Miss Doreen Kendall, a
practical nurse, and Mrs. Frieda Wilson, a
registered nurse, are employed together on the
night shift in the extended-care ward for
elderly patients at the Cowichan District
Hospital at Duncan on Vancouver Island.
Theirs is a
position that requires a special degree of tact,
maturity and gentleness of manner for it is at
night that their patients, often unable to
sleep, have long lonely hours in which to
contemplate the little that remains for them in
life. A word or gesture of comfort from the
nurses on duty is all they have in their fading
world until the routine of morning helps them
into another day.
It is
immediately apparent on meeting them that Miss
Kendall and Mrs. Wilson, both in late
middle-age, were assigned to their particular
work with these qualifications in mind. In
addition to what training obviously has given
them, they have an inborn quality that invites
trust, and it was no surprise, after we
interviewed them, that friends and former
patients of each told us they would accept their
word under any circumstance. Coming from several
who had doubted the existence of UFOs, this was
a significant tribute in light of what the two
nurses (with partial confirmation by two others
who arrived seconds later) said they observed
outside the hospital just as 1970 was dawning on
the Pacific Coast.
It was
turning five in the morning of Jan. 1 when Miss
Kendall, concerned that one of her women
patients was restless, switched on a light to
attend to her. Deciding the patient was too
warm, she went to a window near the bed and
parted the drapes to let in a little fresh air.
"Just as I
pulled the drapes a brilliant light hit me in
the eyes," she said. "It was still dark outside,
but about 60 feet away right above the
children's ward, there was this object so big
and bright I could see everything clearly."
(Immediately
to the left of where Miss Kendall was standing,
a wing of the hospital juts out at right angles.
The children's ward is on the third floor of
that wing. With Miss Kendall on the second floor
of her wing, this meant the object was hovering
above her by slightly more than the height of
one storey and a little to her left.)
"The object
was circular and had what I guess you would call
a top and bottom. The bottom was silvery, like
metal, and was shaped like a bowl. There was a
string of bright lights around it like a
necklace. The top was a dome made of something
like glass. It was lit up from inside and I
could see right into it."
Continuing
her account in question-and-answer form, Miss
Kendall said there were two male-Iike figures in
the craft, one behind the other, facing to her
right away from the hospital. The one in front
appeared taller, or perhaps was positioned
higher, than the other. Their heads were encased
in close-fitting dark material.
As she
watched with intense curiosity, yet completely
unfrightened - "I never felt so peaceful in all
my life. I wish I could have talked to them " -
she became aware of seeing more of the interior
of the craft and realized it was tilting. In a
moment she could see to a point just below their
knees and noticed they were standing in front of
what looked like stools.
"They looked
like fine, tall, well-built men," she said.
"They were dressed in tight-fitting suits of the
same material that covered their heads but their
hands were bare and I noticed how human they
looked. Their flesh seemed just like ours."
Intrigued as
she was by the appearance of the two figures,
Miss Kendall found her interest mainly centered
on what looked like an instrument panel facing
the one in front. One reason for this, she
thought, was that she comes from a family of
racing-car enthusiasts and automotive mechanics
have always held a special interest for her.
"The man in
front was staring at the panel as if something
very important was going on, and I wondered if
they might have had mechanical trouble," she
said. "I even thought they might have landed on
the roof of the hospital and then had trouble
taking off.
She described
the panel as a very large one, taking up almost
half the interior of the object and reaching
nearly to the top of the dome. The instruments,
if that is what they were, seemed to be inset in
the chrome-Iike metal of the panel and there was
a variety of sizes.
Miss Doreen Kendall
The total
sight was so absorbing that at first Miss
Kendall's thoughts were lost to everything else,
and for a moment she forgot Mrs. Wilson was in
the same room.
"Then when I
did think of it, I guess I hesitated," she
explained. "I felt I mustn't make a noise or do
anything that would break the trend of what was
happening."
At this
point, almost as if her thoughts were being
read, she saw the figure in the rear turn slowly
and face squarely in her direction.
"He seemed to
look right at me but I couldn't see his face. It
was covered by a darkish material that looked
softer than the rest of his suit. I'm sure he
saw me because then he touched the other man on
the back."
When Miss Kendall
parted drapes she saw brightly-lit object
containing two human-appearing males. Apparently
knowing they were observed, one touched other on
back
Miss Kendall
said that what followed, again possibly because
of her interest in mechanics, made a sharper
impression on her than anything else in the
entire incident.
"When the man
in back did this, the one in front reached down
and took hold of something like a lever beside
him. I'll never forget how deliberately he did
it. He pushed it back and forth and the saucer,
or whatever you'd call it, started to circle
slowly, still close to the building, in an
anticlockwise direction."
The motion
seemed to break the spell for Miss Kendall, for
then she remembered Mrs. Wilson was there and
called her over.
Later we
spoke separately to Mrs. Wilson, who continued
the story from that point.
"I noticed
Miss Kendall standing at the window and wondered
what she was looking at. In fact, I was just
going to see when she beckoned to me, and then I
saw this great big light over the patio outside
the children's ward. I'd say it was quite a bit
larger than a car. (By the estimate of both
witnesses, the object spanned a width of about
five windows of the children's ward. This gave
it a diameter of at least 50 feet.) It looked
circular in shape and the far side seemed to be
higher than the side near us. It was moving
around slowly and then it started to move away.
I didn't really see any top or bottom to it. It
was all just tremendously bright. Some people
say we were looking at a plastic bag with
candles in it, put there as a joke. But it would
take a million candles to make it as bright as
that."
Mrs. Wilson
did not see the "necklace" of lights described
by Miss Kendall, nor could she see inside the
object and consequently saw no human-like
figures. Since this appeared to be a serious
difference in the two reports, we asked Miss
Kendall in a second interview how she might
account for it.
"I think Mrs.
Wilson must have come just a bit too late," she
said. " After the thing circled four or five
times, it started going away, farther along by
the roof of the children's ward, and I couldn't
see inside it either."
Not being precisely sure how
close the object was when Miss Kendall first
observed it, Mrs. Wilson could not say whether
or not this did explain her failure to see the
occupants. But the fact that she came to the
window in time to see the craft circling, and
then saw it move away, suggests the
explanation of distance does not quite fill
the bill. So without intending to add anything
to the narrative that the witnesses themselves
did not observe, we offer another possible
explanation merely for the sake of conjecture.
It has been noticed in UFO
sightings that the object when stationary
gives out less light than when in motion. This
rule, of course, is not invariable. UFOs
emanating no light at all have been seen
moving at high speed, while others glowing
brightly have been seen to hover and even to
land.
But the increase of light with
motion does appear to be a general
characteristic, and it is one that may have
prevented Mrs. Wilson seeing the interior of
the craft outside the hospital. All of Miss
Kendall's observations in detail were made
before the craft started to move. After that
she, like Mrs. Wilson, was conscious only of
the light and motion of the craft. In other
words, by the time Mrs. Wilson reached the
window the brightness of the object may have
increased to an extent that all details were
obscured. It would have been like staring at
the headlights of a car. All one could have
said about the car itself was that its lights
were bright.
This in turn may account for
the fact that, unlike Miss Kendall, Mrs.
Wilson felt only alarm when she looked at
the object. Some maintain that at times
through some kind of chemistry UFOs are able
to exert a calming influence. But in this
case it appears to have been the peaceful
manner of the two occupants that dispelled
any fear Miss Kendall might have felt.
At this point two other nurses on the floor,
Mrs. Clackson and Mrs. Appleby, hearing the
excited comments of the first two, rushed to
another window of the ward but could only see
what they agreed was a "bright light" receding
in the distance. Seconds later two other nurses
also looked out a window but saw nothing.
Apparently by that time the object had moved
behind trees that border the hospital.
As nurses watched
from window out of sight on left, UFO with two
occupants was seen outside of children's ward on
top story of this hospital wing. It spanned five
windows, starting from left.
A significant
factor of this sighting is that none of the
witnesses made any effort to publicize it, yet
at the same time made no pretence of being
secretive. Knowing of our interest in the
subject, another nurse at the hospital who is a
friend of ours phoned us a little later the same
morning and it was through this connection that
we arranged the interview which was later
reported in the Victoria press.
Immediately
the story appeared, the two witnesses, like
ourselves, started to receive phone calls by
persons who were legitimately and intelligently
interested and by others who professed to have
exclusive private information about the
incident. It was here that we acquired
information of our own about people who, for
some reason that escapes us, want to establish
that they have the inside dope. We heard about
half a dozen different versions of the incident
being a put-up job. We were told by some it was
a bunch of school kids having fun and by others
it was a bunch of drunks. In two or three cases
names were even mentioned but in no case did the
names agree, and in no case did our callers
explain how so much rowdyism was going on at the
hospital grounds without the police being
called.
Also none of our callers
mentioned another extraordinary sighting that
occurred at Duncan within seconds of the
hospital incident, obviously because this one
was not reported in the press and therefore
offered no one a chance to give us "exclusive"
information about it.
But the authenticity of the
incident is undeniable because it was reported
to authorities before the hospital case had
received any publicity whatever.
In other words, completely
unknown to each other, two sets of witnesses
were observing a UFO in the vicinity of Duncan
early that New Year's morning.
The second
set of witnesses was a truck-driver and his wife
whose names and report, like the nurses', are
officially on record. Although admitting he had
a few drinks, the husband said the experience
made him feel cold sober and he was sufficiently
affected by it to make his report though it
meant disclosing his condition while driving.
The man said
he and his wife had just returned home from a
party about five o'clock that morning when their
attention was attracted by a huge white light
"as big as a house" hovering low over their
place. The witness described the light as
somewhat oval or rectangular in shape (it will be noted the UFO at
the hospital was circular but, if seen at an
angle by these other two witnesses, it might
have appeared oval) and said that
three or four shafts of light extended down at
an angle beneath it, converging to form a single
shaft. This gave the object the appearance of a
top. As they watched in amazement for a few
seconds, the light suddenly shot up and either
blinked out or disappeared in the distance at an
incredible speed.
"I may have
had a few drinks," the man said, "but I know
perfectly well that had nothing to do with what
I saw, and my wife saw it, too."
Back at the
hospital Miss Kendall, deciding to put her
experience on record, made this entry in the
hospital working schedule:
"At 5 a.m. I saw a flying saucer as low as the
third floor of the hospital when I pulled the
curtains. There were two men or figures in the
dome flying towards Victoria. (Miss Kendall, who admits
having an uncertain sense of direction, was
wrong in this notation. Victoria lies south of
Duncan whereas the direction taken by the UFO,
as established by reconstruction of events,
was northeast.) The bottom of the
saucer was brilliantly lit and also the dome -
New Year's morning."
Of the two
principal witnesses at the hospital, Mrs. Wilson
was the more alarmed when she saw the UFO - in
fact, as we have noted, the sighting had a
peaceful effect on Miss Kendall - and later
reported she had a "tingling" sensation which
may have been caused by excitement or, as in
some cases, by some emanation from the craft
itself.
Yet strangely
it was Miss Kendall who was the more lastingly
affected by the experience.
When she
returned that morning to her home in Nanaimo,
north of Duncan, her brother who was visiting
from out of town immediately noticed something
unusual had happened to her and asked her about
it, whereupon she told him her strange
experience.
"For at least
a week after that," she said in our second
interview, "I didn't feel quite like my usual
self. I think that normally I am an outgoing
sort of person, but now I felt very subdued and
some of the other nurses said I seemed
preoccupied.
By the time
we saw her again, however, she seemed completely
relaxed and friendly and though, by her own
acknowledgment, she had been through an
experience she would never forget, there was no
sign that the incident would alter the composed
tenor of her life in any way.
One would
have thought that was enough excitement for one
day in the small town of Duncan but the strange
aerial visitors decreed otherwise. About seven
o'clock that evening the glowing craft - or
perhaps another of about the same size - flew at
low altitude through the darkness in full view
of a flock of assorted witnesses at various
points in the area. Since the morning visit was
not yet publicly known, there can be no
suggestion that people had started seeing things
on that account.
On this
second visit the object appeared so big and
bright that at least one group of witnesses
could see it several miles away. The observers
in this case were Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Gillam and
friends who were having dinner at the Deer Lodge
restaurant just off the Island highway south of
Mill Bay. To them the object seemed to be over
the Saanich Peninsula, about 10 miles to the
east, and was headed in a northeasterly
direction.
"All we could
see was a large ball of light moving quite
slowly, much slower than an airplane," Gillam
said. "It must have been very bright for us to
see it from that distance. I don't think a
helicopter would have been that bright."
Any thought
that the object might have been a helicopter was
removed by the comments of two other sets of
witnesses who saw the light, or another of the
same general description, much closer at hand.
One of these
groups was Judge George Hallett, his wife and
three dinner guests who, at about 7 p.m. that
New Year's Day, saw a huge orange-colored light
passing slowly along the waterfront opposite the
Halletts' home at Mill Bay. Reconstruction of
the scene placed the distance of the light at
about half a mile. Since the object, travelling
south at the time, was staying close to shore,
it appears the Halletts' sighting preceded that
of the Gillams who saw the light, if it was the
same, moving off in the distance.
"This was no
ordinary aircraft, and it was no plastic-bag
trick either," Judge Hallett said. "It was
making no sound that we could detect, it was
moving very slowly and it was enormous. I'm
quite sure no one could play a trick with such a
large apparatus without being spotted. We
watched it for about five minutes until it
seemed to disappear into the clouds."
Judge & Mrs.
George Hallett
Then right on
the waterfront we talked to the Drummond family
who for once and all eliminated any idea the
incident was a prank or a normal flying
occurrence.
Their
startling experience occurred while Jim
Drummond, a shipwright, and his wife, Dianna,
aboard the tugboat which they have converted
into a comfortable home, were making a New
Year's visit to Jim's mother who has a house
immediately overlooking the shore at Mill Bay.
It was she who had the first hint of what was to
happen.
Mrs. Bea Drummond
"It was about
seven o'clock and Jim and Dianna were still on
the boat, anchored close to shore, when I went
outside to call them in to dinner," she said.
"Then I noticed a light in the sky moving over
the bay. I couldn't tell how big it was, it was
so bright, and it had a yellow-orangey glow like
sunlight.
"I got so
excited I yelled to my son to look. I ran out to
the other side of my house but I couldn't see
over the trees. I tried to phone some of the
neighbors but I couldn't get through on the
party line."
But on deck
Jim had received the message.
"I looked up
and saw this light coming in from the north,
just about in line with our boat. It was
skimming right under the overcast which was
about 900 feet. I ran into the cabin and grabbed
my telescope and camera, and my wife came out
with me to look. We were really excited."
Guessing that
on film the object would merely look like a blob
against a black background, Jim did not bother
with the camera but studied the thing carefully
through his telescope.
"It was sort
of egg-shaped, in a vertical position, but the
top and bottom were indistinct," he said. "It
seemed to be transparent on top, and inside it I
thought I could see a set of lights but I
couldn't really make out any details."
To make it
easier for her son to bring his wife and little
boy ashore, Mrs. Drummond had switched on a
flood light on the porch of her house. Whether
this had anything to do with what followed is
impossible to say, but for some reason the
object dropped about 300 feet as it passed
between the house and the tugboat. It was almost
as if it was curious about the strong light
shining from the dark shore.
Then
something happened that on Jim made the sharpest
impression of all.
"Just at that
point something came out of that thing which by
then had slowed down almost to a stop," he said.
"It was a ray of light like a very thin neon
tube, and it was in pieces, something like the
dots and dashes of morse code. It came down in a
curve and then it flashed right out, all of it
at the same time. My hair just stood up on end.
I couldn't imagine anything like it."
As Drummonds watched
a ray like "thin neon tube" divided into pieces
flashed from object. Jim, looking through
telescope, felt his hair stand on end.
After this
weird performance the object climbed back to its
former height and passed out of sight to the
south. It was at this stage that the Halletts
might have seen it, their house being in that
direction. Significantly the wind was blowing
from the southwest at the time. If the object
had been a balloon this would have driven it in
the opposite direction.
Like other
people in the Maple Bay area near Duncan where
he normally keeps his boat, Jim Drummond a few
days later had another sighting. But this time
it was obviously some part of a game that
pranksters had started to play, perhaps
stimulated by the UFO publicity which by then
had swarmed into the local press.
"The second
one wasn't the same thing at all," he said. "You
could see it was a kids' job, not a fraction as
bright, and it was just bobbing around without
really going anywhere."
Seen in front of
tugboat which they have converted into
comfortable home, Jim and Dianna Drummond were
treated to spectacular New Year's display when
giant UFO flew close to vessel. Jim's mother,
whom they were visiting, was first to sight
object.
The rash of
reports that cropped up for the next month or so
made it difficult to distinguish between what
might be real and what was clearly fake.
Eventually we decided that, in our book at
least, only the Jan. 1 sightings had the true
flavor of authenticity.
Yet there
were others that made us pause. Phoning James
Quaife, the mayor of Duncan, on a tip, we
learned that one night in January, he and his
wife and several neighbors, watched a light many
times brighter than a star perform spectacular
manoeuvres in the sky, including dead stops and
reversal of direction.
Mayor James Quaife
A month later
after the excitement seemed to have died, John
Vanderhoek, who lives on a farm by the Vancouver
Island highway, phoned to say that motorists
were crowding up in front of his place to watch
a "red thing in the air" that was putting on
quite a performance. He described it as rising
and falling, and changing in intensity as it did
so. Above the reddish light there appeared to be
a white one, and the object was in motion
despite a complete absence of wind. As he spoke
the light moved toward mountains to the west and
disappeared.
That
apparently marked the end of the Vancouver
Island flap, at least for the time being. But it
might be well to explain that the Jan. 1
sightings did not really mark the beginning. In
December there had been a scattering of
sightings north of Duncan, and in one case the
object sounded very similar to that reported by
Vanderhoek. It was glowing white on top and red
on the bottom.
But the most
striking of these earlier incidents occurred one
morning above Duncan's Alexander elementary
school. The object in this case was ring-shaped
and, as it moved silently overhead, was observed
by a teacher, two aides, the school secretary
and two students.
"The ring
definitely looked as if it was made of some
solid substance," Mrs. Edith Beiling, one of the
aides, told us. "It was like a very large heavy
hula hoop and the material looked like thick
rolled-up plastic. It seemed to change in size
slightly, perhaps because it was moving up and
down, and we didn't have any real idea what size
it was but I'd say a large plane could have
fitted into it about 15 times.
"We saw it
through a window from inside the school at
first, then we rushed outside to get a better
look. We were all pretty excited, and I think
there was one who was even quite frightened. I
felt like ringing the school bell but decided I
had better not."
Mrs. Beiling
explained the day was heavily overcast at the
time and consequently it was difficult to say
whether they were staring through open space in
the middle of the craft, or whether the center
was made of some material matching the clouds in
color. But there was no doubt in the witnesses'
minds that they were looking at a solid object,
not at a smoke ring. After about three minutes
the object was lost from sight.
Mrs. Edith Beiling
The
ring-shaped object is not a newcomer to UFO
reports, and there are cases in which it has
been proved beyond doubt to be of the smoke
variety. But here we have the puzzle of a ring
being seen as an introductory feature to a UFO
show of classic quality. It is difficult to
believe the two events were not in some way
associated.
But, like so
much of the UFO story, we must wait for other
similar instances before we can begin to guess
what the association might be.
RETURN TO HISTORY
INDEX