January 12, 1965 — Lynden, WA
1:00 a.m. Donald E. Flickinger, a Border Patrol agent [later of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms] is driving near Lynden, Washington, when he sees a low-flying object, 30 feet in diameter, that avoids collision with his car at the last moment. He gets out and sees it hovering for one minute, then it flies off at high speed with a sound of rushing air. He learns that nearby Blaine Air Force Station [now closed] is tracking the UFO. [Eberhart] Mrs. Jubert who had the main sighting in Custer is emphatic that Flickinger told her he saw nothing that night. The Donnybrook,ND (Condon Case 8) sighting on August 19, 1966 was also by Flickinger. He would go from having no interest in UFOs to having two sightings and being NICAP’s North Dakota Subcommittee Chairman within a couple years. In that capacity he investigated many sightings in the ND area. He was later involved in Cattle Mutilation cases as an ATF agent.
McDonald’s Phone Notes from Interviewing Flickinger:
Sources:
Brad Sparks, BB Unknowns File, Case #1596, p. 303;
“New Sightings Put AF on Spot,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 1 (March/April 1965): 4;
Frank Edwards, FS Serious Business, Bantam ed., 1966, pp. 54–55;
Jacques Vallée, Passport to Magonia: A Century of Landings, p.304, case #630;
Richard Hall, The UFO Evidence (Volume II): A Thirty Year Report, p. 170;
James McDonald Archive, 4CUSTER;
NICAP, “Driver Avoids Collision with 30ʹ Object”;
“12 Jan 1965 - Blaine AFB, Washington, USA”