Venus or Visitors? The UFO That Had Cops and Jets in Hot Pursuit

They were "chasing Venus" - an explanation that worked at the time, but wouldn't fly today. Here's why...

If it doesn't look like #Venus - why did they say that is what it was?

The world has changed a lot since the 1950's and 1960's. Information, and disinformation, spreads much, much quicker and more easily today. Of course this is mostly due to the Internet. Let me tell you a story from 1966 that will make your head swim. Today, this story would in no way be able to have the same "explanation" or ending.

Straight out of the movies

About 5 am on April 17, 1966, near Ravenna, Ohio, two sheriff deputies saw something very strange, leading to an intense police chase at speeds of over 100 miles per hour. This high-speed and intense police chase reportedly inspired the iconic police chase scene along the back roads of Indiana in the 1977 Steven Spielberg movie, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". The movie was fun - this UFO event in Ohio was the real deal.

It started simply enough

Deputies Dale Spaur and and Wilbur "Barney" Neff stopped along a dark road to check out an abandoned vehicle. A strange humming noise caused them to look up to see a giant UFO rising from behind a nearby group of trees. Intense white light from this UFO brightly lit up the area. The object rose, hovered for a bit, then started moving east. Neff and Spaur decided to chase the object, which they did for about 86 miles along a stretch of Ohio highways and on into Pennsylvania.

Two more officers witness the object

Patrolman Wayne Huston of East Palestine, Ohio also joined in the chase, later describing the object in much the same way as the first two officers.

Three photos of the object were snapped by yet another high-quality witness, police Chief Gerald Buchert who was on patrol in nearby Mantua, Ohio. He described the object's appearance as like two table saucers put together.

Spaur's more detailed description of the object was like the head of a flashlight, about 40 feet wide and 20 feet tall. He stated that the lines of the object were very distinct, and that the object maneuvered nearby with intent, and didn't just float around aimlessly.

Jets show up, along with hundreds more witnesses

About 6:15 am Spaur reported watching three fighter jets chasing the object. They listened to the chatter of the pilots over the radio. Additionally, hundreds of other people reported seeing the shiny saucer in the early morning sky, and hearing its faint but steady humming sound.

Eventually, the chase ended when the object hovered for a bit, then shot straight out of sight at high speed.

Here comes the coverup

Project Blue Book was in high gear in 1966, and the director jumped on this sighting with a quick explanation. Major Hector Quintanilla "investigated" Spaur and Neff, then issued the official verdict that the object they saw at first was a satellite, and then they chased the planet Venus. He also stated the photos taken by Buchert were "severely fogged" and had processing defects, so they proved nothing.

A silly AI illustration loosely illustrating a silly explanation

Holy Toledo! How stupid did Hector think we are! Well, in 1966 this strategy for handling the public worked very well. A quick brush-off was all that most people heard about this event, if they heard anything at all, and there was very little need to question Project Blue Book's "scientific" authority.

Side Note: Even though Project Blue Book "investigated" and dismissed most of 12,618 cases, there are still 701 cases they couldn't easily brush off. These are really good cases you can learn more about here.

Why this coverup worked

In 1966 the details of sightings like this one didn't get very far in the media, or by word of mouth. The "giggle factor" when discussing anything to do with UFOs was in full force, and the media was often extremely hesitant to report sightings because of this.

Today, fortunately, the "giggle factor" has been overridden to a large extent. News and details of sightings spread faster, and through many parallel paths instead of a handful of monolithic media outlets, so stifling the information doesn't work the same today. The public is much more aware of events before any intervening actions can possibly be taken by the authorities.

What to watch out for

The military-industrial complex more or less runs the show today as far as any attempts to keep the subject of UFOs under their control. The explanation for all this is too complicated to cover in this article, but the ramifications can be gleaned.

It's become obvious that the "giggle factor", and simple dismissal of people who see something strange, is no longer a viable strategy. Instead, new strategies are slowly evolving to handle the subject and to maintain secrecy and control - things like Top Secret security breach warnings, implied catastrophic threats to careers, disinformation ploys to muddy the waters, and so on. There is a growing public acknowledgement by Congressional, military, and other authorities in-the-know that something real is going on, but exactly what it is must apparently be kept secret for our own safety. The big question to ask is "Why?"

Follow the money

Many trillions of taxpayer dollars are "missing", having been sunk over the past few decades into extremely secretive black budgets supporting the military-industrial complex. How much of these funds would dry up, or be channeled elsewhere if the whole truth about UFOs, whatever that might be, was suddenly public knowledge?

"But they might be a threat!"

A simple, and very logical next step for handling public awareness, would allegedly be to paint a picture of UFOs/UAPs as being possible unknown threats to national security. If they are some kind of threat, then we'd better keep supporting the military and industrial efforts to keep us (and their budgets, of course) safe and secure!

Yes, there actually might be a threat, but a question I hear a lot is this... if UFOs/UAPs represent extremely advanced intelligences of some sort, and if they have any intent to cause us or this planet any harm, why are we still here after all these years?

Where's the scientific research?

You might be thinking that the authorities really don't know what's going on, and that they honestly are naively wondering if these events might represent some sort of a threat to the U.S., as though this question has never been seriously raised before.

For many decades we've had the very best, top notch, science-based intelligence programs and projects running in the background in this country. You can bet your bottom dollar their knowledge of all things that go bump in the night is as good as it gets.

Or consider this... if the UFOs/UAPs really do potentially represent any kind of an unknown threat, would all the hundreds, if not thousands, of quality airline and military pilot witnesses really be discouraged from making reports on what they see all the time? Why stifle any scientific research into just this one small part of the phenomenon? Where's the concern been for all these years? Do the intelligence operatives really not know anything? Think about that for a moment.

Today's coverups

There are a lot of unknowns to this subject, and to our understanding of our military-industrial complex, and its complicated relationship with our government and the public. I strongly believe that being "afraid of the possible threat" should not be allowed to be used as an overly simplistic next strategy for handling the public to continue stifling the truth.