by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

In August 1979, a case out of Minnesota that was chock full of trace evidence, including physical effects displayed by the witness in the aftermath, was investigated by Allen Hendry for the Center for UFO Studies. The incident and the related activity are described two days afterwards in the August 29, 1979, edition of the local Warren, Minnesota, Sheaf.

According to the article (page 8 of the pdf) headlined “Deputy Johnson Stunned by UFO Monday Morning,” Marshall County Deputy Sheriff Val Johnson was in his patrol car about 11 miles west of Stephen, Minnesota, headed south on TH 220 just before 1:30 am when he saw a bright light about a mile away, hovering over the road. Thinking it might be an aircraft in distress, he sped up.

As he did so, the light came towards him, and as it filled the interior of the car, he heard the sound of glass breaking. He lost consciousness and remembered nothing of about 40 minutes after that. The Warren Sheriff’s office received a 1088 (officer in distress) from Johnson at 2:19 am, and he is described as having sounded rational but disoriented. When he was asked about his situation he said, “Something just hit my car – strange. Something attacked my car – brakes locked up. I don’t know what is going on.” He was asked if he needed an ambulance and replied, “I don’t think so. I don’t think I’m leaking blood. My eyes hurt.”

Stephen Deputy Greg Winslow was dispatched and got to the scene at around 2:30 am. Johnson was brought by a Stephen ambulance to Warren and was also checked out at Grand Forks. His eyes were burned, and doctors described the condition as being similar to burns suffered by welders, which is known medically as actinic conjunctivitis.

Evidence that something had collided with the car consisted of a broken headlight (which one is not identified) with no damage to the frame around it, a dent and cracks in the windshield, damage to the red light on the roof, and two antennas bent at almost right angles. One of the more intriguing aspects of the case is that both the clock in the car and Johnson’s watch had stopped for 14 minutes.

An investigation of the scene showed that from the location where glass from the headlight was found, Johnson had travelled 854 feet before applying the brakes. Tire marks after that went for 99 feet to where the car came to a stop perpendicular to the road with the front wheels on the east shoulder.

Hendry is described as “a UFO expert from Chicago,” and the chief investigator for CUFOS, and CUFOS is described as “a private organization which took over from the Air Force after they abandoned investigating UFO incidents in 1969.” Hendry said that this was as credible a case as he had seen and estimated that he investigated three such incidents a year throughout the U.S.

CUFOS was obviously impressed with the case as the September/October 1979 issue of its publication, the International UFO Reporter, is almost entirely devoted to it. Banner-style, diagonally across the bottom of a picture of Johnson’s patrol car is this notice:

STOP THE PRESSES! IUR presents a special double issue deliberately delayed in order to provide you with the details of the dramatic Deputy Johnson case in Minnesota!

The coverage of case starts off the section headed “U.S. Sightings” on page 4 and continues to the end of page 9, after which there are eight cases, most having less than a full column devoted to them. What is noteworthy is that the coverage is straight-forward, just-the-facts style reporting, with very little speculation and no sensationalism.

Johnson and his credibility are examined in the section “Val Johnson: A Personal Profile,” which takes up the left side of page 4. It is explained that “everything we have learned about Val Johnson bespeaks a man of professional integrity and fastidious professionalism.” He is described as a 35-year-old married father of three who had been a member of the department for two-and-a-half years and a deputy sheriff for over a year after working as a tool and die maker.

The sheriff, Dennis Brekke, is quoted regarding Johnson’s credibility: “What he’s seen, he’s seen. None of us are trained to explain things we’re not used to seeing.” He is said to have described Johnson to Hendry as “highly intelligent,” not a drug user, and “nobody’s alcoholic.” Chief Deputy Everett Doolittle is said to have “echoed these sentiments” and to have added that Johnson was “almost ‘annoyingly’ fussy about his time and log keeping.” Brekke added, “I know Val, and if he said it happened, it happened.”

The rest of the article goes into great detail regarding the investigation by Hendry and the Sheriiff’s department that led to the conclusions presented in the Sheaf article. Six points of damage are listed as follows:

• One headlight was “smashed to pieces.”
• These was a small circular dent in the upper part of the hood.
• The windshield in front of the steering wheel was smashed.
• The red plastic filter of the police light on the roof was punctured and dislodged from its housing.
• The whip antenna on the roof was bent back at the base.
• The whip antenna on the trunk was bent back at 90º near the top.

Under the heading “Plane Near-Collision,” a newspaper editor is said to have come up with “the most popular theory,” which was that the damage to the car was caused by debris being kicked up by the prop wash of a plane and that the antennas were bent by the propellor hitting them.

While it is acknowledged there are over a dozen crop-dusting companies listed in the yellow pages for the area, and that drug smugglers have flown planes in the area at night, it is argued that the crop dusters don’t operate at night, and that a propellor hitting the front antenna would have likely sheared it and taken out the police light just in front of it as well. Presented as further arguments against the plane theory are: the lack of noise and the acceleration of the UFO described by Johnson; his eye burns; and the time discrepancy of his watch and the car clock.