18 March 2008
By Arthur Donachie Contributing author

In an effort to better understand the numerous Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) sightings around North Central Texas in early 2008, various elements of the phenomena have been examined. The effort would have been much more thorough if individuals had released evidence they are known to possess. So far, with so little to go on, the results are mixed.

It began during the early evening hours of January 8, 2008, in Selden, Texas, when Steve Allen, Mike Odom, and Lance Jones observed strange, flashing lights in the sky. As reported by Stephenville Empire-Tribune staff writer Angelia Joiner later that week, businessman and private pilot Allen estimated the object to be at an altitude of 3,500 feet. In his words, "the ship wasn't really visible and was totally silent, but the lights spanned about a mile long and a half mile wide. The lights went from corner to corner. It was directly above Highway 67 traveling towards Stephenville at a high rate of speed - about 3,000 miles per hour is what I would estimate."

Allen went on to describe how the lights reconfigured themselves into a vertical orientation, changed in appearance to that of white burning flames, then disappeared completely. Approximately 10 minutes later the lights reappeared, but this time they arrived from the west, traveling east towards Glen Rose with two military jets in hot pursuit. And so began one of the most widely publicized UFO encounters in history.

Empire-Tribune editor Sara Vanden Berge said, "Those of us who work for the newspaper are still in shock from all the hoopla the story has created -- especially me -- who had a hard time even agreeing to do it in the first place." She went on to say that upon leaving early on the day of publication, then returning the following day to see the word "UFO" in the headline, she was immediately worried her paper would be laughed at and would look like a tabloid.

It's uncertain whether it was the newspaper's management and highly regarded staff writer Joiner's disagreement concerning journalistic integrity issues which led to Joiner tendering her resignation, but only a few days into her two-weeks notice, Joiner was abruptly terminated. Perhaps the final straw was Joiner's published accounts of another witness who contacted her upon learning of Allen's sightings.

Ricky Sorrells described his encounter with a massive flying object estimated to be "three or four football fields" long that hovered 300 feet directly over his head.

In another interview, this time with the Associated Press on January 14, he said he had seen the object three other times and had also made a video recording of it with his cell-phone camera. Soon afterward, he received a disturbing phone call. Sorrells failed to note the caller's name, but recalled that he identified himself as a Lieutenant Colonel and asked to meet with him. When Sorrells declined, the caller's tone became increasingly hostile. He insisted that Sorrells cease talking to the media, and made threats. Reports soon surfaced that Steve Allen had also received intimidating phone calls as had Constable Lee Roy Gaitan. Gaitan gave compelling accounts of his sightings and also made video recordings that have yet to surface publicly.

A 12-minute video recorded by David Caron was purchased by Allen and made available to the public through newscasts and Internet web sites. The video showed colorful rope-like streaks of light flashing in different configurations against a pitch-black nighttime sky. Paranormal web sites soon began offering theories that the lights were some sort of space alien attempt at communicating. Ancient alphabets and symbols were studied in hopes of finding a correlation that might help to decipher their hidden meaning. When a TV production company came to town and purchased the exclusive rights from Caron, the video was soon pulled from Internet web sites, but days later a copy was leaked and posted on numerous locations across the Internet. The video then came under closer scrutiny and it was soon graphically demonstrated that the mysterious lights' effect could be easily duplicated by using a similar JVC camcorder with its low-light feature engaged and aimed at the brightly twinkling star Sirius in the southeastern sky.

An amateur investigative group, The Mutual UFO Network soon appeared on scene and collected numerous sighting reports. Their conclusive report has yet to be made public, but senior investigator Steve Hudgeons characterized the sightings as "very significant."

Additional credence was given to the rash of sightings when a highly respected former Texas Department of Public Safety officer came forward to report what he had seen. Mike Zimmerman, former protector of several Texas governors, recounted his early morning January 31st observation of bright aerial objects that gave off flashes of white light then disappeared at sunrise. Zimmerman was thoughtful enough to use a compass to establish a bearing to the unidentified objects he had viewed from his window. Investigators plotting on star charts set to the time and direction of his sightings soon determined that what Zimmerman had likely observed was the rare alignment, or conjunction, of Venus and Jupiter along with the first rays of morning sunlight.

One oddity that frequently occurs on the heels of credible UFO sighting reports in the media is witness intimidation by persons identifying themselves as military or government officials. As mentioned earlier, Erath County witnesses also experienced this. Over the years there have been reports of menacing telephone calls and visits by so-called Men-in-Black, or MiBs (because of their attire) who caution and sometimes threaten the witness to keep quiet about what they have seen. They have also been reported to confiscate evidence that might substantiate the sighting.

For those that lean toward an extra-terrestrial (ET) hypothesis, what begs to be asked is what would make Erath County a target for examination as might have been carried out by lingering or hovering UFOs? After all, isn't Erath County sparsely populated with people living in small picturesque towns surrounded by wholesome dairies with contented cows idly grazing in verdant pastures? Not entirely. A tour of the backwoods of Erath County will reveal scores of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO), or industrialized dairy facilities, where Holstein cows stand not in green pastures, but instead in their own excrement inside small crowded feedlots awaiting their next milking. These dairy feedlots have been described as "factory farms that pollute nearby water and sicken nearby neighbors with airborne disease and horrible stenches.

(According to this source)"Texas ranks number one in the country for total animal waste production each year." Ammonia and hydrogen sulfide from the waste not only results in an intense stench for miles around, but also is blamed for polluting the Paluxy and Trinity aquifers as well as the Bosque River which empties into Lake Waco, the supply of drinking water for the city of Waco, Texas. It seems probable that those attempting to intimidate witnesses and thereby divert media attention in this case might not be the proverbial Men-in-Black after all, but more likely the Milkman.

There are many aspects of the Erath sightings that remain a bona fide mystery.

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* Editor's note:
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