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