96 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
96 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: UFOs IN WYTHEVILLE FILE: UFO1264
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NEWS CLIPPING SERVICE
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DATE OF ARTICLE: February 24, 1989
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SOURCE OF ARTICLE: Daily Telegraph
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LOCATION: Bluefield, Virginia
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BYLINE: Charles Boothe
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========================================================
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THIS FILE WAS PROVIDED BY THE UFO NEWSCLIPPING SERVICE
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AND PREPARED BY PARANET ALPHA -- PARANET INFORMATION
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SERVICE
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========================================================
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ANOTHER VIEW
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UFOS IN WYTHEVILLE: AUTHORS STILL SEEKING ANSWERS
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Credit: D. Gordon
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About 75 people gathered at Fincastle Motor Inn in Tazewell
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on a recent snowy Friday night. What they saw and heard left
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many with a new, or renewed, interest is strange things that are
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seen in the sky.
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Everyone was there to hear and meet Danny Gordon and Paul
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Dellinger, who recently co-authored a book on the UFO sightings
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in Wythe County.
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I read the book a few weeks ago and wrote about it in this
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column, but I wanted to hear Gordon and Dellinger tell their
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stories first-hand. It was well worth the trip, despite the bad
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weather.
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Gordon, news director of radio station WYYV in Wytheville,
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is a skeptic and initially hesitated to get involved with the
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story after two area policemen reported seeing a strange object
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in September 1987. Gordon read the story on the air, with tongue
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slightly in cheek, and he was quite surprised when his phone
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started ringing off the hook. People were calling to tell him of
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other sightings in the area.
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After many reported sightings from people, who, he was
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convinced, had no reason at all to make the stories up, Gordon
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decided to go look for himself. That was the beginning of a
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series of events that Gordon could not have imagined, or
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believed, would ever happen.
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Gordon, a newsman with 10 years experience, soon saw a UFO
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and eventually saw many more, about 40 in all.
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But the sightings came with a price.
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He was constantly bombarded with phone calls about UFOs, not
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only from people in the Wytheville area, but calls and letters
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came from many states as the story gradually broke around the
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country.
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In fact, the calls, letters and visits by people who had
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seen or wanted to see UFOs were almost more than Gordon could
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handle. It soon turned into a wide-awake nightmare that left him
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exhausted.
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His life was threatened, someone broke into his apartment
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and stole the negatives of the photos of UFOs he had taken (he
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has some color prints he still carries with him at all times),
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and he's convinced his phone was, and is, tapped.
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Gordon finally decided to enlist the help of Dellinger,
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Wytheville bureau chief for the Roanoke Times and World News, to
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record what had happened. It's a fascinating story, and anyone
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who hears them speak or reads their book, Don't Look Up!, will be
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absolutely convinced Gordon and many people in the area saw some
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very bizarre aircraft in the sky.
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Gordon is still a skeptic, he's also now somewhat of a
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cynic. Because everywhere he turned for help -- the news media,
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the U.S. Air Force, a private UFO investigation organization --
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he got nothing but flack, deception and, sometimes, ridicule.
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And that doesn't sit well with Gordon, who is obviously an
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honest man, a straight-shooter who likes to cut through the bull.
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Maybe the response from that famous king of yellow
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journalism, The National Enquirer, best sums up what has happened
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in Wytheville.
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When the sightings were at their peak during late fall 1987,
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they sent a reporter to Wytheville to cover the story. But he
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didn't write a word.
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The reason: People who witnessed the UFOs were not weirdos,
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they didn't have any wild stories to tell. They were down to
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earth folks who saw some unusual, and unexplained, flying objects
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-- not the sensational type of stuff tabloids use.
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Unfortunately, few respectable newspapers or television
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stations did much with the story either, just a few articles and
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spots about the sightings -- nothing investigative.
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But Gordon is sticking to his guns. He's not in it for the
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money or the attention. That's not his style. He just wants
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some answers.
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Charles Boothe is city editor of the Daily Telegraph
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=================================================================
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**********************************************
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* THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
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********************************************** |