Sgt. Russell Yokum recorded the sound of a UFO hovering over the Columbia River, St Helens, OR, 1981

It was misty and very cold in the early morning hours of March 17, 1981, as Sergeant Russell Yokum of the Saint Helens, Oregon, Police Department drove on patrol on Highway 30 west of the Columbia River. Saint Helens is a small mill town about 20 miles northwest of Portland.

At 4:03 a.m., Yokum's attention was drawn to a bright light that was moving upriver, easterly, toward the Portland Airport 20 miles away.
Aircraft passed over here regularly on their way to the airport. But this light was extraordinarily bright, lighting up the river like daylight. Yokum was immediately convinced that the light was not from an aircraft. He radioed headquarters, and drove on to Saint Helens to look at the light from the county courthouse on the banks of the Columbia River, which afforded a clear view.

Other law enforcement officers, Ricky Cade and Tom McCartney of the
Oregon State Police, and a few citizens, met Yokum at the county
courthouse. By this time, Yokum was in radio contact with Donald Askins,
who bore the CB handle "Lucky 13." Askins, who was located in a house
across the river in Washington state in Ridgefield, southeast of Saint
Helens, had picked up the police radio traffic. He said that he, too,
had seen the light, and was seeing it now. The light was stationary over
the river turning the whole area into daylight.

There was initial confusion as the officers in Saint Helens described
the light to Askins. They claimed it was bobbing up and down. Askins
insisted that the light he saw was stationary. Later, it was proved that
the light the officers saw during the first moments of the sighting from
the courthouse was a manmade light on Sauvie Island across the river.
Fog, variable that night, had created the bobbing effect. Finally,
understanding their confusion, the officers turned and looked to the
south. There was the light Askins was watching! It was low and standing
out starkly over the river where there were few, and only then, faint
lights.

Askins had heard the light emitting an eerie, extremely loud sound, and
the officers set up a portable tape recorder 18 inches from their police
radio to record their conversation and the sound, should it recur.
Askins volunteered to dangle his CB microphone out of the window of the
rented house he was in so that he could transmit the sound to the
officers. The police drove to a nearby high bluff that gave them an
excellent view. The ensuing 30 minutes, recorded on tape, and presented
to the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) for analysis,
presents a fascinating, real-life drama of puzzled human beings
attempting to understand the unknown. The tape does not indicate who was speaking, but the excitement is palpable.
~by Greg Long (https://www.sacred-texts.com/ufo/columbia.htm)

THUMBNAIL: photo of sergeant Russell "Rusty" Yokum holding the tape recorder he used to catch sounds made by the hovering UFO.
----------
Follow EOC, linktree:
https://linktr.ee/eyesoncinema

If you appreciate the content on my channel and would like to support me, please visit:
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/eyesoncineW
Thanks, EOC