by Charles Lear, author of “The Flying Saucer Investigators.”
1984 was a serious year in UFOlogy. Researchers were taking advantage of a more efficient and accessible process for putting in FOIA requests and finding documents showing that agencies such as the FBI and CIA did have some involvement with UFOs despite statements to the contrary. The Hudson Valley wave was in full swing, and the British UFO Research Association got ahold of the tape recording made by Col. Charles Halt on one of the nights when UFOs were seen in Rendlesham Forest. With so much evidence that there was something to the mystery and official interest in it coming to light, the reporting on the UFO subject took a turn away from ridicule, and the press started being serious about UFOs as well. In the midst of this, there was a case that many researchers might find worthy of ridicule, and it’s probable that researchers of the day did as well because it came and went and remains obscure, but the reporting on it was straight forward and restrained.
There was an incident in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, reported in at least two papers, the October 10, 1984 St. Paul, Minnesota, Pioneer Press (page 10 of the pdf), and the December 4, 1984 Examiner (page 10 of the pdf, no indication of which Examiner). The article by Katherine Lanpher in the Press is headlined “Truckers Duck a Convoy of Aliens,” and the article by Patrick Cotter in the Examiner is headlined “UFO Alien Birds Attack Truck.” Lanpher’s article is the more comprehensive of the two.
The two principals of the case are Robert Blair, 45, and his wife, Jackie, 21, who teamed up as professional truck drivers for the Davis Transport company in Yakima, Washington. According to Lanpher, Dorothy Sills, the office manager at Trucker’s Inn in Sauk Centre, said the Blairs “came into the station all upset and excited and said they weren’t going any further because the UFO was shooting at them.” This was after they’d parked the tanker truck full of vegetable fat they were driving. According to them, they were attacked near Billings, Montana, by, in Lanpher’s words, “bird-like creatures from a spaceship.” They said the creatures were about eight-inches tall with human legs and v-shaped heads and that they had followed them and were now surrounding their truck. The Blairs asked to use the telephone. Sills said, “It was strange. We couldn’t see what they were seeing, let’s put it that way.”
Sauk Centre Police Chief George Trierweiler said he got a call from the general manager of Davis Transport Inc., Jim Ketchum. The company was based in Yakima, Washington, and according to Ketchum, the Blairs had been driving for the company for a couple of months. Trierweiler said that Ketchum asked him “to check on a pair of drivers at the Getty station” but wouldn’t say why over the phone.
According to Trierweiler, the Blairs told him that a bubble-shaped spaceship crashed down on the road next to them and a peanut-shaped cylinder came out. The creatures came out of the cylinder and followed them from Billings to Sauk Center as metal filings were shot at the truck. They said there were filings imbedded in the windshield, but Trierweiler didn’t see any when he checked, though he did see some inside the truck. He thought there might have been work done on the truck. According to Lanpher, Trierweiler returned with State Patrol Sgt. Fred Korte and had him inspect the truck as well.
The Blairs said there were creatures on top of the telephone poles standing guard, but the officers couldn’t see them. Trierweiler said, “I know there are certain things you can’t see that you’re supposed to believe, like the Lord, but when someone starts telling me there are bird creatures on top of the lamp posts at the Getty station and I can’t see them, in my mind, it’s not there.
According to Sills, the Blairs were quiet, clean, and dressed neatly. She said that at one point, Robert Blair pointed at a telephone pole and shouted, “Here comes another one now!” and ducked. Sills said, “They seemed to believe what they were saying.”
According to Lanpher, the Blairs stayed overnight at a motel and told a reporter there that writing had appeared on Jackie Blair’s leg and that there were metal shavings in the room.
Robert Gribble, founder of the National UFO Reporting Center, said the Blairs had filed a report with his organization. He said there was a report of a large bright object in the sky over South Dakota but no reports of peanut-shaped cylinders.
According to Lanpher, a driver was flown in from Yakima by Davis Transport and the Blairs left with him in the truck. According to Cotter in the Examiner, a driver was sent in to take control of the truck, and the Blairs flew back to Washington. Ketchum is quoted by Lanphor describing the Blairs as “plain-old everyday folks. He added, “They’re not crazies.”