On Friday, September 3, 1965, another baffling UFO event occurred. At around 11:00 PM, Deputy Sheriff Goode, along with Chief McCoy were riding on patrol south of the city of Damon. The Chief spotted a purple light to the southwest, about 5-6 miles from them. They thought it could be something afire in the oil fields.
Soon, however, a lighter blue object emerged from the large light, and flew to their right. Maintaining this position, the two objects began to slowly move up into the sky. Though the objects were too far away to make out with binoculars, in a matter of seconds, the UFOs were upon them, braking to a stop right above their vehicle.
The vehicle and its surrounding area was brightly illuminated with a bath of purple. Hardly 100 feet away, it was now evident that there were not two objects - the two were opposite ends of one enormous object. Later, McCoy described the object to the Air Force:
"The bulk of the object was plainly visible at this time and appeared to be triangular shaped with a bright purple light on the left end and the smaller, less bright, blue light on the right end. The bulk of the object appeared to be dark gray in color with no other distinguishing features. It appeared to be about 200 feet wide and 40-50 feet thick in the middle, tapering off toward both ends."
The two patrolmen made a break for it with the object almost directly overhead. Driving at speeds of over 100 mph, they finally found themselves free of the object. As they fled the scene, they could see the object maneuver back to its original position in the old fields. After gaining their composure, they decided to return to the scene.
Arriving at the spot where they first saw the object, they observed the object begin the same routine as before. Frightened, they sped away. They would report their unusual encounter to Ellington Air Force Base.
After conducting their investigation, Major Laurence Leach, Jr. made this statement to the Project Blue Book:
"There is no doubt in my mind," he said, "that they definitely saw some unusual object or phenomenon... Both officers appeared to be intelligent, mature, level-headed persons capable of sound judgment and reasoning."
There has been no explanation for what the two patrolmen saw that night, but on an interesting side note, this case occurred on the same night as the celebrated UFO Incident in Exeter.
There's Something out There in the Woods
In 1980 a compelling yet puzzling set of events took place in the Piney Woods of Texas. The case is generally known as the The Cash-Landrum Encounter.
This sighting took place at the same time that airmen at the Bentwaters - Woodbridge RAF bases were chasing strange lights and craft in the Rendlesham Forest in the United Kingdom.
Betty Cash, along with Vickie Landrum and young Colby Landrum were driving near the town of Huffman. Up ahead on the road, and just hovering in the air, was a diamond-shaped UFO. The craft would shoot beams of fire to the ground, as Betty left the vehicle and stood watching the other-worldly craft.
To their utter surprise, soon the skies were abuzz with helicopters. They appeared to be attempting to encircle the diamond UFO. As Betty returned to their car, she found the door handle hot from the UFO.
When the three arrived back home, soon they were all very sick, with Betty being the worst of the three, having stood outside the car. She was admitted to a local hospital for 15 days, and all three witnesses were treated for radiation sickness and burns, their illnesses were life threatening.
Betty only got worse, with sores covering her body and hair loss. She was diagnosed as having skin cancer.
There was clear evidence that the asphalt road was burned from the heat of the UFO. This damage was quickly repaired. Betty's illnesses would not be so quickly dismissed, however. The three witnesses eventually sued the US Government for damages.
A congressional hearing was held, but the government was not held responsible for any compensation. After years of struggle, Betty died on the 18th anniversary of the day of the sighting.
The Stephenville Sightings
Of all of the cases in Texas, no other has had more eyewitnesses than the highly celebrated case which occurred in and around the Stephenville area in 2008. The Stephenville, Texas case was more of a wave than anything else. This wave would spark a media frenzy, gaining the farming community worldwide attention, with a number of the eyewitnesses appearing on major news outlets.
Reports of enormous UFOs moving over Stephenville were made by some of the city's most esteemed citizens, and many of the everyday people jumped on the bandwagon. Along with individual reports, there were videos, photographs, drawings and sketches handed over to the MUFON organization when the group arrived in the community for a full fledged investigation in January, 2008.
Reports of US Air Force jets in the same area and time frame as the large UFOs brought about conspiracy theories, and even claims of witness intimidation. MUFON was overtaxed in attempting to organize the normally routine task of taking eyewitness statements. No shyness here, as everyone wanted their story told.
The sightings in and around the Stephenville area soon spread outward, and many researchers felt that the entire state of was being visited by UFOs. But hasn't that always been the case in Texas?
