The Truth is (Still) Out There
“Whoa, it came out of the sky
Landed just a little south of Moline
Jody fell out of his tractor
Couldn’t believe what he seen.” Creedence Clearwater Revival 1969
If you hope this column will delve into the alleged existence of E.T. species such as Greys, Talls, Hybrids, Nordics, and the sweetheart of conspiracy types, the Reptilians, you may be disappointed.
Even I won’t wade into those weeds.
I am much more interested in establishing if we have enough evidence now to deduce that, as many governments have already alluded to, UAPs of unknown origin in material form exist, and are observed operating within our airspaces.
That fact, and that fact alone, should get the investigations rolling and international conversation launched into its implications for all of humanity.
With that in mind, if we rule out extraterrestrial visitation altogether, we face an even greater mystery related to other dimensions, wormholes, time travelers, etc.
Extraterrestrial visitations would be a softball. Anything else would tell us we have a long way to go in understanding the physics of our universe and knowing what is possible.
Not knowing the contents of the 2021 classified version of the Pentagon Report on UAPs, we may extrapolate from the unclassified report that at least some of the trained observers’ sightings accurately describe unknown physical material objects.
These objects often dem-onstrate flight characteristics beyond any current human technology.
Steve’s close encounter of the second kind
In the middle of October 1973, Steve Fisher arrived at my park residence, having had a strange encounter while working at Fallsville Wildlife Area in southwestern Ohio.
This occurred within days of my own experience hearing radio traffic about UAPs while riding with an Ohio State Highway trooper. I had not yet had the opportunity to tell Steve about these events.
We sat down to steaming cups of coffee at my kitchen table. I noticed Steve’s hands were shaking. His spoon rattled sharply against the side of the ceramic mug as he stirred in the cream.
I steeled myself for what he might tell me. A UFO sighting was not among the scenarios I imagined before he spoke.
Steve began the strangest conversation in my life with, “Ken, I saw a UFO this afternoon, and I don’t know who or if I should tell anybody else.”
Steve elaborated on what happened when he was discing a field at a nearby wildlife area in preparation for planting forage. Thinking the tractor was overheating, he stopped and turned off the ignition.
As he leaned forward to place a hand near the engine block, he happened to glance up. Steve was alarmed when he saw that a portion of the completely blue sky was blocked by something with lights on the underside – something motionless and silent sat directly above the tractor by no more than 25 feet.
“How can this be?” Steve said rhetorically, not expecting me or anyone else to have a sufficient reason for what he saw. Steve was a scientist and likely suffered a bit of cognitive dissonance at the time.
He would struggle to come to grips with what he had witnessed until his untimely death.
I could tell he was unsettled by what he had seen. I decided this was a good time to share my bizarre experience several nights earlier while riding with the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
Hearing my story seemed to bring him some measure of relief, as though he could now rule out temporary insanity or hallucination. I assured Steve that, although I did not see a UAP myself, I had total trust and confidence in those officers who did.
Steve said he crawled under the tractor, peering up at the object.
“The thing began slowly pitching and yawing. At times it looked solid and featureless, then lights would appear that seemed to come from inside the object. He said it was like looking into a transparent jellyfish, adding that it went back to appearing solid again.
“After several minutes, it stabilized and started slowly moving over the field toward a fence row of Osage Orange trees,” Steve recounted.
“Then, the strangest thing happened. Two small glowing objects came at the craft from right angles and merged with it. And then, the object just disappeared. It wasn’t like I could follow its flight path; it simply disappeared,” said Steve.
When I asked Steve to describe the object further, there was no hesitation. He replied, “It was not much bigger than a car in length, maybe a little wider. I would say it had the general shape of a slightly elongated egg, and when the lights weren’t flashing, it was plain as an egg.”
We talked for several hours over two pots of coffee and half of a Dutch apple pie. It became clear that Steve’s biggest concern was whether or not to share this with his family or his supervisor at the wildlife area.
At this juncture, I may have given Steve some lousy advice. I told him he might want to think about it before telling anyone else. It was 1973, and there was, and still is to some degree, derision and ridicule attached to report seeing a UFO.
I imagined Steve going into the local eatery in Leesburg, Ohio, and telling the dozen or so farmers that hold court there each morning – all wearing Dekalb ball caps – that he had just seen a UFO.
He would have been laughed out of the café. Such was the attitude in those days when many toed the line of conformity. No one wanted to be the nail that stuck up, particularly among a group of no-nonsense men all wearing the same commercial seed hat.
Steve’s health started to falter after his close encounter. In the meantime, I took a job with the Ohio Division of Watercraft in the Cleveland/Akron area.
Steve and I kept in touch by letter and the occasional phone call. His experience had clearly changed him; he didn’t seem as confident as the old Steve I hunted and fished with.
In February of 1975, less than 18 months after Steve’s strange encounter, he died of unknown causes at 24 years of age. Although his precise cause of death was never determined, there is no evidence that Steve’s death had anything to do with the aerial object.
Steve’s encounter still haunts me; only definitive proof of these objects’ existence will allow me to let it go. October of 1973 changed many people’s lives and beliefs in rural southwestern Ohio.
In the mid-2000s, I tracked down Steve’s sister, whom I had not seen or talked to since Steve died. Our telephone conversation made it clear that her brother had never told his family what had happened.
She added that her family knew that something had occurred that had profoundly affected Steve. When I explained to her Steve’s description of what he saw, there was a period of silence.
She said, “Well, you know Steve; if he said that happened to him, you could be sure it did. Steve was a man of few words, and when he said something, he meant it.”
I concur; Steve brushed up against an anomaly he couldn’t quite come to terms with. Then again, maybe he did arrive at an understanding of his experience before he died. That is my hope.
Ruth Taylor was leaving Taylors’ Grocery Store one evening around dusk back in 1977 when she happened to catch sight of an object over Hillsboro. She described it as “Oblong with blinking lights on the bottom of the craft.”
Ruth explained, “I watched it for a few moments, and then it shot off to the east with a blinking red light. This was before drones, and it was not a helicopter.”
“As I was approaching Droop Mountain, where we lived at the time, I caught sight of it again for a few seconds,” she said, laughingly adding, “Naturally, Bob thought I was losing my mind.”
No worries there, Ruth. You’re in the excellent company of military pilots, law enforcement officers, and others who courageously chose to tell their stories, despite what others may say.
In the fall of 1964, 17-year-old David Workman picked up two friends in Marlinton, John Roy and Watson Underwood (Watson was later killed in the Tet Offensive of 1968).
After piling into David’s car, they headed north on Rt. 28 to attend a post-game dance in Green Bank, hoping to meet some girls. But fate had something else in mind, something far more memorable than the particulars of a high school dance.
The evening was clear, and stars filled the sky; that’s how David remembers a night that never strays far from his memory. Like Steve and Ruth, David had no idea what he and his two friends were seeing as they approached the bridge over Thorny Creek just south of Dilley’s Mill on Route 28.
“It was huge,” said David recently. “It completely blocked the sky overhead.”
David described the object as silent and moving slowly. He said the craft emitted a bright violet light that originated at the center, radiating out, yet it did not hurt to look at it.
This extraordinary event didn’t stop the boys from going to the dance, so they didn’t stick around long. It is well-known that girls trump flying saucers when you’re 17 years old.
(Conversely, at the ripe old age of 74 one may readily choose to see a UFO or even a vintage 1955 Chevy Bel Air convertible over the ever-diminishing prospects of romance in the golden years. Different biological imperatives, right?)
David contacted a UFO researcher, Dr. George Fawcett, of Mt. Airy, North Carolina, and filed a report on the Dilley’s Mill sighting. Dr. Fawcett became interested in ufology when a giant UFO interrupted the Mt. Airy football practice in 1952 by descending to a much lower altitude directly over the field.
This event was reportedly witnessed by coaches, players and citizens from all over the area.
As for the possibility that UAPs represent extraterrestrial visitors, we, meaning humans, tend to be somewhat anthropocentric.
Every time the issue of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena comes up, certain popular astrophysicists are trotted out to shoot the E.T. hypothesis down. They assert that the distances are vast and the time required to reach earth is measured in millions of light years and therefore unlikely if not impossible.
That is correct, but only if we are basing these beliefs on the present state of human technology and physiological morphology.
Yet, there may be intelligent life on some habitable planet with hundreds, thousands, perhaps millions of years’ head start on humankind regarding technology.
Just think of the technological growth in the 20th century alone – we went from the horse and buggy to the cell phone. The singularity between the biological human and our ever-increasing technology is looming in the near future.
Imagine what may be possible with thousands of years of exponential technological growth. Those things we consider impossible now may very well be commonplace in an advanced species of intelligent life.
One controversial, albeit compelling, theory is that UAPs may represent a future version of ourselves returning through time to see their roots. Judging from the popularity of genealogy, one can see that happening when, or if, the technology becomes available.
Or, maybe, just maybe, those tens of thousands of astute and observant people reporting UAPs are all mistaking Venus for an unknown aerial craft with advanced flight characteristics. And, if Venus is not available, we can blame it all on swamp gas and keep our heads in the sand for a few more decades.
Your choice!
Ken Springer
Ken1949bongo@gmail.com