by Charles Lear
Throughout modern UFO history, there have been periods when a large number of reports have come from one area. These were termed UFO “flaps” by Air Force UFO investigators working for Project Blue Book. According to former Project Blue Book Director
in his 1956 book “The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Air Force parlance, a flap was a state of confusion just below panic that could be brought on by any number of things. This week, we’ll look at a 1965 flap in the Virginia area that involved reported EM effects, creatures, and armed citizens ready to defend the planet.
Newspaper clippings and comments by investigators about the events can be found at the UFO History Group website. The flap actually began in 1964 with the December 21st sighting by Harrisonburg, Virginia, gunsmith Horace Burns. According to the report, he was driving on Route 250 near Fishersville when he saw a huge metallic object in the sky coming from the north. As it landed in a field to his right, his car stalled, and he drifted to a stop.
Burns described the object as shaped like a beehive, 125 ft in diameter, and 80 ft tall. He observed it as it rested for 60 to 90 seconds and then rose up and flew away to the northeast. He was able to restart his car and drive home.
Burns contacted the UFO Investigators Club at Eastern Mennonite College. Club President Ernest Gehman, who was a professor at the College and a member of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, checked the area with a Geiger counter and claimed to have found heavy radioactivity. He also reported that homeowners in the area had complained to the Virginia Electric and Power Co. that their radios and televisions stopped working for several minutes and that their lights dimmed. Read more