6 December 1979
(Enterprise-Courier, Charleston, Missouri)
Sources: U.F.O. Newsclipping Service, Plumerville, Arkansas
and AFU.se
The whole article (Page 2):
“Dr. Harley Rutledge has announced part of the results
of a six-year scientific field study of Unidentified Flying Objects he directed
while chairing the physics department at Southeast
Missouri State
University in Cape Girardeau.
During that six-year period, the professor said, he
and co-workers had experienced 153 sightings of 174 UFOs. He labelled 34 of the
sightings as incredible because the UFOs exhibited physical or behavioral
properties beyond known man-made technology.
Rutledge, director of Project Identification, a
University-based organization of scientists, engineers, students, and amateur
astronomers formed to study UFOs, said that on 32 occasions UFOs seemed to
react to him and other Project members. ‘It’s enough to make you think someone
is playing a game with us.’
Covering a large area of Southeast Missouri, the field
study has extended 30 miles
north of St. Louis, 80
miles west of the Mississippi River, and into Illinois.
The Project has logged 26 sightings of 37 UFOs near
Piedmont, where the study began in April, 1973; 17 sightings of 19 UFOs near Farmington; and 104 sightings of 117 UFOs near the
Mississippi River along a 70
mile stretch from Perryville to Sikeston. But 48 sightings of 50 UFOs were
from within or near the city limits of Cape
Girardeau itself. ‘Often UFOs have hovered over or
near the city,’ Rutledge said.
In once [sic] case a Cape Girardeau girl reported being chased by
a small disc flying at treetop level. It temporarily blinded the girl by
flashing a bright light down upon her as she reached the door of her home. Two witnesses
verified the experience.
Rutledge reports that many of the UFOs were observed
in motion and 41 UFOs changed motion by starting, stopping, or changing
direction. In some cases hovering lights streaked across the sky in a fraction
of a second at low altitude and even under a cloud cover. Rutledge has observed
a light make an instantaneous right-angle turn, the light switching off 20
seconds later. ‘If that was an object having mass, that kind of turn is impossible,’
Rutledge emphasized. ‘But I’ve seen a lot of things that looked impossible.’
Of the 174 UFOs observed by Project members, 88 have
been mere balls of light. Five were seen to turn on, 47 turn off, while 36
turned on and off. Six different colors have been observed: 50 off-white, 27 amber,
21 white, 7 red, 5 yellow, and two lights were a green color. Five lights
changed color.
Seven craft have been observed, including two discs
and a bullet-shaped object. One of the discs was observed in daylight by
Rutledge from his office at the University. The bullet-shaped object, also
observed in daylight, changed color and vanished.
Contrary to popular representations of UFOs on
television and in the movies, only three UFOs observed by Rutledge and his
crews made sound.
Eighteen sightings occurred in daylight and 18 more at
dusk. These 36 sightings constitute nearly one-fourth the Project totals and
under conditions where sunlight would have illuminated any craft in the sky.
‘I’m not the only one seeing these things,’ Rutledge
pointed out. During the 153 sightings, 622 persons have been present,
representing more than 30 Project members and well over a hundred different
persons as spectators. That averages about four persons present per sighting. ‘How
could any UFO study, or single sighting, be better documented than this?’ he
asks.
Rutledge promises that soon he will release more
startling results from Project data to the public . ‘In the beginning, we
formed this organization to seek the truth and present it to the public,’
Rutledge stated. ‘At first I was reticent to describe some of our incredible
experiences for fear of ridicule. We have been careful not to make
unsubstantiated claims.’ ”
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