This report of a close-at-hand experience with a
strange flying object was sent to us by J.L.
Squance of Victoria, B.C. Written by Ellery
Littleton, it appeared four years ago in The
Martlet, published by the Alma Mater Society of
the University of Victoria.)
I've been an avid reader of Science Fiction for
years and have watched with interest the
Television newscasts which laughingly mention
sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects
"whizzing in and out of our atmosphere."
But I have never really paid any attention to
the whole business of flying saucers, UFOs, and
all that space age claptrap.
Until last Thursday, March 11, when Mr. Albert
Wilson, R.R. 7, out near Mount Newton Junior
High, telephoned me and said that he had a story
to tell me that might interest The Martlet
readers. He said that he had been turned down by
both local newspapers, and was I interested? I
was, and went out to his farm that evening. Here
is the story Mr. Wilson told me.
One evening, near the end of February, he and
his wife Margaret returned from a movie in town.
They drove up the driveway to the house. Mrs.
Wilson went inside, and Mr. Wilson parked the
truck in the barn. It was about 11:30 p.m., dark
and windy.
He was walking back to the house when he heard a
noise in one of his nearby fields which sounded
"like a huge fan blower or something - only
quiet and hushed." Mr. Wilson took a flashlight
from the barn and walked down toward the field,
about 200 yards from the house. (Mr. Wilson told
me this part of the story as we walked down to
the spot.)
The rushing noise increased in volume as he
approached, and he shone the flashlight at it,
shouting "What are you doing - who's there?"
(Mrs. Wilson opened the front room window at
this point, curious about the noise and
shouting).
I give you Mr. Wilson's own words as I could get
them down: "I didn’t know what was going on. It
sounded like somebody was running some machinery
in my field and I wanted to know what they were
doing, especially in the middle of the night.
Then all of a sudden there was sort of an
explosion, or a sharp crack, and this round
thing swooped up like a helicopter. It wasn't a
helicopter, because it didn’t have any
propellers and it was round and whitish in
colour. Whatever it was, it swooped up and took
off west, and was gone in a few seconds."
Mrs. Wilson agreed that was what had happened.
Mr. Wilson said the round thing was about as big
as a car but she thought it was bigger.
Mr. Wilson ran back into the house and
telephoned Pat Bay airfield, but gave up trying
to convince somebody that a flying machine had
taken off from his field. He then contacted a
radio station to see if they had any reports
from anyone else of a similar occurrence. None.
He telephoned both local newspapers, and they
said they would send someone out in the morning.
No one showed up.
Mr. Wilson has marked the spot in the field
where the thing landed, but to me the ground
looked perfectly normal. He said the grass had
been flattened.
Now how about this? John Kerlew of Sidney, a
part-time prospector, brought over a geiger
counter which registered distinct signs of
radioactivity on the spot where the thing had
been sitting!
The Army refused Mr. Kerlew's invitation to come
out and check the spot with their equipment.
HOMEPAGE