Photo captured in Stephenville on 2/5/09:
Phoenix Lights 1997:
Source: http://lucianarchy.proboards21.com/index.cgi?board=ufotexas&action=display&thread=5132
3/3/09
Stephenville Lights vs Phoenix Lights
2/8/09
Unidentified freaky lights fill the Stephenville Sky
‘Unidentified freaky lights’ fill the sky
By WHITNEY WHITE-ASHLEY
Staff Writer
Whitney.ashley@empiretribune.com
Published: Sunday, February 8, 2009 4:10 PM CST
County residents are once again seeing more than just stars in the night sky. Reports of large, orange lights started pouring into law enforcement Thursday night.
Erath County Sheriff Tommy Bryant said the county dispatcher reported six calls between 7:33 and 7:44 p.m. coming in from various areas in the county. From Highway 108 to Highway 67 and out to CR 454, callers reported clusters of large orange or amber lights.
Joel Stroup called the sheriff’s office when he spotted the lights on FM 205.
“The whole horizon coming into Stephenville was lit up with lights,” Stroup said. “There’s no doubt when you see them.”
Stroup said the lights were about the size of oranges and flashed on and off. After about 30 seconds, the string of lights disappeared.
Junior Chacen, who also witnessed the lights in October 2008, was once again at HEB in Stephenville when he saw the lights Thursday night.
“It was pretty much the same thing as last time,” Chacen said.
He saw about eight to nine lights moving in the sky. He said they disappeared after about 45 seconds.
“Shortly after that we did notice a couple of jets. Then everything disappeared,” Chace“n said.
Norma, who declined to give her last name, was lying in bed in her Dublin home when she saw the lights.
“I have cafe curtains in my bedroom and I was lying down in bed and heard motors that sounded like airplanes or helicopters. I looked out the window and I nearly lost consciousness,” Norma said.
She saw orange lights that seemed to drop off one by one.
“I wouldn’t call anybody or tell them because I was afraid they would think I was crazy,” she said. “When it happens to you, it is awesome. You become fearful.”
Justin Sellers, who commutes to work in the Fort Worth area, was driving home when he saw the lights north of Bluff Dale around 7:30 p.m.
“They kind of moved across the sky from the west to the east,” Sellers said.
He pulled over and saw what he thought were two military jets flying eastward. Then the lights disappeared.
Michelle Stilwell and her family were heading home on Lingleville Road when her 10-year-old daughter spotted something in the night sky.
“We saw lights in the sky, me and my whole family,” Stilwell said.
They saw four or five lights in the sky that flashed on and off.
When the family arrived home, her husband Travis, Stephenville High School principal, began searching the Internet for similar sightings.
The family tried to cope by naming the objects UFLs - unidentified freaky lights. But her two daughters were still worried.
“They were so scared they wouldn’t even go back to the car or get their backpacks,” Stilwell said. “It was the wildest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Mike Carroll was standing outside when he saw something at 7:30 p.m. Carroll, who is the assistant athletic director and head athletic trainer at Stephenville High School, saw the lights during a football game last fall. But he said this time, the lights were much brighter.
“I saw four real bright lights right in a row on the horizon,” Carroll said.
He did not hear any sound and the display only lasted about 20 seconds.
“Two planes came in at a real high rate (of speed),” Carroll said, then the lights disappeared.
Steve Hudgeons, an investigator with the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), confirmed that new reports have been logged on their Web site, www.mufon.com.
Stephenville Police Captain Jason King said they received a call just after 7:30 p.m. that a lot of cars were stopped near Highway 8 and Highway 108 looking at bright lights in the sky. He said an officer was dispatched and responded to the scene within four minutes, but found no cars and saw no lights.
“From our perspective, there’s nothing to it,” King said.
United States Air Force Reserve Major Karl D. Lewis with the 301st Fighter Wing said people most likely saw a training exercise.
“F-16s from the 301st Fighter Wing/457th Fighter Squadron continue to train in the Brownwood Military Operating Area (MOA) during the day and night for training operations. We were conducting our normal training in the Brownwood MOA on February 5th,” Lewis said.
Source: http://www.empiretribune.com/articles/2009/02/08/news/doc498f555d5ae4a435373093.txt
2/3/09
Mysterious objects reported in the Skies
Mysterious objects reported in the skies
Speculation abounds as to why unknown objects continue to fly in the skies over Erath County.
Slightly more than a year after the first report of mysterious objects, now known as Stephenville Lights, more witnesses are coming forth. Walnut Springs resident Matt Collins and his mother, Sharla, and sister Ashlee have all said they have witnessed bright lights in the sky that defy explanation.
On Thursday Matt said he and his sister were returning to their home on FM 203 shortly after 7 p.m. He said they had just been talking about the Stephenville sightings when his sister pointed and said, "'Look at that,'" Collins said. "I thought she was kidding at first because we had just been talking about the Stephenville sightings."
"My sister saw three light sets but by the time I located them there was only one. The lights would come on and stay on for about 20 seconds. Then it would go off and reappear a little to the right or left of where it was."
Matt said the air traffic route for Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport is near his home so he is accustomed to the presence of commercial and private aircraft.
Matt said the object appeared about 25 to 30 degrees off the horizon in the northwest sky toward Stephenville. He said he could definitely see a dark mass between the sets of lights.
"I'm not sure how close or far away it was," Matt said. "It could have been over Chalk Mountain. But, it was definitely in the direction of Stephenville."
Then on Saturday it was back. This time it was about 9:30 p.m., shortly after Matt appeared on the WB 33 (KDAF-TV of Dallas/Fort Worth) news discussing the sighting he had witnessed two nights before.
"I ran in the house and got my sister and woke up my mom," Matt said. He also took video footage of the incident, he said.
Sharla said she was amazed.
"I always thought people that said they saw UFOs were crazy," Sharla said. "Now, I think there is definitely something out there that we don't know about."
The family said the object was visible for about fifteen minutes and had a red center but that the outside of the light changed from red to yellow, to white and bright orange.
CNN called Matt on Monday and made arrangements to show the film he took in a future broadcast.
Apparently, the Collinses were not the only ones to see the objects.
On the same night, Cody and Carrie Tedford and their uncle Dwayne Clover were turning right off Loop 377 South in Stephenville returning to their home in Hamilton.
Cody said he caught something out of the corner of his eye and told his uncle to look out the back window.
Clover said his 5-year-old niece riding in the back seat with him could also see the object and made comments like, "Wow! Look at that."
They agreed the object was fairly low in the skies but estimated it could have been 60 degrees from the horizon and then made a slow descent to about 25 degrees.
"At first it appeared to be just sitting there hovering," Clover said. "But that might have been because it was moving toward us and we couldn't tell that."
Cody said he thought it was over the courthouse and moving toward the City Limits bar on U.S. 377.
"We thought it was landing," Clover said.
All said they saw a double row of horizontal lights.
Clover said he likes to watch planes and he works at a place where helicopters take off and land often, so he was sure it was not one of those types of aircraft.
"I don't know what it was. We weren't frightened," Clover said. "We were just watching it, trying to figure out what it was and it didn't fit for anything I knew. It was a clear descent and moving slowly and close enough to the ground to make you think it was landing."
A reporter from WB 33 said the Bosque County Sheriff's Office dispatcher received four calls reporting something unusual.
Two people in the Abilene area also reported sightings to the Mutual UFO Network Web site.
2/1/09
Obama and the Release of the UFO files
Obama administration to clash with corporations over UFO files
by Michael Salla, Ph.D., Honolulu Exopolitics Examiner
Lockheed Skunk Works, Palmdale, CA. Photo: Wikimedia
President Obama’s January 21 Memoranda to promote Open Government and strengthen the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) are intended to release unnecessarily classified national security files. Among the many millions of classified files to ultimately be released, some will concern UFOs and extraterrestrial life. From these releases, UFO enthusiasts and exopolitical researchers hope to find clues into how government policy has been developed. More importantly, FOIA releases will point to where the bulk of the nation’s UFO files are located. That’s when the Obama administration will run up against corporate control of UFO files and policy.
Testimonial evidence exists that corporations have become the ultimate repository of the nation’s UFO secrets. A number of whistleblowers have emerged revealing how corporate control has been achieved. A recently deceased corporate whistleblower revealed how during the mid-1980s, he worked for six months as an archivist for a large aerospace defense contractor based in California. It was a temporary assignment with his employer at an obscure office building. The archivist found many files dealing with flying saucers and extraterrestrial life. The files contained: “Reports, photos, media materials (tapes, films, video cassettes) and material from crashed saucers.” When asked where the files came from he revealed the “materials came from everywhere. CIA, Air Force, Navy, Army, DARPA, NORAD, DoD, FBI, and government officials to name most.”
Project Camelot Video of Corporate UFO archivist
If the archivist’s testimony is accurate, this means that prior to the mid-1980s UFO files were taken out of the possession of U.S. government agencies and military departments due to security concerns. One reason for this is that the proprietary rights of corporations would enable UFO files to remain hidden from the prying hands of congressmen, and private citizens using the Freedom of Information Act first passed in 1966 and strengthened in 1974.
The above scenario is supported by comments by Ben Rich, former CEO of Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works. In hand written responses to questions from John Andrews of the Testor Corporation in 1986, Rich confirmed the existence of both man-made and extraterrestrial UFOs. Most importantly, Rich revealed to Andrews how control of UFO files had slipped from the U.S. military to private corporations. Andrews relayed Rich’s responses to questions from UFO investigator William McDonald which confirmed:
There are two types of UFOs -- the ones we build, and ones THEY build. We learned from both crash retrievals and actual "Hand-me-downs." The Government knew, and until 1969 took an active hand in the administration of that information. After a 1969 Nixon "Purge", administration was handled by an international board of directors in the private sector.
Former astronaut, Dr Edgar Mitchell recently confirmed an incident in 1997 where the Head of Intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff was supplied the code names of UFO related projects, but was denied need-to-access. The first to report the incident was UFO researcher, Dr Steven Greer, who in 2001 revealed that Admiral Wilson was furious over his failure to gain access. On a July 4, 2008 CNN interview, Dr Mitchell confirmed Greer’s version of events when he said that Admiral Wilson “had found the people responsible for the cover-up and for the people who were in the know and were told, I'm sorry, admiral, you do not have need to know here and so, goodbye.” A reliable source furthermore revealed to UFO researcher Richard Dolan that Admiral Wilson was frustrated by attorneys of a corporation that denied him access. I interviewed an active duty U.S. Navy officer in October 2008 who confirmed the powerful role of corporations involved in UFO projects.
A number of senior officials in the Obama administration were deeply involved in Clinton administration efforts to disclose files concerning UFOs. If President Obama’s January 21 Memoranda are fully implemented, FOIA requests will allow much information about UFOs to emerge. This will give important clues to where the bulk of the nation’s UFO files are kept. That is when the Obama administration will run up against powerful corporate interests claiming proprietary control of UFO information and advanced extraterrestrial technology. The Obama administration will ultimately need to confront corporate interests that house UFO files, and controlled UFO policy since the Nixon Administration.
1/31/09
Possible UFO Sighting In Stephenville
Possible UFO Sighting In Stephenville
Reporter: Matt Collins
At about 7:15pm this evening on the horizon in the North West, there they were 3 hovering bright red lights.
Nothing like I have ever seen.
They would sporadically appear and disappear in different locations in the same part of the sky.
I waited for about five minutes and finally another light, of the same brightness and intensity, appeared in the same location, only this time it was moving across the horizon.
Just like the other lights before it, this one disappeared the same way.
Me and my sister both witnessed the lights over Stephenville.
The reason I know these were not airplanes or jets is because just off to the North of the UFO's was the path that airliners and other jets arrive at DFW, so I had an almost side by side comparison of the two different crafts as a point of reference to make my judgment call.
Source: http://www.kwtx.com/iwitness/headlines/38721747.html
11/3/08
More Sightings in Stephenville
More sightings
Residents remain puzzled by lights
By WHITNEY WHITE-ASHLEY
Staff Writer
Whitney.ashley@empiretribune.com
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.
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
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
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
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