Reports of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) Reached a Record Level in 2008
Denver, CO, March 19, 2009 –(PR.com)– You may think that reports of strange craft flying around in our skies are rarities. However, according to the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), thousands of reports are made yearly, and reports of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in 2008 reached a record high, with over 5,000 reports. This number is more than double the reports made in 2007.
So why is their such a drastic increase? According to Robert Powell, MUFON’s Director of Research, “Last year’s record numbers were contributed in part by mass sighting reports in Erath County, Texas and Bucks County, Pennsylvania.” He goes on to emphasize that many of the witnesses making these reports are highly credible professionals, such as police officers, county constables, engineers and former air traffic control operators.
Some of the best evidence collected in 2008 was related to the Stephenville, Texas sightings. In that investigation, a comprehensive radar report confirmed an unknown object(s) in the area of Stephenville on the evening of Jan. 8, 2008, and supported claims made by eight witnesses. Powell, along with radar expert Glen Shultz, went through millions of radar hits, provided to them through a Freedom of Information Act request to the FAA, to discover this startling correlation. Although the Stephenville sightings became a large worldwide media event, Powell is shocked at the lack of attention the radar report has received.
Powell pointed out that this year also brought forth declassified materials in the case of UFO files by the governments of Denmark and the United Kingdom. He says, ”The United States remains as the only major nation whose government claims to ignore UFOs. One wonders what NORAD does when an unknown object shows up on their radar screens.”
The Mutual UFO Network was created in 1969 for the scientific study of UFOs for the benefit of humanity through investigations, research and education. It has become the largest civilian UFO investigation organization with certified investigators across the country actively researching UFO reports. Visit www.MUFON.com to find out how to become an investigator, or to look at the reports.
Mutual UFO Network
Alejandro Rojas
303-585-0955
arojas@mufon.com
www.MUFON.com
Mysterious objects reported in skies
By Angelia Joiner
The Abilene Reporter News
2-2-09
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.
[ Source ]
Another unexplained sighting in Stephenville
By Angelia Joiner
Special to the Reporter-News
Thursday, November 20, 2008
What in the world continues to fly in the skies over Stephenville? Or maybe it’s out of this world.
On the heels of multiple UFO sightings in the area on Oct. 23, Tuesday, Nov. 18 proved just as noteworthy for local residents.
Michael Corn, 27, a former member of the Army assigned to a Patriot Missile unit, said while at his home at 7:15 p.m. at the intersection of Highway 377 Business and U.S. Highway 281, friends called him outside.
He saw what appeared to be a brightly lit object in the sky. ”It looked really close to Stephenville, like it was almost over the courthouse,” Corn said.
He said the amber/orange lights pulsed in a right-to-left direction. ”I could see the bottom of the object from the illumination of those lights and the city lights,” Corn said. “The bottom (of the object) looked smooth.
“There is no way you could be outside and look up in the sky and not notice this thing. It was just weird.”
Corn said he observed the object for about 15 seconds, and then it disappeared without a sound.
“It just vanished,” he said.
When questioned about the possibility of the object being an experimental military project, he said: “I know that we couldn’t make it. I don’t believe it’s ours. I got the impression that it has technology that we are not capable of understanding.”
Corn said he is familiar with all types of aircraft because of his experience in the Army and his childhood near the Dallas-Fort Worth airport.
“It was very unnerving — you can’t come up with a reasonable explanation for what it was,” Corn said.
Corn’s girlfriend, Ashley Couch, also saw the object.
“It reminded me of a carousel lying over on its side,” Couch said.
Another observer at U.S. Highway 281 and North Loop 377 said she could not explain what she saw.
The 20-year-old woman, who asked not to be identified, was traveling north on Loop 377 when her boyfriend called her attention to the vehicle just ahead that seemed to be strangely illuminated.
“He asked me if I saw those weird lights,” she said. “But I hadn’t noticed anything.”
She said they pulled into a gas station at the intersection.
When they exited their vehicle, a man pulled in and asked if they had seen the lights.
“He said he was a pilot, and after my boyfriend had just asked me about lights so that got my attention,” the woman said.
Entering back into traffic headed north, they both saw an object.
“It was coming down at a slight angle — slowly — it had a bright, big light, a steady light and a blinking light,” she said, “for a total of three.
“One was red, and maybe that was the one that was blinking … I’m not sure.”
The couple was so mesmerized they slowed down to almost a stop in the road.
“It pivoted to our left side, maybe 50 yards away and 75 yards up in the air,” she said. “It looked almost like it was hovering. The lights were so bright it was hard to see the shape.”
The woman said they passed the object, and she looked back to see if it was going to land at the airport, Clark Field. But she was unable to see it.
“We turned around and went back” to the gas station, she said. “There we saw it again, but this time it was on our right moving left across in front of us,” she said. “It turned again and looked like it was about to stop, and went back the other way.”
“The lights were so bright it was almost hard to look at it. I think it might have been blimp-shaped and about the size of two school buses. It was hard to tell.”
Area law enforcement officers said about 10 calls were received reporting a craft or lights.
While some of the callers may have seen flares, one officer said not all of the calls were related to flares dropped in the Brownwood Military Operating Area just before 7 p.m.
[ Source ]
Noted Reporter, ‘Angelia Joiner’ to Attend San Jose Symposium
By Sherry Boardman
7-19-08
Former Stephenville, Texas, Empire-Tribune newspaper reporter Angelia Joiner will attend the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) 39th International UFO Symposium in San Jose, California, July 24-27.
Her dedication and quest for answers regarding the Texas incident resulted in the Stephenville Lights: A Comprehensive Radar and Witness Report Study, compiled by Glen Schulze, radar analyst, and Robert Powell, the current Director of Research at MUFON. The report is now being picked up by major networks around the world and will be reviewed in depth at the San Jose Symposium.
Joiner garnered fame after reporting the Jan. 8, 2008, sightings of unusual lights over Erath County, Texas. Her factual and straight-forward style of reporting brought accolades from around the world. Invitations to share her experiences as the journalist who “broke the story” have been continual.
She has appeared twice on Larry King Live, was a guest on Coast to Coast AM, interviewed by Dr. Laurie Nadal, The Sixth Sense, and on numerous local and foreign radio and television broadcasts. Among those interviewed by Joiner have been Dr. Lynn Kitei, “The Phoenix Lights, We Are Not Alone,” and Robert Emenegger.
The reporter was invited to serve as a panelist at the National Press Conference following her presentation at the Washington, D.C. Paradigm’s Research Group’s Conference and was a presenter at the Ozark Conference.
Joiner will be available for interviews during the Symposium and a question and answer session following the Press Conference. She may be contacted in advance to schedule individual appointments Thursday night through Saturday morning at: www.stephenvillelights.com, ajoiner@nctv.com.
Radar study supports witnesses in Stephenville
By ANGELIA JOINER
Friday, 11 July 2008
A radar study recently released supports eight witness reports of an unidentified object in Stephenville, Texas, and the surrounding area on January 8, 2008.
Robert Powell, MUFON national research director, and Glen Schulze, retired radar analyst, have labored hundreds of hours analyzing 2.8 million bits of Freedom of Information Act requested raw radar data from five FAA towers between the hours of 4 – 8 p.m. surrounding the Dublin/Stephenville, Texas area.
Dozens of Erath County residents reported seeing an object or lights in the sky at separate locations and the story quickly made national and international news.
The study may make even the most hardnosed skeptic scratch his head.
The report is entitled, Stephenville Lights: A comprehensive radar and witness report, and can be fully downloaded at www.mufon.com.
The unknown object was on a trajectory towards and 10 miles from President Bush’s Crawford Ranch without a required beacon signal seemingly without any military interest.
About two weeks after the first story was publicized in the Stephenville local paper on January 10, Maj. Karl Lewis, spokesman for the Carswell Naval Air Base, said his unit had 10, F-16s in the skies above Erath County after first having said no jets from the base were in the area. Could this be because Lewis knew the information would come out after seeing freedom of information acts filed at his base?
Powell and Schulze tracked those 10 jets without any trouble.
Now, they are scratching their heads wondering how an object without a beacon could apparently fly into Crawford air space without raising military eyebrows.
That is not the only thing that left the two report authors with unanswered questions.
Also, seemingly out of the ‘norm’ was four jets encroaching on civilian air space after deviating from the Brownwood military operating area return path on return runs to the Carswell Naval Air Base. The jets appeared to turn on transponders late in the game, which may have left air traffic controllers and others scrambling to make last minute decisions to keep the air traffic around DFW airport safe after they realized the jets were on radar.
Additionally, two jets traveling to Carswell from an Oklahoma air base made a wide sweep around Comanche, Dublin and Stephenville before landing at the Fort Worth base.
And, what the authors claim could only be an AWACS craft studied the area for the entire four hours in what Powell calls a “race track pattern” sweeping back and forth making 180 degree turns.
To see more on this report watch Larry King Live tonight at 8 p.m. central where the authors will make guest appearances.
UFO Sightings Galvanize a Small Town
By Denise Gellene
The LA Times
6-22-08
But Air Force says jets were in area
STEPHENVILLE, Texas – Constable Lee Roy Gaitan saw the brilliant red orbs hovering in the sky and hollered for his family to come out.
It’s probably an airplane, said his wife, Wendy, who didn’t budge from the couch. Only 8-year-old Ryan went to the front yard.
That’s a UFO, the boy said.
Gaitan, who has spent 16 years patrolling the Texas scrubland, faced a bit of a dilemma. With an election coming up, he could tell the world of this incredible sight – and look like an idiot – or keep his mouth shut.
“People would say, ‘Hey, this guy is nuts. He’s crazy,’ ” said Gaitan of his sighting Jan. 8. In the morning, there were no unusual police reports, leaving him to wonder whether anyone else had seen the lights. But the next day, the Stephenville Empire-Tribune came out with a front-page story: “Possible UFO sighting – Four area residents witness mysterious objects.”
Soon, scores more said they had seen the same thing. Stephenville, a ranch town 70 miles southwest of Fort Worth, became home to the biggest mass UFO sighting since the 1997 Lights Over Phoenix, in which thousands of people, including then-governor Fife Symington, reported seeing a boomerang-shaped object in the sky.
With so many reports from so many people pouring in, there was no easy way to dismiss it all as a hoax. A town that had called itself The Cowboy Capital of the World now found itself riding an emotional bronco.
Stephenville, the largest town in Erath County, is in the heart of Texas dairy country, which means open land and few towns to interrupt grazing.
Cows easily outnumber the 34,000 humans in the county. After football season ends in the winter, life slows.
It was a cool, clear January night when Steve Allen, 50, and a group of friends were warming themselves around a fire of brush and debris in nearby Selden, just south of Stephenville.
They first saw a set of brilliant white lights heading from the east that looked like they were at the corners of something a mile long and a half mile wide. The lights were quicker and quieter than anything Allen had ever seen.
“They came within a mile of us,” said Allen, the owner of L & S Enterprises and Texas Freight, a local trucking company. “It flipped us all out.”
The lights headed toward Stephenville, where they came to a stop. They reconfigured to form an arch “shaped like the top of a football,” Allen said, and realigned themselves into two vertical lines of randomly flashing lights. Then the object burst into a dirty white flame.
“It looked like something firing up, like a blow torch,” Allen said. “It simply vanished.
Ten minutes later, the group saw the lights coming from the opposite direction. Trailing them closely, Allen was certain, were two military jets followed by two massive red orbs.
Allen, who as a licensed pilot was comfortable judging distance, said the lights were 3,000 feet above the ground.
He went home and told his wife, who urged him to keep the encounter to himself.
Allen spent a sleepless night, enthralled by what he had seen. In the morning, he contacted the Empire-Tribune.
His call went to education reporter Angelia Joiner. She knew nothing about UFOs, but Allen sounded like a sensible man.
“He was a pilot and seemed very intelligent,” said Joiner, a 47-year-old former school teacher who had been a reporter for 18 months. Allen’s friends confirmed the account.
Still, it was a strange story, and Joiner’s bosses were concerned. Managing editor Sara Vanden Berge said she was so anxious that she cried the next morning when she saw “UFO” in the headline. Everyone is laughing at us, she thought.
That was before the television crews started showing up. First came the local reporters, then people from “Good Morning America,” NPR, and CNN.
The town was swept into a UFO maelstrom. People sported aluminum foil hats to Stephenville High School basketball games. Men with belt buckles big as fists were wearing “Alien Capital of the World” T-shirts rushed into production by a local company.
A logical explanation for the lights was the military; a portion of Erath County falls under a fly zone used in training exercises. When Joiner checked, however, the 301st Fighter Wing stationed near Forth Worth said no aircraft were near Stephenville when the lights were first observed.
But two weeks after the sighting, a break came in the case. Correcting its earlier statement, the Air Force said 10 F-16s were on a training mission over the county when the lights were initially spotted.
The town splintered into believers and skeptics.
Joiner doubted the weird pattern of lights reported by Allen and others could be explained by military aircraft. Allen wasn’t buying it, either. “Our military wishes it had what we saw,” he said.
Gaitan reasoned from the presence of the F-16s that he probably had seen a military experiment the Air Force couldn’t fully disclose. “We’re in the middle of a war right now,” he said.
[ Source ]
Angelia Joiner Stephenville Lights Reporter & Alfred Webre on the Richard Syrett Show
By Exopolitics Toronto
6-3-08
Toronto, ON , Canada June 2, 2008 – Angelia Joiner former staff writer for the Stephenville Empire-Tribune will join host Richard Syrett and co-host Victor Viggiani this Wednesday June 4 on News Talk 1010 CFRB AM Toronto from 11:00 pm to midnight EST to discuss the Stephenville Lights UFO phenomenon.
Angelia uncovered what is today considered by many one of the most puzzling UFO events in North American history. Her eye witness interviews include pilots, police officers and local citizens, each of whom attest to having seen massive, solid rectangular unidentified craft hundreds of metres in length – moving silently 270 metres above them.
Angelia Joiner tells her story about how a small town in Texas in January of 2008 became a world focal point as their newspaper – The Stephenville Empire Tribune – first covered the story, creating international repercussions, and then shortly thereafter ceasing all coverage. Ms. Joiner’s less than ceremonious departure from the Stephenville Empire Tribune portrays how, and possibly why mainstream journalists are pressured to play-down UFO events of high significance.
Rivaled only by the stunning Phoenix Lights of 1997 as brought to us by Dr. Lynne Kitei in an earlier interview on the Richard Syrett Show, the Stephenville Lights phenomenon enters the litany of UFO sightings receiving a “no comment” from our government and military officials.
Journalists world-wide are invited to call-in to speak with Ms. Joiner.
UFO Hunters: Stephenville Lights – Fumble!
By Mike Fortson
4-10-08
It’s with great disgust that I write this.
As one who has witnessed the fantastic, I waited with great anticipation for the UFO Hunter’s episode on the “Stephenville Lights” case. What I watched was a complete fumble of the “UFO football” . . . completely out of bounds, and just out of the stadium!
As an observer to an incredibly massive unidentified object myself, I understand the great importance of telling the story of the “Stephenville Lights” openly, truthfully, and with the best witnesses available; not by triangulating a weather balloon and comment, “now that looks like a UFO!” No, it’s an IFO (identified flying object i.e., a weather balloon)!
Why do they continually redefine the term, ”UFO” as an alien craft? An “unidentified aerial object” until determined otherwise, is just that, i.e., a UFO . . . not necessarily alien—period! They continually say, “that might be a UFO!”. Well, if it cannot be identified at the time, it IS a UFO! Most likely not alien, but at that time, “not identified.”
I really wish the word or term UFO would just go away.
My question here is, “why did they not get the most important witnesses to this case on the show?” Where was Rick Sorrells? He has witnessed the large craft several times. Including once while deer hunting on his property in daytime! He described the massive object while looking thru his scope on his rifle! Where is this interview? Where is Steve Allen’s interview? He’s a licensed pilot and witnessed the lights/object first hand. Where is his interview? Where is the Angelia Joiner interview? She’s the reporter who first broke the story. Why wasn’t she interviewed? There are also three police officers who witnessed the large craft…. calling it a massive craft…where is that interview?
Instead the UFO Hunter’s claim to have a “never-seen-before video” from Mr. Dave Coran. Except that video first was seen on the Internet on March 5, 2008. What gives here? Where is the investigating? Where is the truth?
There was a part of this so-called investigation that was intriguing…. a video of a beam of light that failed to touch the ground. Wow! Are you kidding? Now here’s something incredibly unusual. Now the question is this…. did their so-called scientist try to recreate this weird incident? No. Why not? Could it be that this is known to be “highly unusual” and they knew it could not be duplicated by their pseudo-science?
So, in my eyes they failed to get the most important witnesses. They failed to explain how a beam of light that stopped short of touching the ground could happen. Instead they launched a weather balloon and claimed it to look like a UfO.
I have but one thing to say to the UFO Hunters…. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE…stay away from the “Massive UFO Flyover of Arizona, March 13, 1997″.
OMEFT meets Sorrells
Posted 4-7-2008
By ANGELIA JOINER
[SinglePic not found]The Open Minds Expeditionary Field Team (OMEFT) came from near and far to converge on Ricky Sorrells’ property near Dublin, Texas, in hopes of encountering the object that he claims frequently visits his place and the surrounding area in Erath County.
The team formed more than a month ago after receiving an invitation from Sorrells. And, finally, the plan came to fruition and the members have been sky watching throughout the area since April 4, 2008.
Sorrells is hoping someone can get a glimpse of what he has seen several times and has never been able to identify. He’s hoping someone will go on the record with him because the one friend with him when a sighting occurred is not willing to do so.
“I just want someone else to see what I’ve seen,” Sorrells said. “That’s why I invited the people from the Open Minds Forum to come down. I hope we can get lucky and they can see it, too.”
Sorrells first made news when Angela K. Brown of the Associated Press interviewed him at his heavily wooded property on January 14, 2008. Within a few hours, Sorrells unexpectedly found himself on news channels everywhere.
Sorrells sighted a craft about 300 feet above his head in the woods on his property. He said after thinking more about the time of the sighting he has determined it was sometime the week of December 16, 2007. Feeling pressured to give a date by various news journalists he had first said the sighting was on January 1, 2008.
“I don’t even wear a watch,” Sorrells said. “I’m not very good at keeping up with dates and times.”
He said the craft was not shiny.
“It was a dull gray color,” Sorrells said. There were large cone shaped indentions on the bottom of the craft, but as he looked up he couldn’t determine exactly how large the craft was because the treetops obscured his view, he said.
“My mind was reeling as I first spotted it in my rifle scope,” Sorrells said. “I was deer hunting.”
Sorrells toured the OMEFT members attending and recounted for them personally what he witnessed.
The individuals began arriving Friday, April 4, from as far away as Massachusetts, Maryland, and North Carolina. All had in tow video and digital cameras, compasses, radiation detectors, global positioning systems and other equipment in hopes of compiling evidence of the famed “Stephenville Lights” widely covered by mainstream media including well known talk show host Larry King.
[SinglePic not found]The members were carefully positioned throughout Erath County, but so far no sightings have been reported. Most members will be heading for home on Monday, April 7.
And what Texas visit could be complete without a Texas B-B-Q? The evening of Saturday April 5, 2008, the team rolled out a spiral ham, smoked brisket, and all the trimmings. Steve Allen and this reporter made cameo appearances to answer questions and welcome OMEFT. Erath County Constable Lee Roy Gaitan had planned to attend, but was unexpectedly called for duty.
Allen, Joiner, Sherry Boardman, Brent Chambers and his son Lane were dispatched to Selden, Texas, where the first reports were made from Allen, Mike Odom, Claudette Odom, and Lance Jones that historic night of January 8, 2008.
Odom joined the group on his property to sky watch for OMEFT. The team is documenting findings daily at Open Minds Forum at www.openmindsforum.com, complete with video interviews.
Stephenville Lights Reporter, Angelia Joiner in The UFO Spotlight
Angelia Joiner
Area woman garners fame since seeing UFO
By Jane Pratt
Reporter-News
4-4-08
STEPHENVILLE — Garnering international attention was the last thing on Angelia Joiner’s mind when she interviewed Steve Allen on Jan. 8 and reported on UFO sightings in Erath County in the Stephenville Empire-Tribune.
But today, she still receives 30 to 40 e-mails daily from all over the world about the sightings, and she will be the guest speaker at two conferences on UFO’s during the month of April.
Joiner will join eight other speakers during the 20th Annual Ozark UFO Conference that meets April 11-13 in Eureka Springs, Ark. Then, the next week, she will fly to Washington, D.C., where she will make a presentation during the Paradigm Research Group’s conference from April 18-20.
The Ozark UFO Conference is an independent activity not affiliated with any local of national UFO organization that promotes information on UFO-related topics.
The Paradigm Research Group was established in 1996 by Stephen Bennett, a political activist and consultant. The group’s Web site states that the purpose of the group is to promote ways to stop the government-imposed embargo on facts “surrounding extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race.”
The title of Joiner’s presentation is “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of UFO Reporting.”
Joiner said the “good” part of UFO reporting is the number of new people she has met and old friendships that have been renewed when people she had lost touch with contacted her after seeing her on national television or reading about her in newspapers or on the Internet.
She said an artist who has designed T-shirts and special edition art cards is going to Washington to meet with her and television producer and journalist Linda Moulton Howe. She said some of the “bad” is simply trying to answer all the e-mail she receives.
She did not elaborate on the “ugly.”
Steve Allen had started a Web site about the local UFO sightings but stepped up his efforts after Joiner left the local paper.
“He wanted me to have a place to write,” Joiner said. “The first day Stephenville Lights went on line was Feb. 10.”
The site, www.stephenvillelights.com, carries stories from Joiner and other writers who have an interest in UFO sightings. It also advertises T-shirts and special edition art cards designed by artist Mark Medford of Maine.
“This has been a real education,” Joiner said. “Before I was pretty passive about UFOs. If I saw something on TV, I would think it was interesting, but I really didn’t pay much attention. Now I have the UFO bug.”
She does not know what the future holds for her. “Who knows? I may write a book,” she said.
[ Source ]
Texas officer tracked Stephenville UFO’s speed with police radar gun
by Steve Hammons
March 31, 2008
On Jan. 8, 2008, an Erath County, Texas, area peace officer on patrol used his police radar system for tracking speeders to measure the speed of a huge object in the sky.
He stated, “I had to swivel my radar head up into the sky. And I knew I got a good hit on it. It showed 27 miles per hour and was accelerating slowly.”
This element of the observation of a UFO by several peace officers and dozens of citizens was reported March 30 on StephenvilleLights.com by journalist and radio station news director Angelia Joiner.
Joiner previously reported that more than one officer captured images of an unidentified object in the sky on the videocameras mounted on patrol car dashboards.
In this new account by an officer who requested to remain anonymous because of his professional duties and responsibilities, Joiner reports that, “He said he was unable to position his dash cam in a way that video footage could be taken, but he did manage to lock it in on radar.”
OFFICERS SEE OBJECT
Joiner refers to this public safety officer as “Officer X.” He did not initially step forward when he spotted a huge object over Stephenville Jan. 8.
However, he casually mentioned it to another officer, then read reports in the local newspaper, the Stephenville Empire-Tribune, by Joiner who was then a reporter at the paper.
Officer X told Joiner, “I want people to know that the citizens are telling the truth. They’re not lying,” he said. “They are telling the truth. There was something there. I think it’s stealthy. It has a stealth capability. I think it can change colors with the sky. It was as dark as the sky until it lit up.”
He confirms that several other local officers also witnessed the craft.
Regarding a diagram of the craft based on observations by officers and recently made public, Officer X told Joiner, “The diagram I did shows 400 feet [from wing tip to wing tip], but looking back, I think it was larger, maybe between 500 and 600 feet.”
In the diagram the craft was described as a somewhat flat octagonal shape with raised portions on the top and bottom. Various light configurations with different colored lights were observed by the officer.
When he first observed it, the craft was hovering in a horizontal position. It was approximately 100 to 500 feet off the ground, based on reports of other officers.
The officer told Joiner, “My estimate is the object was about a half mile away at the most. At first, I thought it was a big aircraft, but then I realized it was hovering. I then thought, ‘An aircraft that size doesn’t hover.’”
Joiner quotes him as saying, “It started out horizontal, went up to the left at 30 to 40 degrees, and stopped for about five seconds. Then it went slowly vertical. It took about another five seconds to do this; then it slowly moved away to the northwest. It was one big craft.”
The object eventually slowly moved away from the officer’s position, remaining at a low altitude, and he was no longer able to observe it because it went behind tree tops and he was required to respond to an unrelated official police call.
MEDIA, WITNESSES, THEORIES
According to Joiner, the officer began to think more about discussing what he had seen after reading articles in the Empire-Tribune about witness reports of an unidentified object.
The first of a series of articles, written by Joiner, was published in the paper Jan. 10.
Upon learning that other officers were talking about it, he contacted them. One officer was Erath County Constable Lee Roy Gaitan, who was quoted in print articles and appeared on camera in local and national TV news reports at the time.
He told Joiner, “I thought, ‘Okay … Lee Roy (Gaitan) is talking, and he’s a good friend of mine. I’ve known him for years and he’s a credible, good person.’ The other two officers had already talked about it, so I went straight to them. The first night I talked to them was Jan. 12. They described what they saw and I did a drawing on Notepad and took it back to them, and they said it was how they saw it.”
Constable Gaitan was not the only local credible witness who had stepped forward early in the incidents. Local businessman and pilot Steve Allen came forward. So did machinist Ricky Sorrells.
Other local citizens and law officers chose a more low-key stance. Some talked only with friends, family and professional associates. Some spoke confidentially and off-the-record with Joiner.
When the Associated Press picked up the story in January, other major regional, national and international print, broadcast and TV cable news organizations reported professionally on the situation in Stephenville and Erath County.
As Joiner points out in her March 30 article, this resulted in the evaluation by many that the Stephenville case is the most significant public UFO case since the so-called “Phoenix Lights” incident March 13, 1997.
In that case, although some witnesses saw only huge lights in an apparent shape, hundreds or thousands of other Arizonans reportedly saw a huge V-shaped or boomerang-shaped object.
According to witnesses, it cruised slowly and silently at low altitude over rural Arizona and metropolitan Phoenix in the early evening, moving in a southeasterly direction.
As others concluded from the Phoenix Lights case, Officer X in Texas stated, “I think what we saw wanted to be seen.”
Another similarity: People considering the Phoenix and Stephenville cases wondered if these craft were advanced U.S. technology of some kind, maybe from classified facilities in the Southwest.
Officer X told Joiner that he and another officer initially felt that the object was military.
However, he said a third officer “was pretty adamant that it was not.” That officer’s reasons for his conclusion could not be revealed to maintain his anonymity, Joiner reported.
Officer X said, “The more I thought about it … I thought, ‘They just don’t fly secret projects in free air space.’ If it’s military, they made a big boo-boo by flying it into Stephenville, Texas. The Air Force knows better than that. It leads me away from the Air Force.”
He told Joiner he didn’t know if the craft was extraterrestrial in origin. “How does a person know? How do you know without something landing and somebody walking out of it?”
NOTE TO READERS: By clicking the link in the author background box at top right, readers can see Hammons’ many articles on conventional and unconventional areas, including several about the Stephenville UFO sightings. Readers who enjoyed this article and are interested in how public safety personnel might respond to unconventional situations may want to read Hammons’ Jan. 28 piece “Special research team targets emerging phenomena.” Please visit his Joint Recon Study Group blog.
[ Source ]
Stephenville MUFON report lacks detail
By ANGELIA JOINER
Thursday, 12 June 2008
The normally quiet downtown streets of Dublin were lined with vehicles and spectators came in from as far away as Dallas as a media frenzy descended on the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) meeting Saturday afternoon.
MUFON Senior Field Investigator Steve Hudgeons said he brought 50 witness report forms and seven field investigators and that wasn’t nearly enough. The forms went quickly and MUFON representatives made it clear that the publicity was not something to which they were accustomed.
“The good side of the publicity is more and more people are coming forward,” Ken Cherry, state director said. “These are not people that come forward to seek the lime light. We know there is definitely something going on. Something significant has occurred. We are approaching 100 people that have seen this.”
While several individuals claimed to have photos and videos Hudgeons said he had not viewed any that he believed were actually unidentified flying objects.
“The photos we get are almost always poor quality,” Hudgeons said. “Lots of times we see lens flares and bugs and things.” Hudgeons also said he had not a chance to view everything that was brought to the meeting.
Witnesses to the strange lights viewed on Jan. 8 as well as in years past came forward in droves but some left without reporting when cameras were turned their way. One woman told this reporter she had viewed the phenomenon 40 years before.
Hudgeons said MUFON will come back to the Rotary Building in about a month, and media would not be allowed, in order for individuals to have a chance to report in a more private setting.
Cherry took questions from the reporters and the crowd but first said he wanted to explain something about the term UFO.
“UFO doesn’t mean a spaceship from outer space,” Cherry said. “It only means something not identified.” He also said there would be no quick answers and he believes a full report will not be available for at least a year due to the large number of witnesses involved.
“We usually have about 100 sightings a year in Texas,” Cherry said. “There are so many now it’s about to shut down our reporting system.
“This is amazing,” Cherry said. “It’s unheard of. We’ve had more than 50 credible reports within the last few days.”
Normally, Cherry said a report would involve one person or a family seeing something.
“This is the most significant mass sighting since 1997 and the Phoenix lights,” Cherry said.
Cherry said he has talked to professionals from all walks of life including ranch owners and business owners and others. Some reports he said go back for years.
Cherry said his organization will approach the investigation in a scientific manner by proving first what it is not and then narrowing down to identify exactly what was seen.
As far as future sighting go he encourages anyone that is able to get a photo because that is what is most helpful in proving what was seen.
“A number of folks just stood there awe struck and had a camera available,” Cherry said. “And they’re kicking themselves for not thinking to take a picture.”
Erath County Law Enforcement Officers compile drawings
Written by Angelia Joiner
Tuesday, 25 March 2008
Note: The following composite and narrative came to this reporter through Erath County Constable Lee Roy Gaitan.
An area law enforcement officer, not wishing to be identified at this time, writes the account in his own words. The sighting date was January 8, 2008, and the time was between 7:30 and 7:45 p.m. according to Constable Gaitan.
No other information is available at this time.
“This is what I and several other officers saw. I did not see the back, only the frontal view. The two large lights were bright like landing lights, but solid light blue in color similar to LED. The wing tip lights remained steady. The top and bottom tower lights strobed sporadically. It had three towers on the bottom and two on top. It was bigger than a B1 Bomber. It lumbered around town then headed off towards Mineral Wells. It did not leave fast like some are saying. It left slowly. I saw it make a turn. It turned slightly at a 30 degree angle and stayed there for a moment with no movement. It then went to 90 degrees, added a large light in the middle, and moved off at 27 mph and accelerating. I had to go to a call at this time. On the way, I could see it leaving in the distance. It was about 500 ft off the ground. The colors above are the actual color. This drawing is a compilation of all the law enforcement that saw the craft.”
Are UFOs invading Texas? Ken Cherry’s looking into it
Written by Skip Hollandsworth
Saturday, 22 March 2008
Letter from Stephenville
The Searcher
On the afternoon of January 9, Ken Cherry, the 61-year-old owner of a prosperous Tarrant County securities firm, was sitting in his home office, studying various stock market reports flitting across his computer screen, when line two rang. Line one is devoted to customers and brokers. Line two is the UFO phone.
Cherry is the Texas state director of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), the country’s oldest and largest UFO investigation group. He supervises a staff of 41 certified MUFON investigators in the state. These men and women spend their free time interviewing people who have written in to the MUFON Web site or called one of its numbers claiming to have seen a UFO. In an average month, the Texas chapter of MUFON receives between fifteen and twenty such reports. Most of them sound like what Cherry heard on January 9: A woman outside Stephenville, seventy miles southwest of Fort Worth, said she and her teenage son had seen some flashing lights in the sky the previous evening. Cherry asked a few questions and hung up. Since the woman had described seeing the lights for only a few seconds, he didn’t figure this would be anything other than a typical sighting.
Then line two rang again. A Stephenville man was calling to say that he had seen something strange the night before: a single bright light hovering over the treetops near his home. Curious, Cherry logged in to the MUFON Web site, where he saw several reports waiting for him, all from residents of the Stephenville area who had seen strange lights on the night of January 8. The next day, Cherry read a front-page story in the Stephenville Empire-Tribune about four more area residents who had seen something in the sky on January 8. One of them was Steve Allen, the president and owner of a trucking company in the nearby town of Glen Rose. Allen also happens to be a licensed pilot, comfortable with judging aircraft and flight patterns from the ground, and what he described nearly took Cherry’s breath away: flashing lights covering a distance of a mile in length and half a mile in width at an altitude of about 3,500 feet. The lights, Allen said, were “totally silent” and had been racing around the sky at about 3,000 miles per hour until they suddenly turned into “burning flames . . . white in color.” Within seconds, the flames had disappeared and there was nothing left to see. But approximately ten minutes later, the lights reappeared, this time traveling to the east. Allen added, “Two military jets, possibly F-16′s, were in pursuit.”
Cherry walked out of his office and down the hall to find his wife, who’s the operations manager for his securities business and answers line two when he’s not there. “Dear,” he said, “we might be on to something big.”
The Stephenville Event, as some have called it, has quickly become one of the most publicized UFO sightings in a decade. The story showed up in newspapers as far away as China. CNN’s Larry King devoted two shows to what it all meant. “Do you believe alien beings are out there?” King teased, staring intently at the camera, forehead glistening. “Do you believe they’ve come to Earth?”
……
For the entire story, go here.
www.texasmonthly.com/2008-04-01/letterfromstephenville.php
FULL David Caron video LEAKED – Stephenville
Written by Angelia Joiner
Friday, 21 March 2008
Stephenville resident David Coran’s videotape of UFO symbols made it’s way onto the Internet on March 5, 2008. The video briefly appeared on YouTube and was then removed but not before it made its way to other Web sites.
At the time of filming, Coran lived near Clark Field, the local airport. It is not clear as to the date of filming due to Coran filming on two consecutive nights, which were January 19 and 20, 2008.
Stephenville UFO is viewed by former protector of Texas Governors
Written by Angelia Joiner
Thursday, 28 February 2008
Mike Zimmerman, 62, retired from the Texas Department of Public Safety after 25 years but not before he was on Protective Detail for five Texas Governors.
Zimmerman was assigned to protect Governors Briscoe, Clements, White, Richards and Bush for a period spanning 19 years.
“Clements was governor twice,” he said.
To date, Zimmerman may be the most credible witness to come forward to report what Erath County residents have been coming forward in droves to report since January 8 — another unidentified flying object.
He said it was 6:05 a.m. on January 31 when he awoke from a peaceful slumber for a Mother Nature call. As he was returning to bed, something caught his eye through the bedroom window of his home located just past the city limits on U.S. Highway 281 South in Stephenville, Texas.
“I saw three bright lights,” Zimmerman said. “Two white lights were grouped closer together and higher and the third one was closer to the horizon. That one was a was a reddish orange color.”
Zimmerman shared a sketch and notes he had jotted down.
But, there is more to this story…
The two white lights also were shooting out beams of white light in a pulsating strobe light effect. The reddish orange light closer to the horizon did not have beams shooting from it.
“At first I thought it might be three helicopters with really bright search lights until I noticed the beams of white lights shooting out to the side of the bright lights,” Zimmerman said.
He said he awoke his fiancée to make sure he was seeing what he thought he was seeing. The couple watched for approximately three minutes he said.
“What I saw is completely different from what Lee Roy (Gaitan) saw,” Zimmerman said. “The beams from the side weren’t as obvious as the bright big lights and they were just real quick. The whole beam would just shoot out there and just disappear. If anyone had taken a picture with a timed exposure they would have caught all of them (shooting beams) at one time. It was strange. I have never seen anything like this before at all.”
Zimmerman said the sun was rising and he’s not sure how the lights disappeared. He said he didn’t know if they became less obvious because of the sun’s light or if they just left.
“I could have turned away for a minute and they left,” Zimmerman said. “I’m not sure what happened, but I remembered looking and they just weren’t there anymore.”
Zimmerman said his home faces the northwest and his bedroom is on the back of the structure.
“I got out my compass and it indicated 115 degrees,” Zimmerman said. “So the objects would have been more to the east.”
Zimmerman said he had talked with Gaitan on January 9 so he was aware of the object Gaitan and his son had viewed on the evening of January 8.
When asked if he was able to ascertain if the objects appeared to be under intelligent control, he said he could not say because he didn’t see them move.
“I hope it’s military,” Zimmerman said. “I know they’ve got things. I could go either way (opinion of military or alien) but it was out of the ordinary and I have never seen anything like it before.”
Zimmerman said as he was watching the shooting beams he at first wondered if something could be going on at Fort Hood.
“That’s the first thought I had, but that’s a long way off and it appeared to be closer than that,” Zimmerman said.
Zimmerman estimated that with a dime held out with his arm fully extended, the objects would have been slightly larger than the dime.
He is currently employed as an officer with the Tarleton State University Police and he said he has not had another sighting, but openly confessed, “I pay more attention now and I’m watching for it.”
When asked why he waited so long to come forward, he looked thoughtful and then he said, “It was something I had to think about and it didn’t seem the same as what Lee Roy (Gaitan) saw.”
The Stephenville UFO saga continues with Zimmerman being the third officer to come forward after Erath County Constable Lee Roy Gaitan and Sheriff’s Deputy Jim Clifton.
MUFON Investigates more Erath County UFO Sighting reports
Written by Angelia Joiner
Sunday, 24 February 2008
Investigators with Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) collected seventeen new UFO sighting reports in Dublin, Texas, on Saturday, Feb. 23.
Not knowing what to expect in the way of numbers of witnesses, eight field investigators attended from the organization from Austin, Waco, Dallas/ Fort Worth, and said they were pleased with results.
Chief Investigator Steve Hudgeons was asked if he believed the new reports were credible and said investigators are often faced with reports from individuals only wanting to get in on the action.
“Of the reports I have reviewed, I didn’t get an impression that witnesses were not honest in their accounts,” Hudgeons said. “As I have said before, this is a very, very, significant sighting.”
Hudgeons conducted an interview with star witness Ricky Sorrells, who was first interviewed by Angela K. Brown of the Associated Press, on Jan. 14. After that interview was released, his story of the daytime UFO sighting at his property just outside of Dublin, quickly traveled around the world and major news outlets converged on Stephenville, Texas, the next day.
“I knew most of his (Sorrells’) report because we had talked on the phone days earlier, but you never know a person until you have met them face to face,” Hudgeons said. “I found him to be a man of his word because he told me he was going to see me for an interview, and he did come in, even though he was sick and not feeling well. We talked alone for almost an hour. I learned a good deal about his sighting that I hadn’t known prior to our visit. He was very direct with his questions and answers. I admire and respect that quality in a person.”
Hudgeons said, according to MUFON records, the total number of sighting reports in Texas, beginning in 1977 and continuing through late 2007, is slightly more than 400.
“From November 2007 to date, the number of sightings are in the neighborhood of about 150,” Hudgeons said. “We are still investigating nearly 100 reports across Texas.”
Media had been warned off the Saturday gathering due to several witnesses leaving when cameras turned in their direction at the Jan. 19 meeting with an estimated crowd of about 400, and more than a dozen media outlets. But a few local reporters attended, as well as one from the Los Angeles Times, although no cameras were allowed inside the building.
Frank Wachowe, 32, with Mamone Productions, traveled from St. Louis, Missouri, spending about 17 hours on the road, and plans on producing a documentary film on the UFO phenomenon occurring around the area.
His plans include investigating the “personal and emotional side of witnessing a UFO.”
Wachowe said he is interested in documenting the impact of the sighting on the various communities involved in Erath County.
“How does something this extraordinary impact the culture of a community?” Wachowe said is one area he will explore.
Wachowe said he holds a Bachelor’s in media productions from Webster University in St. Louis and another in anthropology from the University of Missouri in St. Louis.
Autumn Humphreys with The History Channel’s UFO Hunters was also in attendance, and said a crew from her company will arrive on Sunday, Feb. 24. In an earlier interview, she said the episode, which will include interviews with area witnesses, will probably be aired in late April or early May. Humphreys said the company has set up a temporary office in downtown Stephenville on Graham Street.
Meanwhile, Hudgeons said he and others are working nights and weekends in an effort to expedite a final report, which will be made public.
“I am a project manager for a commercial construction company and I have my own company as a side job drawing blue prints for other construction companies,” Hudgeons said. “I am basically working seven days a week. Now, having said that, the events in the Dublin area have been occurring and are continuing with no foreseeable let up. All of the members on the investigation team work for a living and we cannot continue (the investigation) forever.”
“I woke up this morning (Sunday after the meeting) with three new sighting reports in Texas,” Hudgeons said. “I haven’t looked them up as yet to see where they are so I can make assignments.”
Hudgeons said a full report in a timeline format will be issued by MUFON soon. The report will include the final analysis of Stephenville resident David Coran’s video, of Jan. 19 and 20, which was seen on many news broadcasts and Web sites. Some have referred to the lights in the video as being similar to hieroglyphic symbols.
“It (final report) will be posted in the April issue of the MUFON Journal, and I plan to hold a news conference at the Dublin Rotary Club in April,” Hudgeons said. “Once again I wish to thank the Rotary Club for hosting our two meetings. MUFON was greeted warmly, and we are very appreciative.”
Hudgeons said he and other members always enjoy visiting Dublin Dr Pepper, as well as meeting the friendly folks in Dublin.
Hudgeons said investigators for the organization are not paid and cover all of their own expenses.
Erath County officer witnesses UFO
By ANGELIA JOINER
Stephenville Lights – Reporter
Another law enforcement officer has come forward in the strange and mysterious UFO sightings in Erath County.
Sgt. Jim Clifton of the Erath County Sheriff’s Department was with Erath County Constable Lee Roy Gaitan in the early morning hours of Feb. 2 on U.S. Hwy. 377 when both saw something extraordinary in the black sky.
“It was a clear night, no clouds, no moon, and a dark night,” Clifton said. “I’ve never seen anything like that before in my career. I’ve never seen any aircraft like that. The lights did not appear to be military. I was very amazed at what we saw.”
Clifton said he received a call to check out an alarm at Woody’s restaurant and when he got to the eatery, Gaitan had heard the call also and was already there. The two took care of business and then Gaitan told Clifton there was something in the sky.
“He heard the alarm and got there before I did,” Clifton said. “I got in the car with him and observed this with him. It looked like it was over the Highland area to the west and it was a large object.”
Clifton said they observed the unidentified flying object through the “dash cam” in the car and could see it quite clearly with the zoom feature. He said the camera is in a permanent mount, which is stationary. So, in his eyes, the video is more than credible because shaking the camera could not be a concern.
“To your naked eye it looked like a bright light and I couldn’t really tell if it was moving, but I don’t think it was,” Clifton said. “What it looked like is difficult to describe because there is nothing to compare it to.”
Clifton said the object had a transparent or perhaps translucent appearance and it had “ a fog or vapor or cloud around it.”
Clifton said he saw colors of white, blue, and red.
“I wasn’t frightened – I was just trying to think of what it might be,” Clifton said. “I don’t have a clue. I wish I had an explanation but I can’t think of any explanation. The thing that impressed me was how big it was. It stuck in my mind.”
Clifton said he is looking at the sky more now to try and see it again. He said most people he knows are doing the same.
Clifton said he has seen a video from Canada in what he thinks was the year 2007 that is most similar to what he and Gaitan saw.
Both men said the sighting was reported to the Erath County Sheriff’s office at the time.
UFO Reporter Sighted at New Radio Gig
By Matt Frazier
Star-Telegram
2-21-08
They don’t have her.
The former Stephenville Empire-Tribune journalist known nationally for her stories about UFO sightings over Texas last month was not kidnapped by the military nor abducted by aliens.
Angelia Joiner says that after working for the newspaper for 18 months, she left a couple of weeks ago to “pursue other avenues,” including the UFO story. Her departure was noted on several blogs with suspicion.
She is now working with several UFO witnesses to start a Web site devoted to uncovering the truth behind the dozens of reports of strange objects flying Jan. 8 over Stephenville, about 70 miles southwest of Fort Worth.
Joiner says that she has been hired recently as news director for radio station KCUB/107.9 FM, which touts itself as “your official Stephenville UFO information station” on its Web site.
“Just in the last five days I’ve received 800 e-mails about UFOs,” Joiner said.
Reporter Fired For UFO Stories
By Greg Bishop
Feb 15, 2008
I had an idea for a column entitled “Why I Don’t Care About the Stephenville UFOs,” but this item caught my attention. It’s more to do with people’s reactions to the situation, rather than the fact that Stephenville’s temporary weirdness will be forgotten in a few weeks or months, with nothing further to add to the UFO mystery except more mystery.
Angelia Joiner, the recently famous reporter for the Stephenville, Texas Empire Tribune was fired from the paper last week.The editor told her that it was time to move on and not to write any more UFO stories. This seems strange, as theEmpire Tribune experienced their best sales in years, maybe ever, during the time when Joiner was reporting on the strange goings-on, including the MIB-type harassment of some locals. She was supposed to have had until the 14th to clear up her desk and say her goodbyes, but her computer was confiscated and she was told to leave a week early.
The editor, in a moment of candor, told Joiner that the order to stop printing UFO news had come from a local councilman, who said that the stories were an embarassment and were making the town look silly.
More on this at UFO Blog, including statements from Joiner about the sad and strange circumstances of her recent unemployment.
Grist for conspiracy junkies? Someone is going to have to write a book about this one.
Update: Some of the commenters have reminded me that apparently Joiner had decided to quit on her own a couple of weeks ago. Since she was asked to leave early in no uncertain terms, technically, she was “fired.”
[ Source ]
Erath County UFO reports streaming in
By ANGELIA JOINER
Stephenville Lights – Reporter
It’s clear.
Whatever is hovering over Erath County isn’t leaving. UFO reports are pouring in. Two are from original witnesses, and two new ones are coming aboard.
This time there are pictures and video — Constable Lee Roy Gaitan made sure of it.
The following are accounts from Gaitan, Ricky Sorrells, Mac McKinnon, and a source not wishing to be identified.
Note: Gaitan’s first sighting was with his eight-year-old son on Jan. 8 when he saw a red glow that faded and then reappeared. Later he said he saw bright white lights that seemed to “bounce around in the sky” and took off at a “blazing speed.”
Gaitan’s second sighting
“It was Feb. 2 in the early morning hours. I videotaped it for about 40 minutes. It was an object with red, green, and blue lights. I was on U.S Hwy. 377 by Woody’s looking south towards Dublin. It was about a quarter of the size of a full moon. It was several thousand feet up, maybe 4,500 or 5,000 feet up, I don’t know.
“I zoomed in 168X and you could see it was round and spinning. Something that could not be seen with the naked eye and you could almost see through it. There was what looked like a pyramid or triangle shape on the inside of the thing.”
Gaitan’s next sighting was Feb. 9.
“This time I was in St. Gobain’s parking lot in Stephenville close to the same time in the early morning. I was looking east northeast of Dublin. I videoed for 10 minutes and zoomed in, but it was too far. It was moving, but not real fast. It was spinning and shooting off colors. I’m fairly certain this thing spins. This time I could not see through it.
“That night a friend called and said he was seeing something through his telescope, an object southeast of my house. I went outside and there it was. It was moving southeast towards Gustine. I watched it for at least 30 minutes and took several pictures. I called my sister and she had seen it, too, and so did her neighbor. Then this guy calls me back about 11:30 and said there is another one coming in from the Selden area. He said it was moving towards Dublin. We go out and we can see it looking toward Harbin. We went to County Road 847 and we took several pictures with the new Cannon camera we purchased with a special lens. It appeared to be the same thing that was hovering southeast of my house and we never lost sight of it. Then my sister called and they saw it again, too. It headed southwest. Then we lost sight of the first one we’d seen for a little bit and then it reappeared. Then, there was two of them; one in the southwest sky and one in the northeast sky.”
Gaitan said the same friend (refusing to be identified publicly) called the night of Feb. 10 to inform him he had viewed five of the objects in the sky but Gaiten had forgotten his cell phone and got the message hours too late.
“It does not match what we saw on Jan. 8,” Gaiten said. “But it was as big as that one was. The first time I didn’t see all the colors — it was a white strobe light, LED type of light.
“Also this one was more stationary and not bouncing around like the night of Jan. 8. Now, you cannot see it with the naked eye but it was spinning. And the guy that called said he could see it spinning through the telescope. But, he said he could see something attached to the top and the bottom, something like a capsule or some kind of object. He also told me it was bouncing around in his telescope view but didn’t bounce around when viewing with the naked eye.”
Ricky Sorrells is visited again – Feb. 9
“It was about an hour after the sun went down, maybe 7 or 7:30 p.m. I was coming back from the store in Dublin. When I crossed my cattle guard I looked past my big oak tree and there it was about a mile away. The lights were erratic – red, blue and green and then they kind of combined and made a white light that glowed. I stopped and rolled down my window and yelled at it. I told it to ‘Leave me alone!’ I went ahead and went up my driveway and got out. I looked and it was still there. I just went in the house and shut the door because I really didn’t want to see it anymore.”
When questioned further, Sorrells said he couldn’t determine how high it was because of the darkness. This was his first night time sighting — the other four visits were daytime. He said, “It was higher than the trees by a large margin so it was way above 300 feet.”
Sorrells also reported military aircraft in his area the night before the sighting of Friday, Feb. 8.
“Nine F-16s flew over in a definite grid pattern,” Sorrells said. “They have an idea of where this thing is.”
A source not wishing to be publicly identified
“I don’t want my name used because I don’t want to go through what Ricky has been through. But, I’ll tell you what I saw, but I’m no aeronautical expert by any shape, form, or fashion. I live near Desdemona about 15 miles from Ricky as the crow files. Saturday night (Feb. 9) I saw something that reminded me of Careflight with a big spotlight on it. I saw red and green lights but they were faint. I watched it for five minutes. As far as the time, it was dark enough to see the stars and the white light would have been equal to the brightest stars in the sky. I thought it might be some kind of helicopter but it was unusual for a helicopter. It never moved. I saw Ricky the next day and I was joking with him that I thought I had seen a UFO right about over his house. I could tell by the look on his face he had seen something again. That’s when he told me not to be joking around because it had been back to his house. When all this first started, I told him I thought he was seeing a helicopter and somebody was just jacking with him. I’ve known Ricky for 14 years and couldn’t tell you a bad story on him. I don’t doubt him at all. I’ve always known him to be straight up and honest. He’s the butt of a lot of jokes but everyone likes him and it’s in a good-natured way. He would have never told everybody what he told them if he wasn’t serious – if he didn’t honestly believe he saw something. They can investigate him until the cows come home and they won’t find anything on him. Ricky is just a good guy – a handshake is good with Ricky. I would like to be able to use my name but my income would be hard to replace. I can’t.”
Mac McKinnon’s eyewitness account– Owner/publisher, Dublin Citizen
“Somebody called me at 8 Saturday (Feb. 9) evening to tell me about it. I was at home and went out and looked up and there it was. It was way too big to be a helicopter and it had red, green and white lights. I’ve never seen this before. Later, I got in my car but I never got closer to it. I didn’t really see anything but lights. I quit chasing it about 11 p.m. and went to bed. Nobody’s making this stuff up but I think it’s military. I think they were normal looking navigational lights. A lot of things get developed and tested around here that nobody realizes.”
New UFO Sighting Reported In Stephenville Texas
By Emil Steiner
The Washington Post
2-12-08
Fired Reporter Angelia Joiner Sparks Conspiracy Theories
The truth may be out there, but, when it comes to UFO stories, it is sure hard to find. Conjecture breeds conspiracy theories. Any official denial can be labeled a cover-up. In the end, it often boils down to a he-said-she-said scenario.
Such is the case in Stephenville, Texas, a small, rural community thrust into the spotlight after several unexplained disturbances in January. Though that spotlight has now faded, the town remains altered. Some members of the community want to move on; others cannot let go. And some, if you believe them, say that UFOs are still there.
According to Angelia Joiner, the reporter who wrote the original UFO stories, there was another UFO sighting on Saturday. “If the military is testing a secret military device, why do they keep doing it here?” she asked me. “If it’s not a secret why do they keep scaring the bejesus out of people?”
Adding a further wrinkle to this story, Joiner was fired from The Empire-Tribune a week ago. She claims she had been told to back off the story and thinks the town’s “upper crust” was “embarrassed” by all the attention. The Empire-Tribune has avoided comment, which of course only fans the flames of the conspiracy theories.
For its part, the military has done itself no favors, first denying that it had any aircraft in the area, then flip-flopping a few days later — after more witnesses came forward. A spokesperson blamed internal miscommunication for the mix-up. Others, including CNN’s Larry King, have asked whether it wasn’t a cover-up.
But who can we believe? The truth remains unidentified.
[ Source ]
Letter Protesting Firing of Reporter Covering UFO Story
Diary Entry by Dr Michael Salla
Letter to the Publisher and Managing Editor of the Stephenville Empire-Tribune protesting the firing of Angelia Joiner for her coverage of Stephenville UFO sighting
::::::::
To: Rochelle Stidham, Publisher, The Stephenville Empire-Tribune.
Sara Vanden Berge, Mangaing Editor
Dear Ms. Stidham and Ms. Vandenberge,
RE: EMPIRE TRIBUNE WRITER ANGELIA JOINER
I am writing to you with regard to the resignation/firing of Angelia Joiner from the Stephenville Empire-Tribune for her coverage of the UFO sightings at Stephenville. It appears that Ms Joiner’s termination stemmed from a request you made to her to cease further coverage of the issue. This is despite the harassment experienced by one of the witnesses, Ricky Sorrells, and the reversal in the US Air Force’s public statements concerning fighter jets in the area. Ms Joiner covered these issues with great integrity in her articles. Your request to Ms Joiner to cease further writing and investigation was very unreasonable. After all, this was a story that was gaining international media exposure through major news networks and popular talk shows such as Larry King Live. In the midst of these dramatic developments, witness intimidation and Air Force reversals, you requested that Ms Joiner simply drop all further investigations and concentrate instead on local news! The Stephenville Empire-Tribune is a small town paper, yet the international media was drawn to the Stephenville UFO story bringing in international attention, and visitors to investigate the sighting. Also, sales of the Empire-Tribune increased dramatically as a result of Ms Joiner’s reporting. Under normal circumstances, a publisher/editor would be thrilled and encourage employees to continue the good work. I think you either completely misjudged the gravity of the story that Ms Joiner was covering, or had been pressured by higher authorities to take action to silence Ms Joiner.
I’ve been working on the UFO/extraterrestrial issue since 2001 when I was a full time faculty member at American University’s School of International Service, Washington DC. I have learned how easily the media can be pressured to drop sensitive stories concerning UFOs/extraterrestrial life, and fire employees who continue to pursue them. All it takes is a phone call from someone with high national security clearances to the head of the media company who relays instructions down the hierarchy. This is typically done secretly behind the scenes so one is left guessing as to what really happened. If this happened to the Empire-Tribune, then the public deserves to know the truth. Ms Joiner has performed an outstanding public service through her dedicated and objective coverage of the Stephenville UFO sighting. She has helped expose harassment of a key witness and the shifting arguments used by the US Air Force to explain away the sighting. Her brave and responsible reporting should not lead to the termination of her journalistic career, nor should the Empire-Tribune attempt to evade responsibility.
Currently, an international campaign is underway to promote awareness of the events surrounding Ms Joiner’s termination (see: http://www.exopoliticsinstitute.org/Exopolitcs-Alert-1.htm ). I urge that you seriously consider the issues that have been raised in this letter in order to bring about a speedy resolution of the complaints being raised. I humbly request that you issue a public apology to Ms Joiner through the Empire-Tribune, issue some compensation for the grief your actions have caused her, and earnestly seek to have Ms Joiner reinstated to her former position. I also request that you continue to cover the UFO sighting with qualified reporters capable of doing serious investigations of unfolding events.Thank you for your consideration of the issues raised in this letter. I do look forward to hearing from you.
More Twists in The Sorrells’ Saga
By ANGELIA JOINER
2-4-08
Answers.
Ricky Sorrells just wants answers. And, in light of what he’s been through, it doesn’t seem to be a lot to ask.
Witnessing an unidentified flying object four times since the beginning of the new year, then having military aircraft whizzing over his land and disrupting his sleep and livestock, followed by a string of mysterious phone calls and in person encounters from individuals demanding he “shut up” about what he saw, and landing unexpectedly in the international spotlight, has taken a toll on the 37-year-old man accustomed to the simple life.
“If you told me a while back that I would be sitting here talking to you about UFOs I would have said, ‘No way, not in a million years,” Sorrells said. “ Now, I know for the rest of my life I’ll keep looking to find out what it was.”
Sorrells said he is receiving a lot of support from family and friends helping him to keep an eye on things. He said that support has been a great help to him.
“I’m not going to freak out or anything,” Sorrells said. “I just think the government should come forward and help us to figure out this thing. I think people should write to their congressman or something.”
Sorrells said soon after his Associated Press interview went around the world in mid-January – not only was he allegedly contacted by a Lt. Colonel telling him to keep quiet about what he saw, he was also contacted by a woman named Linda Moulton Howe.
Howe’s Web site touts: “Earthfiles is a crossroads where experts, eyewitnesses and viewers meet to share the latest updates in earth and astronomical mysteries, in-depth reports that go beyond the 6 o’clock news. Earthfiles reporter and editor, Linda Moulton Howe, is an Emmy Award-winning TV producer, investigative reporter and author who goes directly to the men and women at the forefront of science and environmental challenges and to firsthand eyewitnesses of high strangeness. Earthfiles.com received the 2006 W3 Silver Award for excellence in news category. Earthfiles.com also received the 2003 WebAward for Standard of Excellence and the 2000 Encyclopedia Britannica Award honoring Internet excellence.”
Sorrells said he vaguely remembered listening to her on a radio program years ago while on a road trip and her name clicked with him. It was the only familiar name he knew and she promised to do an investigation so he agreed not to talk to anyone else until she could make the trip from New Mexico. Howe arrived in Dublin last week and stayed with Sorrells and his family to conduct the investigation and left late last week.
“I told her everything I knew and showed her my property,” Sorrels said. “After she left, I felt I had honored my commitment with her. Things have settled down a little and I feel free to talk about the experiences I have had. I just didn’t want to do anything that would interfere with her investigation because I want the truth.”
He said the last time he saw the object he was able to get a video on his camera phone and said he has seen some other “pretty good footage” taken by others.
One night Sorrells said he had four helicopters flying at such low altitude that when a spotlight was shined up at them from Sorrells’ pickup he could see the pilot throw his arm up in front of his eyes to block the light. But there has been another strange occurrence recently on his property that leads him to believe the military is involved. It was an unexpected visitor about 1 a.m. who may have left something behind.
“I was in bed asleep,” Sorrells said. “I keep my bird dogs on the east side of my house and three others on the west side. The black lab doesn’t bark until someone comes across the cattle guard and the Catahoula doesn’t bark until she actually sees someone. They were all barking so I got up to see what was going on.”
Sorrells said he walked to his bedroom window and looked out to the top of his driveway – he saw someone.
“I went around the bed and grabbed my rifle,” Sorrells said.
His family was still sleeping, so with one hand on his gun and one hand on his backdoor knob, he peered through the window of the door to see if he could spot the intruder again.
“He had positioned himself in between the car and the pickup 40 to 50 feet from my back door,” Sorrells said. “He stood staring at me rocking back and forth. I didn’t think his feet were moving but the next morning when looking at his tracks I could tell they were.”
Sorrels said it was cold and misting rain and it was obvious the guy was “dressed for the elements with a heavy parka-like coat.”
He said he strained to see if the man carried a gun but could not see one but could clearly see the face of someone he thought to be in his late 20s or early 30s judging from the way he “walked and acted.”
“I’m trying to decide whether or not to open the door,” Sorrells said. “We’re just standing there face to face looking at each other. I’m thinking he’s dressed for the elements and the dogs are raising such a ruckus he must know he’s in danger of being caught. That’s when I realized he wanted me to see him.”
Sorrells said the trespasser had positioned himself in such a way he decided he could be vulnerable if opened his door. He thought of his family and then the man slowly turned and walked into the woods.
“He walked through an area where I’d cleared the brush so apparently he’d been there before because he knew where to go,” Sorrells said.
Sorrells said shortly after the unwelcome caller disappeared the dogs calmed down and he stayed up the rest of the night to keep watch.
Later, when walking through the woods on his property with Howe, he decided to return to a bare spot where his property line ends at a fence.
“It is washed out there and I like to go there to look for deer and turkey tracks.” Sorrells said. He said he’s an avid hunter and keeps abreast of the wildlife on his place. He said he had not been to this particular spot in about a month.
“The first thing I saw was a man’s footprint,” Sorrells said. “Ms. Howe videotaped me putting my foot beside it. The sun was going down and I saw something shiny.”
Sorrells said he walked over and picked up a bullet – a shiny new 25-06 Remington – with some dotted tarnished smudges.
“I think the man that I saw that night dropped this bullet and the tarnished spots are from the misting rain that night,” Sorrells said. “ I just think it was the military showing me they could get to me if they wanted to.”
Sorrells said he just doesn’t think a hunter poaching on his property would’ve dropped the bullet. He said he doesn’t have trouble with poachers. While he knows there is no way to prove it could have been from the same man it’s something he keeps mulling over. Sorrells returned home with the bullet in hand and took it apart to look at the powder to see if he could glean any information at all. A local gun and ammunition authority said there was no way to identify if such a bullet was from a military source.
“Talking about military powder is like talking about military gasoline,” he said. “There is no difference.”
Meanwhile, Sorrells said he and other witnesses are considering setting up a Web site to encourage people to do what they can to influence government participation in finding out about the curious, sometimes frightening, sightings.
“I’ve heard that other countries are releasing information on what they know,” Sorrells said. “We’re thinking of calling it (the site) ‘Stephenville Lights.’ Too many people have seen something not to try and continue finding out about it. We want to know what it was.”
[ Source - Stephenville Empire Tribune ]
