Exeter — the East Coast Roswell[New Hampshire]

Seacoastonline ^ | 19 Dec 2008 | Dean Merchant

[BGHater]

Why have so many people come forward with stories in this small New Hampshire town? Part one of a story on glowing orbs, UFOs and other unexplained phenomena in Exeter.

"It was duskish. I saw a ball of bright white light with golden-yellowish edges about 20 feet above my head," recalled Andrew Ulery of his encounter with a glowing orb on Park Street, when he was a freshman in high school. "It was following me for about a full minute, until I reached the bridge that crosses the railroad." (Visitors to Exeter have reported observing a pyramid of lights above this section of the railroad tracks.)

Ulery, the black-bearded manager of the Loaf and Ladle, who is seldom separated from a sporty cap, said the "ball of lightning" was about the size of a basketball and he remembered "being glad I didn't scuff my feet — that lightning thing."

As Ulery reached the bridge, the object "just took off" and he recalled a "surreal feeling" and being mesmerized by it.

OTHER BALLS OF LIGHT

A ball of bright light hung suspended in the air just outside the window of a Phillips Exeter Academy house/dormitory. Two young mothers — spouses of academy instructors, each with little children at the time — watched in surprise as the glowing object, about the size of a soccer ball, traveled down Tan Lane, over the rooftop of an academy building and disappeared from sight.

According to one of the women, a former teacher who has requested anonymity, the event was in the late 1960s around the time when there was much talk of probes being sent out from UFOs.

Another Exeter academician, one of the town's "super moms" and a member of the Exonian family, related an incident dating to when she resided on Tan Lane. Her children and their friends, who "were always outside playing and traveled about in a pack everywhere together," burst through the door "agoggle." They breathlessly spewed out a description of a UFO they saw descend onto the academy grounds. "I was non-judgemental as I listened," she said, recalling that one of her sons, now 28, was 9 years old at the time.

Peter Geremia of Rye, UFO researcher and MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) director emeritus, said while such ball of light reports are not common, they do occur. He cited two examples, one of a man driving south on Route 93 from Concord, who was followed by a ball of light that moved in front of his windshield for two or three seconds before it disappeared.

The other incident, this in Eliot, Maine, involved a couple who watched a ball of light descend onto their property boundary and with precision follow along two legs of their four-acre property line before disappearing, leaving them with no recall of its departure.

It is not uncommon, according to Geremia, for people to report seeing such an apparition and have no recollection as to how it left. "They just do not know," he said.

DANCING LIGHTS — MYSTERIOUS FLASHES

The aforementioned retired school teacher also recalled a three-night period when mysterious lights appeared in the evening sky above the PEA football stadium. She said each night a number of Exonians, herself included, sojourned across the fields to observe the "dancing lights."

Mysterious flashes in Exeter's night skies are part of the area phenomena. UFO Roundup's Internet site, in 1997, recorded two reports of a mysterious blindingly bright blue flash that lighted the sky over the town. Both sightings were in the same vicinity, one seen in November, the other in December. The cases were investigated by MUFON NH, according to Geremia.

UFOS

In addition to the glowing orb, Andrew Ulery has also seen two UFO crafts. One was a large triangular UFO, which came over the ancient chestnut trees at the head of the PEA pathway and traveled over his head at the High Street/Portsmouth Avenue intersection. The craft "came low and slow" and "veered" toward the former Globe store where it disappeared from sight. People in other cars saw it too, he said.

Ulery's other sighting was with his dad, on Route 150 near Great Meadows, not far from where the original 1965 "incident" occurred. He described this craft as cigar-shaped.

A cigar-shaped UFO was also sighted in Exeter in July 2005, by a man referred to only as "David" by Exeter News-Letter's Adam Dolge. According to Dolge's account, "David" was a retired Navy chief petty officer, a former flight engineer with more than 10,000 hours of flight experience. At about 3 p.m. on July 20, David went out to mow his lawn and there in the sky was a silver cigar-shaped object, roughly the size of two aircraft carriers. David watched as the UFO changed color to an orange-red, before stretching to twice its original size and disappearing.

A woman from East Kingston told the Exeter News-Letter she saw the same object on July 25. She said it was pill-shaped with dark spots and was in the air for about 30 seconds before mimicking the expansion mode observed by David and disappearing.

According to Kathy Marden, alien abduction researcher and co-author of "Captured," the generalized Exeter geographical quadrant is an historically active area for UFO sightings. Marden's aunt, the late Betty Hill, believed there was a UFO window in this vicinity.

Marden said her aunt sighted UFOs on nearby Sanborn Hill and Giles Road in East Kingston. She said there have been many sightings in Brentwood and toward the Fremont town line. A couple also sighted a UFO off Court Street in Exeter, not far from PEA, she said.

During the 1970s, Exeter experienced its second UFO "flap," jargon for a period of UFO sightings. It was within this time frame that the Exeter teacher left downtown Exeter one evening and headed along the Newmarket Road toward home. Following the Squamscott River, she had almost reached the narrow railroad trestle bridge near the town forest when between the trestle and the river loomed a large UFO, about the distance of two football fields away. She described it as "very big and very bright with a round bottom," and said it was "both exciting and scary." She rushed home and retrieved her husband, but when they returned to the location the craft was gone.

POLITICIANS AND UFOS

During the presidential primary season Congressman Dennis Kucinich stopped for a nosh at the Blue Moon Market and Green Earth Café, related manager Meadow Ulery. Kucinich, who personally experienced a close encounter, is well aware of Exeter's fame as a UFO window.

In her newest book, Shirley MacLaine described Kucinich's encounter (which occurred at her home) with a "gigantic triangular craft, silent, and observing him." She wrote that Kucinich found the experience "extremely moving" and that "he felt a connection in his heart and heard directions in his mind."

The late Tim Russert questioned Kucinich about his UFO sighting. Kucinich confirmed the account and flipped back, —¦I'm also going to move my campaign office to Roswell, N.M., and another one in Exeter, N.H."

At a town meeting in Exeter's old Town Hall, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani fielded a question from a young boy, who asked, "If something's living on another planet and it's bad and it comes over here, what would you do?" Giuliani responded, "Of all the things that can happen in this world, we'll be prepared for that, yes we will. We'll be prepared for anything that happens."

AN EXETER UFO WINDOW?

It's raining. Andrew Ulery, who said he was a friend of the late Norman Muscarello, the catalyst of "The Incident at Exeter," opens his new umbrella ...; new to Ulery since Barack Obama left it during a snow storm on a visit to the Loaf and Ladle. Ulery steps out into the misty night. A short walk down street sits the old Town Hall where Giuliani strode upon the hardwood floor proclaiming if they come, we will be ready. Beneath him is the space formerly occupied by the Exeter Police Department, where four decades ago Officer Reginald "Scratch" Toland lighted a cigarette for a distraught Muscarello, who was excitedly telling him they had already arrived.

Coming Friday, Dec. 26: A UFO window in Exeter? The mysterious Exeter geographic quadrant.

Andrew Ulery, manager of the Loaf and Ladle, saw a glowing orb following him on Park Street, not far from Tan Lane, when he was a freshman in high school. “It was duskish. I saw a ball of bright white light with golden-yellowish edges about 20 feet above my head,” he recalled. “It was following me for about a full minute, until I reached the bridge that crosses the railroad.” Here he points to the area with an umbrella that Barack Obama left during a snow storm on a visit to the Loaf and Ladle.

Carol Adams painting Two football fields away, a UFO descends near a teacher driving down Route 85.

[Quix]

THANKS MUCH.