Military now says planes flying in area of UFO reports (Stephenville "UFO")

At least that's what the military said today, reporting that 10 F-16 fighter jets were training in the Stephenville area the night dozens of residents reported seeing a UFO.

Although Air Force Reserve officials at the Joint Reserve Base Naval Air Station in Fort Worth initially said none of their planes were in the area Jan. 8, they said today that they had made a mistake and wanted to set the record straight "in the interest of public awareness."

Some residents aren't buying it, though, saying the military's revelation actually bolsters their claims because several reported seeing at least two fighter jets chasing an object.

"This supports our story that there was UFO activity in that area," said Kenneth Cherry, the Texas director of the Mutual UFO Network, which took more than 50 reports from locals at a meeting last weekend. "I find it curious that it took them two weeks to 'fess up. I think they're feeling the heat from the publicity."

From well-respected business owners to a county constable, several dozen people swear that what they saw 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.

"I guarantee that what we saw was not a civilian aircraft," Steve Allen, a pilot and freight company owner, said today.

Allen said that the planes' training area in the Brownwood Military Operating Area that includes Stephenville's Erath County does not include the airspace where he saw the object. Also, Jan. 8 was not the only day sightings were reported.

Anne Frazor, who owns a fabric store in Stephenville, about 70 miles southwest of Fort Worth, said many in town have seen military aircraft zoom overhead from time to time as part of training operations. But she said that is different than what she saw Jan. 8.

Since the reported sightings two weeks ago, the 17,000-resident town has had some fun with the international publicity. Some high-schoolers made T-shirts that read "Stephenville: the new Roswell" on the front and "They're here for the milk!" on the back. A picture features flying saucer beaming up a cow.

This week Tarleton State University is even hosting a lecture by a UFO researcher on the U.S. government's secret response to UFOs, based on previously classified documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

The U.S. Air Force says it has not investigated UFO sightings since 1969 when it ended Project Blue Book, which examined more than 12,600 reported UFO sightings — including 700 that were never explained. That program started a few months after the 1947 crash near Roswell, N.M., which the government said it was a top-secret weather balloon but others involved later said was an alien spacecraft.

"What we want is the government to admit there are UFOs and what they know about them," Cherry said.

EXCERPTS FROM LMH’S LINK:

http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1388&category=Environment

STEVE ALLEN, RICKY SORRELLS, LEE ROY GAITAN AND POLICE OFFICERS WHO REMAIN UNNAMED, ALL DESCRIBED HAVING PHONE CALLS THAT WERE BASICALLY INTIMIDATING OR TRYING TO PERSUADE THEM THAT SOMETHING MILITARY AND NATURAL WAS GOING ON AND THEY FELT LIKE PRESSURE WAS BEING PUT ON THEM INDIVIDUALLY.

DO YOU THINK IT’S POSSIBLE THAT SOME AUTHORITY IN OUR GOVERNMENT WAS PUTTING PRESSURE ON THE PUBLISHER OF THE STEPHENVILLE NEWSPAPER?

No, I don’t think that at all. I don’t believe anybody military contacted them. If that had been the case, they would have pulled me aside and said, ‘This is what’s happened.’ Whenever you work in a small workplace that has very few employees, you know the people year round pretty well. If someone has pressured them, I believe they would have told me that. I just believe it was in their judgment that there was enough of the UFO stuff and let’s go on.

YOU TURNED IN YOUR LETTER OF RESIGNATION ON FEBRUARY 1, BECAUSE YOU FELT OVERWHELMED?

I didn’t feel like I could please anybody. I was being pulled in a lot of directions and I didn’t feel they were happy with my performance. So, I thought it might be the best thing at the time would be to end the relationship.

SO, YOU WERE DOING THE RESIGNATION ON YOUR OWN VOLITION?

Yes. Nobody threatened me. Nobody contacted me, like anyone I thought was military asking me to drop the stories. That did not happen.

WHAT DO YOU THINK HAPPENED BETWEEN FEBRUARY 1ST AND 7TH, THE FIRST WEEK OF YOUR 2-WEEK NOTICE OF RESIGNATION, THAT WOULD HAVE PROVOKED THE OWNERS OF THE NEWSPAPER TO BE AGGRESSIVE WITH YOU ON FEBRUARY 7?

I suppose because they saw the number of emails that I was getting and because they felt I was spending too much of their newspaper time on UFO things still.

WHAT IS YOUR PERSPECTIVE?

Well, I honestly tried to honor their wishes. I did not want to give up the investigations on the UFOs. I did not want to abandon those eyewitnesses. I tried to honor the newspaper’s wishes by directing the attention to after-hours and to my home. Apparently that was not the right thing to do in their eyes. I just really think the whole thing is unfortunate.

New Website to Report Mysterious
Phenomena in Dublin and Stephenville Region

WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING TO DO NEXT?

(big laugh) I wish I knew! I’ve already done some freelance things. And now there is the website, www.stephenvillelights.com (Angelia has written the first web article and hopefully will be doing more reporting if the phenomena continues in the region.)

HAVE YOU SEEN ANYTHING HIGHLY UNUSUAL IN THE SKY YOURSELF?

No, I have not. (laughs) I do look up at the sky a lot more now. I am more observant, but the way it has turned the witnesses, just rocked their world, turned their world upside down, I’m not sure I want to see it.

THE VIDEO THAT IMPRESSED ME THE MOST IN TERMS OF AN AERIAL OBJECT WAS THE PROJECTION OF THE SYMBOLS THAT DAVID CARON TOOK NEAR THE STEPHENVILLE AIRPORT.

Yes, I interviewed him and saw that video also.

I WONDERED WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF THE VIDEO FROM YOUR OWN EYES, HAVING INTERVIEWED A LOT OF PEOPLE THERE?

I’ve never seen anything like that. Of course, you have to recognize that I’m new to the UFO world. I was really impressed with that video. It’s really not explainable, I don’t believe. When I talked with David Caron, he even showed me, ‘Here’s how I put the camera up against the pole on my front porch to try to keep it steady.’ He seemed completely amazed by it also.

I watched it all the way through two times. It seemed like the background noise from the traffic – he lives on a fairly busy little road and it’s a paved road. All that background noise seemed constant (on the video) and the talk between him and the man that was there at the time. It was just so unusual to see lights dance around like that in the sky. One of them said, ‘It almost looks like hieroglyphics.’ And I thought it does. I thought it was unusual, too, because the thing does not just like curve – it makes 90-degree angles, 40-degree angles, then it will have curvy spots in it.

WITH ALL THOSE DIFFERENT COLORS, ALMOST STRIPED AND SPECKLED.

Right! And it was so brilliantly colored – very bright, intense colors. I could not decide if this is something moving and it’s streaking like that? Or is this actually what you see? Can you not keep up with it with your naked eye? I don’t know.

IT APPEARS TO BE PROJECTIONS EVERY 15 FRAMES, WHICH IS A HALF SECOND. EVERY HALF A SECOND, EACH OF THOSE HIEROGLYPHS OR SYMBOLS IS CHANGING TO A NEW ONE.

Yes, it is sort of a pulsating effect.

WELL, I’M WITH YOU IN NEVER HAVING SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THAT PARTICULAR PROJECTION BEFORE. I’VE RECEIVED A LOT OF EMAILS SAYING IT COULD BE A JVC CAMERA GONE HAYWIRE.

UNTIL I TALKED WITH LEE ROY GAITAN LAST NIGHT. NOW HIS WIFE HAS TAKEN PHOTOGRAPHS THAT APPEAR TO BE EXACTLY THE SAME THING.

Yes, I’ve seen his pictures and they do look the same.

Sure.

Here’s some more details that I hadn’t read before . . . excerpted from this page at earthfiles.com

http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1377&category=Environment

Longer Than 3 Football Fields

RICKY, HOW HIGH DO YOU THINK THE SURFACE COVERING EVERYTHING ABOVE YOU, HOW HIGH WAS THAT ABOVE YOU?

I believe it to be right at 300 feet. The reason I think this is because I’ve been on grain elevators. When I was growing up, I worked in a grain elevator for my Dad. What we had was a 90-foot elevator. So, I put three of these together in my head from where I was at and that’s how I get the height.

IF IT’S 300 FEET ABOVE YOU AND IT’S TAKING UP ALL OF THE SKY ABOVE YOU, DO YOU HAVE ANY ESTIMATE NOW LOOKING BACK ABOUT HOW BIG THE CRAFT MIGHT HAVE BEEN?

It is huge! I’ve actually been back into the woods and looked. In my mind, I did the football field measurement. I know it was longer than 3 football fields.

WHICH WOULD BE 900 TO 1,000 FEET LONG.

Yes.

THERE WAS AN ESTIMATE BY ANOTH ER EYEWITNESS IN YOUR AREA WHO I BELIEVE SAID THEY WERE ESTIMATING WHAT THEY SAW WAS A MILE BY A HALF MILE.

Yes, ma’am, that’s what I’ve heard.

THAT WOULD BE 5,280 FEET BY HALF THAT.

Yes.

DO YOU THINK IT’S FEASIBLE THAT WHAT WAS ABOVE YOU THE FIRST OF JANUARY OUT IN YOUR WOODS COULD HAVE BEEN A MILE LONG?

With relationship with the other two I seen after this over pretty much the same spot, from my third time I seen it, if it was, it would not surprise me. I have not seen any edges on this thing, on any three sightings. I have basically seen flat surfaces. If it were, it wouldn’t surprise me because in my trees there, I just went from as far as I could see one way to as far as I could see another way and figured it was three hundred yards.

While I was looking at this (craft), it drifted to the right by about 100 feet. And I remember looking to my left to see if I could see the edge of this thing. And I could not see the edge of it. I turned back to my right, and I was like, ‘Wow, this is crazy!’ And now, I’m rushed with emotion as far as ‘What is it? What is it going to do next? Do I need to get out of here?’

Huge Craft Went from Stationary
to Distance in A Second

I’m actually trying to figure out about my safety, if I should be alarmed? At this moment, if I would have blinked, I would have thought it vanished. But I did not blink. I had my eyes on it. And it takes off at a 45-degree angle, but it is still flat. It did not tilt up to take off. It remained flat and took off at a 45-degree angle. I never heard a sound. Never felt any heat. I’ve been back to see if it burned any trees. But it didn’t. It didn’t burn anything.

WHEN IT TOOK OFF AS SOMETHING THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN BETWEEN 1,000 AND 5,000 FEET LONG – WE DON’T KNOW, BUT IT WAS HUGE. DID YOU SEE WITH YOUR EYES IN THAT MOMENT IT TOOK OFF NEARLY VANISHING, ANY CHANGE IN LIGHT OR HEAT?

No, ma’am, it was so fast, I don’t know that a person could think that fast! It was so fast, I still couldn’t see a shape. It was like it was here and then it was gone. I didn’t see any lights. I didn’t hear any sound. I didn’t smell anything different. It took off so fast that I guarantee you if I had blinked, I would have thought it had just vanished.

Other Residents See Strange Light
Configurations After Dark

IN YOUR AREA OF DUBLIN AND STEPHENSVILLE, TEXAS, YOURS RIGHT NOW IS THE ONLY DAYLIGHT SIGHTING, FOLLOWED BY TWO OTHER SIGHTINGS IN DAYLIGHT?

As far as I know.

EVERYBODY ELSE HAS BEEN SEEING A GIGANTIC OBJECT WITH MANY LIGHTS ON IT AT NIGHT?

Yes, ma’am.

THE PILOT OVER IN GLENROSE, TEXAS, HE DESCRIBED FOR TELEVISION A RECTANGLE PATTERN OF LIGHTS IN THE SKY THAT APPEARED TO CHANGE TO TWO RECTANGLE PATTERNS OF LIGHTS. DO YOU THINK IT’S POSSIBLE THAT THE ACTUAL SHAPE OF WHAT WAS ABOVE YOU WAS NOT THE CLASSIC CIRCLE, BUT IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN A RECTANGLE?

Ricky Sorrells Saw Huge Craft Two More Times

The reason I don’t know the shape is the next sighting. Every evening before I go in the house, I chop wood. I was out there (on the porch) chopping wood and I see from my left to my right a blip, like it came in and left. And further to my right, another blip like it came in and left. And that’s all I saw. It was very huge – very long and very flat to me. I haven’t seen a side. I haven’t seen a top. Basically I’ve seen a side view (or bottom) of it each time.

AS IF IT’S ON AN ANGLE – LIKE YOU SAID THE FIRST TIME YOU WERE LOOKING UP 45 DEGREES, SO YOU WERE SEEING THE FLAT SIDE OF SOMETHING THAT DOESN’T SEEM TO HAVE MUCH DIMENSION TO IT?

Correct. But I do believe it has a dimension because when I did see it the second and third time, the second time made me think it has a dimension. I only saw it for two blips, but it was like a thick piece of plate. But it was a long way away, like a 1.5 to 2 miles.

WHAT ABOUT THE THIRD TIME? WAS THAT AROUND JANUARY 10?

Yes, about a week and a half after my first sighting and I saw it the second time in between.

THE FIRST SIGHTING WAS OUT IN THE WOODS ON YOUR PROPERTY WHERE YOU HAD GONE TO GO DEER HUNTING. THE SECOND AND THE THIRD TIMES, YOU WERE ON THE PORCH OF YOUR DUBLIN HOUSE?

Yes, on the back part of it. The third time I saw it, it came from my left to my right.This is when I noticed how massive it was. It was very long. From the longest point of view, this was the widest I had seen it. It was so long, and it was at the same angle as before, so I could see only the side or bottom part. But what makes this unusual is I could see the bottom and I could see the same indentations I saw on the first time. And they are big. I could see the holes and knew what I was looking at.

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