UFO. United States

Redmond Police officer Robert Dickerson saw a strange bright light [white ball­ shaped?] rapidly descending north of the airport then stopped and hovered several hundred [200?] feet above ground for several mins where it lit up the juniper trees below. He drove toward it on the Prineville Hwy then turned toward the airport, when the object turned orange [reddish-orange?] and moved rapidly to [dive and hover?] about 10 miles NE of the airport at about 3,000 ft [height? altitude?  Redmond is at 3,000 ft elevation MSL]. Dickerson arrived at the airport to report sighting in person at 4:59 a.m. at Redmond FAA Air Traffic Communication Station. FAA Flight Service Specialist Laverne Wertz, Dickerson and others viewed object through binoculars. FAA station reported UFO to Seattle Air Route Control Center at 5:10 a.m., which in turn reported it to Hamilton AFB, Calif., which scrambled 6 F-102 jets from Portland [?] to intercept UFO. FAA station observers saw object hover and emit long tongues of red, yellow and green light which extended and retracted at irregular intervals. As F-102’s approached the object from the SE [?] it turned into mushroom shape, emitted red and yellowflames from lower side and ascended rapidly, disappearing above scattered clouds at about 14,000 ft [altitude? height?]. [Object’s departure forced one F-102 to swerve to avoid collision, another nearly lost control from UFO’s turbulent wake; tracked on F-102 airborne radars but jets unable to intercept.] Object reappeared about 20 miles S of Redmond at about 25,000 ft. Seattle Center reported at 6:20 a.m. radar contact with object about 25 miles S of Redmond at 52,000 ft was made by USAF ADC radar site at Klamath Falls, Ore., which tracked a large 300-400 ft[?] target and vectored B-47 and F-89 aircraft to identify. Redmond FAA controllers lost sight of object. Seattle FAA reported at 7:11 a.m. that Klamath Falls radar still tracked object at 25 miles S of Redmond but varying altitude from 6,000 to 52,000 ft.