Texas UFO Sightings Continue

By Pete Hartinger  The Circleville Herald   July 14, 2008

Viewpoint

TEXAS UFO SIGHTINGS CONTINUE

     Like elsewhere in the U.S. and the rest of the world ufos are still being observed in our earth’s skies.

     I became interested on the subject of ufos when I heard a radio broadcast of the dramatic sightings near Levelland, Texas in November, 1957.  This event occurred one month after the world’s first artificial satellite was launched and was known as Russia’s Sputnik One.  The sightings involved witnesses in several automobiles being driven near Levelland the night of November 2, 1957.  The witnesses saw a huge lighted round object travel over their vehicles and when it did all their car engines failed.  I remember listening to the witness’s remarkable testimony.  This case remains unexplained to this day.  It was discovered that the local sheriff also was a witness to this major UFO sighting.

     Just three months later, in February 1958, I had my own personal sighting.  I, like local farmer Bruce Stevenson Sr., and many, many others, knew that ufos existed and there was no belief to it. 

     While I was in the U.S. Army I was stationed at Ft. Hood, Texas.  Ft. Hood still exists today and it is one of the biggest Army bases in the world.  I was there in August of 1965 when a ufo wave of sightings occurred in Texas and Oklahoma.  These were carried in the local Texas newspapers.  One person told me personally that he and his wife had watched a ufo sweep down over their car, as they were driving down a Texas highway at night during this time period. 

     Texas is one of the leading states in reported ufo sightings.  I believe it is because of the low flat land that you can see for miles and of course of it being a huge state. 

     In January of this year, Stephenville, Texas had their own wave of ufo sightings.  Many ufo reports were made to the local newspaper, the Stephenville Tribune.  Angelia Joiner of that newspaper broke the story on January 10th.  She no longer works for this paper, whether or not it was because of her intense reporting.  By coincidence, I have a nephew who attended Tarleton State College in Stephenville just two years ago. 

     I have been a member of the Mutual UFO Network, which is a international organization, since 1988.  MUFON’s stated mission is the scientific study of ufos for the benefit of humanity through investigation, research & education. I was briefly interviewed by Fox News television, after the story was broke by the Tribune. They asked me what I thought of the Stephenville sightings.  I told them that I had just recently found out about them.  I also said that we would have to wait for the Texas MUFON investigators to do their investigations before we could come to any firm conclusions. 

     The monthly MUFON Journal is located in the magazine section of the Circleville Library. May’s issue contains a report by the Texas investigators on these ufo sightings.  Here are some of the highlights.  In less than seven days in January they began receiving over 100 new sightings from Central Texas.  Eight MUFON investigators from around that section of Texas were assigned the task of interviewing witnesses.  They committed themselves to a project that had never been attempted in the history of MUFON – to interview a large number of witnesses at one time.  MUFON Texas held a meeting in nearby Dublin, Texas on January 19 and February 23 of this year.  There were two “official” daylight sightings of large objects.  The object was described as gray in color, emitting no sound, and moving at a high rate of speed.  Witness, Steve Allen, pilot and businessman, went on record describing a large object one mile long and half a mile wide, moving away at high speed, soundless, and being chased by jet aircraft on after-burners breaking the sound barrier.  Three other witnesses (who did not file reports) were with Allen at the time of the sighting and also observed the object.  Witnesses in general were highly credible: pilots, police officers and city officials, most of who wish to remain anonymous.  The investigators received a larger than expected number of reports, some as old as 30 years.  The witnesses told them that they felt it was okay now to come forward to tell what they had seen.  (I have found out that this is a natural reaction among witnesses, as they feel comfortable when they realize the ufo phenomenon continues to be accepted more and more as being real.)  There are a few videos of unknown objects, taken from the dash-cams of police cruisers.  They have not been able to view these due to legal issues, as there is other data recorded on the same videos.  The Stephenville cluster of sightings has been said, by some, to be the most significant ufo event in recent history.  The most often stated reason is the credibility and number of the witnesses.  Most of the witness reports spanned the period of December 1, 2007, to March 1, 2008.  This area of Texas has been a Hot Spot for ufo activity for decades.  People in the area continue to see strange things on nearly a daily basis.  It took an event with multiple witnesses followed by an intensive MUFON investigation to bring out many witnesses to report their sightings for the first time.

      I had a recent talk with MUFON’s Director of Public Education and he said they plan on having a press release on this case in the near future, as additional information is forthcoming.

     Over the years there have been other waves (many ufo sightings in a certain area and time period) like the Hudson Valley, New York ufo sightings in the early 1980s and Phoenix, Arizona in 1997.  Now, with the advent of the computer and cell phone usage, sighting reports are rapidly being reported.  I recently received via e-mail a woman who lives 5 miles form Stephenville.  She saw our website, www.roundtownufosociety.com that listed my interview with Fox News.  She and her daughter observed close up a circular ufo hovering over their automobile on June 9th.  We had a similar case in Pickaway County that occurred last July. 

     In about 1967 there was a daylight ufo observed east of Circleville by many witnesses.  I have had three different witnesses separately tell me the same thing.  It hovered in the sky for a long period of time.  This was observed from the Mound Street/Kingston Pike area and Circle Hills. If anyone else may have observed this event, please contact me at [email protected] or 477-6252. 

Pete Hartinger

Director, Roundtown UFO Society

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