Southeastern Oregon crash claim (1979)
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Contents 7
Southeastern Oregon crash claim (1979)
| Date | 27 June 1979 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Crashes & retrievals (topic), Beings & bodies (topic), Secrecy & cover-up (topic) |
| People | Leonard Stringfield |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 89 |
| Year | 1979 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1979 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 7 |
The southeastern Oregon crash claim is an anonymous account from the files of the crash-retrieval researcher Leonard Stringfield. It describes the recovery of a disc-shaped craft from a forest in southeastern Oregon, near the Idaho border, on 27 June 1979.[1][7] The informant, a Marine according to the engineer Robert M. Wood, said he arrived to find the object already lifted from deep ruts and loaded on a tarpaulin-covered semi-trailer. He then helped load crates onto helicopters.[1][7] He also said he was abruptly transferred afterwards, and that years earlier he had seen alien "artifacts" and bodies at a base in Nevada.[7] The informant has never been named, and no record supporting the story has been published.
The account
- The site. According to Michael Shellenberger's 2024 summary for Congress, the crash happened in a forested area of southeastern Oregon near the Idaho border, close to a hunters' campsite, on 27 June 1979.[7]
- The craft. The informant's job was to load crates onto helicopters.[7]
- Afterwards. After the site was cleaned up and evacuated, the informant said he was "abruptly" transferred to embassy duty in Central America for several months.[7]
- An earlier claim. He also said that over a Thanksgiving weekend in 1973 or 1974 he had seen UFO "artifacts" and bodies at "Grafford AFB" in Nevada. He said he was then abruptly sent to the Guantánamo base in Cuba for several months.[7] No Air Force base of that name is identified in the sources read here.
Wood's summary
- Correlating the reports. At the second annual UFO Crash Retrieval Conference in November 2004, Robert Wood presented "Correlating Leonard Stringfield's Crash-Retrieval Reports". He reviewed about 80 reports from Stringfield's status reports.[1]
- Report 68. Wood listed the Oregon case as Report 68 and chose it as one of "three unusual cases with craft".[1] His slide summarised it as: "Oregon, 1979. Source known to Molon was Marine in C/R incident, deep ruts, object placed in large flat semi with tarp. Source helped load crates onto helicopter."[1]
- Why it interested Wood. Wood said the case was "neat because I know Bruno Molon, the source". The witness had been a member of the recovery team, and Wood thought an interview with him could help confirm "the recovery procedures of that era".[1]
- The earlier version. The earlier version of this article described the source as "known to another researcher". Wood's paper names that researcher as Bruno Molon.[1]
Stringfield's collection
- Status reports. Stringfield (1920–1994) self-published a series of "Status Reports" on alleged crash retrievals, from his 1978 MUFON paper "Retrievals of the Third Kind" until shortly before his death in December 1994.[1][2] Most of his informants were anonymous.[3][4]
- Hearsay. Stringfield acknowledged that cases "without names to back up the informant's testimony can be construed as hearsay". He asked readers to rely on his credibility.[4] See Sgt. M.S. and the Wright-Patterson general.
- Citation. Shellenberger cites the account to "Retrievals of the Third Kind", p. 369.[7] That paper was presented in July 1978, a year before the claimed crash, so the account must come from a later Stringfield report.[3][4][7]
Assessment
- Unverified. The witness is unnamed and no exact site has been published. Neither the crash nor the transfers are documented in the sources read here.[1][7]
- Checkable in principle. Wood argued that cases with named intermediaries, like this one, could still be checked by interviewing them. No such follow-up is reported in the sources read here.[1]
People and topics
- Leonard Stringfield — Former Air Force intelligence officer and NICAP researcher who collected anonymous crash-retrieval accounts from 1978 to 1994.
On the Timeline
- Victor Marchetti's Second Look article (May 1979) — Former CIA official Victor Marchetti writes that the government is hiding alien contact.
- Del Rio crash claim (13 August 1979) — A retired airman says he learned of a 1950 crash near Del Rio, Texas.
See every 1979 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Robert M. Wood, "Correlating Leonard Stringfield's crash-retrieval reports", 2nd Annual UFO Crash Retrieval Conference Proceedings (Nov 2004), Internet Archive (PDF) · archive.org · archived copy
- Leonard H. Stringfield — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Stringfield's 1978 report — Patrick Gross · ufology.patrickgross.org · archived copy
- Leonard Stringfield's status report at the 1978 MUFON symposium — Podcast UFO · podcastufo.com · archived copy
- Retrobituaries: Leonard Stringfield — Mental Floss · mentalfloss.com · archived copy
- UFO Crash Retrievals: Status Report I — Goodreads · goodreads.com · archived copy
- Michael Shellenberger, written testimony to the House Oversight Committee (13 November 2024), p. 89 · oversight.house.gov
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia article “Leonard H. Stringfield”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
Categories: 1979 | Beings bodies | Crashes retrievals | Leonard stringfield | Secrecy cover-up | Timeline event
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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