Doctor's report of incident.
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UFO evidence is hard to come by even with 21st century electronic gadgets attached to our bodies. So gaining additional witness testimony to the same observation, an emergency room form, a fire report, and say the original case stems from a police officer - seems like a stronger case.
Here's a look at the 1978 case of Kerman, California, police officer Manuel Amparano - thanks to evidence gathering by Sanger Paranormal Society.
The then 33-year-old officer was traveling south on Del Norte Avenue in Kerman when he spotted a large fire at tree top level about a half-mile ahead. He first wrote it off to recent reports of teenagers lighting fire to palm trees, but as he approached the California Avenue intersection, he realized it was something else.
Amparano saw "a circular type thing, similar to a round fireball or a setting sun, about 100 to 150 feet off the ground."
He described the object as between 25 and 50 feet across. When it was only 100 feet away from his patrol car, he decided to turn his spotlight on it. But as he attempted to do so, the object moved away and upward, then moved in a southeasterly direction at a high rate of speed.
As a police officer, he noted the time when he first saw the object, and when it moved away - a total of 4 to 5 minutes. He also made a sketch of the object; and recorded the sighting as May 13, 1978, at 3:13 a.m. According to a February 23, 1979, Fresno Bee story, then Police Chief James Van Cleaf, decided to withhold case details. He later resigned. Amparano went public with the case and eventually fielded questions from the media worldwide.
While the object's light was not blinding, he said that just before it moved away, a "bluish light beam" came from the object - angled toward his police car - similar to a camera flash.
Well it's 1978 and you're a police officer and the experience just summarized happened. What do you do?
The officer drove to a nearby parking lot near Highway 145 and I80 to sort things out. But instead of finding himself alone in his thoughts - the second witness appeared. Phil Mahler - delivering newspapers for the Fresno Bee - said that while he was delivering a newspaper at Whites Bridge Road and Grantland Avenue, he observed "a redish ball in the sky."
That seemingly small piece of information was Amparano's deciding factor. Mahler said he would tell his story if asked. Back at the station, Amparano followed up by contacting the Air National Guard, the weather bureau, and a radar station located at Fresno Air Terminal. Nothing showed on radar scopes, no weather balloons had been launched, and there were no airplanes in the area.
While making calls in the station, two fellow officers - A.J Buinyton and Bob Muller - approached to ask what he was doing. They noticed burn marks on his face and neck. Then after taking him into a bathroom to show him the burns, they discovered that his chest was burned through his shirt. The officers then accompanied Amparano to the cotton field where the incident took place and searched for evidence - but found nothing. Returning home finally, he reported to his wife that he was feeling "uncomfortable," and could not have covers touching him while he slept that night. His wife reported that his body twitched while he slept.
After waking at 5 p.m. and still feeling sick, he went to the Fresno Community Hospital emergency room where his burns were listed as coming from "unknown sources." They recorded his blood pressure high - at 150 over 90. A private doctor later said he suffered from a "high intensity fluorescent pipe light or a gamma ray."
Now other clues would follow.
After filing a report with a Seattle-based "phenomenon research center", he received a follow-up that a Fresno astronomer reported a "reddish ball" going down close to the ground west of Fresno at about the same time as Amparano's sighting. And during the same time period, the North Central Fire District took a fire call at Trinity Road and Shaw Avenue. Trucks responded. No fire. But Amparano said the report area was in a direct line from where his sighting occured.
Then Ken Westbrook, Jr, 20, came forward. Westbrook was working the night shift at the Gilory Farm raking hay 8 miles west of Kerman. Upon hearing about Amparano's experience, he called police and talked to the chief. He later spoke to a Probe UFO Investigator as well. Over a 30 to 40-second period, he saw a "glowing orange ball of light coming over the tops of the branches. "It caught my attention as it came up and just kind of drifted around a little bit."
Fresno National Weather Bureau Meteorologist Carl Smith also provided testimony that either the day before Amparano's sighting - or two days before - he saw "lights flashing through the sky from all directions. "What I saw was like a bunch of crazy airplane pilots."
The case was never actually solved - often the best ufologists can do is mark a case - Unknown. But at least Amparano had company on this one.
Comments
Fantastic!
Very interesting and good work, but many investigaters are missing a lot when they only focus on physical evidence for so called proof.
Marilyn you are correct, but it's a material world caught up in it's greed, hence the mess we are in. Basically the governments have all sold us out. We pay for special programs that they are benefiting for. UFOs will not be disclosed government has too much to hide. Black opts...... more like blackest of black opts as worse as your worse nightmares! At least Hitler was stopped.
Hard evidence is hard to come by .....thanks to our government!
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I believe Roger, "often the best ufologists can do is mark a case - Unknown." I'm not UFOlogist but I have been marked, and have been Doctor diagnosed as having two "unknown" scars from apparent operative procedures, one on my right cornea! I don't really exist you know, you've never heard of this, or me, so, I must obviously be a liar or insane! Some people who say they want you to know the truth yet don't want you to know about me. I submitted a real picture of a silent triangle craft that flew right over my house in June, but MUFON posted a different picture from my download! I've had UFOdigest.com and UFOs.About.com not post my comments that contained "dissenting" views. On YouTube, "seeingUFOsPA" is being harassed, and MUFON is either part of it or is being spoofed and doing nothing about it. Readers, are you yet seeing how US "intelligence" works? Just how intelligent are US citizens? Do you have to be TOLD the difference between a spiraling rocket and a beam from a mountainside?
Would be nice to know if the burns on the officer developed further, did he became ill? Did it worsen,etc?
Hey everyone. This is Jeffrey from Sanger Paranormal Society. I interviewed Manual, his burns caused blisters the following day and I learned Manual had brain cancer and had a large tumor reomoved but this happened several years later. I do not know if this resulted from the 1978 encounter. That's something we may never know. To this day, he has not experienced anymore health issues.
there were fourteen other witnesses located by a kerman police detective. one witness a farmer was watering his grape vineyard at trinity and belmont ave. when he observed the ufo fly across his fields headed toward the city of kerman. another witness had called the north central fire department and reported a possible fire at trinity and shaw ave. about five miles north of belmont.the ufo was apparently moving to the south east. I was told five years later by a fresno county deputy sheriff that this ufo was also seen by another deputy working the westside of fresno county and he wrote a report about the sighting. the madera county sheriff's office was also reporting ufo sightings during this same time period. it appears that something was going on in the area that was attracting ufo activity.
Here is a summary of other witness to the sighting. The first report on the UFO was to the North Central Fire Department at 02:30 a.m. Location Shaw Avenue where it dead ends onto Trinity avenue. A County resident reported a possible grass fire in a field. Two Fire Trucks responded and found no evidence of a fire. The second sighting was at about 03:00 a.m. by a Farmer T.A. who was Irrigating his Grape Vineyard at Belmont and Trinity Avenues. The UFO was seen flying over his Vineyard heading to The Southeast toward The City Of Kerman at tree top level. The Third sighting at 03:30 a.m. by a House Wife L.H who was seeing her Truck Driver husband off to work. She observed the UFO approching the Kerman City Limits from the Northwest at Del Norte and Kearney Blvd. She watched the UfO hover at tree top level and travel south along behind the trees lining the Westside of Del Norte Avenue.I was the Fourth person to encounter the UFO at 03:32 a.m at Del Norte and California Avenues. May13 1978
Some guy on Sunlite Blog said the Officer in his opinion saw the Navstar 2 rocket launch from Vandenberg at 03:34 a.m on May 13,1978. Apparently he never read the UFO investigation report by Richard Zimmerman of Probe Magazine. Richard went to Kerman and Fresno and interviewd witness. The Fresno Airport Radar Tower,Fresno National weather Bureau and Fresno Air National Guard reported there were no aircraft,either military or civilian in the vicinity of Kerman between 02:30 a.m. and 03:30 a.m. and that there wre no weather ballons or military rockets launched. Vandenberg reported no rocket launch during the UFO sighting. Carl Smith a Meteorologist for the Fresno Office reported he was on duty during the UFO sighting and saw nothing unusal toward the southwest skies. A Fresno Astronomer witnessed the UFO decending toward the ground and reported the UFO to Phenomena Research in Seattle. He did not report anything high up in the sky. This info is on the website if you look for it.
Apparenlty Sunlite never read the front page story the ran in The L.A. Herald Examiner Newspaper. The reporter wrote that witnesses placed the UFO flying at treetop level and approached the City of Kerman from the Northwest at three-thirty a.m. and was not seen flying up in the Southwest sky as Sunlite would want us to believe. I guess this debunker must work for the government and possibly thinks that were all stupid. I think he needs to do his home work as he missed the boat on this one. By the way the reporters name was Steve Comus a Staff Writer.
I contacted Sunlite and told him that he was wrong and needed to read the other witness reports before he accused me of seeing a Vanderberg Rocket instead of a UFO hovering at ground level behind some trees. Apparently Sunlite is choosing to portray me as the lone witness and is ignoring the other witnesses. He needs to focus on my sighting on the Southwest of Kerman City as it fits his purpose of a rocket launch from Vandenberg. I had called The Fresno Air National Guard at 05:30 a.m. and a Sgt.said that they had no aircraft of any type flying during the time of my encounter.The Fresno Air Terminial Radar Tower told me the same and The Fresno Weather Bureau told me there was nothing in the sky during my encounter. I see it strange that the 144th Fighter Wing in Fresno had no knowledge of a Vandenberg launch as they have Air Defense Responsibility over Vandenberg. Will someone explain how a rocket can hover low over the ground and behind trees for over five minutes without crashing.
I'm the reporter from the Her-Ex who covered the story at the time. The information i included in the story was what i got on the scene as immediately after the fact as i could get from LA to Kerman. That's about all i can note at this time. It is nice to see that there continues to be follow-up. I had no small amount of difficulty getting some of the information at the time and felt confident that there were many details that simply were not available to me at that time. Steve
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