FORM 112 - MADAR SIGHTING INFORMATION REPORT
 


MT. VERNON, ILLINOIS & MAYFIELD, KENTUCKY   -   JULY 12, 1977


I.   DESCRIPTION OF INCIDENTS

The police department at Mt. Vernon, Indiana reported that they had monitored UFO reports over their police radio on the morning of July 12th. Dispatcher, Officer Kermit Steele, advised me that they had picked up transmissions on the police radio from two locations. At approximately 2:10 am, 22-minutes after MADAR had gone on alert at Mt. Vernon, INDIANA, citizens had been reporting UFOs to police at Mt. Vernon, ILLINOIS, 62 miles northwest of us! Also, reports were coming in from Mayfield, Kentucky, 91 miles to our southwest!  For a detailed report see  19770712-MADAR Information Report.   


II.   MADAR DATA

On July 12th, 1:48 am, the MADAR system at Mt. Vernon, Indiana went into alert mode. This was a single pulse disturbance. Then, just 13 minutes short of three hours later, at 4:35 am, there was a second alert. This was a 5 pulse, 53-second disturbance. Finally, within an hour of the second incident an E-M anomaly took place with lab's smoke alarm. Radiation background in all cases was the normal 16-18 cpm for the area. There was no visual sighting from the facility. The police department was alerted, but had heard nothing from callers or cruisers at that time. Twenty minutes later things began to change. Then, about three hours later, at 4:35 am, there was a second alert (APD 11), indicating that another geomagnetic anomaly had occurred.

III.  STATUS OF INVESTIGATION

At the time there was no way to obtain contact information for any investigations in the two cities reporting to local police.

IV.   ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Two MADAR alerts occurred in the wee hours of July 12th. Then, within an hour of the last alert, the facility's smoke alarm started beeping. This was not an indication of smoke or fire in the control room, but a automatic system diagnostic notification that the lab's S&F alarm was suddenly showing a LOWBATT. This unit used a radioactive isotope in the tubular battery. When the battery was checked it was found to be in perfect order and was not replaced until six months later! Something had caused the voltage to drop for a very short time. Whatever had caused it was an anomaly in itself.

V.   CONCLUSIONS

At the time of these incidents the distances (62-91 miles) and Hynek classifications (NL - nocturnal lights) gave them a somewhat low value, yet illustrated that there apparently was UFO activity in the region when MADAR was triggered. Since then, experience, and the findings from Operation Foal Eagle, have suggested that UFOs entering the atmosphere vertically expend considerable energy, then idle down for extended periods. The ETA might have been the reason for the two anomalies recorded at Mt. Vernon, Indiana. With the absence of any internet or cell phones in 1977, nor the means to get investigation reports that might have provided details that could have raised the Hynek values of those reports, not much could be ascertained about the quantity or quality of the reports. There doesn't seem to be any other explanation than UFOs were being detected that early morning of July 12th. Additional evidence to conclude this is based on seven (7) alerts during the 6-week period that summer, culminating in the major event of August 15th, the subject of the next paper.

Fran Ridge
MADAR OPERATIONS CENTER