50 60 24 - On (or about) This Day in De History
De, Carolyn, and their friend saw a UFO while driving across Louisiana.
Below is De calling into the radio show "The Open Mind with Bill Jenkins" to discuss the incident. I couldn't find the newspaper De is talking about, but below are some other newspapers reporting on the incident. (Transcript of De's call below).
Bill Jenkins: Mr. DeForest Kelley, one of our fine, fine actors and a very integral part of one of my favorite shows, Star Trek. DeForest, welcome to Open Mind.
De: Well, thank you, Bill. I heard you talking tonight about the UFOs and I listened to you for so many nights and I thought, well, it's about time that I'm calling Bill Jenkins and telling him something about an experience that I had some time ago. An experience that I don't often tell I didn't tell for many years and then when I became a part of Star Trek I just thought it off completely. But having heard and read about the San Francisco incident the other day, I thought, well, it's about time that I call Bill Jenkins and just let everybody on the radio hear it, too.
Bill: Well, thank you DeForest. I appreciate that very much.
De: But I want to tell you how much I enjoy your show. That's the main reason that I go on and it's always an entertaining show and one that is certainly enlightening in many areas.
Bill: Well, if you, if I've entertained you just one 100th as much as you've entertained me, then I've done a grand job.
De: Well, thank you. And I hope you're going to enjoy the one we just wrapped up. I think
De: You're going to love it. As a matter of fact, we wound the show up in San Francisco. We -the show wrapped in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago.
Bill: Oh, fantastic. I can't wait.
De: You're going to love it. I'm sure I want to tell you when you were talking about the year 1950. Now, this is really going back sometime. My wife and I and a friend of ours who at that time was a businessman and executive for with the Time Seaboard Finance Company. We were driving to New York and we were in the swamplands of Louisiana and it was late in the afternoon, possibly around 4:30. This was in the latter part of June, 1950. And we had been switching off driving and I was in the back seat at the time and it was just twilight time.
And about 600 ft above us the old story: a long cigar-shaped object whipped past us in front of us. And had an identification light, a red identification light on the end of it that was flickering and laid down a jet stream. This was in 1950.
And of course, I couldn't believe what I saw. I thought, well, you know, it's crazy. And we, my wife and my friend saw it, too. But I was in the position in the back seat and I really had a good look at this thing. And off the sides of it were whipping like blue flames kind of rolling off of the side of it. But it went into the distance at a very rapid rate it was, you know, I had to look real quick, but I saw this red light flicking off and on, on the tail end of this thing.
So we drove into Montgomery, Alabama. I said, “My god, nobody's ever going to believe this.” And when we got into Montgomery, Alabama, outside of a restaurant, went in to eat. There was a headline, the paper that said mysterious object sighted over Southland. I've regretted to this day that I didn't buy that paper and keep it. But I just wondered if anyone on your show over the years during that period of time, that time frame had any reportings that you can recall or remember?
Bill: Well, we've had obviously we've talked about many of them. But I don't in my mind I can't put one down to that, that time frame. But let's throw it out on the table and see if anyone remembers that.
Bill: And even more so, maybe someone has a copy of that paper. There are a lot of UFO buffs, if we can put it that way, that are in Southern California.
De: Well, that's an interesting thought.
Bill: I really do appreciate you sharing that with us. I bet you that there are a lot of people. Have you got some time just to stay on the line and spend some time with us here?
Bill: and say hello to George Green who is deeply involved. There's not the George Green who is our manager here but, and our leader.
Bill: Our own captain Kirk. This is George Green who is deeply and extensively involved in UFO research in a very serious manner. Say hello to DeForest Kelley there, George.
George: DeForest, I got a question. You said that there was some kind of vapor or something coming off the craft.
De: No, there were it was like a- blue flames like were whipping off of the side of it. It appeared to be uh,
George: You mean like at a high speed and increased temperature?
De: Yeah. It laid down a like a vapor stream. When we- after it passed, there was just a like a low vapor stream.
George: How- what was the elevation of the curve?
De: The elevation of it apparently it looked to me like it was around 7, 6 or 700 ft. Very low.
George: And the speed did you estimate that?
De: Oh god. I just- it just whipped by. But I-
George: You mean from the back of the car to the front of the car? Is that what you're talking about?
De: Now, see, it passed in front of the car. It was as we were going down the highway and it was like oh, probably three or 400 yards in front and it just crossed, you know, in front of the car.
Bill: Warp three. Warp three, Mr. Sulu.
Bill: Also, we have with us Jason Rand who has had an experience himself at about that time period.
Jason: Again, excuse me. My voice is really bad. Listen-
Bill: I don't want to hear about your voice.
Jason: Listen, you're great. You guys have done more to enlighten and enrich the not only the imagination of the world, but I think maybe that what your crew has done is probably very honorable for those of us who really take this thing seriously. And I understand that Bill Shatner had a very important experience. Did you ever hear about that from Bill?
De: I know that he has. I have never heard him relate it. But I've been told that Bill has and for some odd reason I've never discussed it with him.
Jason: I think you I think you might want to talk to him. From what I understand-
De: Maybe he's like me. He's afraid for many years I didn't tell this story.
Bill: Well, you guys have been busy fighting Klingons.
De: That’s taken care of now. We're moving on to other things.
Jason: There you go. Can I ask you a couple questions about your experience?
Jason: Immediately prior to that, could you or would you remember whether or not you might have had any kind of telepathic contact a week, a month, a year before bringing you to that particular point? I'm doing research on my new book and I have found a very strong connection between what we call precognitive awareness of things that are heard and seen within the mind and then usually within a month to 6 months or maybe a year that person who either has what we call dream state implant reality suddenly in fact sees a manifestation of the things that we call UFOs or or extraterrestrial vehicles.
Bill: That was another movie.
Jason: Yeah. Right. Do you remember having any kind of conscious awareness or dream state awareness before, during, or after that experience?
De: No, no, I really don't. It was a point in my career where I was moving on to New York and I had it's a long time ago. It was just an essence of that happened and it was so long ago that I all I- I will never forget that, that sighting or- and seeing I did. I was making a personal appearance in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania or in in the 70s when I first related this story and the end of the session I was signing autographs and a gentleman came by with a young boy, his son, And he told me that he was with some somebody with the government and with UFO sightings and that the sighting that I had related to that audience was- had been identified or they had made note of it, that it was down on the books. So evidently I was not the only one that was aware of it.
Bill: That cigar- shaped craft has been reported-
Bill: -as much as the flying saucer actually.
De: So many times, yes. But that's exactly what it was. It was really the old, old thing you've heard many, many times, a cigar- shaped craft. And um I was- I feel privileged to have seen it, but at the same time, it's one of those things you're, you're rather reluctant to talk about, particularly when you're on a show like Star Trek.
(Cut the interview short here due to the time restrictions but De says he’s thought about calling multiple times and always backed off, but Carolyn said to do it to get it off his mind. Bill asks De to stay on the line, asks when Star Trek IV is coming out, and later they talk about the Battle of LA, which will be posted at a later date.)
50 06 24 The Birmingham News
50 60 25 The Daily Advertiser
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