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This article was published in the daily newspaper Daily Tribune of Royal Oak, Michigan, USA, on March 22, 1966.
Also check other files on the Michigan 1966 "swamp gas" story.
Where? - Hundreds flocked to the Ann Arbor area Monday night to join the watch for Unidentified Flying Objects. None were sighted there Monday night, but in Hillsdale, the CD director and 87 co-eds at Hillsdale College said they had watched sky objects for several hours. (Unifax)
The Federal government is sending in one of its top unidentified - flying - object (UFO) experts to study the reports of sightings in southeastern Michigan.
An Air Force spokesman at Selfridge Air Force Base said today that Dr. J. Allen Hynek, chairman of the Dearborn Observatory at Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., is expected to arrive at the air base this afternoon to take over investigation of the UFO reports centering around Ann Arbor over the weekend.
Other sightings were reported in South Oakland Monday night.
Dr. Hynek is scientific consultant to the U.S. Air Force's Project Blue Book, the AF's closely guarded project to study unidentified flying objects, the spokesman said.
Selfridge's Information Office would not disclose any information regarding the investigation, said further information would have to come from Project Blue Book officials.
"We're not allowed to say anything more," an Information Office spokesman said.
A check with area police departments also showed no "official" UFO reports were made Monday night, although some residents in northern Royal Oak reported something "unusual" in the sky around 7:30 pm.
Several excited residents on Whitcomb, near North Campell, watched three glowing objects circle and dip and some even thought they heard whirring sound as the objects spiraled.
A Tribune reporter who was traveling in the area at the time said he also saw them, but believe they were searchlights from the vicinity of the Universal City Shopping Center.
Those who were convinced they were "genuine flying saucers" discounted the spotlight, theory because they could not see any beams trailing from the objects, only the circular lights high in the sky.
Universal city spokesmen said there are not searchlights at the mall, but said perhaps the spotlight from Key Oldsmobile, east of the mall, had caused the furor.
Dick Hodges, manager of the automobile agency said the firm did have two - not three, spotlight beams in operation Monday night and suggested that perhaps the single beam from another auto firm about two miles away had shone as the third UFO.
An amused Hodges said his spotlights will be shining every night for the benefit of anyone looking for sights in the sky.
A spokesman at the Selfridge Information Office said today certain atmospheric conditions could cause many illusions that might confuse an average person on just what he did see.
Especially after he had just heard reports that there were flying saucers in the area.
