Stephenville, Texas, New Witnesses Shocker! ...by Bill Knell

While many residents of Stephenville were hoping that the hoopla over recent UFO sightings over the small farming community would die down, the story just keeps growing thanks to credible reports from reliable witnesses and contradictory statements from the U.S. Military. Despite earlier claims that no military jets were in the area at the time of the UFO sighting, Major Karl Lewis just released the following statement to the Press:

“An error was made regarding the reported training activity of military aircraft. 10 F-16s from the 457th Fighter Squadron were performing training operations in the Brownwood Military Operating Area."

This is the same Major Karl Lewis that claimed no F-16s or any other military aircraft were in the area at the time of the UFO sightings. Lewis made the revised statement speaking for the 301st Fighter Wing at the Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base. It’s fascinating to listen to commanders of the U.S. Military do the same verbal dance around UFO incidents that they have been doing since the 1947 Roswell Case. They may also be employing another effective method first used in Roswell to cover-up what really happened in Stephenville.

At least two UFO witnesses in Stephenville say that they have been threatened by Government Authorities. According to several news sources covering the sightings, two people with photographic evidence were approached by people claiming to be government authorities. The witnesses were told that what they saw was some sort of a secret military project and that they would be violating the law by releasing any photos of the event.

Several meetings were held in Stephenville since the original UFO sightings began in late December of 2007 and continued well into early January of 2008. One involved a reporter that invited UFO witnessed to tell their stories. Over 200 people attended that meeting which was well received by the witnesses and the press alike. Another was held by MUFON Investigators (the Mutual UFO Network) that came to Stephenville to investigate the sightings. Unfortunately, one Texas newspaper likened them to the cartoon characters from the Scooby Doo Gang.

Many of the Stephenville UFO Witnesses feel frustrated because people are not taking their reports seriously. For example, several have responded to the latest statement from the U.S. Military by saying that they are used to seeing F-16s and commercial airliners in the skies above Texas and know the difference between an unidentified flying object and a jet. They also point out that their original report claiming F-16s were in the airspace above Stephenville on the night in question was correct. However, they say the jets were chasing a UFO, not just practicing maneuvers in the skies over their town.

Today, an unconfirmed email report came in to IPUS (the International Paranormal UFO Society) regarding the January 8, 2008, UFO sighting. The sender was a person calling themselves Jim. Jim is not the sender’s real name, and he has have opted for anonymity at this time. All we know about the sender is that he claims to be a male, about forty years of age and says he is a private pilot. Jim says that he was flying a private, twin-engine aircraft through the area at the time of the UFO sighting and witnessed the object and F-16 jets chasing it.

Although he was careful not to reveal too many details, Jim said that he was approaching Erath County airspace when he first saw a “large, pulsating, globular object many times the size of my aircraft” at an altitude of around 5000 feet. Jim was also quick to say that his judgment concerning the size of the object may be flawed due to the distances involved between his aircraft and the UFO. Regarding the military jets involved, he said, “They (the F-16s) seemed to be in some sort of escort pattern behind and around the UFO.” Not all the witnesses to the January 8, 2008, Stephenville UFO sighting are as shy as Jim.

Constable Leroy Gaitan appeared on the Kevin Smith Show (http://www.kevinsmithshow.com) recently and told his own story. Gaitan, an elected police official in Erath County, said that he was at his house near Dublin, Texas, when he went out to his patrol car and noticed a huge, red glowing object. After going back in the house to tell his wife about it, he came back outside and saw several white lights that seem to “dance around the sky” in place of the red glowing object. Gaitan said they were like strobe lights that eventually came together and flew away at a very high rate of speed.

The Constable guessed that the objects he saw were about 5000 feet up in the sky which goes along with what Jim said in his email. Regarding the jets, Gaitan said that “I really do believe that the military was involved.” He also said several people called him saying that they saw the same strange lights and some claimed to have photographic evidence of their sighting. Gaitan’s young son saw the object at the same time as his dad and may have told classmates about it the next day at school.

Photos of the bright glowing light filmed above Erath County appear similar to another photo recently sent to IPUS by a witness named Lisa. This forty-two year old mother of two was taking some photos in the area of Oriental, North Carolina, to send home to her family in December of 2004. She didn’t notice anything strange until the pictures were downloaded and the object appeared in one photo. Oriental is located on the coast of North Carolina.

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