UFO spotted in Texas is latest of many sightings

By Steve Hammons
January 16, 2008

The eyewitnesses who claim to have spotted a highly unusual object or craft in the sky near Stephenville, Texas, recently seem to be credible, as are many such witnesses.

According to the Associated Press, "several dozen" local residents observed "a large silent object with bright lights flying low and fast."

These witnesses included "a pilot, county constable and business owners," the AP reported.

People from other small towns in the region reportedly also claimed to have spotted the object in the past few weeks.

Over the decades of first-hand reports about unusual flying objects, witnesses have included current or former military personnel, peace officers, pilots and other reliable citizens.

For example, in 2007, former Arizona governor Fife Symington, a former Air Force officer and pilot, stated he had seen the 1997 "Phoenix Lights" object – a huge triangle or boomerang-shaped object that cruised low and slow over Arizona and the metropolitan Phoenix area one evening.

The object sighted near Stephenville was a mile long and half a mile wide, according to pilot and businessman Steve Allen. "It was positively, absolutely nothing from these parts," Allen is quoted as saying.

Lee Roy Gaitan, Erath County constable, reported seeing red glowing lights and white flashing lights but could not see an object, even with his binoculars, according to the AP.

Local resident Ricky Sorrells said he spotted a flat, metallic object hovering approximately 300 feet above a pasture near his home. Sorrells said he used the telescopic sight on his rifle to view the object.

MILITARY CRAFT OR SOMETHING ELSE?

Constable Gaitan is quoted as saying, "I don't know what it was, but it wasn't an airplane, and I've never seen anything like it. I think it must be some kind of military craft – at least I hope it was."

His viewpoint is similar to many explanations about unknown objects or craft spotted in the skies. Many of these objects could be top-secret U.S. military craft.

Then again, some sightings do not seem to fall into this category.

One recent such event took place at Chicago´s O´Hare International Airport on Nov. 7, 2006. A gray, metallic, disc-shaped craft was seen hovering over O'Hare by many airport and airline employees.

Witnesses estimated the object to be 6 feet to 24 feet in diameter. They claimed that it had no visible lights, was silent and remained in a stationary position as it hovered just below the cloud deck which was estimated to be 1,900 feet that day.

In the 1997 Phoenix Lights incident, the huge V-shaped object was reported by some witnesses to be more than one mile across in size, with large lights on its underside. It slowly, gently and silently cruised into Arizona from the Henderson, Nevada, area in a generally south-southeast direction, according to witnesses and researchers.

Coming down through rural northwestern Arizona, it was allegedly spotted by hundreds of Arizonans in smaller towns before reaching the Phoenix area.

By mid-evening, the object was over the metropolitan Phoenix region, including the downtown area and Sky Harbor International Airport and was reportedly witnessed by hundreds or thousands of people.

Citizens called the news media, local police and nearby Luke Air Force base. The story was covered by local, national and international news organizations.

Although this object could have been a secret U.S. military craft from nearby Nevada, New Mexico or elsewhere, it seemed odd that it would fly directly over a major American city during the early evening.

EMERGING DEVELOPMENTS

The sightings in Stephenville are just the latest in the continuing phenomena which have been in the forefront of American and international awareness since the late 1940s and early ´50s.

After the news reports of "the Roswell incident" in the summer 1947, and then the spectacular wave of UFOs over Washington, D.C., in 1952, people certainly began to wonder what was going on. Books, movies, TV shows and other media explored the idea of visitation to Earth by intelligent extraterrestrial beings.

As to what was going on behind the scenes within the U.S. defense and intelligence communities regarding the situation, we have only clues and claims that there was concern at high levels and steps were taken to analyze and understand what was happening.

Now, in the 21st century, the public is still spotting unusual objects in the sky flying in interesting patterns in both the day and night.

Researchers and journalists continue to cover the subject, and the news media particularly seems to be doing so in more responsible and professional ways.

Although higher federal officials often dismiss sightings such as those in Stephenville as a conventional aircraft or some other misidentification, it is possible that more is known than the public is informed about.

What the facts and implications are behind the UFO phenomena are unclear. Is it a good development? Is it a dangerous situation? Maybe some mixture of both or something so complicated that we might have a difficult time wrapping our minds around it?

The citizens of Stephenville are just the latest Americans to have a first-hand experience of this kind, and undoubtedly they are asking themselves these same kinds of questions.