SUBJECT: UFOs RETURN TO FYFFE FILE: UFO1270 NEWS CLIPPING SERVICE DATE OF ARTICLE: March 2, 1989 SOURCE OF ARTICLE: Weekly Post LOCATION: Rainsville, Alabama BYLINE: Susan Stockman ======================================================== THIS FILE WAS PROVIDED BY THE UFO NEWSCLIPPING SERVICE AND PREPARED BY PARANET ALPHA -- PARANET INFORMATION SERVICE ======================================================== Martian or Military? UFOS RETURNED TO FYFFE FRIDAY NIGHT By Susan Stockman Residents of Fyffe don't know what it is, or where it's coming from, but they know they are seeing something. For the second time in as many weeks, numerous Fyffe residents reported seeing an unidentified flying object over their town Friday night. The reports of 'something in the air' started around 7:30 p.m., the same time of early night sightings on February 10 occurred. Most reports were of a round, bright object with red and green flashing lights. According to Rhonda Gibson and her sister, Jill Worley, the object appeared to be at tree-top level when they saw it near their home Friday night. The sisters were returning home from Fort Payne when they spotted the object hovering over the tree tops. Gibson said it was 'just sitting there,' and when they saw the object, they decided to follow it, and turned into a dirt road to get a closer look. Worley said she had 'never seen anything like it in her life,' and it 'scared her to death.' According to Gibson, after watching it outsider her car for several minutes 'it just disappeared, like turning off the lights at a football field.' After the object vanished, Gibson said she returned to her car and went to her parent's home. The sisters spotted the object again while at their parent's home, but said it appeared to be further away in the night sky. After checking with the Fyffe Police Department, they were told they were not the only ones to see the craft that night. The Fyffe Police Department received some 40 calls from residents who saw the object. Gibson said after the object vanished, several airplanes and a helicopter flew directly overhead, and there were reports from witnesses who say they saw an unusual amount of aircraft activity in the area during the sightings, and several identified some of the planes and helicopters as military. According to Kathy Green, a Fyffe resident who also saw the object, said she and friends had gathered to play cards and first observed the object from the window of the home around 7:30 p.m. She said the group shared binoculars and watched the object in the cold night air until it disappeared some two hours later. In an interview from his Arlington, Virginia home, Philip J. Klass, an editor for Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine for 35 years, told The Weekly Post that 99.999 percent of all UFO sightings can be traced to a bright celestial body, such as Venus and Mars. Klass said the eye can be deceiving, and given the weather conditions at the time of the sightings, the objects were possibly Venus or Mars. Klass stated that the shapes could be due to atmospheric distortion, and that all people have some slight stigmatism problems with their eyes. 'The disappearance of the object could be attributed to the rotation of the earth, or a cloud passing over the planet,' according to Klass. Klass also stated that there was no way to accurately judge the distance or size of the object, making it appear larger or closer than it is. However, residents of Fyffe don't believe what they saw was a star or a planet. All military bases, such as Fort McClellan in Anniston, Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Fort Rucker in Fort Benning, Georgia, and Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, told The Weekly Post that, to their knowledge, there were no military exercises in the north Alabama area during the time of the sightings. A spokesperson for the Lockheed Aircraft Plant in Marietta, Georgia said no aircraft experiments were being conducted by Lockheed, and the same answer was given by Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. A check with the Federal Aeronautics Authority revealed that no experiments took place during the sighting times, to their knowledge. However, a check with the National Guard in Birmingham revealed that the airspace in north Alabama, including that above Fyffe, is a training route for aircraft, and is utilized by the entire Southeastern states. The National Guard spokesperson said night training exercises were common in the area, sometimes at an altitude of just several hundred feet off the ground. Although no agency would confirm the fact that military exercises or experiments were being conducted, many Fyffe residents believe that is what is taking place over their heads. Investigators from the Mutual Unidentified Flying Object Network, a national organization that tracks UFO sightings, reportedly will be in Fyffe Friday night to ride with the Fyffe Police in hopes of sighting the object again. ================================================================= A Letter to the Editor ----------------------- DEAR EDITOR: There has been a lot of fun made of the two police officers from Fyffe, Alabama, who saw the UFO the week of February 10th. Now, I have never seen one myself and I have never really paid too much attention to what I read in the papers about them. Anything is possible in the world. I have known Junior Garmany and his family for almost all his life, and Fred Works for several years. If they tell that a rooster chews tobacco you can raise up its left wing and look for its spit cup. Besides, Junior and Fred were not the only people to observe this UFO. Different citizens saw it. Also, there were other officers in the area to see it but for some reason they did not come forward with their verification of what they saw. I wonder why? All these people who are throwing fun at these officers for what they saw should be shaking their hand for making Fyffe the UFO capital of the nation. UFO defined does not mean they saw a flying saucer with little green men and bulging eyes. It means 'unidentified flying object.' To my knowledge, the object they saw has not been identified. At least it makes me more aware that we are under police protection in our area. Utmost respect to these two officers who were not too embarrassed or afraid to come forward with what they saw. Billie Sibert Fyffe, Alabama ================================================================== ********************************************** * THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo * **********************************************