The Stephenville UFO Story Continues: More UFO Sightings and Less Coverage ...by Bill Knell

On the heels of the forcing out of Angelia Joiner and flip-flop statements from the military, we now have repeat sightings by some of the UFO witnesses that first came forward. Constable Gaitan and Ricky Sorrells have both had additional UFO sightings and they have the video and photos to prove it.

While I’m sure that the Nay Sayers and skeptics in Erath County were hoping that the forcing out of Empire Tribune Reporter Angelia Joiner and the ridiculous statements from the Air Force would put an end to the stories of UFOs in their skies, the Aliens are not cooperating. They keep coming back for more despite the absence of any objective reporting on the matter at the local newspaper and at least one local politician that has verbally hung out the Aliens Not Welcome sign.

One of the first and most credible UFO witnesses from Erath County was Constable Leroy Gaitan. Gaitan saw the same object that many others in the area viewed on January 8, 2008. He was able to describe his sighting in a lucid and matter of fact manner during various radio and television interviews. Gaitan described a red glow that faded and reappeared. He then saw bright white lights that he said “bounced” around the sky and eventually took off at an incredible speed. His eight year old son was present during that sighting.

Gaitan had two more sightings in February. The first occurred on February 2, 2008, He states:

“It was February 2nd 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 UFO sighting occurred on February 9, 2008. He states:

“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… It does not match what we saw on Jan. 8, 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."

Gaitan wasn’t the only witness. He goes on to say:

“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.”

Most people that have followed the Stephenville UFO sightings recall seeing Ricky Sorrells in various television news reports. He said that he saw a large object over a pasture behind his house on January 8, 2008. He also made subsequent claims of being harassed by people claiming to be from the Air Force that want answers he doesn’t have and that told him to stop talking about his sightings. It is a fact that others in the area have witnessed helicopters and jets flying over his property at low altitudes during all hours of the day and night.

On February 9, 2008, Sorrells had his first nighttime sighting. He has had four during the day and states the following about his latest encounter:

“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.”

It seems that not even members of the press are immune from the UFO sightings in Erath County. The owner and publisher of the Dublin Citizen now claims that he had a sighting on February 9, 2008. Mac McKinnon states:

“Somebody called me at 8 Saturday 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.”

At this point it’s unlikely that the military has chosen to test fly secret aircraft over Erath County, especially considering the publicity that the area is currently receiving. However, you never know. Perhaps the sightings are the result of some clandestine skunk works project gone awry? The entire Stephenville affair brings to mind something that happened in my own home town of East Meadow, Long Island, New York. That UFO incident also involved many credible witnesses and an equally-ridiculous explanation from the government.

During the mid-1960s when I was just a kid, my parents took me on summer vacation for two weeks. While we were away, a large disc-shaped UFO hovered over the Town of Hempstead Pool located just a couple of blocks from my house. It happened in broad daylight. After the object moved away, the water turned an odd color. The pool was closed for a time while special hazardous materials teams came and emptied out the water. They scrubbed down the entire area and reopened the facility after everything had been sanitized.

We returned home a short time after the UFO event and found well-dressed men in suits knocking on all the doors in our neighborhood. When they reached our door, my father answered. The well-dressed man introduced himself as some government type and said he came by to reassure the folks living in the area of the pool that all was well, despite the strange object that appeared over the pool.

He made sure we understood that what people saw was not something extraterrestrial. He claimed that some secret experiment had gotten loose from Brookhaven National Laboratories and that it was now back where it belonged. It was a crazy explanation! It was like saying that the next store neighbor’s dog got loose and trampled someone’s flowers. Being an Air Force Officer, my father laughed and slammed the door in his face.

No one in our neighborhood that actually saw the object believed the cover story. Many of our neighbors were military veterans, retired military officers and technical experts working for nearby government contractors. Most of them knew that we had nothing in development close to what appeared over the town pool.

If we allow ourselves to be told what we can and should believe about UFOs by others, we’re wrong. If we allow ourselves to be manipulated by government authorities obsessed with secrecy, we’re wrong. If we allow ourselves to be propagandized by a press obsessed with politics, the economy and their own pet ideological beliefs, we’re wrong. All we ask is to be told the truth, allowed to judge events on their own merits and make up our own minds about controversial subjects.


Bill Knell is a professional writer. Although semi-retired, he still accepts various writing assignments. Articles on most any topic are his specialty. Bill is also a talented ghost writer for people who have an idea or story to tell without the skills to create a submittable book manuscript. Sorry, Bill does not accept term paper or technical writing assignments. Bill can be contacted on FACEBOOK. If you are interested in Christian resources, articles and topics, stop by Bill's Christian Resources website You Can Trust God. Read Bill's DIY, advice and other articles at Doctor Know.

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