The Portage County Ohio UFO Chase & Police Encounter in 1966

In the spring of 1966, several police officers in Portage County, Ohio, pursued an unidentified flying object for half an hour before watching it disappear into the night sky. The media brought the story to public attention, and popular interest compelled the Air Force to conduct an investigation.

The Air Force's conclusion that the officers had misidentified ordinary occurrences opened the witnesses up to a torrent of ridicule. Some of the witnesses, already emotionally disturbed by what they'd seen, were so harshly scrutinized that they quit the force to escape the public eye.

As well as being an intriguing case in its own right, the Portage County chase compels us to consider the human toll of ridiculing UFO witnesses and to question the morality of the Air Force's debunking agenda.