Charlie Red Star

by Grant Cameron

  Scientific ufology has as much as any field built its ivory towers. It is safe to say that the majority of ufologists are uncooperative and evasive in their dealings with one another. In ufology the bosses greatly ­outnumber the workers.

  UFO groups are like countries of the world. Each is out to protect its information and interests. Like the world around us, there is always a war going on, and each group sticks a knife in the back of another, given the opportunity.

  From all of this, I have tried to protect myself. I call myself a storyteller first and a ufologist second. I have made a point to tell as much of the story as I can, and it appears that most people want it this way. To them it has become more important to hear all the stories than to know what the stories mean. Mystery, after all, is still the storyteller’s prime weapon.

  So sit back as I relate stories of Manitoba UFOs that are, as far as I know, truthful and complete. But don’t take them for anything more than they were intended. For in the end, perhaps Hamlet was right: “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

  2

  Witnesses and Testimonies to Charlie Red Star

  It’s funny, but I was downtown telling a friend about the first sighting on March 27. This was just after it happened. He said, “You know that could be the start of a rash of sightings.” You talk about a prophetic statement.

  — Anthony Britain, Owner of Friendship Field in Carman

  I received five reports out of seven nights last week, and a lot casually mention it to you without filing a report. There are a considerable number of reports, and people who are seeing them are pretty reliable people.

  — Corporal Glen Toews, RCMP Officer in Carman

  It is a constant complaint that no two descriptions of UFOs are ever the same. A similar grievance is made about photographs. But for every rule there is an exception. When it comes to the Manitoba flap, most people around Carman, where most of the sightings took place, described a “red, glowing, pulsating, bobbing disk that flew ever so slowly and quite close to the ground.”

  There were, of course, other types of UFOs spotted in the area, but they were few and far between. The descriptions were so similar in the early 1975 depiction that the object was given the name Charlie Red Star.

  At times there were variations in the exact portrayal of Charlie, but these can be accounted for by the angle at which the object was seen, or by human nature. The story changed in its telling as any account that is passed around does. The person might not have been paying attention to the detail, or forgot to tell part of what was seen, or added something to make the story sound a bit more impressive.

  UFO researcher Coral Lorenzen, who acted as co-director of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization, explained this reporting problem as follows:

  I’ve discussed this problem with psychiatrists and psychologists. They say that no two people seeing the same thing, no matter what it is, are going to describe it the same way exactly. All people perceive things differently.

  When people are observing UFO phenomena, they’re seeing things they’ve never seen before. They’re completely bewildered.1

  Good evidence to support this drawback to the reporting of sightings can be seen in a quick survey of statements made by 190 of the approximately 400 witnesses to the John F. Kennedy assassination in Dallas, Texas. Estimates of the time from the first shot to the last ranged from a few seconds to five minutes; 52 percent believed the shots were fired from the grassy knoll, compared to 39 percent who thought the shots had come from the Texas Book Depository. The number of shots mentioned by witnesses ranged from two to more than four.2

  Hence, in something as critical as the assassination of President Kennedy, the testimonies of witnesses must be questioned. That is, until the testimonies are viewed as a whole. Then, using the majority positions, we find that were three shots, two directions, and a time period of four to six seconds.

  In Manitoba an overall profile reveals that the majority of people described a “red, pulsing disk, flying low, bobbing, and flying at a low speed.” Like the Kennedy assassination evidence, an overall profile is not totally conclusive but is sufficient for intelligent speculation, and pretty hard to dispute.

  Sightings of Charlie were restricted to the southern part of Manitoba near Carman, Sperling, and the Miami-Roseisle area. His first documented appearance was on March 27, 1975, and the last for that year was November 17.

  The number of sightings wasn’t known for sure, but polls taken in the area indicate it was consistently high. In a poll conducted on November 30, 1976, at Carman Collegiate, I asked: “How many of you believe that you have seen something in the past two years that could be considered a UFO?” In response, 52.9 percent indicated they had. August 1974 polls, on the other hand, reported that just 11 percent of Americans “report having seen something they thought was a UFO.”

  The figures in Carman, therefore, are almost five times the national average. In Roland, a small town of 400 southwest of Carman, a poll taken at a local school indicated that 80 percent of the students claimed to have seen something — seven times the national average.

  According to those polled at Carman Collegiate, more students and teachers claimed to have witnessed UFOs in their life (62.5 percent) than those who had seen a Boeing 747 jumbo jet (54.8 percent). This turned out to be rather astonishing. It demonstrated that in Carman the phrase “seeing is believing” wasn’t necessarily true. If that were the case, then UFOs would be more real than jumbo jets.

  The qualities of the sightings reported at Carman Collegiate were much better than would be expected. Of those who had seen a UFO, more than 50 percent claimed to have been close enough “to see an actual object, as opposed to a light in the sky.”

  As with any poll, it was conducted to confirm already-existing suspicions. The factors that led to believing the results would indicate a high number of sightings are as follows:

  Charlie Red Star flew right by the town on many nights between April and July.

  This odd pattern attracted a great deal of attention. Local citizens went out of their way to go out and look, hoping to get a glimpse of Charlie.

  The length of the rash of UFO flybys took place over many months, as compared to the usual two weeks that was the pattern of other flaps around the world.

  Charlie moved very slowly (10 to 60 miles per hour). Carman residents weren’t the only ones who saw the object, but they were able to witness it up close.

  Charlie was always reported below 1,000 feet, which made him easier to see well.

  Since many citizens made it a habit to stay outside and watch for Charlie, it wasn’t unusual to talk to people around town who had over 80 sightings of the object in one year. Of those involved during the two years of activity, I was aware of 25 people who claimed they had at least a dozen sightings of Charlie.

  It was because people knew they could go out and see it that made the results in the poll in Carman so high. UFO watching had become a pastime. Everyone got involved.

  There were even stories about how the name Charlie Red Star evolved. Charlie personified was brilliant red and came from the stars. The object was so familiar and so unique it became like a person’s face.

  “It was just a big red ball,” Frances Stagg told me from her house on the northwest side of town. “It was just like a heartbeat. It was ­pulsating. It didn’t make any sound at all and it was very low. It was silent and floating. The timing of the pulsation wasn’t too regular or anything. It was like a heartbeat. That’s the only way that I can describe it, and it was so red.”

  “It was off to the northwest,” reported Constable Ian Nickolson, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer in Carman. “I’d say it was three to four miles away and 1,000 feet up. There was an oval-shaped light. There was a white X-shaped halo around but not connected to it. The
red was the colour of a traffic safety light, a stop light.”

  “It was a big red ball coming right at us,” reported Anthony Britain and his wife. “It was like a big landing light, and it was loafing along. It was close enough that you could actually see the dome on top, but it was all pulsing red.”

  “It was hovering not far from the horses,” Anna McCann told the National Enquirer. “They stampeded at first, but later calmed down some. That light from the object was shining down on one of our brown horses and he looked bronze because the light from the object was pink. The object itself was a very bright, bright red colour. It was revolving slowly.”

  “We were driving west,” stated a reporter for the Dufferin Leader, “and we saw to the northwest a relatively large bright red light that seemed to be hovering about 50 to 100 feet off the ground. It was very, very bright red.”

  “It was lower than the [grain] elevator,” said Jennette Frost of Sperling, describing one of her many sightings of Charlie. [Jennette had so many sightings that she kept a journal recording everything she saw.] “It was as red as could be. It was just going up and down as these things go [bobbing motion]. It was going up and down and then it rose up at [a grain] elevator and down on the other side.”

  “It was so stupid,” Jennette added. “It seemed that it would even wobble from side to side. It was really an odd-looking thing, but it was as red as could be. This was definitely a disk-shaped sort of thing.”

  “I was about a mile west of Roland when I saw that red thing glowing over Roland,” Travis Taylor told me. “It was quite low to the ground … and it was a huge saucer-shaped sort of thing. It was glowing red, like I suppose metal would when it’s hot. The lights were out in Roland because of the storm and the sky was black, so it really showed up well, really well.”

  “We were looking west down Klondike,” Lacy Christian told me, “and we saw Mrs. McCallum’s place, and it looked like it was on fire. Travis hurried out. He started walking and by the time he got to Main Street, the big red thing was below the level of the buildings. Yes, we’ve seen it [Charlie Red Star] many times. You know what fire looks like through a window. That’s it.”

  These are some of the many descriptions people in and around Carman gave me of their sightings of Charlie Red Star. The accounts seem to parallel one another, which makes it hard to believe all the witnesses made them up. Having seen Charlie myself more than a dozen times, I knew how important their reports were. Their common descriptions built a strong case for the repeatable phenomenon that was Charlie Red Star.

  Charlie’s First Visit

  It was 2:00 a.m. on March 27, 1975. Most Manitoba residents had long since gone to bed. One man from Graysville, however, was still up ­watching television.

  Suddenly, he noticed a huge red ball pass by the kitchen window. He jumped up and caught a glimpse of the object moving slowly over his house. When it was out of sight through the window, he raced outside and watched the object slow down and fly south.

  The man didn’t tell his wife about this or any of his friends. The only person he told was Lloyd Hebert because he saw the object travel toward the house Lloyd was living in. It had been reported that Lloyd and his wife had seen and heard the object already. Therefore, he figured he and Lloyd could safely talk together about it.

  It was Lloyd’s daughter, Darlene, who saw the object at the Bourgeois household where the Heberts were staying. She was awakened and immediately noticed that the house was shaking. She also thought the house was on fire. Darlene had been sleeping in the living room on the main floor of the two-storey house, and her bed was in front of the window and the drapes were open.

  When she opened her eyes, she caught a glimpse of the red ball as it moved south past the window. She described it as a “loud and fast noise.” It was a “steady” noise. It was like “a real shrill, pulsating siren.”

  “Then again maybe it wasn’t like that,” Darlene’s mother stated, “because I have never heard anything like it before. But it was loud because it woke up the whole family, even grandmother who isn’t hearing so good these days.”

  The front living room was red, and Darlene figured that whatever it was it had set fire to the house. She called to her mother upstairs to come quickly. While she waited, she glanced out the window and saw the huge red object sit itself down in the pasture.

  “She was so sure,” Mrs. Bourgeois said. “She was positive it was right out there in the pasture. She went out the next day and looked. That’s how positive she was. She said it was right beside the trees, sitting right there in the pasture.”

  Like children racing downstairs to open their Christmas presents, the Bourgeois family came down to the living room one after another. Mrs. Bourgeois was the first to arrive and the only other person to see the object. “I thought it was something tangled up in the evergreen trees,” she said. “I didn’t know what it was. The noise woke me up. I didn’t know if I was dreaming or not, so I got up and looked out the window to the south where the noise had gone. It seemed to come over the house from the north. By the time I got there, the object was way in the south on the horizon. It looked like the sun coming up. It was orange and it looked like it was just over the bush, about three miles away.”

  And so that was how Charlie Red Star arrived in the Pembina Valley — with a bang, scaring two families half to death. So scared was Darlene Hebert that for three weeks she slept on an air mattress in the hall outside her parents’ room upstairs.

  The Blast-Off — The First Night

  It was the last few days of June 1975. The weather was hot and extremely dry. The Pembina Valley was experiencing its fourth flap of UFO sightings in two months. The people in Carman were again taking up their nightly watches for Charlie Red Star.

  Anthony and Rachael Britain had posted themselves at the top of a steep hill in the Pembina Hills just southwest of Miami, Manitoba. This location provided a beautiful view for 70 miles into the Pembina Valley, and it also offered a hideout to avoid the huge crowds gathering at the Britains’ airstrip in Carman.

  In the early months of the 1975 Carman flap, Charlie was seen at the U.S. border about halfway between the former KCND-TV tower on the border and the town of Walhalla, North Dakota. After crossing the border, Charlie started to drop altitude until at Roland, Manitoba, he wasn’t more than 1,000 feet off the ground.

  The plan of those who watched from this loft in the hills was to spot Charlie early and then attempt to drive into the valley toward Roland to cut him off. The Britains had seen this flight path numerous times — over the border, up to Carman, back south along Highway 3, past Jordan, and then back into the United States. Most of the time the object pulsated red and resembled a beating heart with a bluish-green field on the forward side.

  That night, however, a new lighting formation appeared. “When we first saw that thing from the hill at Miami, it had a blue light and a white light,” Anthony said. “As a matter of fact, this night we thought it was an airplane. Paul Sanders was with us, and so was Ian Harris. Rachael said, ‘That’s a UFO.’ And we said, ‘It’s a plane.’”

  Continuing his story, Anthony said, “I don’t know why we said that. Because of the lighting, it was all wrong. We were convinced it was an airplane even though it made no sound. We chased it across country and we chased it quite a ways and got fairly close to it because it made its usual swing up to Carman. We caught it cross-country and waited for it. As it came up, we got fairly close to it.

  “We hit a dead-end road and watched it with binoculars, and we figured, hell, that’s got to be an airplane because it’s not going fast enough. The next day, about 2:00 p.m., I got a phone call from a woman who lives south of Roland.” She said, ‘You know, I don’t like to bother you, but last night a UFO scared me and my two kids.’ So I said, ‘Okay, where were you?’ And she told me, ‘Well, we were driving home to the farm. We were about two miles south of Roland. This thin
g came over us and lit up the whole road. It made no noise, and it was about 1,000 feet up. It had a white light and a blue light on it.’”

  Anthony asked her what time this had happened. She answered, “About 10 minutes to 11:00.”

  “Lady,” Anthony said, “at about 10 minutes to 11:00 we were watching the same object just four miles west of you. We came to the conclusion that it was a plane.”

  “That was no plane!” she exclaimed.

  “The time and position are identical,” Anthony told her.

  “I shut off the engine,” she continued. “It didn’t stall. Then I rolled down the window.”

  “Did you get out?”

  “No way. I looked up at it. There was just no sound.”

  I asked Anthony what the woman’s name was. He said she had given it but that he hadn’t written it down. Therefore, I had a good ­double-witness sighting but had nothing to back it up. A year after the sighting, however, I was in Roland Elementary School, spilling forth my tales to the grade fours, fives, and sixes. Even before I began, a small girl in the first row put up her hand. “I’ve seen a UFO.”

  “Where was this?” I asked.

  “Just south of town.”

  “Where was the UFO?”

  “Right over the truck.”

  “Who was with you?” I probed.

  “My mommy and sister.”

  Bingo, I thought to myself. I haven’t even begun to talk and I have what I came to Roland for. The trip to the elementary school had been a long shot in finding the family, but it had paid off.

  The woman turned out to be Jean McMahon. She confirmed the story to me. She also confirmed phoning Anthony Britain with regard to what she had seen near the end of June.