Earth poised for breakthrough event?

By Steve Hammons

(Spoiler alert: The final climax of "Light's Hand" is included below.)

Many of us wonder about special sensitive military, intelligence and research activities.

When we think about unusual missions and special operations, we realize that personnel involved must be flexible and ready to innovate and respond to changing circumstances at times.

We watch, often with troubled hearts, activities in Iraq and Afghanistan. We remember the difficulties and pain of the Vietnam War era. And we wonder about future bloodshed and suffering.

Many people hope for some kind of breakthrough into a new world, where the human race can make progress and discover greater peace and prosperity.

Some people hope for and believe that a miracle of some kind might happen.

They wonder if physics, such as the sought-after "unified field" of Einstein's theories, might be relevant. Will the natural world change in some way? Might we become more aware of other hidden dimensions around us?

Could spiritual beliefs and views of Heaven and Earth actually prove to be based on scientific realities?

What part do UFOs and other unusual phenomena play? Do incidents like the Stephenville, Texas, sightings and the 1997 "Phoenix lights" case result in greater awareness by people that something is going on? Is human consciousness changing, as we discover more about ESP and things like "remote viewing?"

We know that many people are researching and working on questions like this. What have they found? And what might it mean to all of us?

Some of us are hopeful. Some of us are cynical. Some of us hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

In my novels, "Mission Into Light" and the sequel "Light's Hand," a special joint-service team of ten women and men are brought together in a sensitive and classified intelligence research project. From their base in San Diego, they conduct research on several interesting areas, some seemingly unrelated.

But, they keep getting indications that something may happen. A "breakthrough event" of some kind. They suspect that the paths of research they are following will lead them to some kind of success. Success for their fellow Americans, for the human race and for planet Earth.

What follows is an account of the breakthrough event that occurs toward the end of the second novel.

A STRANGE LIGHT

On a Thursday night, in fact, about three o'clock Friday morning, something started happening near a small creek on the northern edge of metropolitan Phoenix. The water in the creek was flowing by a rocky wall.

And on that wall were ancient engravings and paintings made by the Hohokam people and others long ago. The symbols and drawings said this was a special place, a holy place. A place to find shelter that also had water and game nearby.

The crickets in the vicinity had stopped chirping, and the desert animals of the night listened nervously to the sound of the gentle breeze blowing across this little area of the northern edge of the immense Sonoran Desert. A desert jackrabbit stopped by the stream. Something caught her eye.

A small, barely visible light was starting to form. It was a small, dim glow, the jackrabbit observed. And it flickered a little bit at times. The rabbit didn't sense any danger, and she moved a little closer, maybe thirty feet away. The other animals and insects nearby were also noticing the light. Especially since it seemed to be getting a little bigger as the moments went by.

An hour later, around four a.m., an Arizona Department of Public Safety Highway Patrol officer was on patrol on a nearby freeway, heading westbound. Officer Rick Bailey spotted something off toward one of the nearby hills. A light. Looked like it might be a small fire.

He pulled his patrol car off the side of the highway. It was still dark, except for light from a half moon above. Bailey turned on his spotlight and shone it toward the hills. It didn't help much. The small light looked to be about two hundred yards away. Near the foot of some old volcanic slopes and a creek. He had to get closer.

Bailey drove the patrol car back on the freeway to the next off ramp, then he doubled-back on an adjacent road toward the light.

He called dispatch on the radio and said he was leaving his vehicle to check out a possible fire just off the freeway.

Bailey grabbed his hand-held radio unit from the seat next to him and turned on the caution flashers on the top of the patrol car.

The terrain was rocky and he bumped into desert plants and tripped over a couple of rocks as he made his way toward the light. Definitely seemed bigger than a campfire, now that he was a little closer.

Another forty yards and he stopped. It didn't look like a fire now. More light a luminous glow. And it seemed to gently pulse with a slow, regular rhythm. He reached for the radio on his belt and slowly brought up to his mouth.

"Request backup to my location. And roll fire too."

PUBLIC SAFETY RESPONSE

He maintained his position. Within what seemed like a few minutes, two other highway patrol officers pulled up behind his vehicle back on the road, along with a Phoenix Fire Department truck and a three-man crew.

Bailey signaled them with his flashlight and talked with them on the radio. The two DPS officers and two of the firefighters headed toward him, while the third firefighter stayed with the vehicles.

At first, it looked like a fire to them too. But as they came nearer, they saw what Bailey had seen. A pulsing glow of luminous light that seemed to be the size of three or four cars parked side by side.

"Where's the light source?" asked one of the highway patrol officers.

"Could be some kind of radiation," one of the firefighters speculated.

"Let's get a little closer," Officer Bailey said.

When they were within about thirty yards of it, they felt the warmth. Not heat exactly. Not like from a fire. It was more like a feeling of warmth. And the light seemed to make the desert ground, plants, and cactus more vivid and clear, not just light them up. It was weird.

The senior firefighter really was the one to make a call at this point.

"Maybe we should roll HazMat," he wondered out loud to the others as he looked into their faces. He put the radio to his mouth and called for back-up from the guys at his fire station.

Officer Rick Bailey thought he noticed something about that light. Yeah. Now he was sure.

"It's getting slightly bigger."

"You sure?" asked the senior firefighter.

"Definitely. It's slow, gradual. But it's definitely almost twenty-five percent bigger than when I first came on it up close."

It was now a little after five a.m. and there was slight glimpse of sunrise behind the mountains to the east. A few early commuters on the freeway had spotted the patrol cars and fire truck on the nearby road.

One telephone company technician had pulled his truck off the side of the freeway and had spotted Bailey and the two firefighters up on a small rise approaching the desert hills. He could see the strange, glowing light clearly now from the freeway. And he heard fire engines coming.

When the firefighter had radioed the call in, a few people on the graveyard shifts at local TV and radio news departments were monitoring police and fire radio scanners as usual and heard it.

Unknown situation. Maybe it's time to call the Phoenix Fire Department media line and see what was up.

Phoenix police officers wrapping up the overnight shift on patrol nearby were also dispatched to the scene.

When two other fire trucks and nine more Phoenix firefighters arrived on the side road, red lights flashing and sirens blaring, they couldn't miss the glowing light, even though it was no longer pitch dark. The morning sky in the east was now orange, and dawn was breaking.

They could see the light clearly. It stood out against a desert hill.
Eight of them hopped out of the trucks and started scrambling across the desert floor toward the three DPS officers and their two buddies up near the light.

A Phoenix police car rolled up, and the officer got out and followed them. Within two minutes a fellow officer also arrived.

By now, quite a few motorists on their way to work had pulled off the freeway. Other drivers had slowed to see what was going on. Most of them spotted the strange glow around the base of a nearby hill.

Overhead, a small Phoenix police chopper was now making tight circles above the firefighters and officers, and the unusual light. The pilot and the observer officer were talking to the Phoenix cops on the ground.

A TV news chopper team that was covering early morning traffic was dispatched by the station's news department to head to the location. Something was going on. Fire and police on scene.

On the ground, now nearly twenty firefighters and peace officers were standing together looking at this light. And more were now arriving. The Fire Department's HazMat unit was arriving down on the road.

VIETNAM VETS

Phoenix Fire Captain Mark Daniels was on scene. He was ranking firefighter and he decided to get closer to the soft glow of the light. As Daniels and the other officers and firefighters were looking at the light, a small dark object could be seen in the center space that was glowing.

Within a few seconds, they could make it out.

It was a dog. The dog stood there, looking somewhat confused and disoriented. Then it took a few steps. And slowly its tail began to wag.

Daniels noticed something familiar about the dog. And the dog now took a few more tentative steps toward him. The dog barked. Once, twice. It was barking at Daniels.

Then the dog took off at a run, directly for the fire captain and ran out of the perimeter of the odd field of light and right up to Daniels, wagging its tail wildly.

The other firefighters and cops now came up and surrounded Daniels and the dog, which looked to most of them like a part-shepherd mix, with a brown, black, and white coat.

Daniels knelt down face to face with the animal. He knew this dog. Knew her well. She had been his Army "scout dog" in Vietnam.
Daniels had been assigned as a combat dog handler patrolling the jungles of Vietnam thirty years before. This dog was named Vegas, and she had been his Army scout dog partner in 'Nam.

He hugged her and tears rolled down his face. She licked the tears from his cheeks. This animal had been a loyal and brave trusted friend and partner in Vietnam.

She had saved the lives of the men in his platoons many times and they had treasured this wonderful animal.

The firefighters and cops looked at the scene in confusion. What was going on?

How was Daniels going to explain it to them. They'd think he was nuts. Vegas had been shot and killed during a firefight in Vietnam in the summer of nineteen sixty-nine.

Up above, the two cops in the Phoenix police chopper could now notice the field of light had increased in size since they had arrived on scene. Slightly, but noticeably.

The news chopper was now also hovering off to the south about a half-mile, and the cameraman inside was now rolling live video to the station's control room. The video signal to the station showed the large field of strange light near the hills that now were aglow with the sun's morning light.

The picture included twenty or so cops and firefighters standing around, fire trucks and police cars with flashing red and blue lights, and the traffic on the freeway now at almost a standstill, with dozens of vehicles pulled off to the side of the road.

Three cops were now stringing yellow police caution tape down near the road to keep the onlookers back. They strung the tape using the cactus and the desert bushes.

A DPS chopper had arrived on scene and was also hovering overhead. Two more TV news choppers were speeding through the morning sky over Phoenix from the helipads at their stations.

Fire Captain Mark Daniels was now sitting on the ground, rubbing Vegas' belly as she lay peacefully next to him on the desert floor.

The cops and firefighters around them were starting to think maybe they should back up. The perimeter of the light field was expanding, and getting closer to their position. None of them felt afraid, though. It just seemed wise to back up a little.

The HazMat team that had arrived brought up a Geiger counter and checked the area. There was no radiation. They had hazardous chemical detection gear, and nothing registered on it. They didn't smell anything unusual either.

But they did feel the strange sense of inner warmth that the first guys on the scene had felt.

Suddenly, Vegas the Army scout dog rolled up from her back to her feet. She looked back toward the light field and barked. Then she looked at Daniels and barked again, her tail wagging.

Before Daniels could stop her, she took off on a run toward the light and headed right into it. She turned around and looked at the cops and firefighters as she stood just inside the apparent perimeter of the field of light. Her tail was still wagging and she barked at them several times.

Daniels stood up and starting walking toward her, slowly. Vegas kept barking and wagging her tail as he walked steadily into the edge of the light.

BACK IN SAN DIEGO

Meanwhile, the commander of the Joint Reconnaissance Study Group, Air Force Colonel Tom O'Brien was driving toward the San Diego office of the top-secret Joint Reconnaissance Study Group Friday morning when he heard it on the radio of his car.

The local San Diego jazz station was doing news at the top of the hour, and it was seven o'clock. After a radio ad for a local car dealership, a woman's voice said, "And now, your up-to-date news. In Phoenix, Arizona, public safety officials are baffled by an unexplained area of light near the foothills north of the city."

"Police and fire officials say the unusual field of light was first spotted by a highway patrol officer in the early morning hours. The strange glow seems to be stable, though some of the hundreds of bystanders told reporters that this field of light is getting larger, hour by hour."

O'Brien was stunned. This is it. He knew it instantly. He grabbed a cell phone from the car seat next to him and dialed the number of the Joint Reconnaissance Study Group office. Maybe somebody would be there.

There was a click on the other end.

"JRSG. Lieutenant Commander Etienne speaking."

"Jim! This is O'Brien. Get chopper transport ready for us now! Who else is there at the office?"

"Just Dan, sir."

"Get the rest of the group on the phone and tell them to get to the office pronto! We're flying to Phoenix as soon as we can get airborne. Call your contacts and get us chopper transport, Jim. And tell Thompson to get those Army Special Forces reserves in motion. Now, put Wells on the line."

Etienne motioned to Dan Wells who was sitting at his desk, and handed him the phone. O'Brien gave Wells some further instructions as he tried to stay within the speed limit and entered the Point Loma area. The base was just a few minutes away.

RAPID DEPLOYMENT

By nine a.m. two choppers carrying two groups of the JRSG were cutting through the air toward Phoenix.

One was a Navy helo carrying Air Force Colonel O'Brien, Navy Commander Dan Wells, Navy Lt. Commander Jim Etienne, Army Special Forces Colonel Ed Thompson, Army Special Forces Captain Bill MacNeil, Marine Colonel Gene Voss, and Air Force Major Karen Valdez. They were just approaching the crest of the mountains in eastern San Diego County.

The other was an Arizona National Guard chopper flying due south from Flagstaff. They were just passing over the Sedona area. On board were Army Special Forces Colonel Jack Allen, Dr. Brenda Carruthers, Air Force Captain Amy Mella, Mike Green, CIA analyst Jennifer Thorsen and World War II Marine Code Talker veteran Joe Bear, who had arrived in Flagstaff from the Navajo Nation the afternoon before.

They were all thinking, and talking among each other. Could this be what they think it might be? Some of them were hoping and praying.

The Army National Guard chopper from Flagstaff reached the scene first, quickly landed in the desert brush, and stirred up clouds of dust that floated toward the onlookers down by the highway.

They were about a hundred yards away from the growing cluster of peace officers and firefighters standing near the light field. The eight of them disembarked from the chopper and the pilot and co-pilot brought the rotor blades to a rest.

They first jogged and then walked calmly and steadily toward the light. Jack was up front with Brenda at his side. So were Joe, Mike, Amy, and Jennifer. Jack and Amy flashed their military credentials to a cop, and Jennifer pulled out her CIA ID. They told him they were a national security response team.

"Let's figure out who's in charge here," Jack told them. "Who saw what and what's been going on?"

As they waded into the crowd of officers and firefighters, they found that three other fire captains were now on scene, along with the department's public relations officers. A Phoenix police mobile command post RV had been brought to the scene, too.

They were told about Fire Captain Mark Daniels and the dog Vegas, who were still standing just inside the light field. Actually, they were running and playing. Daniels had found a stick and Vegas was in bliss chasing it and retrieving it for him inside the perimeter of the strange glowing body of light.

Other cops and firefighters had stepped closer and closer to it. Some were just a few feet away. They had to get used to the feeling they got as they moved closer. They felt a little different. There was a strange pressure in their chests.

The JRSG people also moved toward the light. Slowly, carefully. Listening to their senses and their instincts and feelings. Was this safe?

Daniels and Vegas stopped their play and looked at the JRSG people. Daniels smiled and Vegas started barking and her tail went to wagging wildly again. It was like they expected them. This is part of The Plan, Daniels said to himself. These were people who were supposed to be here.

One by one, Mike, Amy, Jennifer, Joe, Jack and Brenda stepped into the light field. And when they did, they knew that this was the breakthrough they'd been hoping for. That a lot of people had been hoping and praying for.

As the firefighters and cops started stepping into the light field, they sort of figured that this was something special. Might be something to tell your grandkids about.

Physics had changed, the JRSG team speculated. Don't know how, but it was clearly a different layer of reality, of Nature.

"It's like things are clearer," Mike said. "Visually, and inside me, too, somehow."

The others felt it too. And they were all getting similar, if varied perceptions. It reminded Mike of that tunnel of light during his near-death experience. Amy was trying to put it into words.

"It feels like God's hand. Reaching out to us," she said almost unconsciously.

They looked at her silently. She was hoping this would be the beginning of what she had unconsciously blurted out once before. "Joy beyond understanding." Every tear washed away, like the Bible said.

Jack was trying to cover all the bases.

"Brenda and Joe, you go talk to that fire captain with the dog please. Verify what we've heard about them. We're expecting our people from San Diego to be here any time. Mike, Amy, and Jennifer, stick close to me please. I want to go deeper into this field."

The four of them took a few more steps into the light. The entire field had now expanded to approximately forty yards in diameter.

Overhead, two more choppers from TV news stations arrived and hovered, hanging back a mile or so from the site of the light. A second Phoenix police chopper also had arrived and was alternately circling and hovering.

And now another helicopter was arriving on the scene from the west. It was the Navy helo carrying Tom O'Brien and the rest of the group: Wells and Etienne, Thompson and MacNeil, Voss and Valdez.

From the window of the chopper, the people inside could see the large energy-like glow nestled against a hillside. There were fire trucks and police cars nearby. An Army chopper was on the ground about a half-mile west of the odd light field. And traffic on the nearby freeway looked like it was at a standstill.

Other helicopters could be seen above the area. The morning sun was now rising above the mountains to the east. O'Brien wanted to be on the ground, now.

"Commander, put us down there please. Near that Army chopper."

"Will do, colonel. It's just desert scrub down there. Should be no problem," the pilot said confidently.

The Navy pilot and co-pilot put the craft on the desert floor near the Army National Guard chopper and turned off the engine. They wanted to get a closer look too. The group got off the helo and walked steadily toward the crowd of peace officers and firefighters standing near and in the light force.

They could also see crowds of people gathering down by the freeway. And news media vans were parked there too.

As they got closer, they started to feel the mysterious warmth that others there had noticed. They spotted old Joe Bear and Brenda Carruthers playing with a dog just inside the perimeter of the light field. What was going on?

Jack Allen, Mella, Thorsen, and Green were also now visible, standing just beyond them inside the light. Jack spotted them and waved for them to come forward.

O'Brien and the other JRSG people who had just arrived looked at each other briefly, and then slowly started wading into the strange light. They felt a little pressure in their chests. Things looked different. There was a certain vividness to everything. People, rocks, desert bushes. There seemed to be an inner glow in everything.

The two groups linked up and the whole JRSG team, plus Joe Bear, Brenda Carruthers and the Army National Guard pilots, the San Diego Navy pilots, and several cops and firefighters were standing around shaking hands and sharing hugs. The group from Flagstaff filled in the San Diego teams about what they had learned so far.

"The highway patrolman who first spotted it in the early morning hours is still reportedly on scene somewhere," Jack told O'Brien and the others. Jack then pointed out Mark Daniels and Vegas, and explained the story.

Joe Bear focused in on that. It fit with the latest Code Talker message the NSA had picked up and asked him to interpret, he thought. "A friend will break through the lines for a rescue," or something like that, Joe had figured from the Code Talker words in Morse code. And it said it would happen "in the land of the Hohokam."

He wanted to tell the others, but there were pilots, firefighters, and cops standing nearby who didn't have clearance and didn't have a need to know. Joe casually took a few steps so he was standing next to O'Brien. He tapped him on the arm.

"Tom. The dog. It fits in with the NSA signal," he said quietly. "A friend will break through the lines for a rescue."

O'Brien looked at him and nodded.

The JRSG and their friends, as well as the pilots, firefighters, and cops standing around there were trying to understand this thing. Looking to their training and experience. Trying to do the professional thing under the circumstances.

In the sky to the west, two Army Reserve choppers from San Diego carrying the Special Forces Reserve teams were approaching the air space above and around the light field. Ed and Bill spotted the choppers and wanted to get them on the ground.

"Sir," Ed called over to O'Brien. "Looks like our people from San Diego are coming in," he said as he pointed. "MacNeil and I better get them deployed."

"Right Ed. You two go."

Ed and Bill took off at a jog from the growing crowd of people just inside the light field, and soon were out of the glow themselves and running west to where their other two choppers were on the ground.

From inside the light field, the others soon saw colored smoke rising near the other choppers. Thompson and MacNeil were marking a landing zone and MacNeil had pulled the pins on two signal smoke canisters.

"We have some Special Forces friends from San Diego coming in to help us," O'Brien announced to the other JRSG people. "They can coordinate with police and fire."

FIELD OF DREAMS

Tom was trying to stay in control. Truth was, he was feeling like a little kid on Christmas morning.

Mike was standing nearby with Amy and Jennifer. He was still feeling that there were similarities between this light and the strange tunnel in his near-death experience, and he whispered it in their ears.

To Joe Bear, it reminded him of some of his vision dreams. A certain inner glow that everything, and everybody, seemed to have.

To others, it did kind of feel like God's hand reaching out. Like Mella had said. She wasn't the only one there who had that perception.
Many of the people gathered around inside and on the perimeter got a feeling that this energy, this field of light, this outstretched hand was there so they and the others could affirm it. Grasp it and shake hands with it. Hold on to it. Hold on tight. Maybe pray with it.

Some of the cops and firefighters in and around the light were intermittently talking and listening to their hand-held radios. Telling dispatchers what was going on. Talking to other officers and fire crews nearby. It was some kind of natural energy. Nobody was picking up any danger from it.

The area was being cordoned off from the curious and peaceful public crowds that were gathering. Everything was under control down by the freeway and nearby roads. Chopper traffic in and out of the airspace above the light field was being controlled and coordinated by police.

It was mid-morning now and the live video being shot by the news choppers was now being fed to the networks.

Ed Thompson and Bill MacNeil had now brought the Special Forces guys up and into the light. They were stationed around the expanding edge of the glow's perimeter. The pilots and co-pilots from those choppers had also walked over to the light field.

The seventy or eighty people now standing in the growing light field started to hear something. It was a barely audible musical sound. Groups of firefighters and cops clustered around gradually stopped talking and listened. Some of the cops turned down their radios.

It was definitely music. Coming from within the light field, or nearby. And it was familiar, but different. Gentle sounds flowing from a string section and an acoustic guitar. A few of them started to make out the tune. The song was "Fools Rush In" being played and sung slowly and almost, it seemed, carefully. And many of the people there thought they recognized the singer. This was too weird. Yeah, it was a distinctive voice to those who were familiar with it. Rick Nelson.

Amy had called it God's hand. She had also been right about something else. "Joy beyond understanding." That's what she had said during the group meeting over the Internet from Flagstaff. She was right.

The field of natural energy and light kept expanding that morning and past noon. At one o'clock, the media was allowed to come up to, and into the light field.

By three, police started to take down the barriers and yellow caution tape. People were allowed to get closer. Even a few kids with their parents walked up to the edge of the light and nervously put their hands on the glowing perimeter.

Most people just kind of stood there. Enjoying it. Thinking about what it might be. What it might mean. The light and the people visiting it, and watching it on TV, continued to expand throughout the afternoon and evening.

Hundreds and thousands of Phoenix area residents watched the sunset that evening from the desert hills there on the north side of town. The place where ancient paintings and carvings of symbols and animals on a nearby rock cliff said this was a special place, a holy place. A place to find shelter and water.

The light had now spread out for about three square miles and people had gotten used to it. It just kept going, lighting things up a little. Making people feel a bit of pressure in their chests. Making things a little clearer, somehow.

The light kept expanding into Saturday. And Sunday. And following days and weeks. And it never stopped.

New facts surface in Stephenville UFO incidents

By Steve Hammons

A detailed description of a huge craft that hovered over Stephenville, Texas, in January 2008 has been provided by a law enforcement officer and is reported on the Web site Earthfiles.com.

The officer also stated that the craft was observed clearly by two fellow officers.

High-quality computer-generated graphics of the craft consistent with officers' observations are also posted on the site.

An interview of the officer by Emmy Award-winning TV producer, investigative reporter and author Linda Moulton Howe is also posted on Earthfiles.com.

In addition, the officer and Howe provide updated information on a Nov. 18 incident in Stephenville.

JANUARY SIGHTING

According to Howe's interview with the officer identified as "Greg," he and other local officers observed the craft near the Erath County courthouse in downtown Stephenville early in the evening on Jan. 8, 2008.

"Greg" is apparently the same officer referenced by journalist Angelia Joiner who identified him in previous reporting as "Officer X" because he captured the craft's speed with his radar gun.

Greg observed the craft from several streets away. Another officer was driving directly underneath it and a third officer observed it from above, from his home on a nearby ridge.

The object is described by the officer as being 600 feet in diameter in a generally rectangular shape. Two bright white lights were observed on each of the four edges. Smaller red lights were on the corners.

Towers were observed on the top and bottom and were estimated to be 30 feet to 40 feet tall. The towers also had intermittently strobing lights.

The object appeared a gray-green color with a surface texture that seemed to appear like "canvas."

The officer also told Howe that the object seemed to have a cloaking device and could become nearly invisible at times.

As the officer neared the hovering craft, it turned on its side 90 degrees in what appeared to be a vertical position and started moving away from him.

The officer told Howe, "Then the craft starts pulling away. I reach up and grab my radar, swivel it up into the sky, turned it on and I got a hit. It showed 27 mph and accelerating. It got to about 33 mph and I lost my lock, which meant it was moving so far away I can't get a good lock on it anymore. At this point, it accelerated very fast."

NOVEMBER SIGHTING

Again, on Nov. 18, 2008, over the downtown area of Stephenville, an unidentified object or craft was observed by citizens.

Greg told Howe that between 7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Stephenville police received approximately five phone calls about the UFO.

“I was called by an hysterical couple that the craft was following. It tracked along beside them at 70 mph and then pulled in front of their pickup nose down into the road way, just 75 feet off the ground. The female said the bottom of the craft looked silver metallic,” the officer told Howe.

“They were so awe-struck and thought it was going to land and they stopped right in the road way and just looked at it. The couple said as it nosed down, it flipped around to the other side of the road.”

“The craft then put a spotlight of some kind, a bright light, on the vehicle traveling in front of the couple, which was a couple hundred yards away. That vehicle did not stop. That car continued down the road. So, the couple did not know if that car knew it was being illuminated or whoever was driving just wanted to get out of there!”

The couple told the officer that another motorist, who identified himself as a pilot, pulled into a convenience store where they had stopped and asked them if they had seen an unusual object, to which they responded in the affirmative.

The couple continued to spot the UFO flying back and forth over a nearby area.

This object seemed to be different from the one described in the January case.

According to the officer, “The couple said it looked something like a blimp. They compared their Nov. 18 sighting to a Tylenol caplet with the top and bottom shaved off a little.”

Greg told Howe that some local peace officers have speculated about the UFOs.

“We’ve all wondered why it’s occurring around here. A lot of the officers think it’s some kind of military craft,” he said.

“The officer who was in his back yard at home at the time on Jan. 8, 2008, he is retired U.S. Air Force and he was adamant it is not USAF.”

Year of UFOs in Stephenville ending with more sightings

By Steve Hammons

It looks like nearly the entire year of 2008 was filled with UFOs and other unusual goings-on in the town of Stephenville and Erath County, Texas.

As late as Oct. 23, people in Erath County were still spotting very odd lights and an object hovering in the sky. A newspaper report in the Abilene Reporter-News on Nov. 20 quoted local resident Michael Corn, 27, who said he saw a bright object in the sky as he stepped outside of his home.

In a Reporter-News article by Angelia Joiner, Corn was quoted as saying, "It looked really close to Stephenville, like it was almost over the courthouse."

Corn, a military veteran, described amber-orange lights that pulsed right to left.

"I could see the bottom of the object from the illumination of those lights and the city lights. The bottom (of the object) looked smooth," Joiner quoted Corn as saying. "There is no way you could be outside and look up in the sky and not notice this thing. It was just weird," he said.

After watching the object for 15 seconds or so, it disappeared, making no sound.

Corn told Joiner, "It just vanished."

Ashley Couch, Corn's girlfriend, saw the same thing and said, "It reminded me of a carousel lying over on its side," according to Joiner’s report.

Several other witnesses in the area also reported seeing the same strange lights and local police told Joiner they received approximately 10 calls about sightings that night.

JANUARY IN STEPHENVILLE

The year 2008 started out like any other for most people in Erath County.

However, in January several reliable local residents contacted the Stephenville Empire-Tribune newspaper to report seeing things in the sky that they could not explain.

At the time, reporter Joiner worked at the paper.

Local resident Ricky Sorrells had experienced a close encounter while hunting in the woods. A massive metallic-like object hovered directly over him, then took off in the blink of an eye.

Steve Allen, a pilot and respected businessman, also saw a huge UFO with friends while they sat around a campfire. It was so dramatic they were a bit shook up by it.

Dozens of other citizens eventually came forward, including several law enforcement officers.

County Constable Lee Roy Gaitan was one of the peace officers who stepped forward early in the sightings, reporting that he and his young son saw strange light patterns in the night sky.

Soon, the Associated Press, CNN and other national and international media were following the Stephenville UFO story. Surprisingly to many, the press covered the situation in a mostly serious, responsible and professional way.

Then, the Erath County incidents took some unexpected and somewhat ominous turns.

Witness Sorrells said he received calls telling him to stop talking to the press. He said helicopters were buzzing his rural home at all hours of the night and a menacing intruder approached his home in the early morning hours.

Joiner left the Stephenville newspaper after management there apparently became concerned that reports on the UFO sightings were overshadowing more routine area news coverage.

However, she continued to report on the situation as a writer for a Web site and a reporter for a local radio station.

LOCAL PEACE OFFICERS

By February, Joiner obtained information indicating that law enforcement officers in the region had videotape of unusual objects taken by patrol car "dashcams."

In addition to Constable Gaitan, Sgt. Jim Clifton of the Erath County Sheriff Department came forward to say that he, too, had seen unusual phenomena in the sky during the same time frame.

He provided details to Joiner for her reports.

Then, Mike Zimmerman, a retired veteran officer of 25 years with the Texas Department of Public Safety who served on the protective detail for five Texas governors came forward.

Zimmerman told Joiner that he also saw things in the sky he could not explain and described them.

Another local officer, who Joiner identified as "Officer X" told her that he had clocked one low-flying UFO with his radar gun used to ticket speeders.

The UFO was moving at 27 miles per hour, Officer X stated.

There were indications that other local officers had also seen things but they preferred to keep a low profile.

MUFON INVESTIGATES

Among the journalists, researchers and possibly other people discreetly nosing around Erath County, the respected group Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) was also conducting an investigation.

MUFON set up meetings where witnesses could come forward and be interviewed. Dozens did speak with MUFON investigators.

When an initial report was later issued by the organization, some people were disappointed. The report indicated that some people may have seen natural phenomena and misinterpreted it, though many witnesses appeared to believe they saw something very unnatural. The report seemed inconclusive.

But in July, a second MUFON report was issued based on radar data from the region in question for the night of Jan. 8, 2008. MUFON representatives Glen Schulze and Robert Powell obtained radar information through the filing of 10 requests through the federal Freedom of Information Act.

Information from the radar data indicated there was a very unusual unidentified object or craft in the area and apparently unusual military aircraft activity.

The unidentified anomalous object had traveled within 10 miles of the Bush ranch at nearby Crawford.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Things seemed to quiet down quite a bit in Erath County in the second half of 2008. There were no mass sightings and the media coverage gradually declined, though the Stephenville, Texas, story was sometimes referenced in various TV shows and media reports.

Documentary TV crews still visited, as did other researchers.

And who knows what kinds of government agents might have been lingering around Erath County?

It seemed clear that the early 2008 UFO "flap" in Stephenville would go down as one of the noteworthy events in UFO history and research.

Things were calming down and getting back to normal – until the Oct. 23 sighting that is.

Maybe local residents and the media are so used to UFOs in the Stephenville area that it no longer surprises anyone.

A handful of reliable people see a large object the size of two buses with large, bright pulsing lights hovering near the courthouse? So, what else is new?

Hey, this is Stephenville and Erath County – home of dairy cows, Dr. Pepper and UFOs. What do you expect?

If 2009 brings more unusual activity to Earth County, at least local residents and public safety personnel will be more prepared.

Regional residents have their new cameras. Law officers have their dashcams and radar guns ready to go. National and international media representatives know where the good inns and restaurants are.

The Stephenville UFO sightings may turn out to be an ongoing story.

And there may be more chapters yet to come.