77 lines
3.3 KiB
Plaintext
77 lines
3.3 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: SKYWATCHERS WAIT FOR UFOs FILE: UFO2025
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BY JIM STEINBERG FOR MNW
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FRESNO - The sky searchers carried binoculars, beach charis and a shared assu-
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rance that they were not crazy.
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Members and friends of the Mutual UFO Network had either seen strange flying
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objects in Central Valley skies or talked to others who had. Now the MUFON sky
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watchers scanned the starry night for further evidence.
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The didn't think, they Kndw that they - and all earthlings - were not alone.
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They sounded in turn scientific, religious, adventuresome. Some would say
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goofy.
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The MUFON expedition dedicated Tuesday and Wednesday nights to taking a long
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look and waiting for whatever or whoever might show up.
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The MUFON party traveled up Kings Canyon Road, parked over 4,000 feet high in
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the Sierra along Highway 180 at a clearing called McKenzie Heliport, - and
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waited.
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Roy Yates, 64, MUFON's state section director for Fresno County, was there. A
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retired Marin County teacher, he pursued his quest from conviction despite
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never having observed an unidentified flying object.
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Debra Flanders, 43, a MUFON spokeswoman and field investigator trainee, had
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two sightings in her resume.
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Use their names, they said. They would brook whatever doubt, laughter or deri-
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sion ensued.
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Not so the third explorer, a self-employed Fresno professional, 35. His life
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changed upon seeing something very large hovering above Norseman Elementary
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School at Weldon and Maple avenues one Sunday night in May 1975. Publication
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of his name would kill my business, he said.
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He and his parents were watching 60 Minutes on television, when he walked out-
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side for cigarettes.
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This thing was hovering, he said. It was huge, hovering over the school. I
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could have thrown a rock and hit it.
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It was round, he said, like a saucer, with white lights around its perimeter
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and a turning light - similar to a disco sphere - spinning at its center.
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I was not on drugs, not drinking, nothing, he said. It made no noise. I told
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my parents. My stepfather ran out with my nother, and they got a glimpse of
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the thing as it took off at the most incredible speed. It reached a point and
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just disappeared.
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I was soul-searching at the time of my experience, he said, looking for God.
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MUFON investigates such reports, only a portion of which it verifies as being
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truly unidentified flying objects. MUFON is a nonprofit international organi-
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zation that announced in June that its Fresno branch was seeking more public
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reports.
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Some reports come from law enforcement officers, including two from Manuel
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Amparano, 48, who is retired. He reported seeing things while working with
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police departments in Orange Cove and Kerman.
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He saw a red ball in 1973, spiraling down from the south east toward the hills
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around Kings Canyon Road, he said last week. And at 3:32 a.m. on May 13, 1978
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while on duty with Kerman police, he saw a fireball, an oval thing hovering
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above Del Norte and California avenues.
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He was alone for the sighting, Amparano said, but people back at the Kerman
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police station told him later that his face had burned and blistered in the
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last several hours.
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**********************************************
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* THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
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