Warren Oates was an actor who reportedly observed a UFO in the wilderness about twenty miles northeast of Palm Springs, California, on January 1, 1975. The object was also seen by musician Lee Clayton, Robert Mitchum's daughter Trina, writer Judy Jones and actor Ted Markland. Just before sunrise, the five friends saw the object traveling in a semi-circle across the cloudless, starlit night. They described it as an oval, metallic object flashing yellow, green and white lights. In the middle was one large orange light. Clayton, a former Navy jet pilot, watched the UFO through binoculars. He could distinguish a bell shape on top. He estimated the object to be at a distance of three to five miles away and at an altitude of 2,000 feet or less. The UFO stopped and hovered momentarily before moving off behind the mountains. Markland, a resident of the area, claims to have seen numerous UFOs on previous occasions. They are fairly consistent in appearance, he claims, appearing as colored pulsating lights that move swiftly and erratically across the sky.

 

Source: The UFO Encyclopedia by Margareth Sachs - 1980