing, it must be real. In the Cook County case, there is no option for it being a mass delusion brought on by seeing an ordinary plane or planet in the night skies. There is no doubt that the UFO phenomenon is real, but what it means is a totally different issue. The options range from extraterrestrial spacecraft to Above Top Secret military vehicles (even advanced drone technology), from intruders out of another time or dimension to even living, unknown organisms, and more.

I have not personally seen a UFO or aliens, as far as I know. I have had plenty of inexplicable experiences, though. Thus, I am intrigued by the UFO field.

Also, based on my years as a journalist working locally, I have seen firsthand how some (not all!) government officials try to hide even the most basic information from the public. Thus, it would not surprise me if some bureaucrats or technocrats at top levels of power are attempting to conceal very big truths from us all.

I have looked for more information online and in publications on the Cook County case in Project Blue Book, the USAF investigation documents from the 1960s, but haven’t been able to find any reference to Sally’s story. I have been hoping that the recent release of once-classified UFO materials by the Trump administration will open more insight into that 60-year-old case. We’ll see.

Meanwhile, I will continue my research into UFOs during more recent times and other unexplained phenomena in this area, and share my findings with our readers. The younger generations deserve to know the truth, at long last.