The Val Johnson Incident refers to an alleged encounter by
Marshall County,
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
Deputy
Sheriff
A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...
Val Johnson with a
UFO
An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...
in 1979.
Incident
Johnson reported that while he was on patrol near
Warren, Minnesota
Warren is a city in and the county seat of Marshall County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 1,605 at the 2020 census.
History
Warren was platted in 1879, and named for Charles H. Warren, a railroad official. A post office has bee ...
about 2 AM on August 27, 1979 he saw a beam of light just above the road. According to Johnson, the beam sped towards him, his squad car was engulfed in light, and he heard glass breaking. Johnson said he was unconscious for 39 minutes and when he awoke he realized his wristwatch and the vehicle's clock had stopped for 14 minutes. The windshield was shattered, a headlight and red emergency light was damaged and a thin radio aerial bent. Deputies responding to Johnson's call for help found the squad car sideways on the road. Johnson suffered bruises and eye irritation that a physician compared to "welder's burns".
When the story received national publicity, Johnson told reporters the sudden attention had caused him and his family a great deal of emotional strain.
On September 11, 1979, Johnson appeared as a guest on
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
's ''
Good Morning America
''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...
'' program.
Responses
Ufologists
This is a list of notable people who are ufologists (UFO researchers).
Argentina
* Juan Posadas, (1912–1981), Trotskyist theorist who blended together Trotskyism and Ufology. Posadas' version of Trotskyism is regarded as its own strai ...
, including
Allan Hendry
Allan Hendry (born 1950) is an American astronomer and ufologist. UFO historian Jerome Clark calls him "one of the most skilled investigators in the history of UFO research." ''page 481'' He was the main investigator for the Center for UFO Studi ...
and
Jerome Clark
Jerome Clark (born November 27, 1946)"Jerome Clark". ''Contemporary Authors Online''. June 12, 2002. Retrieved on April 11, 2012. is an American writer, specializing in unidentified flying objects and other paranormal subjects. He has appeared ...
, consider the incident significant, with Clark claiming that Johnson refused to take a polygraph test because Johnson believed it "would only
erve tosatisfy people's morbid curiosity".
UFO skeptic
Philip Klass argued that the entire event was a
hoax
A hoax is a widely publicized falsehood so fashioned as to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the greatest number of people of the most varied social identities and of the highest possible social pretensions to gull its victims into pu ...
, and that Johnson had deliberately damaged his own patrol car.
See also
*
List of UFO sightings
This is a partial list by date of sightings of alleged unidentified flying objects (UFOs), including reports of close encounters and alien abductions.
Second millennium BCE
Classical antiquity
8th century
16th–17th centuries
19th c ...
References
External links
Val Johnson Incident - UFO CasebookWhatever happened to the Marshall County cop who hit a UFO?(includes images)
The Strange And Intriguing Val Johnson Case(includes vehicle images)
Intersection of Marshall County Highway 5 and Minnesota State Highway 220''(street view at the intersection)''Approximate location of the Val Johnson Incident''(street view)''
{{Coord, 48, 26, 13, N, 97, 06, 27, W, type:landmark_region:US, display=title
UFO sightings in the United States
1979 in Minnesota
August 1979 events in the United States