Dozens Report UFO Over Texas Town

Many, Including Pilot, Constable Describe Similar Huge Craft Flying Low Over Stephenville

(AP)  In this farming community where nightfall usually brings clear, starry skies, residents are abuzz over reported sightings of what many believe is a UFO.

Several dozen people - including a pilot, county constable and business owners - insist they have seen a large silent object with bright lights flying low and fast. Some reported seeing fighter jets chasing it.

"People wonder what in the world it is because this is the Bible Belt, and everyone is afraid it's the end of times," said Steve Allen, a freight company owner and pilot who said the object he saw last week was a mile long and half a mile wide. "It was positively, absolutely nothing from these parts."

While federal officials insist there's a logical explanation, locals swear that it was larger, quieter, faster and lower to the ground than an airplane. They also said the object's lights changed configuration, unlike those of a plane. People in several towns who reported seeing it over several weeks have offered similar descriptions of the object.

Machinist Ricky Sorrells said friends made fun of him when he told them he saw a flat, metallic object hovering about 300 feet over a pasture behind his Dublin home. But he decided to come forward after reading similar accounts in the Stephenville Empire-Tribune.

"You hear about big bass or big buck in the area, but this is a different deal," Sorrells said. "It feels good to hear that other people saw something, because that means I'm not crazy."

Sorrells said he's seen the object several times. He said he watched it through his rifle's telescopic lens and described it as very large and without seams, nuts or bolts.

Maj. Karl Lewis, a spokesman for the 301st Fighter Wing at the Joint Reserve Base Naval Air Station in Fort Worth, said no F-16s or other aircraft from his base were in the area the night of Jan. 8, when many sightings were reported.

Lewis said the object may have been an illusion caused by two commercial airplanes. Lights from the aircraft would seem unusually bright and may appear orange due to the setting sun.

"I'm 90 percent sure this was an airliner," Lewis said. "With the sun's angle, it can play tricks on you."

Officials at the region's two Air Force bases - Dyess in Abilene and Sheppard in Wichita Falls - also said none of their aircraft were in the area last week. The Air Force no longer investigates UFOs.

About 200 UFO sightings are reported each month, mostly in California, Colorado and Texas, according to the Mutual UFO Network, which plans to go to the 17,000-resident town of Stephenville to investigate.

Fourteen percent of Americans polled last year by The Associated Press and Ipsos say they have seen a UFO.

UFO sightings have been reported all over the world for centuries, including the infamous 1897 crash of a cigar-shaped object near the tiny Texas town of Aurora. While some thought it was a hoax, decades later investigators from UFO groups said evidence suggests the disfigured pilot's body buried that day was an alien.

In Chicago in late 2006, some United Airlines pilots and other employees reported seeing a saucer-shaped craft hovering over O'Hare Airport before shooting up through the clouds. But federal officials said nothing showed up on the radar and explained it as some type of weather phenomenon.

In 1997, dozens of people saw lights in a V-formation over Phoenix, a mystery that was captured on videotape and spurred calls for a government investigation. A few months later people reported a similar sight over Las Vegas.

One of the most famous cases was the 1947 crash on a ranch near Roswell, N.M. Although the government said it was a top-secret weather balloon, an Army officer who helped recover the debris came forward 30 years later claiming a cover-up, asserting that an alien spacecraft had crashed. Reports later surfaced that a base nurse told someone that autopsies were performed on aliens from the wreckage.

A few months after the New Mexico incident the U.S. Air Force started Project Blue Book, which investigated more than 12,600 reported UFO sightings - including 700 that were never explained - before the program ended in 1969.

Erath County Constable Lee Roy Gaitan, who said he isn't sure about the existence of UFOs, said one night last week he first saw red glowing lights and then white flashing lights moving rapidly across the sky.

"I didn't see a flying saucer and I don't know what it was, but it wasn't an airplane and I've never seen anything like it," Gaitan said. "I think it must be some kind of military craft - at least I hope it was."

[chrissmith89]

There was several dozen people who saw this thing. Unless all these people are a) related, b) been inflicted by some biological/chemical agent, or c) if all these people are connected and there is a conspiracy within this group of people, it is nothing but ignorant at this point to claim these people are ''insane'' at this time. Any statements made at this point to denounce these peoples sanity is uneducated and has no supporting facts behind it all.

I''ll believe it when I see it but, but I think its just as ignorant to ignore/pretend this was not a legitimate event right away.

On a side note - why is it all these visitors seem to go down south at the bible belt? What is with their infatuation with our farmers. If they brought a huge interstellar carrier to abduct another person in the south - it must be George Bush! Rejoice! :-)

[erasmus6]

"If the aliens are bad and want to take over the world, I hope they aren''''t bullet proof." posted by gunownerdan


Ah geez, that would be awful, wouldn''t it? Then you would lose out on the opportunity to kill something with your wittle guns!

Tell me something, are you EVER not thinking about your guns?

[danespaugh]

It is interesting to me that the fellow in Texas who reports seeing the hugh ufo "several" times has never thought of having a camera or video recorder of good quality on hand with him for the purpose of adding something which would make his claims more supportive in the way of evidence. And none of the others had any quality cameras or vedio equipment with in reach either. We have only been talking of a cover up for 60 years now. Just wondering !

[chatterbully]

If one were to ask a visitor from ''space'' why he, she or it were here they might agree that Earth is a good place to obtain fresh water and buy CD''s.

[danielrrdsp]

I can''t help thinking that when Elijah was transported to heaven in 2 Kings 2:11 it speaks about a chariot of fire and horses of fire and Elijah went up in a whirlwind into heaven, could it have been a UFO for those that witnessed this???? At this point, I believe there are others in the universe. Even out scientist are making instruments in hopes we can communicate with others. Its seems odd that our government would spend money in this fashion if they didn''t think there was someone out there. I do believe there was a UFO that crashed in Roswell in 1947 and I do belief the hanger at Wright Patterson air force base in Ohio has the remains and the government would like to communicate with their creation. From the reports we are seeing now, I am convienced more than ever that we are not along in the universe. It is also a fact that our neighbors are far superior in their technology from the reports we are receiving from those who witness these UFO''s. They move at great speeds and make no sound. It does amaze me.....

[danielrrdsp]

Although I personally have not seen any UFO''s, my mother who is now 82 years old still talks about the round saucer shaped object that landed in their barnyard when she was a pre-teen in central Kenturcy. She still talks about the perfect ring where it landed and burned the ground. My brother, also a farmer living in Southern Ohio reported sightings when he arise early in the morning to start milking his cows. On more than one occasion he said he had seen them hovering over his pasture. He told how frightened he was at his first sighting when it came over the hill and crossed his pond.

[ufoman11]

After having witnessed 23 separate UFO sightings since 1974, I''ve had to change my entire view on the world and the universe at large! And I''ve learned to keep an open mind on what other people report to me when they see something unexplainable for the first time. Lord knows I''ve second-guessed myself many times after my tenth sighting or so...but no more. I''m not a believer in UFOs because I''m not basing this on a belief system or faith. I have SEEN them, therefore I''m a knower! There is a difference, you know!? :)

Something is going on...and it''s not some type of USAF experiment or the military on maneuvers!!! We are dealing with something that is truly unknown...and possibly the greatest story since the beginning of Mankind!

And a well-kept secret behind the walls of the military industrial complex.

Stop living inside the box, folks...and start thinking outside of it!

If you have any doubts or questions about UFOs, check out my website: www.noufors.com

Michel
Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

[kitdalton]

Marfa, TX. Seen Elvis in a UFO west of Marfa once while hunting White Tail Bass, Big Foot was riding shotgun.

[rickdallas1]

Good Grief Charlie Brown!

All this comotion about a UFO in Texas. I finally sent an email to the paper there. It was nothing more than the blimp headed over to the Dallas Ft Worth metroplex to cover the Dallas Cowboy New York Giants Playoff game.

People in that remote part of the state had never seen anything like that come through at night. Moves slowly so it looks like it is hovering. Has bookoo lights for traveling and then others for advertising.

One guy had his high powered Remington trained on it. I am sure the two pilots were glad that cowboy didn''t pull the trigger...

[promixr-2009]

Breaking an expensive watch, putting the pieces in a bag and shaking it is not the same as ''chaos.'' It''s actually a series of pointless, but deliberate events, and a valid experiment that can be observed, duplicated and studied. Just like evolution can be observed, verified and studied. You can''t observe or study God, The Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, or UFO''s. At least not at this point in human history. Secretly I do hope science one day finds a way to intrinsically verify the existence of god, or UFO''s. But the life around us is interesting enough on it''s own merits, why do we feel the need to seek additional meaning from supernatural sources? Why can''t we love and respect the wold we can measure, experience and verify?