11/3/08

More Sightings in Stephenville

More sightings

Residents remain puzzled by lights

By WHITNEY WHITE-ASHLEY
Staff Writer
Whitney.ashley@empiretribune.com
Published: Sunday, November 2, 2008 2:35 PM CST
Questions and reports of new sightings continue to flood into the Empire-Tribune office. For nearly two weeks, area residents have been glued to the night skies and have witnessed, taped and photographed mysterious lights flashing across the sky.

Theories about the lights have ranged from military tests, to atmosphere phenomenon, to otherworldly visitors. But stories are starting to come in from across the state and from all types of people.

Lonnie Hammonds said he saw the lights in Hamilton County on Oct. 28 and 29.
“It was right on top of the mountains and it looked pretty close,” Hammonds said. “It has to be something military.”

Hammonds also said when the object started to move, it sounded like the sound barrier was broken.

“I’ve never seen anything like that and I’m 83,” said Jimmie Butler of Dublin, who saw the lights on Oct. 23. Butler doesn’t believe what she saw was any kind of plane.


Tarena Major, who has started watching the Stephenville skies since spotting the lights last week isn’t buying into the F-16 story either.

“You can see the fighter jets, but that’s not what we’re looking at,” Major said.

Keith Aikens lives in White Settlement, where he’s been busy deer hunting. He said he saw something while he was sitting in his deer stand that made him think he was crazy until a friend showed him reports in the E-T.

Aikens said the object hovered just above his stand. He was so frightened that he called 911.

“It was huge,” Aikens said. “I had no idea other people were seeing it too.”

He also saw a video on the WFAA Web site that he said looked like what he saw - and he doesn’t believe it was a plane.

“I live right next to Carswell (Air Force Base), about a block from the runway, and they weren’t planes. I’ve seen the stealth; I’ve seen the space shuttle land out here and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Aikens said.

Cody Miller of Dublin said he has seen something like it before, last fall. He was mowing on a “beautiful” and clear day when he noticed something metallic in the sky.

“It didn’t have any windows or propellers. I was that close to it,” Miller said.

He also didn’t hear any sound.

Janice, a Stephenville resident who asked to not have her last name included, said she has noticed the lights since 2006.

“I have been seeing these lights for a long time. They’re very prominent here,” she said.

Janice believes the lights are coming from otherworldly creatures.

“I think they’re looking for something and they haven’t found it,” Janice said.

She also said she doesn’t think people should be afraid of what they are seeing.

The military continues to explain the sightings as nothing more than F-16s moving from the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth to the Brownwood Military Operation Area.

Alejandro T. Rojas, Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) director of public education, said they are continuing to evaluate the situation in Stephenville.

“We do have several witnesses,” Rojas said.

MUFON has also filed for copies of radar reports from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Naval Air Station in Fort Worth under the Freedom of Information Act.

http://www.empiretribune.com/articles/2008/11/02/news/doc490e0bffeb6c0929779714.txt

10/31/08

Stephenville Lights - Today's News

The triumph of ostriches

Published: Friday, October 31, 2008 at 12:57 p.m.
Last Modified: Friday, October 31, 2008 at 1:04 p.m.

What a difference 55 years makes, ay?

UFOs evidently continue to troll the skies near Stephenville, Tex., people on the ground continue to see them and even take photos, and jet fighters continue to keep a wary tab on events (see http://www.empiretribune.com/articles/2008/10/26/news/doc4904c9d94bd6a785478381.txt).

And the military continues to maintain its rigid silence because to do otherwise would be an admission that we’ve blown hundreds of billions of dollars on a leaky roof.

But once upon a time, back before the Pentagon knew how hopeless its situation really was, the Air Force actually encouraged Americans to help collect UFO data. Check out David Duncan’s little gem at http://www.thekeyhoereport.com/uncategorized/retro-ufology-from-1953/.

It’s a 1953 Popular Science article detailing how the USAF distributed 35mm cameras to “detectives on the trail of the flying saucers.” If that seems a little exotic, remember that in 1952, UFOs weren’t just buzzing the capitol, the Pentagon was holding press conferences about it and telling Americans not to freak.

Anyhow, fitted with special diffraction grating plates, these Videon Stereo cameras were designed to bend light in a way that would identify their source as a solid or a gas. But writer Ralph Steiner assured readers who wanted to photograph UFOs that custom cameras weren’t necessary.

“Any stereo camera will do,” he wrote. “In fact, when I phoned the Pentagon to inquire whether the Air Force would be interested in photos taken with single-lens cameras, I was assured that any shot of a flying saucer made through a diffraction grating — even with a box Brownie — would be more than welcome.”

Steiner included beaucoup photo tips and a USAF address for sending undeveloped film. Can you imagine the military soliciting the public for that sort of evidence today?

“Uh, folks, we’re really having trouble keeping UFOs out of restricted airspace over President Bush’s ranch in Crawford lately, so we’d like you to try to photograph the suckers with these special cameras so we can take the evidence to Congress and lobby for countermeasure funding in a more open and accountable fashion.”

The same month the Popular Science piece ran, the CIA secretly convened a panel of scientists — later known as the Robertson Committee — to figure out how to manage the UFO problem. The consensus was to sweep the subject off the front pages by debunking the phenomenon (see http://www.cufos.org/IUR_article3.html).

It’s one of the Agency’s few legacies where the cliche successfully applies today: Mission Accomplished.


http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2008/10/31/Watercooler_Stories/UPI-35261225449000/

UFO sightings reported in Texas

STEPHENVILLE, Texas, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- Residents of North Central Texas have reported a fresh wave of UFO sightings in the wake of a string of January sightings that made national headlines.

The Stephenville Empire-Tribune said dozens of residents in and near Erath County reported strange lights in the sky Oct. 23, the same night the U.S. military confirmed F-16s flying in the area, the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram reported.

"I think more people are willing to come forward now that more people are talking about this," said Whitney White-Ashley, a reporter with the Empire-Tribune.

Alejandro Rojas with the Mutual UFO Network, a nationwide organization dedicated to scientific study of UFO sightings, said most of the reports were of an oval shape with lights around the outside. He said the group has requested radar data from the F-16s and has been interviewing witnesses.

"These are descriptions that were sent into our Web site the night of the sighting, so they could not have been something just copied from media coverage," Rojas said.

The sightings come after a flurry of reports Jan. 8 of an object above the Texas cities of Dublin and Stephenville that did not behave like a conventional aircraft.

10/30/08

The Stephenville Lights Video



Stephenville Texas, Light in the Sky was filmed on October 29th at 6:30 PM in Stephenville near the airport. This light was disappearing and re-appearing in different locations.

Also, in today's local newspaper Empire Tribune:

http://www.empiretribune.com/articles/2008/10/30/news/doc4909de1a74069619358593.txt

Sightings continue to puzzle residents

By WHITNEY WHITE-ASHLEY
Staff Writer
Whitney.ashley@empiretribune.com
Published: Thursday, October 30, 2008 11:27 AM CDT
Recent unexplained lights spotted in the skies of Erath County continue to haunt residents who can’t dismiss what they saw last week. New reports of lights spotted above Stephenville Tuesday night have witnesses like Sandy Bell of Freestone County talking about their experience.

Bell said she saw lights on the horizon last week and again on Tuesday when she went outside to feed her dogs shortly after 8 p.m.

“I have gotten into the habit of scanning the sky because of what happened last week,” Bell said. She saw an objet on the horizon to the southwest.

“I watched it briefly, it was large (I was seeing it from far off), it had a definite red glow and had a faint strobe effect with a whitish blue light emitting around it,” Bell said.

Bell and her boyfriend used a high power rifle scope to get a closer look.


“We could clearly see an oval or round object that had a red glow, it pulsated,” Bell said. “Whatever this was, it was big because we were seeing it from a great distance from where it actually was.”

The object looked more orange through the scope.

The object would occasionally throw a white or blue light. Bell said planes routinely fly along Interstate 45, but that this object did not resemble anything she had seen.

“We really could not believe our eyes. It finally just looked like it disappeared over the horizon (or lowered itself to a point we could not see) at exactly 8:33 p.m.,” Bell said.

Stephenville residents also caught glimpses of the lights.

Junior Chacon was in the HEB parking lot around 7:45 p.m. Tuesday when he saw something in the sky towards Dublin that looked like a large star.

Then he noticed two sets of three lights that would turn on and off; they would move apart and then come back together.

He said there were about eight other people, including customers and employees, standing in the parking lot and watching the lights.

Clinton Holland was driving down Lingleville Highway with his friend Aaron Adams around 7:40 p.m. on Tuesday when they, and several other cars, pulled over to watch some lights they noticed on the horizon.

Adams said it started as a single bright light sitting just above the power lines and was headed toward Dublin. He had a hard time telling if the light was blinking, or if the power line was obstructing his view.

Holland said he soon noticed multiple lights, but couldn’t tell exactly what was happening. Lights kept “dropping” and disappearing, but he didn’t know if something was actually falling from the sky or if the lights were rotating around an object.

Tarena Major was on Highway 377 in Stephenville when she made her husband pull over. They had noticed a bright light.

“I saw a big light that was kind of low, like a star,” Major said.

Shortly after two smaller lights appeared on both sides of the large bright light, then they disappeared.

“It was a big light show, but definitely not airplanes,” Major said.

Many people are still searching for or offering explanations for the big light show. Some believe they are intergalactic visitors, while others think they are top-secret military flight-tests.

United States Air Force Reserve Major Karl Lewis, public affairs officer at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth, responded to the latest sightings and a series of questions about training schedules and tactics with a simple response.

“We routinely train, during the day and in the evenings, in the Brownwood

Military Operating Area (MOA),” Lewis said in an e-mail.

But for many, that answer isn’t enough and they believe that what they saw in the night sky was not simply an F-16 in training.

Dwight Williams with Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene said their flight patterns usually head to the west.

“Most of our action is north and west. If we go east, we’re going to the east coast,” Williams said.

The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) has sent a field investigator to Stephenville to conduct field interviews with witnesses this week. The investigator will evaluate pictures, videos and testimony in an attempt to sort out the information.


and

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/tv/stories/wfaa081030_lj_ufo.162e879ce.html

More UFO sightings in Erath County

11:43 AM CDT on Thursday, October 30, 2008 By JIM DOUGLAS / WFAA-TV

ERATH COUNTY — There are more new reports pouring in about UFOs over Erath County.

In fact, there were so many reported sightings on Tuesday that an aircraft coordinated with spotters on the ground Wednesday hoping to get fresh video.

"I never watched Star Wars growing up. I was too busy hauling hay," said Ricky Sorrells.

But the rancher and welder was among the first in January to take the heat for publicly admitting he saw mysterious lights over Erath County.

Sorrells said he has occasionally seen them since then — including Tuesday night.

"They were huge," he said.

But this time, it's different.

Over the last few nights, many other people have reported sightings.

A stunned family in Dublin shot a video.

An organization called the Mutual UFO Network has an investigator interviewing witnesses.

WFAA-TV
Ricky Sorrells wants to know what those lights are.

"I'm tickled to death about it. I've got people calling me saying 'I saw them too. You're not crazy,'" said Sorrells.

Angelia Joiner started writing about the phenomenon as a reporter for the Stephenville Empire Tribune. No longer with the paper, she's now travels the country as a UFO researcher.

Joiner said a small plane will start assisting spotters on the ground with cameras.

Back in January, folks around Stephenville had a lot of fun with UFOs. This time, with so many sightings, it seems to be a little more serious.

"It tells you it's not a conspiracy," Joiner said. "They've seen them in Hico, Stephenville, Dublin — lots of towns."

For the record, Joiner and Sorrells are not saying they believe the lights are from spaceships.

"All we want to know is: What is it?" Sorrells asked.

E-mail jdouglas@wfaa.com

New UFO sightings investigated in Erath County

mfrazier@star-telegram.com

That’s not the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

Texas’ UFOs are back — just in time for Halloween.

Reports of UFOs sighted over North Central Texas last week are the latest in an apparent sequel to the Stephenville sightings in January, which made headlines nationwide.

Dozens of residents in and around Erath County reported seeing strange lights in the sky the evening of Oct. 23, according to the Stephenville Empire-Tribune, which also reported that the military has confirmed the presence of F-16s in the area at that time.

"I think more people are willing to come forward now that more people are talking about this," said Whitney White-Ashley, a reporter for the paper.

CNN reported last week’s sightings, interviewing Dublin resident Andy Monroe, who caught a 30-second video of a line of red lights he says encircled an oval shape floating in the sky.

Most of the descriptions are of an oval shape with lights around the outside, said Alejandro Rojas with the Mutual UFO Network, a nationwide organization created in 1969 to scientifically study UFO sightings. A MUFON investigator is interviewing witnesses, and the group has already sent requests for radar data from the F-16s.

"These are descriptions that were sent into our Web site the night of the sighting, so they could not have been something just copied from media coverage," Rojas said.

January sightings

In or around Jan. 8, dozens of people around Dublin and Stephenville — about 70 miles southwest of Fort Worth — reported seeing something that did not move like conventional aircraft.

Descriptions varied. Some told of objects up to a mile long and hundreds of yards high. Others reported seeing two to eight lights that flew in formation, changed color and shone with intensity greater than a welding flame. Some witnesses said the objects were accompanied or followed by military jets.

Latest Texas sightings

According to MUFON’S Web site:

Near Dublin. A couple said that at about 7:20 p.m. Tuesday they were headed west on U.S. 377 when they saw a flying object sporting three sets of three lights in a semicircle.

Dallas. A man said he was walking his dog at about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday when he saw a triangle-shaped object with orange lights flying silently almost due south over downtown.

Fairfield. Residents reported seeing from their porch an oval object glowing red while hovering at about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday in the southwest. "Occasionally it would throw a whitish blue light. We could see other air traffic way high above it [planes fly along Interstate 45 as a normal route]. This looked nothing like what else was in the sky."


Source: http://www.star-telegram.com/state_news/story/1006837.html

10/28/08

Stephenville Lights, UFOs over Texas in the News again

http://www.wjbf.com/jbf/news/science/article/texas_ufo_mystery_lingers/8053/
http://www.khou.com/news/local/stories/khou081027_mp_stephenville-ufo-sitings.155dda835.html?npc
http://www.the33tv.com/pages/content_lan....7907&feedID=460

Texas UFO Mystery Lingers

Over a three-month period, this summer, there were 1,000 UFO sightings filed with the National UFO Reporting Center...75 of those reports came from Texas. So, why do the aliens prefer Texas? We don’t know, but some folks in that state really believe something odd is going on in the sky over their town...Jim Douglas shows us the evidence…

Texas UFO Mystery Lingers

Over a three-month period, this summer, there were 1,000 UFO sightings filed with the National UFO Reporting Center...75 of those reports came from Texas. So, why do the aliens prefer Texas? We don’t know, but some folks in that state really believe something odd is going on in the sky over their town...Jim Douglas shows us the evidence…

ABC News
Published: October 28, 2008

Stephenville, TX—Andy Monrreal, UFO witness: “You could see the oval shape...got my friend, I said, ‘dude, you got to come look at this.’”

Andy Monrreal was hanging out with his Dublin High School friends when they all saw whatever it was.

Andy Monrreal, “You could see a shape. It was like a complete circle.”

Andy rolled off a half minute of video on his mom’s digital camera. His dad saw it, too.

Jaime Monrreal, Andy’s father: “I never seen nothing like that in my life...big lights and everything.”

So did mom…

Andy’s mother: “It was a round thing. You could see lights around it, flickering and changing. It was awesome...just turning and flickering.”

Back in January, Erath County went UFO crazy after a handful of people reported similar lights over Stephenville. International press and UFO hunters descended on the town. This time, many more eye witnesses are phoning the Stephenville Empire Tribune, or the ET.

Whitney Ashley, reporter, Stephenville Empire Tribune: “I’ve got at least 10, right now willing, to go on record.”

Reporter Whitney Ashley said many people don’t want to talk publicly, like several workers at the paper, who also saw the lights.

Ashley: “The Sheriff’s Department got lots of calls in the southern part of Erath County, down around Dublin, home of Dr. Pepper. Well, actually my brother called last night, said he saw some stuff down by the Austin area.”

The description sounded a lot like this: “3 lights strobing, and they disappeared, and then three more appeared to the ight and left of it.”

The Joint Reserve Base, in Fort Worth confirms seven F-16s training in the area, at the time. Several witnesses told us they saw the fighters, after they saw the mysterious lights.



They're baaaack: Texas residents report more UFO sightings

10:02 AM CDT on Tuesday, October 28, 2008
By JIM DOUGLAS / WFAA-TV

Video

STEPHENVILLE — Over a three-month period this summer there were 1,000 UFO sightings filed with the National UFO Reporting Center.

Some 75 of those UFOs were reported over the state of Texas.

Stephenville is one hot spot we've shown you before.

Now the small town is getting buzzed by UFOs again.

"You could see the oval shape. Got my friend, I said 'dude, you got to come look at this,'" said Andy Monrreal.

Monrreal was hanging out with his Dublin High School friends when they all saw something they say looked like a UFO.

"You could see a shape. It was like a complete circle," said Monrreal.

He rolled off a half minute of video on his mom's digital camera.

His dad saw it too.

"I never seen nothing like that in my life. Big lights and everything," his father said.

So did mom.

"It was a round thing. You could see lights around it, flickering and changing. It was awesome. Just turning and flickering," she said.

Back in January, Erath County went UFO crazy after a handful of people reported similar lights over Stephenville.

International press and UFO hunters descended on the town.

This time, many more eye witnesses are phoning the Stephenville Empire Tribune or the ET.

"These don't look like conventional flying lights of any kind," said Jay Miller, aviation photographer.

Miller has snapped hundreds of different aircraft from all angles all over the world.He says lights don't appear to be F-16s.

"I'm not saying this isn't an airplane, but the arrangement, color what have you isn't what I would consider normal for a fixed wing plane," said Miller.

Some witnesses also reported seeing flares.

"I'm very familiar with flares, and they would react much differently than this," said Miller

The Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth confirms seven F-16s training in the area at the time. Several witnesses said they saw the fighters, but it was after they saw the mysterious lights.

Although Jay Miller is puzzled by the lights, the do leave him with one overriding impression.

"They don't look extra-terrestrial to me. They look very much man-made," said Miller.

E-mail jdouglas@wfaa.com


Another UFO?

By Shana Franklin

October 27, 2008

Andy Monrreal is staring at it again. A videotape he shot of what he and friends say has to be a UFO. Monrreal says, "I'm amazed." On Thursday night, the Dublin teenager was doing what he usually does, play pool with friends. Then he and a buddy took a break and walked outside on the back porch. Monrreal says, "I looked up in the sky and saw these lights and I was like whoa. I started thinking it looks like a UFO. His mom heard him screaming for the camera, "Ah, ah, mom, there's something. I don't remember what his exact words were." Other buddies dropped their pool cues.. And came running. Mitchell Greenway says he saw, "Bright lights. I thought Andy was crazy." Another friend agrees, "He was just banging at the window."

But now Andy, his friends and parents are convinced it was a UFO. Jesse Bamber says, "I just saw all the bright lights, They were just going in and out." Andy's mom, Maricella Monrreal says, "It was just all these flashing lights flicking lights, you know, round in a circle, just moving fast something we've never seen before." Andy says, "I saw the US Army jets flying by it, like 2 of them, it;d come back, again, then 2 more. I guess UFO's are real."

That pains Andy's pals a bit, who in January thought their fellow Erath County residents were crazy after multiple reports of UFO sightings in nearby Stephenville. Mitchell Greenway says, "I thought now I don't need to say bad things about people anymore cause I thought everyone else was pretty much idiots. Now, we believe it. Yeah, Erath idiots like everyone else."



UFO's
i remember seeing the lights to on thursday night i was coming from pulidos me my brother n sister we were on the southloop and i was like do u guys see the lights and they were like yeah it was probably around 10' o"clock i didn't really believe in them until now!!!
Posted by Ronald Towers at 7:36 pm Oct 27, 2008

UFO group probes light mystery in Erath, Comanche

10:17 PM CDT on Monday, October 27, 2008
By JIM DOUGLAS / WFAA-TV

ERATH COUNTY - An investigator with the Mutual UFO Network has travelled to Erath County to talk to dozens of people who all reported seeing unusual lights in the sky last week.

Similar reports were made in January that led to international attention to Stephenville, which was previously best known for cowboys and dairy farms.

On video, a Dublin High School senior captured 30 seconds of the lights that were spotted by people across Erath and Comanche counties Thursday night.

U.S. Air Force officials at the joint reserve base in Fort Worth said seven F-16s were training in the area at about the same time the lights were spotted. Still, there are those who say that doesn't appear to be the answer.

"These don't look like conventional flying lights of any kind," said Jay Miller, an aviation photographer who has snapped hundreds of aircrafts from various angles all over the world.

Taking a look at the video, Miller said he doesn't believe the lights are that of an F-16.

"I'm not saying this isn't an airplane, but the arrangement [and] color, what have you, isn't what I would consider normal for a fixed-wing plane," he said.

Some witnesses also reported seeing flares.

"I'm very familiar with flares and they would react much differently than this," he said.

Andy Monrreal, who shot the video, said he saw the F-16s, but said that was after he already saw the mystery lights three times. Monrreal said he could also make out a disc-like shape, which some other witnesses also described.

Around the time of the previous sightings in January, the Mutual UFO Network sent a team of investigators to Erath County. In this case, the organization has only sent one investigator.

Although Miller said he is puzzled by the lights, he said they did leave him with one overriding impression.

"They don't look extraterrestrial to me," he said. "They look very much manmade."

E-mail jdouglas@wfaa.com

10/27/08

The Stephenville UFOs Are Back - October 2008

October 27, 2008 at 12:25:01

The Stephenville UFOs Are Back - October 2008

by Bill Knell Page 1 of 1 page(s)

The Stephenville UFOs are back and so are the military jets that chase them. A number of unidentified lights were again seen in the skies over Earth County, Texas, beginning on October 21, 2008. The lights displayed various colors and moved rapidly in all directions over Stephenville for two nights in a row, but that was just the prelude to a much more exciting incident which occurred the next night in nearby Dublin, Texas.

On October 23, 2008, several teenagers and a few adults were at Dublin High School in the late evening when they saw an oval-shaped object with brilliant lights on it. Andy Monrreal used his mom’s digital video camera to film the object for about a minute. Monrreal gave a description of the object to a news crew from News 8 (WFAA) in Dallas/Fort Worth. He said, “"You could see a shape. It was like a complete circle.

Monrreal’s parents also saw the object and his father commented, “"I never seen nothing like that in my life… big lights and everything." His mother said, “"It was a round thing. You could see lights around it, flickering and changing. It was awesome. Just turning and flickering.” A total of eleven witnesses reported seeing the same object and many confirm that military jets were in the area at the same time.

In what seems like a rerun of the original events that brought so much attention to Erath County back in January, the Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth confirms that at least seven F-16s were training in the area at the time the object was observed. However, these training exercises were not announced in advance and the area where the UFO and the jets were seen is not airspace generally reserved for training.

Erath County, Texas, became known as a UFO hotspot during January of 2008 when one mass sighting and several subsequent incidents brought the area to the attention of the worldwide news media. Amid conflicting statements from local military authorities commenting on aerial training maneuvers and inept UFO research organization investigations, the sightings were blamed on everything from stars, moons and planets to flocks of birds, untrained observers, military exercises and misidentified aircrafts.

It wasn’t until after I mentioned that a UFO flyover of the Bush Ranch in nearby Crawford, Texas, might have explained the large number of military jets observed in the skies over Erath County on January 8, 2008, that some investigators and reporters began to look at the Stephenville incidents more seriously. In fact, the Mutual UFO Network ultimately turned up evidence that radar reports indicated at least one of several objects seen over the Stephenville area on January 8, 2008, and being pursued by military jets was coming directly from the direction of the Bush Ranch.

The large oval object seen over Erath County on October 23, 2008 is similar to one observed on January 8, 2008, by several law enforcement officers in and around the Stephenville area. These officers were able to see more detail than most of the residents that just reported the lights at that time. The same object was later observed by Ricky Sorrells of Dublin who has been it several times since. He said that the thing hovered just three hundred feet above his head in a field behind his home and may have been the size of two or three football fields.

Sorrells’ story became troubling as reports of harassment by military authorities surfaced. After reporting his sighting to a local news reporter, he claims that military jets and helicopters started flying at all hours over his property disturbing livestock and keeping him from getting a good night’s sleep. Even worse, Sorrells’ says that he has been directly and indirectly threatened to “keep your mouth shut about what you saw.”

Although the national media is ignoring these latest rounds of UFO sightings and jet chases, the Stephenville story is one that will not just go away because reporters are busy with politics and economic issues. What they do not seem to understand is that this UFO flap and others currently going on all over the world will someday have a direct impact on those issues. If these sightings persist and the government finally runs out of excuses and their ability to influence what the media says about them, that day may not be long in coming.

For more including video, visit http://ufoguy.tripod.com/newsletter.html


http://ufoguy.tripod.com

Bill Knell is a popular Speaker, Author and Consultant with eclectic interests. Best known for his Paranormal Research and Seminars, Bill also excels in the area of personal, business and financial advice and management. Featured in the Wall Street Journal, Omni, the L.A. Times, Toronto Star and NY Times; seen on CNN, NBC Nightly News, Fox Television and many Cable Networks; heard on Mancow, Bob and Tom and Howard Stern; consultant to films like Independence Day, Men in Black, the Fifth Element and World of the Worlds.

10/26/08

The Stephenville Lights are Back

They’re back

Unexplained lights spotted in Stephenville skies

By WHITNEY WHITE-ASHLEY
Staff Writer
Whitney.ashley@empiretribune.com
Published: Sunday, October 26, 2008 3:20 PM CDT
Dozens of Stephenville and Erath County residents reported seeing unidentified lights in the Texas sky last week.

Accounts started trickling in on Tuesday. But on Friday, they poured in, with dozens of people claiming to see unexplainable lights across the area Thursday night.

Erath County Sheriff Tommy Bryant said dispatch received multiple calls from people claiming to see bright lights in the southern part of the county Thursday. Callers reported that the lights would flash and disappear, then reappear a short time later. Charlie Carrasco, who lives in Stephenville, said he saw two fighter jets flying low to the ground around 8:30 p.m. Thursday, chasing flashes of light in the air.


Juli Gibson was riding her horse in the southwestern part of the county around 8 p.m. when she noticed the lights.

She said there were four white lights flashing on and off.


“It’s like they were talking to each other,” Gibson said. “It was just weird.”

The flashing lights spooked even her horses.

Ashleigh Cole was also working with her horses around 8:40 p.m. when she turned her attention to the night sky.

“It seemed like it was really close,” Cole said. “I’ve never believed anybody when they say they saw a UFO, but I saw one myself.”

She said there were three lights in a row that would move straight up in the sky and at an angle.

She was about 10 miles south of Dublin and thought the lights were flashing and moving around for about five minutes.

Stephenville resident John Darby and his daughter were driving on Highway 67 near the Seldon cutoff when they saw the lights around 8:30 p.m. Thursday.

“At first I thought it was my lights reflecting off the power lines,” Darby said.

But he quickly realized it was something more than a reflection.

The lights started out small and orange. They grew larger and began to display different colors in a beachball-like pattern. Then they disappeared.

His daughter jumped out of the vehicle trying to take a picture with her cell phone. The lights reappeared in the sky when she came back to the truck.

Darby said there were about nine jets traveling at a high rate of speed and headed for the Metroplex.

He is convinced they were not passenger airplanes.

“If it were my speculation, they were doing maneuvers with some kind of tracers,” Darby said.

Monica Diaz was driving on the Northwest Loop near the high school in Stephenville around 8:15 p.m. on Thursday when she saw the lights.

“It looked like a row of stadium lights,” Diaz said.

The four lights would turn on and off individually, but they would move as a group. The show only lasted about 30 seconds.

She pulled over and watched the sky but she never saw or heard anything else.

“It was very odd,” Diaz said. “I don’t believe it was aliens but it was definitely something different.”

Diaz said the lights were white and round and didn’t resemble anything close to an airplane.

D’Ann Wheeler is a Hico resident and a skeptic.

“I never had a personal experience until last night (Thursday),” Wheeler said.

She and a friend, who confirmed Wheeler’s story but did not want to be identified, were stargazing around 9 p.m. when they noticed a lot of activity in the sky.

“There were jets all around them (the lights) but you couldn’t hear the jets,” Wheeler said.

She saw two sets of lights that she described as a string of pearls. Then the lights just disappeared.

“I have never in my life seen anything like this before. I went in the house and shook my head and thought, what did I just see?” Wheeler said. “The lights disappeared and then came back on a second time. They stayed on for about a minute.”

The lights were large and white, and moved up and down with the jets close behind.

“I know they were big and far apart, but I couldn’t tell how big or far apart,” she said.

Wheeler said the sight unnerved her the rest of the night and she had a hard time sleeping. She even went back out around midnight to check the sky, but she didn’t see anything.

Ashley Ainsworth was driving on Highway 377 near Tractor Supply Company around 8:30 Thursday night when she and several other cars pulled over to watch the lights dancing through the sky.

She counted six yellow lights on the horizon that moved in a circular motion. They disappeared completely but started blinking on and off.

“I’m not into that alien thing, but it’s kind of weird,” Ainsworth said.

She reported her sighting to Mutual UFO Network (MUFON).

Darlene Ross, who lives south of Ranger, noticed two orange lights in the sky about 8:45 p.m. Thursday. The two lights turned into four lights in a straight line, one stacked on top of the other.

“It was just the weirdest thing I ever saw in my entire life,” Ross said. “It was acting weird and it was scary.”

Nick Horn caught part of what he saw Thursday night on video.

He was at his house west of Stephenville talking on his phone outside. He saw on orange light above the house and went inside to get his family.

He said jets were flying across the sky coming out of nowhere. He grabbed his video camera and caught about 20 seconds of lights flashing across the sky.

Nick’s four-year-old brother Matthew was so excited that he tripped over a rock and bumped his head on the sidewalk.

“I saw four, five, six jets, then bam, hit my head,” Matthew said.

Unlike other witnesses, Nick said he got a good look at the lights above his house. It appeared to be a metal object hovering about 400 feet in the air.

He said it moved away from the house and disappeared before reappearing closer to Dublin.

Steve Hudgeons, MUFON Chief Investigator in Texas, said he received reports of three sightings near Stephenville on Thursday. At press time, he had not yet interviewed the witnesses.

At least one witness came forward to say she saw lights in the Stephenville skies on Tuesday night.

Sherry Sechrist was outside of her house in town when she and her family noticed the lights around 8:30 p.m.

She snapped a few pictures on her cell phone and her mom even caught video footage on her phone.

Sechrist said the lights would flash and move up and down and side to side. She could hear jets buzzing around the lights, but doesn’t think the jets produced the lights.

“I’d like to know what goes in reverse,” Sechrist said. “The lights would fly over and then they would stay still.”

United States Air Force Reserve Major Karl Lewis, public affairs officer at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth, responded to the numerous sightings.

“Seven F-16s from the 457th fighter squadron flew from Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth to the Brownwood Military Operation Area (MOA) for normal training operations, Thursday, 23 October 2008, from approximately 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. local time,” Lewis stated in an e-mail.

Similar sightings made national headlines 10 months ago after reporting unidentified flying objects in the southeastern county skies.

Source: http://www.empiretribune.com/articles/2008/10/26/news/doc4904c9d94bd6a785478381.txt

10/25/08

CNN Stephenville UFO Video

Channel 8 WFAA Dallas covers Stephenville Lights

http://www.khou.com/news/state/stories/khou081025_rm_ufo-sightings.14ab206e2.html

More UFO sightings reported in Stephenville

04:56 PM CDT on Saturday, October 25, 2008
By JIM DOUGLAS / WFAA-TV

Video

STEPHENVILLE — Over a three-month period this summer there were 1,000 UFO sightings filed with the National UFO Reporting Center.

Some 75 of those UFOs were reported over the state of Texas.

Stephenville is one hot spot we've shown you before.

Now the small town is getting buzzed by UFOs again and we have the video.

"You could see the oval shape. Got my friend, I said 'dude, you got to come look at this,'" said Andy Monrreal.

Monrreal was hanging out with his Dublin High School friends when they all saw something they say looked like a UFO.

"You could see a shape. It was like a complete circle," said Monrreal.

He rolled off a half minute of video on his mom's digital camera.

His dad saw it too.

"I never seen nothing like that in my life. Big lights and everything," his father said.

So did mom.

"It was a round thing. You could see lights around it, flickering and changing. It was awesome. Just turning and flickering," she said.

Back in January, Erath County went UFO crazy after a handful of people reported similar lights over Stephenville.

International press and UFO hunters descended on the town.

This time, many more eye witnesses are phoning the Stephenville Empire Tribune or the ET.

Reporter Whitney Ashley said many people don't want to talk publicly, like several workers at the paper, who also saw the lights.

"I've got at least 10 right now willing to go on record," Ashley said.

"The sheriff's department got lots of calls in the southern part of Erath County."

Down around Dublin, home of DR Pepper.

The Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth confirms seven F-16s training in the area at the time.

Several witnesses told us they saw the fighters, after they saw the mysterious lights.

E-mail jdouglas@wfaa.com.

10/24/08

More lights spotted in Stephenville skies

More lights spotted in Stephenville skies

by WHITNEY WHITE-ASHLEY
Staff Writer
whitney.ashley@empiretribune.com
Published: Friday, October 24, 2008 10:43 AM CDT
Dozens of Stephenville and Erath County residents have reported unidentified lights in the Texas sky this week.

Recent accounts started coming in Tuesday, Oct. 21. More sitings were reported Wednesday night and a stadium full of parents watching a Junior High Football game spotted more strange lights Thursday night.

Many witnesses reported seeing the lights and then watched jets chase after them.
Local residents made headlines nine months ago after reporting unidentified flying objects in the southeastern county skies.

Source: http://www.empiretribune.com/articles/2008/10/24/news/doc4901ecfe63c39602731678.txt

9/5/08

Texas Official Demands Answers About Alleged UFO

Sep 5, 2008 6:30 pm US/Central

Texas Official Demands Answers About Alleged UFO


STEPHENVILLE (CBS 11 News) ― Dozens of Stephenville residents reported seeing UFOs in the area in January. At first, the military reported there were no aircraft in the area that night. Two weeks later, officials said they were conducting training exercises in the area.

Now some city officials want to know if a government exercise was being performed, why they weren't notified ahead of time.

"I want to know why public officials weren't notified of a large military operation in our area," said Stephenville City Councilmember Mark Murphy. He has filed a complaint with U. S. Air Force and the Federal Aviation Administration, demanding answers.

"My main concern is public safety," said Councilman Murphy. "I want to make sure that if anything like this is going on, people are alerted."

But residents were mixed on what the public needs to know.

"I think the government needs to let us know when we need to know, but on something like this, it's not appropriate," said Stephenville resident Cliff McMinn.

"I think the city has a right to know," said Dell Eastwood, a resident of Stephenville. "I guess the federal government doesn't think they do."

According to a local aviation expert, the military must communicate with the FAA, but they are not required to contact city officials. Councilman Murphy thinks that rule should be changed.

"Just so we know they're going to be operating in this area," he said. "It's only a courtesy - intergovernmental courtesy."

Councilman Murphy says he doesn't need to know details about what the military was doing over the skies of Stephenville that night, he just wants corrective action to be taken.

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

http://cbs11tv.com/watercooler/Stephenville.UFO.Latest.2.811195.html

9/4/08

Complaints Filed with FAA on Stephenville Case by Texas Representative

BREAKING NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Stephenville Texas representative to Place 7 Mr. Mark Murphy has filed complaints with the FAA and the DOT (pursuant to 14 CFR 13 on air safety) on behalf of himself, his family, and his constituents as an elected representative regarding the events which took place over Stephenville Texas on the evening of January 8, 2008.

Mr. Murphy requested a reprimand of the USAF for large scale military operations in a populated area without notification of local authorities. City officials are supposed to be notified when such events are going to take place. No such notification was given prior to the F-16s flying over the city.

This is a bold step to force some action which is long over due. The fact that there were F-16s flying in and around the Stephenville area is serious because Stephenville is not within the military operating zone. Long time Stephenville resident and UFO witness Steve Allen said he saw a large UFO pass over head at a high rate of speed followed by a F-16 in pursuit.

All 301st public affairs chief Maj. Karl Lewis said is that 10 F-16s were in the sky that evening flying a training mission. No mention of large UFOs which out-passed F-16s as the multiple witnesses said they saw.

More at: http://www.ufocasebook.com/2008b/faacomplaint.html

7/19/08

OMEFT Interview with Angelia Joiner

On Friday, July 11, 2008, a seminal event in the history of UFO investigation took place. A report titled, "Stephenville Lights: A Comprehensive Radar and Witness Report Study Regarding the Events of January 8, 2008 4pm to 8pm" was released to the public.

The report carefully documents information gleaned from four hours of civil aviation radar tracking data from several facilities during the core period of sightings over Erath County, Texas. More importantly, the authors, Glen Schulze and Robert Powell, correlate the positions, headings and speed of several unmarked objects detected by radar with ground sightings from eight different eyewitnesses.

Such a meticulous comparison involving multiple sightings and apparently multiple objects over a long period of time has never been accomplished before.The radar data corroborate the witness testimony and also document the actions of military aircraft in the area of interest.

News of the release of this report was broken nationally on that evening's episode of "Larry King Live" on CNN. Schulze and Powell were guests on the show, as were several Erath County residents who have become famous in ufology circles.

Instrumental in bringing the radar report to the national stage was Angelia Joiner. Angelia first broke the story of the UFO sightings in an article on January 10th in the Stephenville Empire Tribune, and subsequent articles launched the event into the global spotlight as regional, national and international news outlets picked up the story.

I had the chance to speak with Angelia Joiner about the report on Sunday two days after the release of the report.

What follows is an interview with Angelia:

Larry King Live

Razpad: I want to ask you how you got the show [Larry King Live] turned around to the topic of the report.

AJ: I did contact the CNN producer (before July 4th). I told her that I had some new developments and I thought Larry King would be interested. Well, lo and behold and to my surprise, she said, "We'll be calling you next week because we'll be coming back there."

I tried to find out why they were coming back. I knew that Ricky Sorrells had been invited by James Fox to go to Los Angeles to appear on the Larry King Live show [in May]. Ricky didn't feel like he could leave his animals, his cows were calving, and he had some other things going on, so he refused that offer. I thought they were coming for Ricky. I called Ricky over the weekend and he didn't think it was for him because he had not heard from James Fox for a while.

The producer did get back in touch with me. She said that James Fox was coming with her. She told me they planned to interview Ricky Sorrells and me. She told me Dr. [Seth] Shostak, Ken Cherry and Mike Zimmerman would be on and they would be talking about the [David] Coran video. Mike Zimmerman is the former protector of five Texas governors. He is somebody that I interviewed then put the story on www.stephenvillelights.com.

So, I wasn't really sure why we would be talking about something that is old news when we could be talking about this very-well-done report, very thoroughly researched, and it was new. I felt like the public deserved to know that something on radar did show up on the night of January 8, 2008 in Erath County. The other two witnesses that they were going to discuss on the show were not witnesses on January 8th.

If you look at the report it says an object was going 500+ mph then slowed down to around 49 mph, depending on deviation error. Officer X clocked it on police radar at 27 mph. He said that was one of the things that caught his attention because it looked like it should be falling out of the sky. I thought it was interesting that other witnesses did see it moving very, very slowly and so did Officer X. That was one of the reasons why I urged the producer to change the show line-up. I told the producer, "Look, I don't understand why we're going to talk about Zimmerman and Coran. For one thing, that's old news and, for another thing, neither one of them filed a MUFON report,"

Razpad: Is Officer X the same person as the Witness M, the last-minute appendix added to the report?

AJ: Yes, he is. I did a story on Stephenville Lights about Officer X's sighting, along with two other officers.

So, my goal was to get out what was new. I didn't want to rehash what was old. The other thing I had a problem with was that neither David Coran nor Mike Zimmerman filed MUFON reports.

Razpad: On Larry King's web site, it said, "We are revisiting the Stephenville, TX UFO case. Our guests include three of the History Channel's UFO Hunters!" It looked like UFO Hunters was getting top billing. Was that the way it was set up to start and you managed to flip it around?

AJ: Live TV shows change all the time. I'm not saying that Stephenville would have gotten less time than UFO Hunters. As far as I know, they were going to get equal time.

I had to ask about the line-up with the UFO Hunters. The producer told me we wouldn't be on with them. She told me that things could change right up to 15-20 minutes before the show started.

Razpad: Regardless of how it started, you did a tremendous job of getting your story "above the fold", as they say in newspaper jargon.

AJ: I'm not here to rub it in, though.

Razpad: Well, you did a great job.

AJ: Another thing, as soon as it started being publicized, that Larry King Live was going to revisit Stephenville, I started getting all kinds of emails. I had emails from Hong Kong and Europe asking questions. I was told some of Europe's top ufologists were gathering to watch the show, which I couldn't believe. I did forward some of those emails to the producer so she would know that a lot of people all over the world take a great interest in the Erath County sightings, even though several months have passed a lot of people are still following it.

Razpad: That was very savvy of you to do that.

AJ: It worked out how it worked out. I think we got 40 minutes and UFO Hunters got 20 minutes.

Razpad: Where was Steve Allen? He was the only one of the Mount Rushmore of Stephenville who wasn't present.

AJ: I wish I knew. His email box is full and if I try to call him or his wife it goes to voice mail. Maybe they are on vacation.

Ken Cherry was supposed to be on the show but he wasn't. I hope he isn't too upset with me. I did offer to give up my seat because I felt bad about that. I don't really have anything new to add. I kept telling the producer that but she had me on for all four segments of the show.

Razpad: You're the personality for the Erath County sightings. I thought it was very good the way you addressed the questions. You pulled everything back on point, on the message, very well done.

The Report

Razpad: You were familiar with this radar investigation for months and you had been in contact with the authors. How did you first learn about it?

AJ: I understand that Texas MUFON said they began seeing an escalation of sightings beginning in November of 2007 going through February of 2008. Glen Schulze contacted me shortly after he received the information from the FAA. He was very impressed with the data. He said something to the effect that it was the best, most complete set of radar data that he had ever received and that he has done a lot of radar report research.

Razpad: When was this?

AJ: I believe it was around the end of February. It might have been the first of March, somewhere around that time. He told me his background. He has a very impressive background that is included in the report. It seemed like everything he was telling me was above board. I called the Texas MUFON directors and asked if they would work with Glen Schulze because I knew they were going to put out a report. They declined the offer. I knew that Robert Powell was doing some serious probing for information. So when Texas MUFON said they didn't want to work with Schulze, I contacted Robert Powell. Robert checked into Schulze's background and they started working together. They work extremely well together, and Robert was grateful they could work together. Glen has a lot of expertise in radar. Robert is a very, very intelligent man and he knows a lot about statistics.

Razpad: Did Powell bring in all the ground reports, the witness reports from MUFON?

AJ: Yes. He correlated the witness reports to the radar data. It took a lot of time on both their parts, hundreds of hours. I'm surprised their families still have anything to do with them. That's all they did for months.

Razpad: Why did they zero in on just eight reports out of hundreds?

AJ: No, not hundreds. The Texas MUFON reports are from November through February. And that was the focus of the Texas report. On January 8th MUFON had 17 reports, so it's eight out of 17. That is the focus of the national report. The witness reports that didn't pan out had various reasons, something that made the report invalid such as unsure of the time or direction of the sighting. Eight valid reports is still a good amount.

It is just mind boggling to know they worked hundreds of hours on just four hours of radar data, from 4 o'clock until 8 o'clock. If they had to do it over again, they might have requested another hour or two of data for that day.

Razpad: Yes, because there are things that happened after 8 o'clock that are interesting.

AJ: Yes. There is a limited time to get FOIA requests submitted for radar data before it is erased. So that was their best guess at the time. I'm very pleased with the report. There were many people involved. They always copied emails to me that were about the report. Sometimes they would ask me a question. They really tried to look at all of the "what ifs" and tried to deduce the best answers they could. Otherwise, debunkers would try to tear it apart.

And that's really why other people were involved, to produce a good report and to get varied opinions. A lot of the material in the report is very technical, which I didn't understand. I told them, "I'm a regular person." They were very patient and explained things to me.

Razpad: On the other hand, that helps them write the final report in a clearer fashion because it's written for anyone to read, not just for radar experts to read. You provided that angle for them. Being a scientist, I know that sometimes you have to write in a clearer way because others reading a report might not have the background to understand.

AJ: My problem was trying to understand all of the acronyms.

Razpad: Which they put in the front of the report, I noticed. Schulze and Powell were very coy about author credits, they listed themselves as the primary authors. I presume that the other people involved want to remain anonymous?

AJ: Yes. Some of the other people involved have jobs so that going public could present a problem for them. There were a couple of people early on who were going to help with the interpretation of the data, but it got so in depth that they decided to bow out.

Razpad: There was an external review, right?

AJ: Yes, that's right.

Razpad: Did they say who?

AJ: I know who it is but they want to remain anonymous.

Razpad: Oh, okay. Is it a peer review?

AJ: Yes, I would call it a peer review.

Razpad: I wasn't sure if it was that or just a general review for clarity or perhaps even if it was reviewed by government or military personnel who maybe redacted some things they didn't want known.

AJ: The peer review came from radar professionals. Anyone can take that anyway they want to. That could mean they are from the military or FAA or air traffic controllers. It could mean a lot of different things. They aren't people that do it as a hobby. Professional people, either still working or retired.

Razpad: In the report, they come up with values for the size of the objects between 500 feet and about half a mile in diameter. How does that jibe with eyewitness reports and things that you've heard from talking to people?

AJ: One word that keeps coming up over and over is "huge". When I talk to people, everyone has a bit of a different perspective. I liken that to a vehicle accident scene where ten people witness the accident and I get ten stories, each a little bit different. None of those witnesses would be lying to me. It's just that from where they were, from their vantage point or their perspective, each story would be a little different even though they all saw the same accident. These witness sightings remind me of such a scene, really.

That and the speed. Most people talk about it shooting off, that it was very fast. Except for Officer X, who said it looked like it was just slowly falling out of the sky but then it did leave at a very quick speed. I can't figure out what it could be but there was definitely something here that night. I think the radar certainly proves that. Of course, the radar won't prove what it was or wasn't, but it does seem to vindicate some of the witnesses.

Beyond the Report

Razpad: At the end of the report, there is talk about the craft that is slowly moving toward Crawford late in the evening that goes outside of the four-hour window of data. Did you hear anything more about that from witnesses further south toward Crawford or about the Secret Service getting up in arms?

AJ: No. I lost a lot of data that was on my work computer when I left the newspaper. People were definitely calling and speculating if this had anything to do with Crawford and if jets scrambled because it crossed Crawford airspace. I can't remember even one person that called that lives near Crawford saying they saw something that night.

Razpad: I remember also on the UFO Hunters show they talked about the wider range of MUFON reports. They talked about the sightings in Stephenville and then sightings moving southward, over the subsequent days, towards Houston. What was happening before that? Does that mean that in December there were sightings in Oklahoma? Is that part of a larger trend?

AJ: I'm not sure we could say that because if you went to each MUFON database or even if you went to each state's UFO databases you would see sightings all over the place. I'm not sure how much we can read into that because it just seems like there are more and more sightings everywhere or they are being publicized more.

If it were really researched, there might be another pattern going toward the east. I don't know. I do remember somebody from Channel 10 in Corpus Christi came up and did a 3-day special on the sightings here. The people in town were very excited. The reporter was also very excited because three nights was a lot of airtime for him, 6 or 7 minute reports. There were some things going on in Corpus Christi, to the best of my recollection, right after January 8th. So, maybe that is what the UFO Hunters were referring to.

Razpad: I've heard reports, and you've heard them too, about a lot of air traffic over the area in the subsequent days, not just on January 8th. I know that was outside the scope of the report. Do you know if there was any discussion or new insights about that?

AJ: On the 10th, the day my first article about the Selden sighting came out, I got a lot of calls that day. People were asking me if that's the reason for all the transport helicopters and the jets. I didn't have a good answer for them. I do remember that day, January 10th, when I went to my car to go to lunch there were two big transport helicopters flying over us. So, I wondered too what was going on, if they were looking for something. We are used to those jets flying over us going to Brownwood, but it still seemed that there was more air traffic than usual.

I'm in a professional women's group. One of the members in that group emailed me. She had been coming home from Fort Worth on the 8th and took pictures. She said they were waiting to see an air collision because there was so much air traffic. She sent me the pictures and it looks like a grid pattern of contrails. Those pictures she sent me are on my web site, www.stephenvillelights.com. So, I got a lot of phone calls and emails about the increased air traffic. This was before the story picked up steam because the first stories came out on January 10th and 11th. The next Monday is when I talked to the Associated Press and they came down and interviewed Ricky Sorrells.

Razpad: Okay, so almost like a search pattern with aircraft flying in grids?

AJ: A whole lot of air traffic. You can't help but look up when those jets fly over because they are so loud. I did start making phone calls to try to find out if President Bush was at Crawford that night. He was out of the country, I believe.

Razpad: I have one last question, Angelia. Were there any reports from any of the eyewitnesses of any offensive or aggressive maneuvers by these UFOs?

AJ: No, I'm not aware of any reports like that. I haven't heard anybody say they were frightened. They said it disturbed them to think about what it could be, or something like that.

One of the things I was surprised about, I'm not now because I know more about it, but I received a lot of email from people containing bible verses. One lady wrote me and said that if I continued writing about UFOs then I was writing for the devil. You know, that caught me off guard. I wasn't really expecting those kinds of things. I got a lot of bible verses that were for and against, saying that UFOs have been around since the biblical days because there was the fiery chariot and that was a UFO and then the lady that said if I continued to write about UFOs I was writing for the devil.

Razpad: It takes all kinds! Thanks, Angelia.

7/15/08

AP Texas News - Radar shows large, fast, unexplained object

July 14, 2008, 6:07PM
Radar shows large, fast, unexplained object

FORT WORTH, Texas — An enormous aircraft without transponders traveling up to 2,100 mph — at one time zooming toward President Bush's Crawford ranch — is similar to the mysterious object dozens reported seeing, according to radar documents examined by a group that studies unidentified flying objects.

"This shows ample evidence of UFO activity," said Kenneth Cherry, Texas director of the Mutual UFO Network, which has been studying phenomenon earlier this year in Stephenville and Dublin, about 75 miles southwest of Fort Worth. "They were turning at angles not possible by military aircraft."

His organization, called MUFON, requested documents from the Federal Aviation Administration, nearby military bases and other agencies under the Freedom of Information Act.

FAA spokesman Roland Herwig said Monday that he had not seen the radar information provided to MUFON and could not comment on it or the group's interpretation of the data.

MUFON requested reports from the night of Jan. 8, when several dozen people in Texas dairy country — including a pilot, county constable, business owners and former air traffic controller — reported seeing a large silent object with bright lights flying low and fast.

Some folks reported seeing military jets chasing it, which also was confirmed in the FAA radar documents.

After talking to witnesses, MUFON investigators ended up looking into 300 reported UFO sightings spanning several weeks and said most were probably planets, cloud formations or stars.

But Cherry said the FAA radar data, which was examined by a radar expert and an engineer who works with MUFON, indicates that some reports do not have logical explanations.

"When you look at that, combined with the witness reports — that's as close to evidence of UFOs as I've seen," he said.

The object was between 524 feet and 1,000 feet long, according to a MUFON report released earlier this month. It's unclear if radar picked up the same object at different times or more than one object, Cherry said.

The object was within 10 miles of Bush's ranch about 8 p.m., but the president was not there that night. MUFON only requested information until 8 p.m. that night, so it's unclear where the object went after that.

At times when radar picked up a slow-moving object and fast-moving object, it was at the same time and place as witnesses' accounts, according to the report. At one time, the object accelerated to 532 mph in about 30 seconds and decelerated to 49 mph in 10 seconds, the report stated, based on radar information.

"The authors cannot comment on the source or origin of this object, but it is clear to the authors that the unknown object was real and not imaginary," they said in the MUFON report.

7/12/08

Radar tracked unidentified craft near Crawford, group's report says

Federal Aviation Administration radar appears to confirm the presence of unidentified aircraft on Jan. 8 over the Stephenville-Dublin area, with at least one appearing to head toward President Bush’s Crawford Ranch, the same night that dozens of people reported seeing UFOs, according to a report released Thursday by a national group that studies reports of unidentified flying objects.

Joiner

According to the Mutual UFO Network report, the FAA radar indicated that several craft wer e moving in the same compass direction and time frame as those cited by Erath County residents. The craft were not military and did not have transponders that relay information about themselves to radar operators.

Radar tracked a Crawford-bound craft for more than an hour, according to the MUFON report. Witnesses said they saw two large glowing amber lights similar in size and color to the lights on the back of a school bus.

The object seemed to be stationary or moving at speeds of less than 60 mph most of the time, but at one point it accelerated to 532 mph in 30 seconds, according to the report. It did not seem to reach the property.

"The object was traveling to the southeast on a direct course towards the Crawford Ranch," the report states.

"The last time the object was seen on radar at 8 p.m., it was continuing on a direct path to Crawford Ranch and was only 10 miles away. During the entire episode of over an hour, there is no indication that any of the military jets reacted to this unknown craft."

Dozens of people around Dublin and Stephenville — about 70 miles southwest of Fort Worth — have reported seeing something in the sky on or about Jan. 8 that did not move like conventional aircraft. Some witnesses said the objects were accompanied or followed by military aircraft.

Descriptions varied. Some told of objects up to a mile long and hundreds of yards high. Others reported seeing two to eight lights that flew in formation, changed color and shone with intensity greater than a welding flame.

Media attention

The reports attracted international attention.

On Friday night, a producer from CNN’s Larry King Live program and a six-person production team from Dallas set up in the back yard of Ricky Sorrells, one of the UFO sighters who lives about eight miles west of Dublin.

They were there for a live interview with King, who was in his Los Angeles studio. Their segment of the show was titled "UFOs: Target Texas?"

Others interviewed were Erath County Constable Lee Roy Gaitan; Angelia Joiner, a former reporter for the Stephenville Empire-Tribune; and James Fox, a filmmaker from California.

Gaitan told a Star-Telegram reporter that he felt vindicated by the new report. "You probably think we’re just a bunch of hillbillies out here," Gaitan said. "There were people who did doubt me, but I know I saw something."

Gaitan and Joiner told King that they hadn’t given much thought to UFOs before Jan. 8. Now, it has taken over much of their lives. Joiner said she lost her reporting job because she was spending too much time on the UFO question.

She told King that all the witnesses’ stories are credible. "I used to go the other direction," she said, "But lately I think maybe we’re being visited from another place."

Gaitan said that for a while he was frustrated by all the attention. He said he has given at least 150 interviews.

"I was seeing that thing in my sleep," he said. "I was getting tired of it, but my wife reminded me that what I saw was pretty special and a lot of people would like to see it."

MUFON report

Two MUFON researchers said they got information for the report by filing 10 Freedom of Information requests to the FAA, National Weather Service, all nearby military bases, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the 21st and 30th Air Force Wing Commands. The researchers noted that the FAA and weather service were "very responsive," but most of the others responded that they had no information.

FAA spokesman Roland Herwig said he was not familiar with the radar data and could not comment Friday.

The report was released on the MUFON Web site late Thursday night.

It seems to back witnesses’ stories, including Gaitan’s, who said he saw an unknown object south of his home about four miles southwest of Dublin.

He described it as two amber lights that were initially stationary but changed into about 10 white lights that departed at a high rate of speed.

"Radar detects an object at 7:20 p.m. only 2.8 miles south-southwest of the constable’s home and traveling in a southeastern direction," the report states. "This matches very well with the time and direction of the constable’s sighting. At 7:36 p.m. radar shows the object suddenly veering to the north at 1,900 miles per hour and then returning a minute later to continue on its southeastern course."

Online: The report is available at www.mufon.com

MATT FRAZIER, 817-685-3854

7/11/08

UFO witnesses to be on TV

Stephenville native Ricky Sorrells and other witnesses who claim they saw a UFO in January will be guests on Larry King Live today.

The show, which airs daily on cable news channel CNN at 8 p.m., will also feature three hunters from the History Channel show, "UFO Hunters."

Sewell and several other Stephenville natives claim they saw a large silent object with bright lights flying low and fast near Stephenville in January.

Radar spotted UFOs near Crawford in January, group says

mfrazier@star-telegram.com

A national group that studies unidentified flying objects has issued a report that says Federal Aviation Administration radar appears to confirm the presence of unidentified aircrafts over the Stephenville/Dublin area, with at least one apparently headed toward President Bush’s Crawford Ranch on the January night when dozens of witnesses reported UFOs.

The Mutual UFO Network report says radar indicates that several aircraft were found Jan. 8 in the same compass direction and time frame as cited by the witnesses, but were not military and did not have transponder, which relay information about the craft to radar operators.

The 77-page report released on the MUFON Web site (www.mufon.com) late Thursday night. The organization gathered data for its radar report by filing 10 Freedom of Information requests to the FAA, National Weather Service, all nearby military bases, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Services and the 21st and 30th Air Force Wing Commands.

FAA spokesman Roland Herwig said he was not familiar with the radar data and could not immeditely comment on the report.

According to the report, one Crawford-bound craft was tracked by radar for more than an hour. Witnesses said they saw two large glowing amber lights similar in size and color to the lights on the back of a school bus.

The object seemed to be stationary or moving speeds of less than 60 mph most of the time, but at one point it accelerated to 532 miles per hour in 30 seconds, according to the report. But it did not seem to reach the property.

“The object was traveling to the southeast on a direct course towards the Crawford Ranch, also known as President Bush’s western White House,” the report sates. “The last time the object was seen on radar at 8 p.m., it was continuing on a direct path to Crawford Ranch and was only 10 miles away. During the entire episode of over an hour, there is no indication that any of the military jets reacted to this unknown craft.”

Dozens of people around Dublin and Stephenville — about 70 miles southwest of Fort Worth — say they saw flying objects on or around Jan. 8 that they could not identify and that did not move like conventional aircraft. Some of the witnesses said the objects were being accompanied or followed by military aircraft.

Descriptions vary. Some told of objects up to a mile long and hundreds of yards high. Others reported seeing two to eight lights that flew in formation, changed color and shined with intensity greater than a welding flame.

These sightings gained national and international attention because of the number and credibility of witnesses, including a county constable and a pilot. Many of the witnesses are familiar with aircraft because the military has a flight practice zone that ends just south of the sighting area.

The radar report seems to back witnesses stories, including that of constable Lee Roy Gaitan, who said he saw an unknown object south of his home about four miles southwest of Dublin. He described it as two amber lights that were initially stationary that changed into about 10 white lights that departed at a high rate of speed.

“Radar detects an object at 7:20 p.m. only 2.8 miles south southwest of the constable’s home and traveling in a southeastern direction,” the report states. “This matches very well with the time and direction of the constable’s sighting. At 7:36 p.m. radar shows the object suddenly veering to the north at 1,900 miles per hour and then returning a minute later to continue on its southeastern course.”

The authors of the report said they reached conclusions:

nThere was definitely a real and physical object that appeared and was witnessed.

nThe military did not act overtly to the presence of these objects.

nMilitary air traffic was unusually heavy and twice veered into civilian airspace.

The Mutual UFO Network is a nationwide organization that studies unidentified flying objects. Its Texas chapter took statements from about 50 witnesses Jan. 19 and interviewed at least 70 more, gathering descriptions, sketches, pictures and videos.

The report is online at www.mufon.com.

MATT FRAZIER, 817-685-3854