Robert Dickerson

Robert Dickerson was an American police officer serving with the Redmond Police Department in Oregon during the late 1950s. On September 24, 1959, he witnessed a remarkable UFO sighting when he observed a glowing mushroom-shaped object maneuvering side-to-side in the night sky. The object emitted green, yellow, crimson, and blue lights, bright enough to illuminate nearby treetops, and hovered for over an hour. It registered on Federal Aviation Administration radar, prompting the Air Force to deploy six jet interceptors from Portland Air Base. Despite official explanations attributing the sighting to Venus, the radar confirmation and the object's reported erratic behavior challenged this account. Dickerson's credible testimony as a law enforcement officer contributed to one of Oregon's most notable early UFO cases amid Cold War-era skywatching anxieties post-Sputnik.