Orange Orbs Over South Carolina?

Orange Orbs Over South Carolina?

 

For the last several years, the south eastern portions of South Carolina have remained a frequent hub for observation of mysterious lights in the night sky. Reports of colorful, illuminated spheres of light have both made headlines in the news, as well as having drawn attention from UFO enthusiasts around the country. 
Among the more widely circulated reports of these illuminations, objects seen off the coast of the Myrtle Beach area, as well as numerous descriptions of aerial illuminations further inland, have garnered the attention of researchers hoping to determine if there could be some variety of natural phenomenon, or perhaps even a military presence, that could exist as a source for the lights.
Recently, South Carolina’s unexplained illuminations became the focus of a night time video that has begun making rounds on the web, which appears to show a large, orange orb of light being escorted by what the camera operator says were likely military jets. What does the footage represent, and is there an ongoing military presence over South Carolina that may have led to reports of some of these strange lights in the sky?
The footage, taken my Mr. Milton Finch, was captured on the evening of January 15, 2014, at approximately 7:50 in the evening, local time, near his home in St. Stephen, South Carolina. Below is a segment where the video is featured, with commentary, on a recent edition of the UFO Planet vignette, beginning at 16:07:
Mr. Finch, with whom I correspond frequently, shared the following about his observation:

I suddenly felt the urge to go outside. I asked my wife to get the night vision video equipment. I went outside and looked to the north. The moon was full. Little or no wind. Clear for the most part. I witnessed an orange sphere that de materialized from sight. My wife came out and we were both looking north. I began video taping the event and scanning the northern sky. We then noticed some bright flashing lights to the north. Three at first. Then right behind the three flashing lights, we spotted an orange sphere. It was followed by a smaller red light or sphere. That was followed by another flashing light. The flashing lights were noticeably smaller than the larger orange and slightly smaller red spheres. They were proceeding slowly to the west. The duration of the event was about 10 and a half minutes of video.

“The orange sphere was about the size of an aspirin,” Milton says, noting that it was very apparently round in shape. “We lost sight of the objects due to trees to our west,” Milton related further. “Also, there has been a good amount of military aircraft in the skies this evening. More than usual.”

The video and subsequent report were featured at the UFO Stalker website, where Mr. Finch also shared details about the encounter.
There are small airports at Summerville and Mount Holly, located to the north and northeast of St. Stephen, respectively. The largest and most heavily-trafficked airport nearby is the Charleston International Airport, which is located parallel to Joint Base, an Air Force outpost with which it shares runways.
Joint Base, under the command of the 628th Air Wing, features an engineering complex allocated under the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SPAWAR), which is purportedly the largest single employer in the Charleston area. Joint Base is also the busiest surface port in the defense transportation system located anywhere in the United States. Based on this information, the presence of varieties of aircraft in the region that appear to be advanced or of official origin might be expected, due to the heavy traffic at Joint Base.

The Moreland UFO Sighting Based on True Events!

The Moreland UFO Sighting Based on True Events!

On July 13, 1959 in Blenheim, New Zealand, Mrs. Moreland saw a sharply- outlined saucer-shaped object with two extremely bright sources of green light on the underside. The object was approximately 20 to 30 feet wide and hovered at roof-top level, about 15 feet above the ground. Inside a transparent dome, she said, there were two men, "dressed in fairly close-fitting suits of shiny material."

Mrs. Frederick Moreland, of Blenheim, New Zealand, a busy housewife with five children, was helping her husband tend their small nine-acre farm as well as working part-time as a nurse's aid at Lister Hospital, in Blenheim, at the time her sighting occurred.

On July 13, 1959, at 5:50 a.m., it was dark with a low cloud cover when Mrs. Moreland went to the barn to do the morning milking. She noticed a green glow in the overcast and was half-way across the paddock when she saw two large green lights emerge from the clouds and descend rapidly toward the ground, in her direction.

"I noticed that I was bathed in a green light and that all the paddock was green, too," she later reported. In her written statement to the local police, she said that it was so bright she could not see her own "torchlight" in the green glare.

"It was a horrid sort of color. My first thought was, `I shouldn't be here, 'and I made a dive for the trees on the other side of the paddock."

In the protection of the trees, Mrs. Moreland saw a sharply- outlined saucer-shaped object with two extremely bright sources of green light on the underside. The light from these sources beamed out over an area of 50 yards. Two rows of jets around the center of the object "shot out orange-colored flame" and appeared to revolve in opposite directions. The object was approximately 20 to 30 feet wide and hovered at roof-top level, about 15 feet above the ground. It was no more than 50 yards away from her.

"The jets stopped," Mrs. Moreland said, "and a light was switched on in what appeared to be a perspex or glass roof or dome, which glowed." (Compare with the Ririe and Idaho Falls, Idaho, cases of late 1967) She said the bottom appeared to be of a grayish, metallic color.

Image by Mark Cashman based on witness account and sketch. (credit: Mark Cashman, TemporalDoorway.com)

There was a faint hum as the object hovered "and the air became very warm." Inside the transparent dome, she said, there were two men, "dressed in fairly close-fitting suits of shiny material." She compared the material to aluminum foil. She said the occupants wore "opaque helmets" that rose straight from their shoulders. They seemed to be of normal size. She noted that one of the occupants never moved.

"I could not see their faces," she said. "One of the men stood up and put two hands out in front of him, as if leaning over to look downwards. He then sat down and, after a minute or two, the jets started off again and, tilting slightly at first, the thing shot up vertically at great speed and disappeared into the clouds. When it did this, it made a soft but high-pitched sound." She reported that a peculiar smell, somewhat similar to pepper, lingered in the air as the object departed.

Mrs. Moreland stood in the trees for several minutes, not knowing exactly what to do. She finally went on with her milking but was so disturbed by what she had seen that, at 7:00 a.m., she went back into the house and told her husband what had happened. Mr. Moreland, employed by the Royal New Zealand Air Force, suggested that she call the police, which she did.

An official enquiry began which included an investigation by the RNZAF. Mrs. Moreland's report was given wide coverage in the press and some time later it was learned that about an hour before Mrs. Moreland's sighting a Blenheim man named Holdaway had seen a white-orange object through his window.

Many people subsequently interviewed the witness, who impressed them with her straightforward account of what she had seen. NICAP has a copy of the witness' first-hand, signed report of the incident. Dr. James E. McDonald, during a trip to Australia and New Zealand in 1967, had the opportunity to interview the witness and he told NICAP that he had been quite favorably impressed.

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Another image by Mark Cashman. (credit: Mark Cashman, TemporalDoorway.com)

Summary of Sighting from original SATCU file report

"...Mrs. Frederick Moreland went out [in] the morning to milk the cows...crossing the paddock [she] suddenly noticed a bright green light among the clouds; it caught her attention because there was no moon... she saw two green lights rapidly descending. 'I noticed that I was bathed in a green light and the paddock was green, too... A saucer-shaped glow with two indented green lights in the bottom descended.. Two rows of jets around the middle shot out orange colored flames... the jets stopped, and a light was switched on in what appeared to be a perspex or glass roof or dome, which glowed... There were two men in it, dressed in fairly close fitting suits of shiny material... after a minute or two, the jets started off again, and... the thing shot up vertically at great speed and disappeared into the clouds.

"... she noticed an unusual green glow, emanating from the cloud above and bathing the area in a ghastly light... Then, suddenly, two green lights "like eyes" appeared through the clouds, circled by a band of orange lights. All around her the ground was illuminated by the sickly green light... she too was bathed in this green glow... She saw a flattish cylindrical object slowly descending from about 50 ft above the ground. It stopped its smooth descent some 30 feet above the ground and hovered about 15 feet above a group of peach trees (10-15 feet high)... it was between 7.5-8 feet high and 20-25 feet across. There were two circumferential rows of orange-green "jets" set into bands at the top and the bottom of the main body... the jets were a brilliant orange color, with greenish centers, and faded to the outside, through orange to yellow. They made a faint hissing noise...

"The motionless object hovered some 30 feet above the ground, about 120 feet out in the center of the paddock...

"On stopping, the jets immediately shut off and reappeared at a slight angle. Each band of jets began to counter-rotate at high speed, the top band from right to left, and the bottom band from left to right. The speed became so great that the bands of light became continuous, "like halos"... a loud humming could be heard, and the noise of the jets hissing... There was a clear, glassy, dome-like structure on top [shaped like an F-16 cockpit crossing the top of the disc], filled with a bright white light... She could see two figures seated, one behind the other and facing the same way, a little over an arm's length apart... The two figures were dressed in almost skin-tight metallic suits which crinkled and creased with each movement and reflected the light. The man at the rear suddenly stood up and leaned forward on his hands and appeared to be observing something between himself and the figure in front, possibly the brightly flickering light source... The rear figure then sank back to his former position - the front figure remained motionless...

"The object then tilted slightly, the bands of jets went out, then back on again without the rotation. There was a loud "whoosh" of air and the object rose vertically (the body still at a slight angle) and vanished into the cloud at tremendous speed... accompanied by a high pitched [very loud] whine... A moment or two later a wave of warm air reached Mrs. Moreland and there was a strange hot pepper smell of ozone." - SATCU file report

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Side-view drawing based on the sketches by the witness, courtesy of SATCU (Scientific Approach to Cosmic Understanding). (credit: Mark Cashman, TemporalDoorway.com)

NICAP Summary

July 13, 1959: Blenheim, New Zealand. 5:50 a.m. Mrs. Frederick Moreland, a part-time nurse's aide, was helping her husband tend their nine-acre farm. It was dark with low cloud cover when she went to the barn to do the morning milking. She noticed a green glow in the overcast and was halfway across the paddock when two large green lights emerged from the clouds and descended rapidly toward the ground in her direction.

"I noticed that I was bathed in a green light [emphasis added] and that all the paddock was green, too." she later reported. In a statement to local police, she said that the green glare was so bright that she could not see her own "torch light" (flashlight beam). "It was a horrid sort of color. My first thought was, 'I shouldn't be here,' and I made a dive for the trees on the other side of the paddock."

From the protection of the trees, Mrs. Moreland saw a distinct saucer-shaped object with two extremely bright sources of green light on its underside that illuminated an area of 50 yards (45 meters). Two rows of what seemed to be jets around the center of the object were emitting orange-colored flame. The rows appeared to revolve in opposite directions. The object, about 20-30 feet (6-9 meters) in diameter. hovered at rooftop level, about 15 feet (4.5 meters) above the ground. It was no more than 50 yards (45 meters) away from her.

'The jets stopped," she said, "and a light was switched on in what appeared to be a Perspex (plastic) or glass roof or dome [emphasis added], which glowed." The underside was a gray, metallic color. She could hear a faint hum, and "the air became very warm." Inside the transparent dome were two men "dressed in fairly close-fitting suits of shiny material." She compared the color to aluminum foil. They wore "opaque helmets" that rose straight from their shoulders. They seemed to be of normal size. One, she noticed, never moved.

"I could not see their faces," she said. "One of the men stood up and put two hands out in front of him, as if leaning over to look downward. He then sat down and, after a minute or two, the jets started off again and, tilting [emphasis added] slightly at first, the thing shot up vertically at great speed and disappeared into the clouds. When it did this, it made a soft but high-pitched sound [emphasis added]." A peculiar, peppery smell lingered in the air. - Richard H. Hall - NICAP

Sources:
ufoevidence.org
NICAP
The NZ Files: UFOs in New Zealand
SATCU
The Unspeakable and Others
ufocusnz.org.nz
Challenge to Science: The UFO Enigma
ufologie.patrickgross.org/
Marlborough Express, Blenheim, New Zealand
Passport to Magonia: On UFOs, Folklore, and Parallel Worlds
"UFOs - An International Scientific Problem", paper presented by Dr. James E. McDonald, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, at the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute Astronautics Symposium, Montreal, Canada, March 12, 1968

The Corporal Armando Valdes' UFO Incident Based on TRUE EVENTS!

The Corporal Armando Valdes' UFO Incident Based on TRUE EVENTS!

On April 25, 1977 in Pampa Lluscuma (near Putre), Chile a soldier was in shock after a strange, five-day saga with a UFO. Six members of an army patrol saw two bright objects descending from the sky. Cpl. Armando Valdes, the patrol leader, set out alone to investigate and, according to the men, simply vanished. Fifteen minutes later, they said, he reappeared, tried to speak and passed out. The date on his watch had been advanced five days, and he now had about a week's growth of beard.

"You don't know who we are or where we come from but we will be back soon." These are the strange words uttered by Corporal Armando Valdes, leader of a Chilean military patrol. Just some 15 minutes previously he had been subjected to a mysterious UFO encounter at Pampa Lluscuma near Putre in Chile. The date was April 25, 1977 and the time about 4:00 AM. Putre is 50 air miles ENE of Arica, a larger city in Chile.

Corporal Valdes was in charge of a patrol on routine assignment near Putre in the early morning hours of April 25, 1977. He and his six-man patrol were sitting around a campfire alongside a wall of stones and mud at the secret army post of Pampa Lluscuma. They were talking and singing quite a while to stay awake. Two of the men kept watch several feet away. About four in the morning one of the men. Private Rosales, ran back to Valdes to report that two bright violet lights had landed, one of which was in sight and illuminated the whole area. The light approached closer. Valdes ordered his men to cover up their fire with blankets. The violet light with a red spot at each end withdrew and then returned closer. The patrol was terrified.

There was no sound with the UFO motion. The Chilean high plateau was amazingly silent. Corporal Valdes stated "after praying to God and ordering the light to leave...after demanding that it identify itself, I moved a few meters away from my men." The corporal moved toward the object. He disappeared for some 15 minutes. When he reappeared, he was shaking and his voice seemed different. The light had been illuminating the whole area. As Corporal Valdes reappeared he was heard to utter the words at the beginning of this article. He then became unconscious and was attended by his fellow men till he awoke some two hours later. The UFO also disappeared about this time.

While the unconscious Corporal Valdes was assisted by his patrol, his men made another strange observation. They saw that Valdes had a beard growth equivalent to several days without shaving. He had been well shaven before the incident. As Valdes awoke he exclaimed, "I don't remember anything from the moment I left you." He then ordered, "Get ready to leave because it's 4:30 in the morning. It was actually about 7 AM. His calendar watch had stopped at 4:30 but the date was five days advanced - to the 30th instead of the 25th.

These are the bizarre circumstances in the case. Many of the details were related some two hours after the incident to Pedro Araneda, a correspondent and lecturer. The presence of UFOs are not a surprise to Corporal Valdes. He, as well as others in the interior of Chile near Arica, often see luminous UFOs moving about the skies. Valdes states, "The surprising thing was the way it approached us. As soldiers we are trained to deal with any situation. But this phenomenon didn't seem to have any logical explanation. I would like to regain my memory of those fifteen minutes. I would even like to submit to hypnosis to draw out information about what happened."

President and Commander in Chief Augusto Pinochet of Chile has prohibited further interviews with the soldiers. Medical, psychiatric and eventually hypnotic tests are planned for member of the patrol to confirm their stories. Meanwhile more sightings have occurred at Arica, Punta Arenas, Santiago, and other locations up and down the 2700 mile length of Chile. NASA and the University of Chile jointly operate a space tracking station north of Santiago, Chile. Officials of the station could offer nothing to elucidate the facts in this case. The time fact in this particular case - increased beard growth and accelerated clock time - are elements which make this case exceptional and worthy of further consideration. - APRO, July, 1977

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Source: Terra Chile
Date: 02.01.2011

Chile: Controversy Over an Intriguing UFO Case

The Valdés Case – the most paradigmatic episode of Chilean ufology – has been revisited in “La noche de los centinelas” (The Night of the Sentries), an 8-year-long journalistic investigation that looks into background events, locates the protagonists and “uncovers more than one surprise”, according to the author.

It occurred one early morning on April 1977 near Putre, in the Chilean highlands.

Eight young soldiers were keeping watch around a fire when they were startled by the appearance of two ghostly lights of unknown origin in the vicinity of some nearby hills.

One of them disappeared behind a small hill while the other placed itself at the foot of a mountain, flying over the area and engaging in approach-and-retreat maneuvers before the eyes of the disconcerted soldiers.

After three minutes of terror, corporal Armando Valdés, in charge of the squad, walked away from his companions toward the light. The young conscripts watched him vanish from sight for 15 minutes, during which their calls for him and their search yielded no result.

At a given moment, they heard the subofficer’s voice pleading for help, and they saw him walking toward them unsteadily. He had a dense growth of beard despite having been clean-shaven just minutes earlier, and the calendar on his digital watch was five days fast.

The startled conscripts settled him near the fire. And that was when he said, in a strange voice:” “You will never know who we are, nor where we come from, but we will return again.” He then fell asleep.

The case became a journalistic sensation and achieved global notoriety. But within days, its protagonists slipped into obscurity and Corporal Valdés became a legend.

Twenty-five years later, journalist and researcher Patricio Abuselme took up the challenge of reinvestigating the case and interview its main protagonists, an effort which is summarized in his book La noche de los sentinelas, an in-depth journalistic investigation on the incident, which he published in late 2010 under his own publishing house – Terra Incognita.

“This is the case that made Chilean ufology known worldwide. However, no one bothered to conduct a serious, in-depth investigation of the case. I took up the challenge in 2002, and it took me eight years to compile the protagonists’ accounts and reassemble this “impossible story”, says the author.

In less than 300 pages, Abusleme provides a comprehensive view of the case, from the first journalistic dispatches reporting the incident to exclusive interviews with the main protagonists, including subofficer Valdés (Ret.) – unpublished details and conclusions that the author has described as preliminary.

“When I started this investigation, I did so in the secret hope of explaining the whole case in conventional terms. And I thought I was well on the way until the main protagonist of the story debunked the cases most controversial aspects – the growth of his beard and the wristwatch’s date change – by providing conventional explanations. The problem is that when I tried to corroborate it with the other witnesses, they provided a version that was mutually congruent, but at odds with the one offered by Valdés. For this reason, the book poses a controversy,” says Abusleme.

“If someone is looking for a story of mystics in direct contact with Martians, he or she won’t find it here. What they will find is information, information and more information. The outcome of a detailed journalistic investigation that enables the reconstruction of an intriguing real case that captured headlines over 30 years ago.”

La noche de los centinelas is on sale in Chile’s main bookstores, but can also be purchased from the author at www.lanochedeloscentinelas.com - Scott Corrales of Inexplicata - The Journal of Hispanic Ufology

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Soldier loses 5 days to UFO

SANTIAGO, Chile — A Chilean soldier is still in shock after a weird, five-day ordeal with a UFO.

This is his story.

It was 4:15 a.m. in Chile's far north desert country,

Six members of an army patrol were bedded down around a campfire while two men stood guard. Suddenly, two bright objects began descending from the sky.

One dropped into the Andes foothills out of direct sight, but the men in the patrol, now fully awake, could see the glow of its light.

The second, they said, lowered almost to the ground about 500 yards away from the camp. The men said it shone with a violet light with two points of intense red.

Cpl. Armando Valdes, the patrol leader, ordered the soldiers to take up their weapons. Then he set out alone to investigate and, according to the men, simply vanished. Fifteen minutes later, they said, he reappeared, tried to speak and passed out.

They said he regained consciousness about 7 a.m. but that his watch showed only 4:30, the approximate time he reappeared. They also said the date on the watch had been advanced five days, and that Yaldes now had about a week's growth of beard.

According to his comrades, when Valdes was beginning to regain consciousness he said: "You do not know who we are, nor where we come from. But I tell you that we will soon return."

This purported sighting occurred April 25, and since the soldiers' tale was publicized dozens of other unidentified flying objects have been reported up and down the 2,700-mile length of Chile.

Valdes says he does not recall anything that happened during the 15 minutes he was missing-Some skeptics said the soldiers may have seen a desert mirage. But other sightings have been reported on the outskirts of this capital city, in the rainy lake region about BOO mites to the south, and over the Straits of Magellan at I he cold southern tip of the continent.

The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the University of Chile jointly operate a space tracking station a few miles north of Santiago, but officials at the station had no official comment on the reports.

A source at the station who asked not to be identified said he felt some of the previous UFO sightings in Chile were satellites or airplanes. But he said the most, recent sightings, made at relatively close distances, did not appear to be satellites.

Oscar Bravo, a radio announcer at Punta Arenas, the major town on the Straits of Magellan, said he awoke about 3 a.m. one night and went, to the kitchen for a glass of water.

"First, I noticed the sky was bright," he said.

"This caused me to open the curtains, and I could see these two things suspended in the air emitting a strong light, bright and orange.

"The light went out but returned, with a violent color. Then these two things, of oval shape, moved at a rapid speed, opening themselves like a V and closing at a higher point in the sky." They finally disappeared over the straits, he said.

A few nights later, passengers on a bus going from Puerto Monti to Puerto Varas in southern Chile said they saw something similar about. 100 yards above them in the sky.

Several people who have seen UFOs recently estimated their size at about 12 feet in diameter. Most say they are round or oval—"like a huge wagon wheel," said one woman. - Associated Press / San Antonio News, May 23, 1977

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CORPORAL VALDES CONFESSES: "TRULY, I WASN’T ABDUCTED"

TEMUCO, September 26, 2003 - In an exclusive interview with Terra.cl, legendary corporal Armando Valdes claimed that from the start he knew ha had not been abducted. From his home in Temuco, he stated that his story had been misinterpreted, "although the matter of the beard and the wristwach was true".

He likewise spoke about his current project: a book that should appear by year’s end in which he retells his version of the events which transpired on April 25, 1977 in Chile’s First Region.

Terra: Recently, you have been engaged in discreet research into your experience. Is this true?

AV: Yes, in fact I’ve been fully involved in developing my book and furthermore, looking into my experience, since I wish to be as factual as possible in my story.

Terra: As a result of this research, have you returned to the scene of the events?

AV: Yes, I went back in November 2002--25 years later...Pampa Lluscuma and the remains of the horse stables where the events occure. There, in the company of researcher and journalist Patricio Abusleme, we recreated the events and made a series of measurements, gathering very significant background information.

Terra: How did you feel about going back?

AV: As you can imagine, it was shocking. It was the first time I went back after two decades. It was a motivating experience which allowed me, first and foremost, to confirm or recall certain detaills which were lost with the passing of time.

Terra: While much was said about the "abduction" of Corporal Valdés, there was none. What’s your version?

AV: Truly, I wasn’t abducted. This is the reason for sensitive nature of what I’m putting forth in the book. Some important background details are being released.

Terra: Did you think at any time that you had been abducted or did you always know this wasn’t the case?

AV: Look, it’s really complicated to explain all of a sudden. That’s the reason behind my trip to Putre, my scientific studies and the book I’m writing, because it’s all very complicated.

Terra: But did you think at first that you’d been abducted?

AV: I would say that I knew immediately how things had happened. What I’m explaining in my book [is making known] the reasons for which certain items went off on another track.

Terra: In other words, your initial story was misconstrued?

AV: Indeed. I didn’t think at first that I’d been abducted, althought the matter of the growth of beard is true, as well as the subject of my wristwatch. Buf for this reason I have taken to writing the book to explain the reasons behind all of these things.

Terra: Lately you have been silent in the media. Why is this?

AV: What’s happening is that I’m engrossed in finishing my book. I wanted to work in silence until the task was done.

Terra: When can we expect the book to be published?

AV: In the book itself I say that it’s been a serious mistake to promise dates. Many special situations have occurred--some very strange things--but I’m making an effort to finish it by the end of the year. I’m giving it my all, since I’d like to finish it as soon as possible.

Terra: Any options to publish the book abroad?

AV: Yes, there have been offers from abroad, but I don’t want to entertain them until the book is finished. My greatest desire is for everyone to read it, since I have a message for all humankind in it. Therefore its publication in Chile or elsewhere is unimportant. We will decide where to publish it at some point.

Terra: I understand that you are a [born again] christian and an evangelical. Is this true?

AV: Yes, I am, and a teacher of the evangelical faith.

Terra: How have your religious surroundings influenced your story? Or rather, how has your story been received?

AV: My story and explanations have been accepted to a certain extent, and I have told them certain things and in a certain manner. There are many who hold points of view different from my own and I don’t have to deny that there are contradictions. But as I said, the story is mine and they have not influenced me at all regarding my book. In fact, there are those who may agree or not agree with my book tomorrow, and will not stop what I’m doing.

Terra: Would you say that the experience you underwent in Pampa Lluscuma was more of a spiritual than a ufological event?

AV: There are mixed items. The term UFO today is contaminated by another type of thing, and I prefer to speak in terms of FANI (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena). I think that in my experience there is a bit of everything--a good measure of paranormal phenomena, strange effects, lights, many things acting in unision and this is what I am showing in my book, although it’s been hard for me to convey on paper what I felt, what I experienced and what really happened.

Terra: Finally, are you in touch with those who also took part in the unusual event and who formed part of your patrol?

AV: Yes, over the phone more than anything. For some reason we haven’t been able to have a closer relationship, but we are in touch by phone and I must say that we currently have disagreements over the events that occured. Some are telling another story. - Terra Networks Chile S.A

Click for video - Entrevista cabo Armando Valdés 1977

Inexplicata-The Journal of Hispanic Ufology - Chile: Original Recording of the Corporal Valdes Abduction (alleged CE-3)


Sources:
Inexplicata-The Journal of Hispanic Ufology
Touched - Alien Abduction and the Extreme Experience Research of Dr. John Mack
ufoevidence.org
APRO
The Associated Press
Aliens Among Us : 2 Documentary Set - UFO's , Alien Abductions , Government Cover-Ups - 226 Minutes
Terra Chile
ufoupdateslist.com
ufoinfo.com
nicap.org
qtm.net
San Antonio News
The World's Most Incredible Stories:The Best of Fortean Times

The Valensole Alien Incident - Based on a TRUE STORY

The Valensole Alien Incident - Based on a TRUE STORY

On July 1, 1965 in Valensole, Basses Alpes, France, farmer Maurice Masse was inspecting his field of lavender when he heard a whistling sound, then noticed an egg-shaped object with six thin legs and a central pedestal standing nearby. A classic close encounter case from France. At the same time, he also saw two "small boys," humanoid-looking beings less than four feet tall, dressed in grayish-green one-piece coveralls.

On July 1, 1965, near Valensole, France, a farmer named Maurice Masse noticed something unusual in his lavender field. It was around 5:45 a.m., as Masse was smoking himself a cigarette before starting his tractor, when he was suddenly startled by a whistling noise. At the time, he was positioned next to a 7-foot-tall rubble pile at the edge of a vineyard, so he had to step out from around this to view the source of the sound. It was then that he saw something shaped rather like a rugby ball and about the size of a Dauphine automobile, resting on four legs some 200 feet away in his lavender field. Close to the curious looking object were two figures resembling “boys of about eight years.” More curious than afraid, Masse approached and when he got within approx. 15-20 feet of the figures, they became aware of his presence and stood up. Masse described the beings as less than 4 feet tall, as dressed in gray-green overalls with smooth, bald, pumpkinlike heads, large slanted eyes, and with little holes for their mouths. They made grunting sounds between them, although their mouths did not change appearance, and Masse was not sure where on their bodies the noise was coming from.

One of the beings pointed a pencil-like object at Masse, whereupon he found that he could no longer move. Then the being placed the object into a small case or holster on its left side, and then the two beings moved with great agility toward the UFO, which they entered through a sliding door. Then with a whistling noise the UFO lifted off the ground and within seconds had disappeared in a westerly direction. After about 20 minutes, Masse had regained full control of his body again.

Marks from the apparent craft remained visible on the ground. Three days after the incident, Masse suffered a great loss of energy. He slept 12 to 14 hours on the first day, and then the next day he slept nearly 24 hours. It was several weeks before he was able to resume his normal sleep routine.

A number of investigators who had interviewed Masse (including the distinguished Professor Jacques Vallee) concluded that he wasn’t telling the whole story. Though he hinted that there had been some sort of communication between himself and the beings, he never revealed the particulars to investigators. He told Vallee that one was best off not sharing such encounters with anyone, even family. “One always says too much,” he added.

**********

Malta UFO Research Account

On 1 July 1965, in the early hours of the morning, French farmer Maurice Masse at Valensole was attracted to the sight of a landed object in his lavender field by a strange high-pitched sound.

The object was shaped like an egg with a cupola on top and was approximately fifteen feet wide. It was standing on six legs in a manner reminiscent of a spider, according to the witness. The door of the object was open and within it Masse could see two seats.

Near the object were what Masse took to be two young boys apparently taking lavender plants; they turned out to be entities from the object about four feet tall and clad in green "ski suits". When they noticed Masse approaching, one of them levelled a rod towards him which immobilised him.

On further examination the entities appeared to have large bald heads, big slanting eyes, pronounced chins and small lipless mouths; in fact, very much the description given by many American witnesses. They made guttural sounds.

This style of entity is often recounted by Americans under hypnosis in most fearful terms but Masse's conscious recall remembers them as good-natured and bringing a sense of peace to him. It is interesting that many American cases involving these entities combine fear with a great longing to be with the creatures, whether or not that emotion is "engineered".

While Masse was still immobilised, the entities returned to their craft and took off, with the landing legs retracting. It was some considerable time before Masse was able to move. Four days after the event occurred he fell into a deep sleep and members of his family fought to wake him up, believing that otherwise he would have slept for a very extended period. Usually Masse slept only five or six hours a night but for months after the event he needed at least twelve hours sleep.

The most remarkable of the ground traces was that no lavender plants would grow at the landing site for ten years!

**********

Evidence Compiled by UFO Research Australia

The following account is drawn from a series of articles which originally appeared in the English Flying Saucer review (1965):

Valensole is a small village in the south-east of France, near to Nice. A significant event occurred there on July 1, 1965. In the month of June, Maurice Masse, a World War Two resistance fighter, and a trustworthy farmer according to local police; together with his father had noticed someone had been picking their lavender plants. At 5.45 a.m. Masse was standing by a tractor smoking a cigarette. The tractor was parked by a mound of pebbles and rakings, close to a small vineyard, in the lavender field.

A whistling sound came to his attention which he thought was a helicopter. However, upon looking around the mound he saw an unusual object. It was shaped like a rugby football and the size of a car. It stood on a number of legs, stated to have been 6 in number by Bowen (1974:246) and 4 by Vallee (1990:108). There was a central pivot stuck into the ground beneath it. Masse noted what he first took to be two children, about aged eight years, close by the object apparently inspecting a lavender plant.

Masse thought at first, from an initial distance of 60m, that these were the people who had been taking his plants. He decided to approach quietly through the vineyard. However, when he got closer he realised the figures were not children but unusual beings. He left the vineyard and walked though the low height lavender field.

At about 5m distance from the object, one of the beings turned and pointed a pencil-like object towards him and Masse was frozen, unable to move. Vallee (1988:27) reports that masse could still breath and feel his heart beat present.

The beings were described as follows. They were some 120cm tall and wore close fitting, grey-green clothes, but no head covering. Their heads were pumpkin-like, with high fleshy cheeks. The eyes were large and Vallee (1988:26) adds that Masse told him that the eyes con- veyed human expressions. These eyes slanted away around the sides of the face. The mouth was merely a slit or hole, without noticeable lips. Their chins were very pointed. Vallee (1988:26) adds their hands were small and nor- mal. Grumbling sounds came from their middles.

Masse has consistently refused to disclose what - if anything - happened between him and the beings.

After a while the beings re-entered their object. Vallee (1988:27) notes the door closed “like the front part of a wooden file cabinet. “ The beings were apparently visible looking at him from inside the object, while the legs whirled and retracted. The central pivot made a thumping noise. Then the object lifted offand floated silently away.

At 20m distance from the landing spot the object simply vanished fromview. Masse, according to Vallee (1988 :27), says: “One moment the thing was there and the next moment it was not there anymore.”

It took some 20 minutes forthe paralysis to wear off. After that Masse went back to Valensole. The proprietor of the cafe des Sports questioned him after being alarmed by Masse’s appearance. Masse told him part of what had happened, and the police were informed.

The Digne Gendarmerie, lead by a Captain Valet, were called in to investigate.

The traces:

At the time traces were found at the spot where the object had rested. These consisted of a flat imprint just over 1m in diameter. In the centre, where the central support had been, was a cylindrical hole some 30cm deep and some 15cm diameter. From the hole radiated four flat grooves, making an x shape. Each of the grooves was 2m long and 25cm deep. The soil here was of a near-liquid consistency despite the fact that it had not rained for some time.

That evening Masse and his 18 year old daughter went back to the site . The soil surrounding the central trace was as hard as cement compared to the surrounding soil which crumbled when held.

After a period of time, a 3 m diameter circular area in the middle of rows of lavender plants died, with only a few weeds continuing to grow. Around the perimeter a num- ber of lavender Plants were stunted and withered looking.

The calcium content of the soil, taken from the site, was much higher then in soil taken from other areas of the field (Phenomenes Spatiaux 1966:26)

Masse reploughed the landing site and replanted, but these plants also died.

After effects:

Vallee (1988:27) reports that for several weeks after the event, Masse was overcome with drowsiness and found it difficult to stay awake for more then four hours at a time.

Aime Michel visited Masse on Aug 8,1965, and at the end of the interview showed Masse a drawing of the Socorro object which Masse took to be his object.

Michel reported that Masse appeared anxious, nervous and distressed at interview. Masse said of the beings: “They were good” and they did not wish to do us any harm.”

**********

The Physical Evidence - The Valensole Case

Summary: This case, which Jacques Vallee described as, "the best-authenticated close encounter incident in continental Europe", includes not only hard traces, botanical data and physiological data, but detailed descriptions of beings associated with the UFO. It came to be known as ‘The Valensole Case’. Not only is it one of the most thoroughly investigated close encounters on record, but examination by French government agencies began on the day of the event.

Our final case, which Jacques Vallee described as, "the best-authenticated close encounter incident in continental Europe", includes not only hard traces, botanical data and physiological data, but detailed descriptions of beings associated with the UFO. It came to be known as ‘The Valensole Case’. Not only is it one of the most thoroughly investigated close encounters on record, but examination by French government agencies began on the day of the event.

During early morning of 1 July 1965, Maurice Masse, a French lavender farmer, was working in his field in the village of Valensole, near the lower Alps, when he suddenly noticed an object that had landed in his lavender field. At first glance from a distance, he thought that it was a helicopter or some sort of experimental prototype, but as he approached closer to the object, he saw that it was oval shaped and rested on six curved legs and some type of central pivot. Through an opening in the craft he thought that he could see two back-to-back seats. Suddenly he saw two beings, less than four feet [1.2 metres] tall, wearing grey-blue-green suits but without any type of breathing devices. One of them pointed a small tube at the farmer, which immediately paralyzed him. Although lying on the ground, he remained fully conscious, noting that as they looked at him, with what he later described as ‘concerned expressions’, they made strange gurgling sounds from deep within their throats as they communicated with one another. Masse saw that the two beings had large hairless heads, smooth white skin, large eyes that slanted away, pointed chins and small mouths without lips. After their brief dialogue, they entered the craft through a sliding panel and the object took off, leaving a deep crater and an area of moisture that later became as hard as concrete.

After about twenty minutes Masse was able to move his arms and legs, but four days after the incident he collapsed and his sleep pattern was dramatically altered for several months. Rather than his usual five or six hour sleep break, he was sleeping for periods of twelve hours or more and his wife and father noted distinct behavioural changes. Masse was a former Resistance fighter, an astute farmer and regarded as ‘absolutely trustworthy’ by police investigators. Lieutenant-Colonel Valnet, Maitre Chautard, leading the gendarmerie and the Mayor of Valensole, in fact everyone who investigated the case, concluded that Maurice Masse was telling the truth.

Investigators found that the ground where the craft had landed was soaked with moisture, although no rain had fallen. Geometrically spaced indentations covered the area and the plants were affected by the proximity of the phenomenon, appearing to decay in direct proportion to their distance from the central column of the craft. The calcium content of the soil at the landing site was found to be much higher than in samples taken from other areas in the field.

Famous UFO writer and researcher Dr Jacques Vallee, returning to the scene of the incident in 1979 and meeting with Maurice Masse and two of his close friends, makes a number of interesting observations. He notes that Masse was reluctant to give all the details of his experience to investigators as well as to his own family at the time, including the fact that he believed that some type of silent communication took place between himself and the beings. From the beginning he wanted to minimise the impact of the experience, not wanting publicity, amongst other reasons. Like many experiencers of this phenomenon, he had changed in many ways as a result of the experience, including the belief that some form of contact, once established, continued in subtle forms. Vallee concludes, "Throughout these discussions with Mr Masse I had the feeling that I was in the presence of a very intelligent man, capable of deep emotions and rational thought. He is also quite humble; he has declined to appear on a television documentary with a nationally known journalist.... I had brought with me a photograph of similar traces left after another case. Mr Masse looked at me with a mixture of amazement and relief that someone else was aware of these particular marks. He told us that he sometimes found them in his field; that’s how he knows that ‘they’ have come back. He always erases the traces immediately." - Michael Jordan

Sources:
ufoevidence.org
The UFO Encyclopedia : The Phenomenon from the Beginning (2 Volume Set)
'Journal of Alternative Realities', Volume 10, Issue 1, 2002 - Michael Jordan
ufo-taboe.be
archives-lepost.huffingtonpost.fr
The UFO Evidence - Volume 2 : A Thirty Year Report
propertyprovence.info
ufologie.net
Walking Through Walls and Other Impossibilities: The Hybrid Agenda
stadography.com
ufofu.org
iqpedia.com
ufodigest.com
True UFO Accounts: From the Vaults of FATE Magazine

The Tall Whites

The Tall Whites

January 25, 2005 On the left is a drawing made by Teresa Barbatelli depicting the 'Tall White Extraterrestrials' that Charles Hall said he encountered (described in the 1/24/05 show on C2C).
On the right is a forensic drawing of a 'Tall White' alien by Lynette Ruiz, a Forensic composite artist for the Anaheim Police Department. Click on images to view larger.
Charles further commented:
"The man it most resembles was perhaps 6 feet 4 inches tall and was equivalent in age to a human man in his mid forties. That particular Tall White man had eyes larger than a human's and his eyes were very expressive. His eyes showed much more emotion than was usually the case. He also had an unusually relaxed or pleasant disposition.
Like all Tall White men his age, His eyes were blue with some pink showing where humans have white. His hair was nearly transparent platinum blond and his skin was, as usual, as white as a piece of paper. He appeared to be in excellent health."
---Charles James Hall
  

Inside The Oak Island Mystery!

Inside The Oak Island Mystery

A new reality based television show named 'The Curse of Oak Island' started to air a few weeks ago on The History Channel. I must admit, it is a subject that I have had great interest in. The TV show is described as:

In 1795, three teenage boys discovered a strange, man-made hole on Oak Island, a small, wooded island just off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. As the boys began to dig, they found a number of intriguing artifacts. It was the end of the piracy era and rumors of buried treasure were rampant. The boys’ discovery launched a treasure hunt that has spanned more than 200 years, cost millions of dollars and involved dozens of speculators, engineers and even famous personalities such as John Wayne, Errol Flynn and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The search had gone dormant, but now, Rick and Marty Lagina, two brothers from Michigan, have bought most of the island and have renewed the efforts to discover the legendary treasure. Since childhood, Oak Island has been a magical place of intrigue for these men. With Marty’s financial backing, Rick is now leading the adventure of his life. But will their luck be any different from the many explorers who sought treasure before them and failed?

The Laginas insist that their goal is the fun of a treasure-hunting adventure, and if it becomes something that could splinter their brotherly bond, they’ll walk away. But obsession has been known to grip treasure seekers on Oak Island.

Many men have taken on the hunt with the best of intentions, only to be left with decimated fortunes, broken spirits and lost lives. An ominous legend says that seven people must die in pursuit of the treasure before Oak Island will reveal her secrets. So far, the body count stands at six.

Several years ago, I posted the following information:

Off and on for nearly 200 years men have been boring and tunneling for treasure on Oak Island, a small island off the coast of Nova Scotia. Whoever dug the aptly-named “Money Pit” was a brilliant engineer, who harnessed the sea in the form of booby traps to keep trespassers at bay.

The pit consists of a deep shaft, furnished with an ingenious arrangement of side tunnels that allow the sea to flood in whenever diggers venture into it’s depths. The only finds so far have been: three links of a chain that may have been gold or copper (accounts vary); a tiny scrap of parchment reading the two letters, V and I, written with a quill pen: and a cipher stone with odd samples that was found at 90 feet down the shaft (which has since mysteriously disappeared).

The story of Oak Island began in 1795, when 16-year-old Daniel McGinnis paddled over from the little Nova Scotian town of Chester to hunt game. In a clearing at one end of the island, an old ship’s block and tackle hung from a tree over the center of a 12 foot wide depression.

The island was rumored to have been haunted by pirates who had buried their treasure before they died. Nonetheless, Daniel and two other boys started digging. They found a 13-foot-wide circular shaft dug through clay, with thick oak platforms at 10, 20 and 30 feet. As the work progressed, it became difficult getting help from superstitious townsfolk, so the dig was abandoned in 1804. In the same year, a wealthy Nova Scotian named Simeon Lynds formed the first treasure company. He found the first and greatest obstacle to all further explorations of the pit - water.

The workers had broken through eight oak platforms, three of which were sealed with ship’s putty and coconut fibers when the cipher stone was found at 90 feet. When the hole had been dug 8 feet deeper, a crowbar hit something solid. Lynds was sure he had found the elusive treasure chest. The next day, to his dismay, the pit had filled with 60 feet of water overnight. Weeks of bailing with buckets and the use of crude pumps failed to lower the water’s level inside the pit.

Lynds’ miners sank a second shaft close and parallel to the original pit. At 100 feet they began burrowing toward the treasure when suddenly, the miners were scrambling for their lives. Water had burst into the shaft and filled it to the same level as the original shaft. The previously wealthy Lynds was now destitute having run through his fortune in search of the treasure.

In 1849, John Smith and Anthony Vaughn, who were in their seventies and had helped in the original dig in 1795, returned to Oak Island and tried again with the help of a syndicate from Truro, Nova Scotia.

The Truro shafts seemed to confirm the existence of two or more chests that might contain treasure in some form. Unfortunately, their work undermined the pit itself and caused the bottom to collapse into what was thought to be a vast cavern. The collapse may have resulted in the chest being carried down, possibly breaking apart and dispersing the contents.

The 'Money Pit' in 1947

The Truro syndicate later discovered why the pits had flooded to a level that rose and fell with the tides. A man-made tunnel, 111 feet down connected the sea to the cavern and pit. In 1893 the sea tunnel was dynamited and blocked...still the pit flooded uncontrollably.

Further excavations were made in 1909, 1931, 1935, 1936, 1942, 1959, 1965, 1969, and 1971, none of which were successful. In 1942 a second man-made tunnel to the sea was discovered and it was feared that there might be several more. During the 1990s, further exploration was stalled because of legal battles over the land rights. As of 2005, a portion of the island was for sale. In April of 2006 a Michigan group, said it will resume operations on Oak Island in the hope of discovering buried treasure and the mystery of Oak Island.

The two parties who fought for land rights in the 1990's agreed to merged and search the Money Pit together.

The Cipher Stone?

THEORIES ON THE SUPPOSED TREASURE

There has been wide-ranging speculation amongst enthusiasts as to who originally dug the pit and what it might contain. One theory is that the island contains pirate treasure, a hoard buried by Captain Kidd or possibly Edward Teach (Blackbeard). Teach claimed he buried his treasure “where none but Satan and myself can find it.” Some also hold to the theory that Kidd conspired with Henry Every and Oak Island was used as a pseudo community bank between the two.

Others agree the pit was dug to hold treasure but believe this was done by Spanish sailors from a wrecked galleon or British troops during the American Revolution. Another argument is that given the size and complexity of the pit, it was likely dug by French army engineers hoping to hide the contents of the treasury of the Fortress of Louisbourg after it fell to the British during the Seven Years’ War.

Lacking archival evidence some speculate the the priceless jewels of Marie Antoinette (which are historically missing) are buried on Oak Island. During the French Revolution, when the Palace of Versailles was stormed by revolutionaries in 1789, Marie Antoinette instructed her lady-in-waiting to take her prized possessions and flee. Supposedly, the royal items made it to London along with important artwork or documents, secreted away either on her person or as her luggage, It is even believed she was assisted by the remaining loyal officers of the French navy during the uprising. The story then goes that this woman fled further afield from London to Nova Scotia through royal connections she would have had during her service to the queen at Versailles and managed to contract the French navy to help construct the famed ‘pit’ on the island. Whether such a complex engineering effort could have been completed is questionable and no official date of its construction exists. However, other theories do suggest the structure is French and naval in style.

There are other theories that state the Oak Island pit was dug to hold treasure much more exotic than gold or silver.

The Knights Templar have been linked to the mystery of Oak Island by many, primarily because historical records suggest that they had both motive and means to deposit treasure in the Money Pit. Compelling of all is their connection with the Holy Land, prompting speculation of untold wealth and artifacts in the form of the Holy Grail or possibly, the Ark of the Covenant.

When Europe called for the Crusades, the Templar found themselves at the center of religious fervor. It was not long before sons of wealthy families were pledging their fortunes and property to the order just for the privilege of joining the band.

The Templar began to emerged as the worlds first bank whereby Kings would deposit their gold in Paris only to be able to withdraw it again in Jerusalem. The result of which was the immense growth of Templar, in both wealth and number.

When Jerusalem and the Holy Lands were eventually lost to Islam, the Templar experienced a swift backlash whereby the King Philip of France began to plot against the organization in hope of reaching their immense wealth.

On Friday the 13th of October 1307, the King found an ally in Pope Clement V and ordered that the Templar leaders be arrested. It is speculated that King Philip's motive was that he owed the Templar a massive amount of money due to loans he acquired during many lean years in France.

Once the day of the arrests arrived, the Paris Templar arranged that its treasures be loaded on a wagon train headed toward the port city of La Rochelle. From there, it was deposited aboard the Templar ships, setting sail to an unknown destination. According to Andrew Sinclair, author of The Sword and the Grail: The Story of the Grail, the Templars and the True Discovery of America the Templars were said to flee with the treasure to Scotland.

It was in Scotland that they founded the St. Clair family, later to be known as Sinclair. The Sinclair's built Rosslyn Chapel, an often cited link between the Temple and Freemasonry. This chapel becomes temporarily the resting place of the legendary Holy Grail before its final journey to Nova Scotia.

The Sinclair's became the Grand Masters of the order and desired a new land in which to establish an utopian Templar government. Using both their money and military strength coupled with their sailing abilities, they sailed westwards towards Nova Scotia, island hopping along the way always staying within 200 miles of shore.

Click for video - Oak Island Money Pit Mystery

The arrival of the Knights Templar in this region is supported by a narrative and map attributed to Vopell and Vavassatore. It depicts the landmass of Nova Scotia or New Scotland with the figure of a crowned knight. Further evidence exists of visitors in New England, in the form of the Tower in Newport, Rhode Island and, the Westford Knight, a carving of the figure of an armoured, European knight holding a cruciform sword, a common Templar emblem on graves.

Once the unsuccessful colony of the Temple died out, instead of sailing back east, the American Templar decided to hide the bounty. They built a complex 'Money Pit' on Oak Island by engineering flood traps to prevent anyone reaching the treasure. The spot is marked using the form of a stone cross, symbolism typical of the Templar.

Critics argue that there is no treasure and that the apparent pit is a natural phenomenon, likely a sinkhole and natural caverns. Regardless of it’s hidden secrets or storied past, after over 200 years of drilling, digging and pumping the surrounding area of Oak Island has become so confused that the exact location of the original Money Pit is no longer recognized.

NOTE: My personal interest in Oak Island was first inspired not long after the deaths of Bob and Bobbie Restall, Karl Grasser, and Cyril Hiltz. There have been many theories as to possible treasure, though I feel that there is definitely a Knight's Templar connection to the island. I suggest you watch the television show, 'The Curse of Oak Island'...it is, so far, the most in-depth investigation of the history of the island and the possible theories surrounding it. Two very good websites for reference include: Bibliotecapleyades - Oak Island & Oak Island Money Pit...Lon

The Mystery of the Oak Island Treasure: Two Hundred Years of Hope and Despair (Amazing Stories)

The Lost Treasure of the Knights Templar: Solving the Oak Island Mystery

Oak Island Family: The Restall Hunt for Buried Treasure

A&E -- Treasure! The Money Pit of Oak Island

Unusual phenomena, UFOs part of Arizona life

Unusual phenomena, UFOs part of Arizona life

By Steve Hammons

From Arizona’s Sonoran Desert in the south, to the pine-covered mountains in the central part of the state, and the Navajo and Hopi lands in northeastern Arizona, unusual incidents seem to occur with some regularity.

When the 23^rd annual International UFO Congress conference begins near Phoenix in mid-February, locals and visitors alike will certainly have plenty to see, do, experience and think about.

Past incidents, current and ongoing research, and possible future developments seem to provide a rich combination of interesting phenomena to explore and discuss.

The “Phoenix lights” case made headlines around the world when hundreds or maybe thousands of Phoenix-area residents (including the Arizona governor) reported seeing a huge V-shaped or boomerang-shaped object slowly cruise over the metro region at low altitude on the evening of March 13, 1997.

Up in Arizona’s mountains on Nov. 5, 1975, a resident of the small town of Snowflake, Travis Walton, was reportedly involuntarily taken aboard an unusual craft as he and his small work crew were leaving a nearby national forest. He showed up a few days later, apparently disoriented and, naturally, somewhat shocked.

And the town of Sedona and surrounding areas in the high desert have long been associated with unusual uplifting energy, strange phenomena and UFO sightings. 

Some of the unusual aspects of the Sedona area are theorized to be associated with the high content of iron oxide in the ground and beautiful red rock outcroppings in combination with substantial deposits of quartz, creating special energies of some kind.

NATIVE AMERICAN AND MILITARY PRESENCE

Many people are aware that Arizona is home to several Native American tribes and nations. The Navajo and Hopi lands are up near the “Four Corners.” Apache lands are on the eastern side of the Grand Canyon State. Even the metropolitan Phoenix area is home to several surrounding Native American tribes. And far southern Arizona near Tucson and the border with Mexico also includes Indian tribal lands.

UFO incidents along with other interesting phenomena have been reported on Native American lands in Arizona, including reports by tribal public safety officers and peace officers.

Arizona is also home to four major military installations: Luke Air Force Base on the west side of Phoenix, Davis-Monthan AFB near Tucson, the Fort Huachuca Army post in Sierra Vista south of Tucson and near Tombstone, and the Marine Corps Air Station at Yuma on the border with California at the Colorado River. 

Back in the 1800s, Fort Huachuca was a post of African-American “Buffalo Soldiers” cavalry units. They and other Army units fought the Apaches in the region in some of the final major military actions against Native Americans in the Southwest.

When the 1997 Phoenix lights incident occurred, Luke AFB was involved in important ways. Residents, news media and local officials reportedly contacted the base for information about the strange, huge object.

Later that evening, military flares were dropped at the Air Force practice range south of Luke, reportedly part of activities of a visiting Air National Guard unit. Reports that F-16 fighter jets from Luke were scrambled in response to the Phoenix lights object were never confirmed by Luke officials.

The Phoenix lights object had entered Phoenix air space at the northwest corner of the metropolitan area, heading on a diagonal southeasterly course and cruising slowly over the city. When it exited Phoenix, the object was reportedly heading in the direction of Tucson.

VISITORS WELCOME

Speakers and attendees at the International UFO Congress next month will be in good company in Arizona.

People from around the country and around the world (and maybe from other worlds) visit the state to experience its many wonders such as the Grand Canyon, the central Arizona mountains, the Sedona area and the rugged Sonoran Desert with its unique animal and plant life, including the famous saguaro cactus which grows only in the Sonoran Desert.

College students also come to Arizona from all over to attend one of the three major state universities (Arizona State University in metro Phoenix, University of Arizona in Tucson and Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff) or private higher education institutions.

And several prominent astronomical observatories are located in southern Arizona.

When the snow falls in winter, the state’s mountain ski areas ramp up for an influx of skiers. Meanwhile, even in the winter months, people living in or visiting Arizona’s desert regions can still enjoy warm, sunny weather. That’s why the visitors from the northern areas of the country and Canada (called "snowbirds") arrive in Arizona at the start of every winter and depart in the spring.

Seeing and experiencing the many fascinating aspects of Arizona draws seasonal visitors as well as people who decide to live in the state full-time.

Enjoying and treasuring the natural beauty of Arizona is an experience shared by millions of people.

Maybe the unusual or metaphysical phenomena reported in the state are integral parts of this natural beauty. From the strange effects of the red earth and red rocks of Sedona to the reports of fascinating objects or spacecraft in Arizona’s skies, maybe we can learn more about these and other mysterious realities of Arizona.