Last week I wrote a story for the Journal of San Juan Islands and I think I finally found some fans.
I wrote about a UFO sighting in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. It’s the first UFO story I have ever written and, amazingly, no one is calling demanding I be replaced with a well-dressed mannequin draped in apparent hair.
I received a call from Jim Dunn late in the day on Jan. 19, while I was sending pages for The Journal. He told me he had a story he wanted to discuss. I told him I was sweating a deadline and asked if we could talk the next day. There was something about the conversation that interested me and I hoped he would call.
Fortunately, Dunn called back the next day. At first I thought he wanted to talk about a problem in his neighborhood or with some goofball city rule. It took me a moment to get it through my thick fog that he was talking about a UFO sighting.
Dunn said on Jan. 15 at about 6:15 p.m. he saw three orange lights over the main street of Friday Harbor – Spring Street.
He thought at first it was a plane making a very low approach to land at the town’s airport, which he thought was odd. Next he assumed the lights must be a helicopter or a drone, but there was something weird about the movements.
“It was three orange lights moving independently,” Dunn said. “At first I rationalized it was a drone, but they were moving too rapidly.”
Once I finally realized this was a different kind of story, I had to decide if Dunn was a regular guy, not a wacko like me.
He came to the office in Friday Harbor and we spent some time talking. He was a very sensible, intelligent man. Dunn is a retired architect and private pilot, which meant he had a pretty good understanding of the way an aircraft would approach the airport.
That is when the story got interesting. Dunn had contacted air traffic control at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. The controller told Dunn there was a helicopter listed as being in the area, but it was 45 minutes after the sighting, Dunn said.
Dunn contacted Peter Davenport, director of the National UFO Reporting Center who suggested he contact the local media (that’s me) to see if anyone else saw the light.
After The Journal published the story several people sent emails about the same lights.
Now, I have to admit this is just plain fun. Few stories I do can be described in that manner.
The intriguing part of the news business is I never know what’s coming around the corner. One day someone is calling for my well-groomed scalp, and the next it is an alien doing the moonwalk.
While driving back from the Islands, I considered the deep implications of UFOs, aliens and why I was having so much fun with outer space (fun and me just can’t be right).
A ferry ride that probably lasted too long allowed me to imagine a TV world in the not-too-distant future where the top Super Bowl ad might be for the website, “FindYourAlienGirlfriend.com.”
“Think you’re a baldy head? Your alien girlfriend knows better. Call 1-800-milky way now.”
Tell me that won’t cheer up any Super Bowl fan suffering through a deflated pass.
Another interesting point was, the day Dunn came to the office CNN published a story about the Air Force UFO files being released. The story stated John Greenewald has put all the documents together and posted it to his website, “Project Blue Book Collection.”
I haven’t had a chance to spend any time on the site, but I plan to and I intend to keep in touch with Dunn.
After Super Bowl XLIX it might be a good time for Seahawk fans to look to the sky for some relief.
Dennis Box is editor of the Enumclaw Courier-Herald. Reach him at dbox@courierherald.com.
