by John Lasker
The National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomenon, the most respected UFOlogist group at the time, called the 1973 UFO wave “a flap.” They said UFO’s “are back in force,” and the lull in sightings that stretched back to the 1950s, over. This flap reportedly was the inspiration behind Steven Speilberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
But this is also a Halloween story, and like many horror stories of today, this story also has a twist. “I met a veteran of the US Army some time back; he proved this by showing me a valid card that said he was a former officer,” said Jones of Ohio MUFON. “He told me he had an incredible story about 1973 to tell me.” The officer, a graduate of West Point, was troubled that “he knew something”, and needed to reveal it, says Jones, who has spent most of his adult life working for Battelle; a US military defense contractor in Ohio believed to have assisted in reverse engineering projects of debris from Roswell.
The soldier’s tale would send a chill down Jones’ spine. “He told me the US Army earlier that year was in negotiations with some Greys. He was very matter-of-fact about this.” The invasion, this UFO swarm, said the former officer, was an orchestrated plan to get the attention of the US government. “He said they weren’t getting anywhere with our Army,” adds Jones. And they wanted to make a point.
Echoing what Jones has to say about October 1973, is Peter Hartinger, who runs the Roundtown UFO Society, or RUFOS for short. Roundtown being Circleville, Ohio, which is in central Ohio, a region that was part of the epicenter of the 1973 UFO wave. Circleville earned its namesake by having its street grid designed around a circular-shaped Native American earthwork or mound. It is a smallish, sharp, well-kept town; and one that already is famous in UFO lore. Two days before Roswell, US military “weather balloons” fell out of the upper atmosphere and crashed near the city. The weather balloons, says Hartinger, gave the US military the creative inspiration it needed for the Roswell cover-up.
Hartinger, who’s been researching UFOs for 50 years, remembers October 1973 very well. Pat Boone was headlining Circleville's Pumpkin Festival and the newspapers were jammed with stories about UFOs. Well-spoken about the subject, and also well-grounded, Hartinger is a chairman for his county’s parks commission. “Knowledge is not a matter of belief and desire, knowledge is a matter of evidence,” says Hartinger, who says he and his brother witnessed a UFO when they were in their late-teens. He calls it his “no doubter.”
Like Jones, Hartinger feels the UFO invasion may have indeed been a message, yet not to get the attention of just the US military, but the entire planet.
“They may have been motivated,” says Hartinger about the Greys, “I believe it was display that was put on. We were close to World War III (due to the Arab-Israel war at the time). The display was probably to tell us, ‘Calm down, there’s more to life than annihilation’.”
Here are some of the trick-or-treat points and displays they made:
April 1973:
While it was a little early for Halloween, this incident shows you never know who or what may come knocking when you’ve already have seen a UFO. It was day time in the small town of Milan, Indiana, and the owner of an auto-parts shop and his friend were going about their business. Unexpectedly, two visitors entered the shop, and their ride didn’t need an oil change. One was very tall; the other squat with a long head. Both were very thin. They sported tan gloves and tan suits that hung loosely on their frames. The owner also said their faces looked like plastic. Their eyes were black and glossy. And when they came into the shop, the owner’s guard dog turned yellow and fled. The owner of the auto parts shop had snapped a couple photos of UFOs six years earlier in 1967; and in a robotic tone, the visitors demanded he hand them over. MIBs or Men-in-Tan? They continued to demand he give them the photographs. He refused, and would be hounded by other strange incidents – and debunkers – years after.
Early October 1973:
Ohio Governor John J. Gilligan is driving back to Ohio from Ann Arbor, Mich., when he reported seeing an amber-colored “vertical beam of light”, as reported in the October 18th, edition of the Columbus (Ohio) Citizen Journal. After the sighting he was asked to tell his UFO story on the Dick Cavett Show, but refused. Yet during a press conference he surprised the entire nation: “I saw this. It was not a plane. It was not a bird. It didn't wear a cape. And I really don't know what it was.”
October 1973:
The Deep South was seemingly under invasion, as well. For instance, in Garland, Texas, did the Body Snatchers come to town? A woman in Garland finds a strange yellow “blob” growing and “pulsating” like a beating heart in her backyard. She ripped it open with a garden hoe and it bled a purple sludge. Scientists figured it was a strange fungus. In Athens, Georgia, a silver egg-shaped object lands on a road and two small humanoids come out of the craft. A human driver waves a gun at the creatures and they retreat to their craft making a “whoosh” for it. In Falkville, Alabama, a Police Chief encounters a “man-thing” in a silver suit. In Pascagoula, Mississippi, two men from this planet, Calvin Parker and Charles Hickson, were fishing when a 100-foot oblong-shaped craft descends out of the sky. Three grey-skinned creatures, each about five feet tall, with one leg, and lobster claws for hands, confront Parker and Hickson and levitate the two men into their craft. Eventually they are let go. Later on, the two are left alone during a Sheriff’s interrogation and their conversation is secretly taped. The subterfuge fails as their conversation clearly shows this was no hoax or the two country boys were damn good at pulling one off. Several other local sightings before and after the encounter by credible witnesses support their story. Representing the US Air Force, Dr. J. Allen Hynek of Project Blue Book fame, interviews the men and believes their story. Project Blue Book was the US military’s public and apparently official UFO investigation unit, with Hynek as its lead civilian scientist.
Mid-to-late October 1973:
With just days before tens-of-thousands of kids hit the streets seeking treats, local police describe the city and egion surrounding Cincinnati as a “mess” of UFO sightings. Police tell the local media – which is getting many calls of its own – that they took 80 reports of sightings in one night alone. One “hysterical and screaming woman” tells authorities that an oblong craft with blinking lights killed two cows as it landed on her farm. Near the small town of Xenia, Ohio, three creatures with silver skin are spotted on U.S. 35. Police confront them, but discover the “creatures” are actually three teenagers pulling a prank by wrapping themselves in aluminum foil. The city of Reading, Ohio, goes dark as it experiences several power outages; the local utility quickly blames shoddy equipment. Near Cincinnati, Sgt. Hugh Oyer chases a white and yellow craft, saying later, “I never believed in UFOs until tonight.” Sheriff Deputies near the state’s capital, Columbus, were swarmed with UFO reports for four straight nights. On one night, deputies said they logged between 30 and 40 reports of shiny objects zig-zagging through the sky. In another part of Ohio, three counties worth actually, UFOs were described as “grayish discs with red and bluish-green lights,” others appeared as “orange-colored objects” and “blimp-shaped objects.” Some had “red lights around the rims with a blue flame or flare coming out of the bottom.” And in Muskingham County, Ohio, a Sheriff is spooked by three glowing lights – hovering over the local cemetery.
But of all these incidents, even the apparent abduction of Calvin Parker and Charles Hickson, there is an incident from October 1973 that tops them all like a pointy black hat on a witch. Indeed, for Capt. Lawrence J. Coyne and his crew of a UH-1H Army Reserve helicopter, it was almost as if a wicked witch on a broom had taken complete control over their Super Huey. In reality, Coyne and crew’s Wicked Witch was a metallic, cigar-shaped ship. A UFO that was armed with a nasty green tracking beam. Without question, “The Coyne Incident” is one of the most credible and mind-boggling cases in UFO history.
First of all, the case’s witnesses were citizen soldiers who also had solid day jobs. Lt.
Arrigo Jezzi, 26, a chemical engineer; Sgt. John Healy, 35, a police officer; Sgt. Robert Yanacsek, 23, a computer technician; and the 36-year-old Crew Chief Coyne, who had spent more than half his life flying helicopters for the Army.
“The Coyne incident stands out because of who the witnesses were,” says Ohio MUFON’s Jones, who also investigated the incident. “As cases go, you don't get much better than that.”
It was 10:30 pm on October 18th, 1973, when Coyne’s 68-15444 Super Huey of the 316th Medical Detachment stationed at Cleveland Hopkins Airport, lifted off from Port Columbus (Ohio) airport. At the controls that night was Jezzi, and he ascended to 2,500 feet above sea level and started for home, roughly 100-miles to the northeast. According to Jennie Zeidman, a noteworthy UFO investigator who wrote a meticulous report on the incident, “The night was totally clear, calm and starry. The last quarter moon was just rising.”
Before the Coyne incident, Zeidman spent many years working for Project Blue Book as an assistant to Dr. Hynek, who is infamous in UFO lore for his “swamp gas” explanation for a UFO case. As Hartinger of RUFOS likes to put it, “Hynek was being paid by the US Air Force to debunk UFOs.” Yet it has been reported that both Zeidman and Hynek were skeptical at first towards the extraterrestrial hypothesis.
However, as their research with Project Blue Book (1952-1970) moved ahead, they came to believe that intelligent beings from another world were visiting Earth. There are also reports of Hynek quietly telling family and close friends the US military had retrieved “bodies” after “crashes.” When the Air Force dropped Project Blue Book, Hynek and Zeidman moved on to establish CUFOS, the Center for UFO Studies, which documented nearly 1,000 reports during October 1973, the highest amount ever recorded over a three week period. CUFOS would also investigate a mouth-gaping 27 humanoid cases during the year.
At 11 pm, as the Super Huey cut through the clear Fall night, wrote Zeidman, “Yanacsek noted a single red light on the south-eastern horizon.” Cue the creepy music. He kept a bead on the light for a “minute to 90 seconds.” The red light then started to make a line straight for the Super Huey.
Yanacsek called out. Coyne saw it now. Sensing impact was seconds away, he took the controls from Jezzi and promptly sent the helicopter into an evasive descent. Coyne radioed a nearby air control tower from the city of Mansfield. He sternly asked, “Do you have any high performance aircraft in this area at 2,500 feet?”
No reply. He tried again. Nothing. Then it hit them with a jolt. Both UHF and VHF frequencies were dead and the red light was getting awfully close.
“Coyne increased his rate of descent to 2,000 feet per minute and his airspeed to 100 knots,” wrote Zeidman. Sometime during this maneuver, air controllers from the Mansfield Tower got through and acknowledged Coyne: “This is Mansfield Tower, go ahead Army 1-5-triple 4.” He couldn't respond – because the helicopter and his crew were headed for obliteration either by this UFO or the ground.
Zeidman wrote, “The last altitude Coyne noted was 1,700 feet. Just as collision appeared imminent, the unknown light halted, and assumed a hovering relationship above and in front of the helicopter.” At 1,700 feet, the helicopter was paralyzed.
The crew would later agree what “the unknown light” was. A cigar-shaped craft with no windows. “A featureless, gray, metallic-looking structure was precisely delineated against the background stars,” wrote Zeidman. The red light was positioned on the front cone nose of the ship. A sickly green light appeared emanating from the back of the UFO; a green light that quickly formed a cone-ish, searchlight appearance. A cone that began to swivel towards the front of the helicopter. Suddenly someone or something was deliberately flooding the cockpit with it! Literally, the frozen-faced crew turned green.
Yet within seconds the cigar-shaped ship disengaged from the Super Huey. Jezzi reported it headed northwest and “snapped out” over Lake Erie without a sound. But like a lot of good horror flicks, and a lot of bad flicks, for that matter, Coyne and crew were not out of the woods just yet.
That’s when “Coyne noticed that the magnetic compass disk was rotating approximately four times per minute and that the altimeter read approximately 3,500 feet; a 1,000 foot-per-minute climb was in progress,” wrote Zeidman. Yet Coyne told investigators he still had the collective (or throttle stick), pressed forward in descent mode. He had no choice but to pull the collective back even if it meant disaster. Miraculously he gained control of the Super Huey – at 3,800 feet.
Zeidman wrote, “Coyne had been subliminally aware of the climb; the others not at all, yet they had all been acutely aware of the g-forces of the dive. The helicopter was brought back to the flight plan altitude of 2,500 feet, radio contact was achieved with Canton/Akron airport, the night proceeded uneventfully to Cleveland.” As they flew, they realized the magnetic compass wasn't working properly; it would soon be replaced. In fact, Coyne’s Super Huey would never be the same. Twenty years later during a televised interview, Healy said, “She was never any good after that. She was the hangar queen after that. The radios never worked after that. The navigation instruments. Nothing.”
Just days after the incident, Coyne spoke openly and confidently about what exactly happened. “It looked like a fighter plane coming straight for us. The light was traveling in excess of 600 knots. It came from the horizon to our aircraft in about 10 seconds. We were on a collision course. I took immediate evasive action. I cut the power and dropped into a shallow dive. We dropped to 2,000 feet and it was headed straight for us. We braced for impact.” But there was none. “We looked up and saw it stopped right over us. It had a big, gray, metallic-looking hull about 60 feet long. It was shaped like an airfoil or a streamlined fat cigar. (And) There was a red light on the front. The leading edge glowed red a short distance back from the nose. There was a center dome. A green light at the rear reflected on the hull.”
Coyne was asked about the freakish ascent.
“I had made no attempt to pull up,” he said. “All controls were set for a 20-degree dive. Yet we had climbed from 1,700 to 3,500 feet with no power in a couple of seconds with no g-forces or other noticeable strains.”
In 2003, for the 30th anniversary, a 56-year-old Jezzi would re-tell his story. He still wasn't sure what it was. But his memory remained vivid. He said it was like no other aircraft he had ever witnessed. “The first thing I thought was those Commie bastards,” he told one local paper near Cincinnati. “What are they up to?” The next morning he and the others were asked to draw what they had witnessed. They all drew a cigar-shaped looking craft with a dome on top.
In that same article, Rene Bouchard, who was on the ground on that night, said she saw something in the same skies the Super Huey would fly through some 60 minutes later. The flying saucers had her and her brother searching the starry night in a nearby field. She remembers lying down in a grassy field for just a few seconds. Then suddenly awakening – to a tremendous bright light. “That’s when we saw this brilliant white light. It was as bright as the sun.” They ran for their lives. Thirty years later, she told the newspaper she would be in that same field the night of the anniversary.
In the immediate aftermath of the Coyne incident, UFO skeptic Philip Klass tried to discredit the case saying the Coyne UFO was a “fireball of the Orionid meteor shower”. He and other critics said Coyne must have accidentally caused the helicopter to rise in altitude. “They said the pilot unknowingly moved the helicopter,” says Jones of MUFON. “Coyne said it felt like the object had control.” Hartinger of RUFOS likes to note that Coyne would later be promoted to Major. “They (US military) didn't hold it against him,” he said. “A lot of military people would say to Coyne, ‘You’ve got to be nuts,’ but they didn't. Promoting him says a lot.”
Corroborating Coyne and crew’s story would be several ground witnesses. In the months that followed, a younger Jones found a family of five who also saw a cigar-shaped craft and a helicopter floating together some 500-feet over the tree tops. Earlier, the family
was driving on a typical country road when two lights – one red, one green – made a B-line for their car. The mother, Erma DeLong, pulled over to the shoulder. The light, this thing, seemed as if it was headed straight for them, she told Jones. That’s when her set of twins, 13-year-old brothers, jumped from the car. Above the dark webs of thinning tree branches the twins saw what looked “like a blimp...as big as a school bus.” The craft appeared to be hovering over the helicopter, attested members of the family. That’s when their world turned green. “It was like rays coming down...The helicopter, the trees, the road, the car – everything turned green,” said Ms. DeLong to Jones.
The invasion of 1973 offers a lot for those who want to believe Carl Sagan’s little blue dot is being visited by a super-advanced species. The Coyne incident alone is worthy of mainstream attention and respect from both science and media.
And it has an entire host of smaller, lesser incidents propping it up. Arguably the Coyne incident is the UFO case that could help win US government disclosure.
But the 1973 UFO frenzy that swept the green and gold flatlands of the Midwest can be countered with some disproving evidence. It shows that the entire “invasion” may have been of a human kind. Conducted from, oddly enough, a US Air Force base with an infamous UFO history: Wright-Patterson AFB of Dayton, Ohio. And to best understand what goes on there, a check of the base’s web site is revealing: “Today, as in the early 1900s, Wright-Patterson is where weapon systems of the future are conceived, tested, modified, and tested again until worthy of acceptance as part of the most responsive deterrent force in the history of military aviation. Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow. That is what Wright-Patterson is all about. A heritage of a legendary past spurs aerospace logisticians, engineers, and scientists in a quest to ‘keep’em flying,’ faster, higher, further, and safer than man has ever flown before.”