UFOs One Year at a Time: 1980

December 27-30, 1980 - Rendlesham Forest - The UK Roswell

(Source: Excerpted from www.ufocasebook.com)

When it comes to UFO cases, it doesn't get any better than the Rendlesham UK UFO encounter: A large air force base known for highly classified work; UFO tracked by radar at Heathrow; Living eye-witnesses of considerable reputation amd stature; tape recorded evidence from the scene by military personnel; numerous external reports of UFO sightings in the same area by towns people; phenomenal level of military cover up later exposed through freedom of information act.

In December of 1980 Rendledham/Bentwaters Air Force base and adjacent forest became the site of several extraterrestrial visitations clearly intended to be seen, reported and never forgotten.

Case info -- Early in the morning of 27 Dec 80 (approximately 0300L), two USAF security police patrolmen saw unusual lights outside the back gate at RAF Woodbridge. Thinking an aircraft might have crashed or been forced down, they called for permission to go outside the gate to investigate. The on duty flight chief responded and allowed three patrolmen to proceed on foot. The individuals reported seeing a strange glowing object in the forest. The object was described as being metallic in appearance and triangular in shape, approximately two to three meters across the base and approximately two meters high. It illuminated the entire forest with a white light. The object itself had a pulsating red light on top and a bank(s) of blue lights underneath. The object was hovering or on three legs. As the patrolmen approached the object, it maneuvered through the trees and disappeared. At this time the animals on a nearby farm went into a frenzy. The object was briefly sighted approximately an hour later near the back gate.

Halt took with him a team of specialists which included: Lieutenant Bruce Englund, Sergeant Monroe Nevilles, who operated the Geiger counter, and Master Sergeant Bobby Ball. The team was later joined by Airman First Class John Burroughs, who would be one of the principal figures in the investigation.

One of the patrolmen, Staff Sergeant Jim Penniston, later reported that, as they neared the object: "The air was filled with electricity. You could feel it on your skin as we approached the object."

After observing the object from a safe distance, Penniston also examined it at close range for some twenty minutes, actually touching the "smooth, black, glass-type fabric" and the strange symbols etched into its surface. Finally, the craft rose upwards and as quoted in the 'Strange But True?' interview, "It slowly started moving back, weaving in and around the trees. It got about 40 feet away, then it raised up into the air and it shot off as fast as you could blink. On the upper left side of the craft, was an inscription. It measured six inches high, of symbols. They looked familiar, but I couldn't ascertain why."

The next day, three depressions 1 1/2" deep and 7" in diameter were found where the object had been sighted on the ground. The following night the area was checked for radiation. Beta/Gamma readings of 0.1 milliroentgens were recorded with peak readings in the three depressions and near the center of the triangle formed by the depressions. A nearby tree had moderate (.05 - .07) readings on the side of the tree toward the depressions.

Lt. Colonel Halt insisted that an appropriate entry be made in the security police log. Halt's report did not end there, because the next night more activity occurred in Rendlesham Forest, pulling Halt away from his dinner:

Later in the night a red sun-like light was seen through the trees. It moved about and pulsed. At one point it appeared to throw off glowing particles and then broke into five separate white objects and then disappeared. Immediately thereafter, three star-like objects were noticed in the sky, two objects to the north and one to the south, all of which were about 10° off the horizon. The objects moved rapidly in sharp angular movements and displayed red, green and blue lights. The objects to the north appeared to be elliptical through an 8 - 12 power lens. They then turned to full circles. The objects to the north remained in the sky for an hour or more. The object to the south was visible for two or three hours and beamed down a stream of light from time to time.

The Halt document, one of the most important papers in the study of UFOs, states that patrolmen on the base encountered a "saucer-like" object in the forest adjacent to the military bases. Halt describes the craft as maneuvering through the forest's trees, and eventually disappearing into the sky. He further states that the next day's investigation found marks at the spot of the encounter, and abnormal levels of radiation. On the same night of the event, strange objects were observed performing aerial moves that defied the laws of physics. These lights divided into smaller lights, and eventually disappeared from view.

After years of speculation and theory, Colonel Halt released an 18-minute audio cassette that he states was made on the night of the encounter. On the tape could clearly be heard various senior officers , including Halt, communicating via walkie-talkies, as personnel tramped through the woods investigating the unusual craft. The voices are at times panic stricken, as they conveyed that a beam from the craft disabled electrical devices in the area for a time. Incredibly, the tape also relates that "video" and "still" photographs were taken of this strange object.

The Alan Godfrey abduction, November 28, 1980

From U-K. ufologist Jenny Randles.

In November and December 1980, the eastern side of Britain was experiencing a major UFO sighting wave. There were chases of UFOs by police cars near the coast, a UFO that overflew an oil rig in the North Sea, and the wave culminated in the famous events on the East Anglian coast at Rendlesham Forest. Just a month before these landings beside those NATO air bases, one of the most impressive alien abduction cases took place in the small Penninemill town of Todmorden, West Yorkshire, right in the centre of Britain's most active window area known locally as "UFO Alley".

Police Constable Alan Godfrey was on patrol on the night of 28 November 1980. Just before dawn he drove along Burnley Road on the edge of Todmorden looking for some cows that had been reported missing. They were only found after sun-up, mysteriously relocated in a rain-soaked field without hoofmarks to indicate their passage.

Giving up his nocturnal hunt, Godfrey was about to go back to base to sign off duty when he saw a large mass a few hundred yards ahead. At first, he thought it was a bus coming towards him that took workers to their jobs in town and that he knew passed about 5:00 a.m. But as he approached, he realized that it was something very strange. It was a fuzzy oval that rotated at such speed and hovered so low over the otherwise deserted highway that it was causing the bushes by the side to shake. The police officer stopped, propped onto his windscreen a pad that was in the patrol car to make sketches of any road accidents, and drew the UFO. Then there was a burst of light, and the next thing he knew he was driving his car again, further along Burnley Road, with no sign of the UFO.

Godfrey turned around and examined the spot where the UFO had hovered. The road was very wet as it had rained heavily earlier in the night. But just at this one location was a circular patch where the roadway had been dried in a swirled pattern. Only when back at the police station did he realise that it was a little later than he had expected - although any missing time was probably no greater than 15 minutes from estimates later taken on site.

Concerned as to possible ridicule, Godfrey at first chose not to make an official report, but changed his mind later that day when he discovered he was not alone. After breakfast that morning, a driver who had been on Burnley Road three miles further out at Cliviger reported seeing a brilliant white object and contacted Todmorden police. The time matched that of Alan Godfrey's. Furthermore, a police patrol from an adjacent force (Halifax) had been engaged in a stakeout for stolen motorcycles on the moors of the Calder Valley and had witnessed a brilliant blue-white glow descending into the valley towards Todmorden shortly before Godfrey experienced his close encounter. Their story, when it reached Todmorden police station, formed a second match.

Encouraged by this news Godfrey filed an official report, but was surprised when police chose to release the story to the local newspaper the following week. From here, UFOlogists discovered the case and a lengthy investigation was mounted by a Manchester-based UFO group.

Although Alan Godfrey had no further conscious recall of the missing time, he did have increasingly confused memory of the sequence of events surrounding the sighting (with an unexplained image of seeing himself outside the car during the sighting). There was also puzzling physical evidence. His police-issue boots were split on the sole, as if he had been dragged along the floor and they had caught on something. He also reported a previous history of seeing other strange things and having experienced at least one earlier time lapse as a youth—factors that UFOlogists have come to recognise as common with abduction cases.

When sure that all conscious testimony had been recorded, Godfrey agreed to be hypnotically regressed by a Manchester psychiatrist eight months after the incident. He eventually had several other sessions with different therapists, and his recall in later sessions was video-taped. The doctor refused permission to the UFO group for the first session to be recorded.

The hypnotic testimony is very odd, and Godfrey was never to be sure what really happened. Under regression he told of the bright light stopping the car engine, causing his radio and police handset both to be filled with static and then to be swamped by blinding light as he lost consciousness. His next recall was of being inside a strange room, more like a house than a spaceship, complete with a most unexpected large black dog. He was studied by a heavily bearded man who telepathically conveyed that his name was "Yosef" and whose clothing was very Biblical in nature. Assisting Yosef were several small robot-like creatures "the size of a five-year-old lad" and with "a head shaped like a lamp". They are reminiscent of the "Grays" of UFO lore; although with major differences.

Godfrey was supposedly asked questions, told that he "knew" Josef, and was promised a later encounter. But apparently he was not subjected to the more familiar indignities of abduction stories (especially from the US), such as bodily fluid samples and rectal probes. Although there were periods of missing memory, the hypnotic recall that did emerge was a curious hybrid of mythic images, UFO case elements and dream like sequences.

When asked his opinion as to the reality status of this hypnotic testimony, Alan Godfrey was refreshingly honest. He told me he was certain that the UFO encounter was real, but he could not determine whether the story offered by hypnosis was a dream, a fantasy, reality, or a mixture of all three.

Unhappily, Alan Godfrey suffered terribly after this encounter. When I first wrote up the investigation (just before the regression hypnosis began) for Flying Saucer Review magazine in l981, I deliberately changed his identity to help protect him; although this was probably futile because the story had already been featured in the local press under Godfrey's real name.

However, despite my refusal to assist them, a tabloid reporter traced the witness and devoted a front-page banner headline article to the story — read by millions over the Sunday lunch—which led to the officer being called to explain himself before his superiors. He was forced to undergo medical investigation to determine his "status", but was pronounced psychologically fit and healthy. Yet after some years feeling that he would never be allowed to forget his sighting, he took advice to honorably resign over an unrelated physical injury incurred during an incident in which he bravely intervened to avert a crime.

Todmorden, both before 1980 and in the years since, has been a hotbed of alien contact activity with several other major encounters having been investigated, including another abduction of a truck driver from Burnley Road only a little further out of Todmorden and on the same highway.

Jenny Randles

UFOs One Year at a Time: 1957

October 5, 1957 - Antonio Villas-Boas' Celestial Sexual Encounter

In October 1957 a young South American farmer called Antonio Villas Boas (1934-1992) came forward with a story that shocked the world of UFOlogy. UFOlogy had only just started to except that people were seeing landed UFO's but this story was to prove the turning point in many ways.

On October 5th, Villas-Boas was in his room after a party and for some reason decided to look out of his window. There he saw a bright fluorescent light hovering just above the tree line of a nearby wood. He called his brother Jaoa who also witnessed this sighting. Neither of the men could explained this sighting and the object soon disappeared.

On October 16, 1957, he was ploughing fields near São Francisco de Sales when he saw what he described as a "red star" in the night sky. According to his story, this "star" approached his position, growing in size until it became recognizable as a roughly circular or egg-shaped aerial craft, with a red light at its front and a rotating cupola on top. The craft began descending to land in the field, extending three "legs" as it did so. At that point, Boas decided to run from the scene. Suddenly he felt several hands grabbing him and before he knew what was happening he was being led inside the craft. He shouted for help but no one came. He had been seized by a 1.5 m (five-foot) tall humanoid, who was wearing grey coveralls and a helmet. Its eyes were small and blue, and instead of speech it made noises like barks or yelps. Three similar beings then joined the first in subduing Boas, and they dragged him inside their craft.

He was led into a large brightly lit room with a metal rod running from the floor to the ceiling. The creatures started to talk amongst themselves in a strange growling language. In this room the beings took samples of Boas' blood from his chin. After this he was then taken to a third room and left alone for around half an hour. During this time, some kind of gas was pumped into the room, which made Boas become violently ill. Soon after this the creature removed his clothes, "washed" him in an oily substance and left the room.

Villas-Boas suddenly became very tired and he rested on a "couch" like object. Soon after that the door opened to a reveal a naked semi-humanoid woman. She was the same height as the other beings he had encountered, with a small, pointed chin and large, blue catlike eyes. The hair on her head was long and white (somewhat like platinum blonde) but her underarm and pubic hair were bright red. Boas said he was strongly attracted to the woman, and the two had sexual intercourse. During this act, Boas noted that the female did not kiss him but instead nipped him on the chin.He soon found himself having intercourse with the creature. After he ejaculated, the woman rose up and as she was about to leave the room pointed to her stomach and then to the sky.

He was then taken on a brief "tour" of the craft with the creatures talking amongst themselves and never speaking to him. He was then led out of the craft which soon took off and rose at a tremendous speed.

It was several weeks before he told his mother and brother what had happened and it was a further 2 years before he made it public. He was later interviewed by many UFO researchers, the first of which was Dr. Olavo Fontes of APRO.

Every investigator has reported that Villas-Boas is one of the most genuine people that they have every interviewed. His story never changed and when he could not answer a question he never tried to embellish. He was regarded as a man of low intelligence and this led many investigators to claim that the story that he told was too full of detail and strangeness to be made up by such a simple person.

This case has never been explained and he never made any money from his experience. This case has been looked at again since the spate of abduction reports since the 1980's and large portions of his story still hold true in today's modern "Alien Abduction" stories.

In the weeks following this alleged event, Boas claimed to have suffered from nausea and weakness, as well as headaches and lesions on the skin which appeared with any kind of light bruising. Eventually, he contacted journalist Jose Martins, who had placed an ad in a newspaper looking for people who had had experiences with UFOs. Upon hearing Boas' story, Martins contacted Dr. Olavo Fontes of National School of Medicine of Brazil; Fontes was also in contact with the American UFO research group APRO. Fontes examined the farmer and concluded that he had been exposed to a large dose of radiation from some source and was now suffering from mild radiation sickness. Writer Terry Melanson states:

"Among [Boas's] symptoms were 'pains throughout the body, nausea, headaches, loss of appetite, ceaselessly burning sensations in the eyes, cutaneous lesions at the slightest of light bruising...which went on appearing for months, looking like small reddish nodules, harder than the skin around them and protuberant, painful when touched, each with a small central orifice yielding a yellowish thin waterish discharge.' The skin surrounding the wounds presented 'a hyperchromatic violet-tinged area."

According to Researcher Peter Rogerson, the story first came to light in February, 1958, and the earliest definite print reference to Boas's story was from the April-June 1962 issue of the Brazilian UFO periodical SBESDV Bulletin. Rogerson notes that the story had definitely circulated between 1958 and 1962, and was probably recorded in print, but that details are uncertain. Boas was able to recall every detail of his purported experience without the need for hypnotic regression. Further, Boas' experience occurred in 1957, which was still several years before the famous Hill abduction which made the concept of alien abduction famous and opened the door to many other reports of similar experiences.

(SOURCES: James Neff for Rense.com, and Wikipedia)

October 1, 1957 - UFO Circles Nuclear Facility

(The Beaver County Times, Beaver, Pennsylvania, 8 November 1957.)

A former Rochester councilman, John Karcher, owned a farm in Daugherty township, outside the city of Rochester. On October 1st, about 7:00 p.m., Mr. Karcher was with a friend, Lee Plunkett. The men were outdoors with a clear view of the sky.

From the direction of the nearby town of Ohioville something strange approached at an altitude of 2,000 feet. The two men spotted it and were astonished. The thing was a big luminous torpedo they estimated was 200 feet long. The top half was green-colored and the bottom half was reddish-orange. These two colors were separated by a strip of yellow. The thing was moving slowly, perhaps as slow as 15 miles per hour. Karcher hand enough time to get a pair of binoculars and to also phone some neighbors, a Mrs. Norderbugger and her daughter and son-in-law. These three neighbors managed to observe the object as it passed by on a steady course to the south, in the direction of Shippingport Atomic Plant. Karcher saw nothing worth mentioning with the binoculars and like everyone else believed the show was over when the UFO moved out of sight. To the surprise of all, the torpedo reappeared after a few minutes, retracing its course, apparently returning to its homebase, if it had one. In Mr. Karcher's opinion, the mystery ship made a U-turn over the nuclear facility, considering its speed and distance involved. This suggestion was taken serioulsy by the Air Force and the FBI."

(Source: http://www.nicap.dabsol.co.uk/ncp-shippingport.htm )


THE LAKE ISABELLA PHOTOGRAPH (ABOVE)
A memoir
By Robert Stanley

This highly unusual photo has been in my family since before I was born. It filled me with curiosity during my childhood years. As I grew older I had my doubts about it being a real picture, but remained curious over the years. On my 27th birthday my father came by my apartment and gave me a birthday card that included the original color slide of this UFO image.

My father carefully explained how this photograph was shot by a friend of his named B.C., who did not actually see the UFO at the time he took the picture! It wasn't until B.C. received the box of color slides he had shot that he noticed one picture with an image of a sideways, saucer-shaped UFO which appeared to be parked above an old oak tree.

According to my father, B.C.'s first reaction was that someone at the "Kodak" film lab must have been playing a trick on him. When B.C. showed the color slide to my father, he believed it was worth further examination. My father explained to B.C. how he had gone to some of the UFO meetings that were held at Giant Rock airport out in the Mojave Desert during the early 1950's and that he believed something was definitely going on. At that time, they were both members of the Self-Realization Fellowship and had heard their guru, Parmahansa Yoganada, say that he believed there was life on other planets.

After having some copies and enlargements made, my father decided to take the original slide to the Los Angeles office of Time Life Magazine. It was in their possession for a few days before they concluded that the photo was authentic. According to their tests, it was not a lens flare, an acid splash or a double exposure. Oddly enough, they were instructed by their main office in New York not to run the story or the photo. They claimed it was not their policy to do so. I find this highly unusual considering that Life Magazine had published clear black and white UFO photos in the early 1950's.

I decided to research if someone could possible take a photo of something that was invisible to the naked eye. I discovered that our eyes only see a very small amount of the infrared, or ultra-violet radiation around us. Only about one octave of the available vibrations (wavelengths) is registered by our normal consciousness. Film is much more sensitive to the other more subtle energies on our environment. Judging by the colors around the '57 UFO it is mostly vibrating in the infrared range. Another possible theory is that a field of rotating energy surrounding the craft absorbs photons from bouncing back and registering on the observer's eye. Those are some of the logical explanations, and yet, as illogical as it sounds I have seen UFOs become invisible on more than one occasion during the day and night - both in and out of the city with and without witnesses. Now you see it... now UFO don’t!

Dr. Elmer Green is a physicist who worked just northeast of Lake Isabella for the Naval Ordinance Test Center, at China Dry Lake, from 1947 to 1957. He frequently heard about encounters with UFOs that would fly into range of their observation cameras. Many times while range testing new weapons systems, good quality films were made of UFOs. He personally saw black and white still shots of UFOs that were taken by other scientists in his work group. While telling his story to scientist and author Richard Thompson, Dr. Green claimed that he knew of some 40 to 50 professional people who had some connection with UFO sightings during weapons testing at China Lake.

Dr. Green had even experienced a clear UFO sighting with the base's photographic officer, Jack Clemente while watching an AJ Bomber coming in for a landing. According to Dr. Green, "As the airplane flew over, we saw an object about 16 feet in diameter flying about 400 feet below the bomber. The object seemed to be a structured, mechanical craft. It had a semi-circular forward section that was amber colored. In the blink of an eye, the UFO flipped up to the wing of the plane. It remained there, pacing the plane for a few seconds and then it flew away at great speed vanishing from sight in 2 or 3 seconds."

Dr. Green noticed that even though UFOs looked mechanical, they often seemed to perform beyond the laws of physics. Even though they could move faster than the speed of sound, they did not produce a sonic boom. Dr. Green compared these maneuvers to a spotlight projected on the wall and he considered that they might be real physical structures that were somehow being projected into our space-time. Dr. Green also noted that during his early years at China Lake in 1947, many UFOs were sighted and that he would also regularly see the flashes from atomic bomb air bursts at the Nevada test site nearby. Some of Dr. Green's co-workers even speculated that there might be a connection between all the UFO activity and the frequent atomic testing.

After showing the ‘57 UFO photo to a senior U.S. space engineer who has helped design many of our latest and greatest spacecraft including the Space Shuttle, I was given the following explanation: Ambient interstellar light saturates our atmosphere and becomes polarized to our earth's relative north/south rotation. This angle of rotation is given a relative 90 degree value which can be considered a phase that is unique to all other phases - such as a note on a scale of musical vibrations. As a UFO enters our atmosphere, its relative 90-degree north/south rotation will occasionally align with our Earth's polarity phase in harmony. During these brief moments of energy alignment UFOs become visible as bright lights or shiny metallic surfaces. This particular UFO is standing on edge, with its polarized energy field 90û out of phase from our Earth's own polarized energy field.

When Life Magazine decided not to publish this authenticated UFO photo, my father left the original slide sitting unprotected in the desk drawer of his office which had a leak in the skylight. Over the years, mold grew on the film, but fortunately the original image of the UFO has remained intact. Even though this picture is very old it still tells the story of the future - the implications of which are enormous. I believe sometime in the future, the beings that operate these cosmic craft will reveal themselves and awaken all those who are still sleep waking through life. A wise man once said, "Ignorance is bliss... enjoy it while you can."

THE BIZARRE CLOUD-RING UFO OF 1957- FORT BELVOIR VIRGINIA

(click pages to enlarge)

LEVELLAND, TEXAS; NOVEMBER 2-3, 1957

On November 2, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik II into orbit. Within hours, coincidentally or otherwise, a UFO wave erupted in the United States. At first the wave appeared to be concentrated in a small backwater area of west Texas, where a series of remarkable UFO encounters took place.

FROM: THE UFO EVIDENCE, published by the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, Copyright 1964 http://www.nicap.org/ufoe/section_12.htm

The first series of sightings to be widely publicized, and the most intensive single concentration, occurred on the night of November 2/3 in and around Levelland, Texas. The first recorded sighting was at about 10:50 p.m.; the last at 1:30 a.m. In less than three hours, there were 10 very similar sightings within a radius of 20 miles around Levelland. (see map).

Why should reddish elliptical UFOs which caused cars to stall suddenly be reported from one small Texas town? No answer is apparent. Within a few hours after the last Levelland sighting, an Army jeep patrol at White Sands proving grounds, about 300 miles to the west, reported an elliptical UFO which descended and hovered. (See below). The following account of the Levelland reports was compiled by Walter N. Webb, NICAP Adviser.

Levelland is an oil and cotton town, population about 10,000, located in northwest Texas 32 miles west of Lubbock, in plains country. Early on November 3 its sheriff, Weir Clem, suddenly found himself cast into national prominence following a rapid series of nightmarish reports.

At 10:50 p.m. Officer A. J. Fowler received a phone call from a "terrified" farm hand, Pedro Saucedo. He and a friend, Joe Salaz, were driving on Route 116 about 4 miles west of Levelland when they saw a flash of light in a field. "We didn't think much about it," Saucedo said, "but then it rose up out of the field and started toward us, picking up speed. When it got nearer, the lights of my truck went out and the motor died. I jumped out and hit the deck as the thing passed directly over the truck with a great sound and a rush of wind. It sounded like thunder, and my truck rocked from the blast. I felt a lot of heat."

When the object had passed, Saucedo got up and watched it go out of sight toward Levelland. It was "torpedo-shaped, like a rocket," and about 200 feet long. As the UFO moved into the distance, the truck lights came back on. Saucedo was able to start the truck and drive to a telephone. Ptn. Fowler thought his caller was drunk and shrugged off the report.

About an hour later, the phone rang again. Jim Wheeler, driving on Route 116 about 4 miles east of town had come upon a 200- foot egg-shaped thing sitting on the road. The brightly lit object cast a glare over the area. As he approached the object, his lights and motor died. When Wheeler started to get out of his car, the UFO rose into the sky. As its light blinked out, the car lights came back on.

Another call came from Jose Alvarez at Whitharral, 11 miles north of town. Driving on Route 51, he had approached a similar glowing object on the road and his motor and lights had failed.

At 12:05 a.m., Newell Wright (who did not report the experience until the next day, and then only at his parents' urging) had "motor trouble" while driving toward Levelland on Route 116 from the east. His ammeter began jumping, the motor gradually died, then the lights went out. Puzzled, Wright got out and lifted the hood to check his battery and wires. Finding nothing wrong, he closed the hood and turned around. For the first time, he noticed an oval object sitting on the road ahead of the car. The object appeared to be over 100 feet long, and was glowing a bluish-green. Frightened, Wright jumped in the car and frantically tried to get it started, without success. Then he sat helplessly watching the object, hoping someone would drive up. After several minutes, the UFO rose "almost straight up," veered to the north, and disappeared almost instantly. The car then started without difficulty.

Meanwhile, another telephone report was made at 12:15 a.m. Frank Williams had encountered a similar object on the road close to the position where Alvarez had seen it. He also experienced motor and headlight failure. The light from the UFO was pulsating steadily on and off; each time it came on, Williams' lights went out. Finally it rose swiftly with a noise like thunder, and disappeared. Then the car functioned normally.

By this time, Sheriff Clem and other police officers had begun searching the roads around Levelland, as reports continued to come in. At 12:45 a.m., Ronald Martin saw a glowing reddish UFO descend and land on Route 116 ahead of his truck, then turn to bluish-green. The electrical system of the truck failed. When the object took off, it turned reddish again.

About 1:15 a.m., James Long encountered a glowing egg-shaped object on a farm-to-market highway just north of town. His engines and lights failed. Then the object rose quickly and sped away.

About 1:30 a.m., Sheriff Clem and his deputy were searching on the same road. Near where Long had seen the UFO, Clem saw an oval light "like a brilliant red sunset" streak across the road about 300 yards ahead of his car, lighting up the pavement. Fire Marshal Ray Jones, farther to the north, had a similar experience sometime after 1:00 a.m.; his lights dimmed and motor "almost died, then started up again."

The Pettit incident, same night, was uncovered during an investigation by NICAP member James Lee. Two grain combines, each with two engines, failed as a UFO was observed passing.

An impressive feature of these reports is that the witnesses (in most eases) were going about their business when the UFOs intruded upon the scene. There is no evidence that the witnesses were searching the sky or otherwise expecting to see anything unusual. Their independent reports told a consistent story.

FROM THE UFO CASEBOOK
by B.J. Booth:

To understand the full impact of this case, a chronological account is preferred.

11:00 P.M...Only one hour after the Russian Government launched their second dog-carrying satellite, and before America was aware of it, an unusual set of events began in the small town of Levelland. Patrolman A. J. Fowler was on desk duty when he received the first of fifteen different frantic phone calls in what would be an unforgettable night for him and his fellow officers. About four miles west of Levelland, Pedro Saucedo and his friend Joe Salaz were driving in Pedro's pickup truck when they saw a brightly lighted, cigar-shaped object moving in their direction. As the object approached, Pedro's car engine began to sputter, and his headlights went out. Finally, the car rolled to a stop. Later, a terrified Saucedo would sign a statement which indicated that the object was about 200 foot long. Calling Fowler from the small town of Whiteface, his call was dismissed by Fowler, who thought that the two men had been drinking.

11:45 P.M...Fowler receives a second call from a man identified only as Mr. W. The man was driving near the town of Whitharral, about four miles east of Levelland, when he came upon a brilliantly lit egg-shaped object, actually sitting on the pavement in the middle of the road. Mr. W's car engine stopped, and his headlights failed. Frightened, he left his vehicle, and after a brief period of time, the object silently lifted up to about 200 ft. and disappeared. His car started back up, and he sped away to make his phone call to Fowler.

12:00 A.M...Fowler receives a third call, this time from a man who was traveling 11 miles north of Levelland, when he spotted an unusual flying craft landed on the road. His car also faltered, and he sat watching the silent object for a brief period of time, until it rose up and disappeared into the night. Again, after the craft left the area, his car started, he left the scene, and called the Police station.

12:10 A.M... A nineteen year old freshman from Texas Tech University, Newell Wright, was driving 9 miles east of Levelland, when his car engine began to cut out, and his lights falter. After stopping his car and checking for some loose wire under the hood, he suddenly noticed a vivid object sitting on the pavement ahead of him. He described the object as about 125 foot long, and a bluish-green in color. Frightened, he tried to start his car again to no avail. He sat in his car; hoping that another car would come by. None did. After a little while, the object silently rose and faded away into the sky. Afraid to make a report, the young student waited to tell his parents when they arrived home from a trip. They encouraged him to report what he had seen. He made a statement at the Sheriff's office, and his report was included in the US Air Force's Project Blue Book.

12:15 A.M...Officer Fowler receives another call. This time from a man in a phone booth near Whitharral, who, as he was driving 9 miles north of Levelland, encountered an object of some kind sitting in the middle of the road. He had the same mechanical problems as the other motorists, and after the craft took off, his engine started again. At this point, Fowler's curiosity and concern motivated him to call the other patrol cars in the area, and report what he had heard from the different travelers. Later, he would state that "something odd" was going on. In a matter of a few minutes, two different Officers radioed in that they had seen two different flying objects with extremely bright lights, but had not yet encountered any engine problems.

12:45 A.M...A man driving west of Levelland very close to the spot of Saucedo's initial sighting, sees a large orange ball approaching in his direction. The man testifies that this unknown craft softly lands on the road about 1/4 mile away. The motorist also related a very interesting fact. He stated that the craft, orange at first, became a bluish-green color upon landing on the road. He also noticed that the craft spanned the width of the road. After the craft landed, his engine also failed, and he sat in the cab of his truck, which was lit up by the glow from the craft. After a time, the craft lifted up and left the area. This man did not make a report at the time of the sighting, but did file a report the next day.

1:15 A.M...Fowler receives a call from a truck driver from Waco, Texas, who states that while driving northeast of Levelland, he witnessed a large, glowing object, and at the same time, his truck engine failed. Fowler noted that the caller was extremely frightened. The driver added that the object was about 200 ft. long, and after it left the area, his truck roared back to life, and he "got the hell out of there."

1:30 A.M...Fowler receives the first definite sighting of the object by two law enforcement officers. Sheriff Clem and Deputy McCullough, who were receiving constant updates from Fowler, had observed a "large, glowing object," pass across the highway. The two officers were trying to track the object by the radio calls from Fowler. They were about 4-5 miles outside of Levelland when they saw the object. The two officers stated that the object looked like a large, red sun and it lit up the entire highway as it passed over. The events of the night finally came to an end. Fowler would later state that he had received no less than fifteen calls from observers who claimed to have seen the unusual craft. He also said that they were legitimately excited, and some of them extremely frightened. The unusual number of witnesses to the Levelland events only solidified the theory that some unusual craft had been in the area of the city for at least 2 1/2 hours that night. The dramatic accounts of the landings on the road set this case off as one of the most convincing cases of an encounter with the unknown. The next day the small town of Levelland, Texas was bulging over with reporters, anxiously awaiting some official explanation for the events of the night before. The Air Force did investigate these sightings, but offered no reasonable cause for what was seen that night. The case is still considered "unexplained."

(UFO Phenomenon at Close Sight) The files of Project Blue Book show 330 reports for the first week of 1957, while the files of the private National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) list almost 90 unexplained reports.

It started four weeks after the Soviet Union shocked the world by launching the first earth-orbiting satellite, Sputnik I, and a day before Sputnik II was orbited with a small dog as passenger. Public enthusiasm for searching the night sky for a glimpse of the first satellite had waned, and that for the second had not yet begun.

The most striking feature of this sighting wave was the concentration of "electromagnetic effect" cases around the west Texas town of Levelland. There were at least eight such reports in the space of 2.5 hours in an area to the west, north and east of Levelland:

At 10:30 p.m. came the report from truck driver Pedro Saucedo, who described seeing a blue torpedo-shaped object with yellow flame and white smoke coming out of its rear. He estimated it was 200 feet (60 meters) long and 6 feet (2 meters) wide. He said it rose from a nearby field and roared low over his truck with a loud, explosive sound, and produced so much heat he got out of his truck and lay on the ground. "It sounded like thunder, and my truck rocked from the blast." He thought it came within 200-300 feet (60-90 meters). His truck lights and engine failed while the UFO was in view; after it disappeared, his lights worked perfectly, and he was able to re-start the engine. At Pettit, Texas, 10 miles (16 km) to the northwest, two grain combines failed as a UFO flew past: "shortly before midnight, Jim Wheeler reported seeing a large 200 feet (60 meters) elliptical object on the road; as he drove toward it, his car lights and engine failed. The UFO rose and flew off, and when it blinked off, his lights came back on and he was able to re-start his engine." At the same time, Jose Alvarez's car lights and engine died when he saw a glowing, 200 feet (60 meters) UFO nearby. After the object flew away, his lights came back on and he was able to re-start his engine. At about 12:05am, college student Newell Wright's car lights and engine failed. He got out to fix them, looked up and saw a glowing, bluish-green, flat-bottomed, oval object on the highway. The object was in sight for four or five minutes. During that time, Wright tried to start his engine, and while the starter made contact, the motor was unaffected. The object disappeared, straight up, and immediately the car lights came back on, the engine started, and then operated perfectly. At 12:25am, Frank Williams' car experienced a failure of its lights and engine, when a glowing, egg-shaped object appeared on or near the ground pulsating brightly. When it rose straight up, the car returned to normal. 'When it took off, it sounded like thunder.' "At 12:45 a.m., Ronald Martin's truck lights and engine stopped working when a round, glowing UFO landed and changed from orange to blue-green. He said the glow was so bright it lit up the inside of his truck. The UFO then changed back to orange and took off straight up. The car lights came back on, and his engine re-started by itself! At 01:00am, some 17 miles (27 km) to the north, Fire Marshall Ray Jones reported seeing a streak of light and at the same time his car lights dimmed and his engine almost quit. At 01:15am, James Long said he saw an elliptical UFO on the road ahead, and when he drove to within 200 feet (60 meters) of it, the lights and engine of his truck died. The UFO then shot up vertically with a sound like thunder, and the lights and engine returned to normal. By 01:30am, Hockley County Sheriff Weir Clem had heard so many reports that he decided to see for himself. He drove out with a deputy sheriff, and saw a large oval red light, though he did not experience electrical system problems. Years later he said: "The object was shaped like a huge football and had bright white lights. The blinding lights flashed on, it went right over the car and was gone. No living human being could believe how fast it traveled. The whole thing was as bright as day; it lit up the whole area."

Project Blue Book sent a single investigator to Levelland to check the reports. His explanation, accepted as the official Air Force conclusion, was that:

"... the major cause for the Levelland case was a severe electrical storm. The storm stimulated the populace into a high level of excitement. This excitement reflected itself in their reactions to ordinary circumstances, and resulted in the inflation of the stories of some of the witnesses concerning their experiences."

Ten years after these incidents, atmospheric physicist Dr. James McDonald completed a study and determined that there had been no storm in the area, and thus no source of excessive moisture to interfere with the automobiles' electrical systems.

"In a two-hour period near midnight, November 2-3, 1957, nine different vehicles all exhibited ignition failures, and many suffered headlight failures as objects described as about 100-200 ft long, glowing with a general reddish or bluish glow, were encountered on roads in the vicinity of the small community of Levelland, Tex. (Ref. 10, 13, 14). This series of incidents became national headline news until officially explained in terms of ball lightning and wet ignitions. However, on checking weather data, I found that there were no thunderstorms anywhere close to Levelland that night, and there was no rain capable of wetting ignitions. Although I have not located any of the drivers involved, I have interviewed Sheriff Weir Clem of Levelland and a Levelland newspaperman, both of whom investigated the incidents that night. They confirmed the complete absence of rain or lightning activity. The incidents cannot be regarded as explained."

With no "severe electrical storm" to "stimulate the populace into a high level of excitement," the official explanation falls apart.