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

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