Investigated by Project Blue Book for Seeing a Formation of UFOs in 1967
Article by Bill Love March 9, 2021 (wkdq.com)
• Bill Love (pictured above), a DJ for WKDQ radio in Evansville, Indiana, reports that a string of UFOs were sighted in February by Evansville Police officers. The same lights were also reported in Louisville, Kentucky. This made Love recollect an incident in 1967 on his first night as the midnight DJ at WHOO radio in west Orlando, Florida.
• As Love was broadcasting an Atlanta Braves baseball game, the WHOO station phone began ringing with callers asking about strange lights in the sky over the western part of the city. Love went outside and looked up in the clear night sky. He could see the lights. Several were traveling in formation very fast and would frequently change colors. They could dip and swerve faster than any plane. Love went back inside and answered more calls about the lights.
• In 1967, the Vietnam War was raging, and it was not uncommon to see heavy air traffic out of nearby McCoy Air Force Base. Also Cape Canaveral was sending space rockets up frequently. Love called McCoy AFB but they had no comment. They did take Love’s name and number there at the radio station.
• The next day Love got a call from the radio station receptionist to let him know that an Air Force officer was waiting in the lobby to see him. Love raced to the station and was greeted by a very stern US Air Force major representing Project Blue Book, the official US air force UFO investigation program. The major asked Love questions about the UFO’s proximity to the high radio towers on the property, and how large Love would estimate that the lights were.
• The AF major had Love fill out a multi-page questionnaire. At the end of our interview Love asked him, “Did anyone at McCoy AFB see the lights”? The major smiled, bid Love a good day and walked away. Love never heard from him or the military again.
• Project Blue Book was ended by the Air Force two years later in 1969. The main goal of the Blue Book investigation was to determine whether UFOs posed any threat to US national security. It was determined that they were not. Love’s report to Project Blue Book was only recently declassified along with never-seen photographs and home movies from decades ago. This fascinating evidence of “non-threatening” UFOs can be seen at the National Archives website.
Unidentified flying objects or UFOs are back in the news again. During the first week of February a couple of Evansville Police officers saw a string of strange lights while sitting in their patrol car. The same lights were reported in Louisville. These reports brought up memories for me of something I saw in 1967. It even made the official US Government investigation of UFOs.
In ’67 I was working as the 6PM to midnight DJ on a radio station in Orlando Florida. Here I am standing in front of the studio and transmitter building of radio station WHOO on my first day at work.
The important thing to know is that the transmitter and broadcast studio that you see in the polaroid were located together on the very flat west side of Orlando with not too many lights to pollute the night sky. The station was 50,000 watts east-west directional which meant several very tall towers were located within a few hundred feet of the building.
The Milwaukee Braves baseball team had recently moved to Atlanta and on the night I spotted my UFOs we were carrying a Braves game. I had plenty of time to kill as I waited to insert local commercials into the broadcast. Suddenly the phone lit up. This was odd because not that many people could have been listening to the Braves getting clobbered again. Caller after caller asked about strange lights in the sky over the western part of the city. I knew McCoy air force base was located just a few miles away and since the Vietnam war had heated up in ’67, heavy traffic in the sky wasn’t uncommon. Also Cape Canaveral was sending space rockets up frequently. But the calls didn’t stop. More and more people wanted to know what these strange sights in the night sky were.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.