Editor: Joseph Trainor
Yeah, I know this was supposed to go out last night. Unfortunately, my carrier wouldn’t let me onto AOL. No April Fool in this issue, gang. Just the straight skinny on last week’s UFOs. Enjoy.
FREAKY FIREBALL STARTLES CALIFORNIANS
At 10:40 p.m. Pacific time, on March 16, 1996, a father and daughter were standing on a hilltop near Midpines, California, 60 miles north of Fresno. They were using a pair of binoculars to scan the sky for Comet Hyakutake. All at once, they spotted a bizarre fireball passing south of Pinoche Peak. The object, which they first took for a meteor, blazed across the sky, now and then flaring brightly. Then, according to the father, “the sucker dived and flew directly over our heads.”
Seeing it up close, the father described the UFO as “a dark cross shape.” He added that it flew due west after passing over their heads, heading for Mount Diablo on the western horizon.
Note: The Mount Diablo area, notably around San Ramon and Danville, is a notorious UFO hot spot, with continuous sightings from 1948 to the present.
WELSH TOWN REPORTS STRANGE LIGHTS IN THE SKY
On Sunday night, March 24, 1996, the people of Lampeter, Dyred, Wales, UK witnessed a bizarre aerial light show for nearly 30 minutes. According to Fortean Times, the townspeople watched a series of “strange flashes that lit up the sky.” The lights periodically flashed like lightning, but there was no thunderstorm over Wales at that time. Each flash was like a strobe light, with noticeably large “spikes.” As near as the people of Lampeter could tell, no flash repeated itself in the same spot. Authorities have no explanation for the phenomenon.
UNCLE SAM’S NEW “UNDERGROUND RAILROAD”
Monday afternoon, March 25, 1996, at precisely 1 p.m. Pacific time, private investigator Nikolos Soren of Los Angeles called a news conference on the steps of the Convention Center in San Diego. Soren had a most unusual story to tell.
While on stakeout near the harbor, just west of the Montgomery Freeway, Soren aimed his “bionic ear” shotgun microphone across the bay at the Coronado Naval Amphibious Base on Silver Strand Boulevard. While testing the device for good reception, he accidentally listened in on a conversation at the base. From his position two miles away, he overheard two Navy officers talking.
One officer reportedly said, “Oh, shit! Look at the time. We’d better get back in. The tube train leaves in fifteen minutes for Groom Lake.”
During the news conference, Soren allegedly claimed that Naval Construction Battalions (Seabees) excavated space for a subway station on “the strand.” The alleged “tube train” is said to connect Coronado with Area 51/Groom Lake at the Nellis Air Force Range in Nevada, 355 miles to the east.
The Navy has denied the existence of any “tube train” or “underground bullet train.”
On Friday, March 29, 1996, Soren allegedly claimed to have received phone calls all week telling him to “shut up” about the train.
Note: The most probable route for the tube train would connect the U.S. Marine Corps base at Twentynine Palms, the Army’s Fort Irwin, the China Lake Naval Weapons Center, travel down the Panamint Valley to Stove Pipe Wells, California and cross the state line east of Beatty, Nevada.
SALIDA, COLORADO UFO FLAP CONTINUES
On Friday, March 22, 1996, at 10 p.m., Tim Edwards videotaped more film footage of the UFOs seen recently over Salida. The new Edwards video shows a large flat silvery disk with glowing white disks coming out of it and performing loops and zigzag manuevers all around the mother ship.
Edwards said he now has eight hours of UFO video footage. He added that the silvery disk had been seen daily over Salida from March 14 to March 22, usually between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. The disk usually hovers near the sun, making it hard to spot.
James Armijo of Center, Colorado, has filmed the same type of silvery disks. According to the Alamosa, Colorado Valley Courier, Armijo was visiting his cousin, who lives near Highway 17 north of Alamosa, on January 25, 1996 when he spotted the UFO near the summit of Greenie Mountain.
“I saw one right over Greenie,” Armijo said. “It was sitting right on top of the mountain. When I zoomed in on it, I couldn’t find it but I saw another one.”
During the next twenty minutes, Armijo videotaped three separate flat silvery disk-like objects. The saucer shape is unmistakable, and all three UFOs appeared to be spinning.
Armijo’s tape was examined by Mark H. Hunter, county editor for the Valley Courier, and veteran paranormal investigator Christopher O’Brien, who publishes a newsletter, The Mysterious Valley Report.
“This (video) is consistent with many reports we’ve been getting,” O’Brien said. “This is very credible footage.”
MORE CANADIAN X-FILES RELEASED
UFO sightings during 1995 in British Columbia have been published by the Vancouver, B.C. Times Colonist. The newspaper obtained these sightings from the National Archives in Ottawa. The Canadian government collected 186 UFO reports last year, storing them in the archives under the title of “Non-Meteoric Sightings.”
According to the Times Colonist, a man named Dean left Enilda, Alberta one night last summer. As he was driving west on Highway 2, Dean spotted a number of strange lights in the sky. The bright lights, forming a green, red and yellow triangle, dimmed a little as they passed over the highway just east of High Prairie. The lights regained their luminous glow on the south side of the road and then flew off at a rapid clip. “Much faster than conventional aircraft,” the witness said.
In April 1995, a woman driving home one night near Langley, B.C. told the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that two “star-like objects” came down from the sky and followed her car down the Fraser Highway. Langley is a suburb of Vancouver, 12 miles southeast of the seaport city.
Also in 1995, an astronomer in North Vancouver told the RCMP that she had seen “a dark arrowhead-shaped object–three times the size of a jumbo jet–with orange-yellow lights at the tips.” She reportedly told the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics that there “was absolutely no sound, and the speed was incredible. This was no aircraft or weather balloon. I found the experience a little disconcerting, to say the least.”
UFO FOLLOWS CAR IN SUSSEX
On February 27, 1996, two men (BUFORA calls them Simon and Dom) left Horsham, Sussex, UK in their car, driving to Brighton on Highway M23. After passing through Brighton at about 9 p.m., the pair rolled onto Highway A27. Fifteen minutes later, as they approached Worthing, they spotted what they described as “an object which appeared to be a bright white ball of light bigger than any star.” The UFO flew parallel to their car for ten minutes as they drove along.
Finally, Simon pulled off the highway, entering a “slip road” (driveway). Both men emerged from the car. Dom had his Hi-8 camcorder with him and began filming. They videotaped five minutes of film, which shows the UFO hovering over the downs about two miles away. The UFO departed at about 9:15 p.m.
The British UFO Research Association (BUFORA) now has Dom’s video and is having it analyzed.
Next week: Space permitting, we’ll cover the continuing UFO flap in Australia. Have a great week, readers!