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Crimora, Va., 25 miles from Harrisonburg.
     "We both thought we saw a series of five lights
nearly as bright as Venus around 5:15 or 5:20 p.m.
on Sunday, December 21.  He thought the lights
were 20 to 25 degrees above the horizon, and the
lights appeared to be over the Waynesboro/
Fishersville area which is consistent with my
observation."
     She added that Waynesboro was the site of the
1964 UFO encounter reported by Horace Burns.
(Email Interview)
COUPLE SEES A UFO OVER
HOOKSETT, NEW HAMPSHIRE
     On December 3, 1997, a couple spotted a "very
bright light" in the evening sky south of Hooksett,
New Hampshire (population 2,573).
     One of the witnesses said, "You could bundle
five airplanes together and it wouldn't even come close
to this much light."
     The UFO approached from the south.  When one
witness called attention to it, "the light halted and
suddenly took off."
     Mysterious bright lights along Route 3 south of
Hooksett were also reported by two other witnesses.
     Hooksett is 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of
Concord, the state capital.
(See the Manchester, N.H. Union-Leader for
December 5, 1997.  Many thanks to George A. Filer
of MUFON for this report.)
BLACK HELICOPTERS ACTIVE
IN PENNSYLVANIA AND
NORTHERN FLORIDA
     The night of December 16, 1997, Brett B. was at
his family's home on Hawk Mountain near Tamaqua,
Pennsylvania (population 7,843), a small city at the
intersection of Highways 209 and 309, approximately
98 miles (158 kilometers) northwest of Philadelphia.
     All at once, Brett heard the sound of a helicopter.
"It sounded as if it was really close," he reported.
"I'm guessing that it was at about mountain level.  It
sounded as if it was right outside the house.  When I
went outside, I didn't see anything" because of the
low overcast.  "I went back in the house because I
didn't have my shoes on or a coat, and it was getting
cold."
     Listening to the helicopter noise, Brett wondered
if there might have been a breakout at a state prison
nearby.  But, he added, "my aunt works at the prison,
and she usually calls us" if a breakout occurs.  After
a while, the mysterious helicopter flew away.  (Email
Interview)
     On Saturday, December 20, 1997, Corey S. saw
two black UH-1D helicopters fly over his farm near
Jasper, Florida (population 2,099).  The choppers
were "flying close to the ground, heading east."
     According to Corey, some neighbors called a
local radio talk show and reported seeing "six to
eight black helicopters, most of them Hueys
(UH-1D) but one was a Hughes 500 with airborne
radar" on the ground at a nearby rural airstrip."
     Jasper is on Florida Highway 41, approximately
85 miles (136 kilometers) east of Tallahassee,
the state capital.
from the UFO Files...
1909: AIRSHIP HOVERS OVER
          WILLIMANTIC
     In addition to Massachusetts and Rhode Island,
UFOs were seen over Connecticut during the "airship
flap" of December 1909.  Here's the actual newspaper
account of the most famous Connecticut sighting
of the period.
     "There was a bright light in the east last night
and the wise ones sized it up for Tillinghast's
mysterious airship.  It was about 7:30 o'clock that
the light was first noticed and it was then in the
southeast, appearing to be above the thread plant
as viewed from the foot of Railroad street but a
long ways off--from twenty to thirty miles in the
opinion of some of the people who saw it."
     "Policemen and other matter-of-fact persons
winked the other eye when the airship was mentioned
but there were plenty of people who were quite willing
to declare, and did so declare, that what they had
seen in the eastern sky answered in all particulars
the descriptions sent out of the mysterious aerial
craft that has been creating such a sensation in
Worcester and other Massachusetts cities and
villages."
     "There were several hundred in Willimantic
who saw what they believed to have been an airship,
and others said it was Hailey's (sic) comet.  Whatever
it was, it caused considerable excitement for a while
and the curious ones spent several hours with their
eyes riveted on the heavens."
     "The light in the southeast looked like a powerful
searchlight.  Because of its size and the aura it
threw, it attracted wide attention.  It remained stationary
for a few minutes, and then it seemed to shoot upwards,
and then ambled around as if the person manipulating
it was trying to get his bearings."
     "As usual, Mayor (John F.) Dunn's store was
crowded about that time, and Benjamin Murphy,
timekeeper on the New Haven (rail)road, was...calling
the men out to see the airship.  Mayor Dunn was
among them, and he stated last night (i.e. on
December 23, 1909--J.T.) when seen by a Chronicle
reporter that he would not swear it was an airship
but it certainly did look like one.  Others who saw it
were of the same opinion."
     "The light was miles away apparently and quite
high in the air.  It played in the east for about fifteen
minutes and then vanished.  Later there appeared a
brilliant star in the firmament and those who had not
seen the first light and saw this star were of the
opinion that both lights were one and the same, but
those who saw the first light said it was no star."
     "People who had come down street to do their
Christmas shopping forgot what they had come for
and stood on the sidewalk and even in the middle
of the street, looking in the east, hoping to see the
return of the airship.  Some of the skeptics who,
just because they did not hear the hissing of the
engine or got an introduction to the man running the
ship, laughed at those who claimed it was an
airship they saw.  The skeptics could not account,
though, for the strange light and its peculiar actions."
     "It was too bad that the airship, if it was one,
did not come nearer the city so that the people
could inspect the machine.  The scoffers would have
then had no grounds for scoffing."
     (See the Willimantic, Conn. Daily Chronicle
for December 24, 1909, "'Come, Ride In My Airship'
Invitation Awaited by Many!" page 1.)
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