SUBJECT: WYTHEVILLE, VA UFO SIGHTINGS FILE: UFO1202

PART 1


Sb: APtn 10/19 0859 UFO Sightings


By DIRK BEVERIDGE Associated Press Writer
WYTHEVILLE, Va. (AP) -- Wythe County sheriff's deputies have seen the lights in the sky that are causing a local UFO craze, but they are not preparing to battle space aliens.
"I'd rather have something else put us on the map," chief deputy Herb Cooley said. "This brings all the weirdos out. Before this is over, somebody's going to
have to see some little green men."
Cooley said the department has received more than a dozen calls about UFOs in
the past few weeks, but he pointed out that many more people who have seen the flying lights probably keep their mouths shut so no one will question their sanity.
He has heard reports of the objects swooping down and running cars off the road, but the department has not received any such complaints.
Sheriff's Sgt. Cihmer Collins, who spent 22 years in the military before he became a civilian lawman, has seen the mysterious craft and says they are probably with the armed forces.
"I've seen a bunch of them, and all I've seen is refueling," a manuever that involves two aircraft joined in what appears to be a stationary position before suddenly bolting off in different directions. That matches the behavior of red and white lights seen by some of the UFO witnesses.
"They did the same thing in Vietnam," Collins said. "There ain't no UFOs."
But three military spokespersons in the Norfolk area said by telephone that the silent airships described over Wythe County do not sound like anything in the U.S. arsenal.
"I don't have anything that doesn't make sound," said Ace Ewers, a spokesman for the Naval Air Station Oceana. He said A-6 Intruder bombers from Oceana fly in the Wytheville area, but they make a lot of noise.
"If it wasn't making sound, I don't have any explanation for what they're talking about," Ewers said. "If the government's working on something like that,
I don't know anything about it."
Nobody else contacted by The Associated Press had a good explanation, although eyewitness accounts of the UFOs are easy to come by around Wythe County.
A waitress in the Country Kitchen in Rural Retreat said a crowd watched a UFO
from the parking lot one night last week. She described it as round, like a Frisbee, with bright red and white lights cutting silently across the sky. Other
witnesses have reported green lights on objects of varying shapes.
Jack and Carolyn Ellison told reporters about their sighting of two flying objects, one shaped like a saucer and the other like a large arrowhead that was following it at a rather low altitude.
"We just stood right there where that Oldsmobile is and it went right over that maple tree," Jack Ellison said.
"An airplane wouldn't have been that low, and it would have made noise," said
Carolyn Ellison. "I said, `Maybe it's the Goodyear blimp,' but Jack said, `No, that makes noise."'
She had no idea what the things might be.
"I've heard of UFOs, but I don't know," she said. "When I turned the radio on
and found out other people saw it, I began to wonder."
Wytheville radio station WYVE has received numerous calls about the UFOs. News Director Danny Gordon has been recording and airing some of the accounts.
"Eighty percent are probably natural lights, Jupiter, the moon -- eyes playing tricks on them, the bottle," Gordon said. The other 20 percent sound believable, he said.
His callers have described objects including a silvery cigar shape, a green camouflage cigar shape, a floating triangle and pairs of lights that hover for a
while before splitting apart and quickly vanishing.
Gordon said he has talked with people who seriously keep up with UFOs, and they have warned him to be on the alert for government men in black suits who will try to get him to stop publicizing the sightings. UFO followers have said the government has for years hidden its knowledge of UFOs to avoid widespread public panic.
"I haven't heard anything from the government to tell me to stop doing the story," Gordon said. "If they're down here, they're down here incognito."


Copyright 1987 by the Associated Press. All rights reserved.


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SUBJECT: WYTHEVILLE, VA UFO SIGHTINGS FILE: UFO1204

PART 4


WYTHEVILLE UFO UPDATE --

HUGE UFOS EQUIPPED WITH STROBES CONTINUE TO FLY OVER WYTHE
COUNTY, VIRGINIA, WHERE MORE THAN 1,000 SIGHTINGS HAVE BEEN
REPORTED SINCE THE FIRST WEEK IN OCTOBER, ACCORDING TO BROAD-
CAST NEWS DIRECTOR DANNY GORDON OF WYVE RADIO IN WYTHEVILLE.
ALTHOUGH BOTH THE PENTAGON AND THE DEFENSE DEPARTMENT HAVE
REPEATEDLY DENIED ANY KNOWLEDGE OR INVOLVMENT IN THE RAFT OF
UFOS, GORDON, WITH TWO OTHER RESEARCHERS, SUSPECTS A MILI-
TARY EXPLANATION MAY BE FORTHCOMING. "WE THINK IT MAY
BE A MILITARY CRAFT OF A HIGHLY EXPERIMENTAL NATURE," GORDON
SPECULATES, "OR SOMETHING THEY DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT THAT'S
NOT THEIRS! (WYTHE COUNTY) IS A TESTING AREA FOR DAYTIME
FLIGHTS BY THE ARMY, NAVY AND AIR FORCE."
SENATOR PAUL TRIBLE (R-VIRGINIA) IS OFFICIALLY CONTACTING THE
MILITARY REGARDING THE UFOS, ACCORDING TO HIS WASHINGTON,
D.C. PRESS SECRETARY JOHN MILLER. SUBSEQUENT ACTION
WILL DEPEND ON THE MILITARY'S RESPONSE MILLER SAYS.
REPORTS HAVE DEPICTED V-SHAPED CRAFT, ROUND AND DOME-TOPPED
OBJECTS AND FAST-MOVING COLORED LIGHTS. WITNESSES HAVE DES-
CRIBED SEEING THE CRAFT MANAGE 90-DEGREE TURNS AND SPEEDS
FASTER THAN KNOWN AIRCRAFT, ALONG WITH INCIDENTS OF THE
UFOS DOGGING AUTOMOBILES. ONE WITNESS CLAIMS HE SAW SOMETHING
ON NOV 2 WHICH RESEMBLED A SHIP FROM STAR WARS.
DAYTIME MILITARY ACTIVITY PROVES INCONCLUSIVE AS A POSSIBLE
EXPLANATION. THE SILENT UFOS ARE MOST OFTEN SEEN AFTER DARK,
AND AT ALTITUDES APPARENTLY INCONSISTENT WITH POSSIBLE TEST
FLIGHTS OR REFUELING OPERATIONS.
GORDON FIRST BROKE THE NEWS TO WIRE SERVICES AFTER LOCAL LAW
ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS REPORTED UFOS ON OCT. 2, SEEN IN THE
NORTHERN SECTION OF THE COUNTY OVER INTERSTATE 77. "LESS
THAN A WEEK LATER, THE SHERIFF'S DEPATMENT REPORTED THAT A
FAMILY VISITING FROM OHIO - WHO WERE NOT AWARE OF ANY UFO
SIGHTINGS BEFOREHAND - HAD BEEN FOLLOWED BY A ROUND OBJECT,"
SAYS GORDON.
"IT CAME AT THEM AT A LOW ALTITUDE WHILE THEY WERE ON A
SECONDARY TWO-LANE ROAD."
REPORTS OF SIMILAR OBJECTS - DOME-SHAPED CRAFT OUTFITTED
WITH BRIGHT LIGHTS AND OFTEN FOLLOWED BY A SMALLER, RED-
LIGHTED OBJECTS, POURED INTO GORDON AT WYVE. AS INTEREST
IN THE SIGHTINGS MOUNTED, HE DECIDED TO HOST A CALL-IN
PROGRAM WHERE PEOPLE COULD ANONYMOUSLY REPORT WHAT THEY
HAD SEEN IN THE AREA. "I HAD ABOUT 25 CALLS IN THE FIRST
HOUR," HE SAYS.
MILITARY MANEUVERS IN THE WYTHE COUNTY AREA ARE NOT UNCOMMON.
GORDON, WHO'S HAD ONE DAYLIGHT AND FOUR NOCTURNAL SIGHTINGS
HIMSELF, IS CONDUCTING AN ONGOING INVESTIGATION INTO
THE WYTHE COUNTY UFOS. WITH FASHION PHOTOGRAPHER JOHN
STEMBER AND MILITARY DECEPTION SPECIALIST ANDREW CONVERY, WHO
BOTH OFFERED THEIR ASSISTANCE AS NEWS OF THE "FLAP" WENT
NATIONAL, GORDON MADE SEVERAL VISITS TO LOCAL SIGHTING
VICINITIES. THEY OBSEVED A LARGER UFO ("HUMUNGOUS CRAFT
ABOUT 900 FEET LONG - BIGGER THAN A 747") LINKING WITH A
SMALLER CRAFT IN WHAT APPEARED TO BE A DOCKING MANUEVER.
SEVERAL PHOTOGRAPHS AND POOR-QUALITY VIDEOTAPE WERE
TAKEN.
OFFICIALS AT THE TENNESSEE AIR NATIONAL GUARD, WHO SPOKE WITH
GORDON SHORTLY AFTER SOME OF THE FIRST SIGHTINGS, SUGGESTED
THAT THE UFOS WERE CONVENTIONAL AIRCRAFT CONDUCTING REFUELING
OPERATIONS. THE PENTAGON DENIES THAT, GORDON SAYS. "PEOPLE
LOCALLY ARE MAD - THEY'RE LIKE ME; THEY'VE SEEN SOMETHING AND
THEY KNOW IT WASN'T REFUELING."
ON OCT. 23, GORDON ANDHIS COLLEAGUES HELD A PRESS CON-
FERENCE AT WYVE STUDIOS IN WYTHEVILLE. THE PANEL DES-
CLARED THEIR BELIEF THAT SOME SORT OF CRASH TOOK PLACE IN
THE AREA - BUT DECLINED TO ELABORATE.
a REPORTER RECENTLY QUESTIONED GORDON ON THE UFOS FEASIBLY
BEING EXTRATERRESTRIAL. "BECAUSE I'M A REPORTER, i
HAVE TO DEAL IN FACTS AND LOGIC," GORDON RESPONDED.
"THERE'S NO PROOF THAT THE UFOS COME FROM ANYWHERE BUT THE
UNITED STATES. IF SO, THEY'RE DOING A VERY GOOD JOB OF
SNEAKING IN AND OUT OF OUR COUNTRY. AND IF IT'S A STEALTH
EXPERIMENT, IT'S A ROUND ONE.

Transcribed by Dale Wedge for ParaNet. Uploaded permission
of California UFO.


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