Researcher Claims He Has Photo Of 1976 UFO Over Clovis

Brian Vike's Favorite Cases.

Newspaper Article.

Thirty years after UFOs were reportedly sighted hovering over Clovis skies, another photograph of the event has surfaced.

A UFO researcher said this week he has a photo — albeit fuzzy — of a tubular-shaped craft that danced above Clovis on Jan. 21, 1976.

Canadian resident Brian Vike said he obtained the photo about a week ago from a former Eastern New Mexico University journalism student. Vike would not reveal the identity of that photographer, but said his source was threatened in 2004 after discussing the events on a radio talk show.

“His attitude now is, ‘people need to know.’ And ‘if anything happens to my family, people definitely need to know,’” Vike said.

Another photo of a UFO sighted in Clovis that same week appeared in the Jan. 23 edition of the Clovis News Journal. That photo, which shows a lightning-like streak in the sky in the shape of a telephone receiver, was taken by amateur astronomer Steve Muscato.

Vike plans to post the photograph on his Web site, http://www.kbccuforesearch.ca/. He is also searching for more eyewitness accounts of the events.

“I want to try to figure out what these people are seeing,” said Vike, who said he has investigated scores of reports of UFO sightings from around the world.

“We don’t have the answer: Is there life out there?”

Muscato, who now lives in Las Vegas, Nev., remembers the reported sightings caused quite a stir.

“I received dozen of calls from all over the country,” said Muscato, who took the photograph through a window from the top floor of the Clovis Hotel.

“I honestly thought it was Saturn,” recalled Muscato, who was a high school senior at the time. Muscato said he checked with a noted astronomer, who told him Saturn would not have been visible at that time.

To this day Muscato’s not sure what he saw that night.

“I remember him coming home all excited,” said Frank Muscato, Steve’s father, who then owned a doughnut store at 14th and Mitchell streets. “The only thing I was concerned about was whether (the UFOs) wanted carry-out doughnuts.”

The elder Muscato said the buzz in town lasted awhile.

“Everybody was excited about it,” Muscato said. “All the major networks were in town and they were all on the top of Hotel Clovis.”

A document from the National Military Command Center confirms UFO sightings on Jan. 21, 1976, but does not offer an explanation as to the origin of the crafts.

“Two UFOs are reported near the flight line at Cannon AFB, New Mexico,” the document reads. “Security Police observing them reported the UFOs to be 25 yards in diameter, gold or silver in color with a blue light on top, a hole in the middle, and red light on bottom.”

The Military Command document on Cannon is lumped in with 11 other declassified military reports of UFO sightings that occurred across the nation near military installations, and in Iran, from 1975 and 1976.

Following the Jan. 21 UFO sightings in Clovis, other strange events were reported in the area, according to Clovis News Journal archives.

UFO sightings continued in Clovis for the next two days, according to CNJ archives. On Jan. 22,1976, the strange objects zipped around Cannon F-111s that were sent into the air to investigate them, according to testimony that appears on Vike’s Web site. The objects darted out of the reach of the jets, cutting through the air at 90-degree angles, and racing at phenomenal speeds, the Web site reads.

A CNJ staff writer reported seeing 23 UFOs, sliding in and out of complex formations, the next night.

Also, an unexplained circle was burned into the ground of a New Mexico ranch and a cylindrical object of unknown origin was discovered in the grass in the days following the initial UFO sightings, according to CNJ archives.

Several UFO investigative teams, including Project Starlight International, swarmed into Clovis after the sightings, according to CNJ archives. But most concluded that the sightings were likely a result of a weather inversion or some other weather phenomenon. One suggested they could have been glimpses of a planet.

Clovis resident John Fondrick was a high school senior when the UFOs were sighted and a series of articles on the events appeared in the Clovis News Journal. He said he doesn’t recall seeing the mysterious crafts. He and his friends attempted numerous sky vigils atop Hotel Clovis, but were always intercepted by police, he said.

At the time of the alleged sightings, Clovis resident Bill Gaedke was an advisor to the commander of the 27th Fighter Wing. He spent six years stationed at the base and retired in 1979 as a chief master sergeant, he said.

“I didn’t hear anything about (the UFOs). I vaguely recall something about the crop circles, but I couldn’t relate the details,” he said.

The deputy chief of Cannon Public Affairs, 1st Lt. James Nichols, said the base could provide “no information” on the UFO sightings of 1976, or on whether or not there have been subsequent UFO sightings around Cannon since.

Several other long time area residents contacted for the story said they were either unaware of the reports or had no firsthand knowledge.

The Eastern New Mexico News - https://www.easternnewmexiconews.com/

The Newspaper Article -  https://www.easternnewmexiconews.com/story/2006/06/17/publishnews/researcher-claims-he-has-photo-of-1976-ufo-over-clovis/72397.html

1976 UFO Hovering Above A Field At Clovis New Mexico

Brian Vike's Favorite Cases.

Date:  1976

Time:  Evening.

I remember this incident. At first I thought  had dreamed it until I stumbled across your website.

I was only 6 when it happened, but I remember that we pulled over on the side of the road with many other people and watched the UFO hover over a field moving in strange sideways patterns before it shot straight up into the air and disappeared.

The Clovis news journal ran a picture of it the next day if I can recall. Thanks for the web post.

Thank you to the witness for the report.

If you have seen anything like this in the same area please be kind enough to contact Brian Vike at houstonbri7@gmail.com with the details of your sighting. All personal information is kept confidential.

File your UFO sighting to Brian at: houstonbri7@gmail.com

Brian Vike, Director Kamloops British Columbia Canada UFO Research. Email: houstonbri7@gmail.com

The Vike Factor Blog.

Kamloops British Columbia Canada UFO Research.

10 To 20 Small Orange Lights Shoot Out Of Larger Lights South Of Clovis New Mexico

Brian Vike's Favorite Cases.

Date:  Around May 2009

Time:  Approxamtlty 11:00 p.m.

Number of witnesses: 1

Number of Objects: 1 large, About 10-20 small.

Shape of Objects: Unknown.

Full Description of Event/Sighting: I find it peaceful to take short walks late at night, and this was one of those times. It was around 11:00 p.m. and a clear night. I was at my parents house which is about five miles south of Clovis NM.

I was looking south and saw four yellowish non-blinking lights that made a square shape moving slowly west. It seemed to either be very large and far away, or smaller and moving oddly slowly.

If I was to hold my arm out and measure the size with my hand it would be about four inches across. Thinking it was a plane from the AFB, I watched it with slight interest as it moved west towards the base.

Once it was southwest of me, it stopped moving which caught my interest. It then released/shot 10 to 20 slightly smaller single orange lights which at first I though must be flares until they stared making right angles, full stops, and other movements that just didn't fit with rocket based movements.

This lasted perhaps five minutes and then the lights returned to the larger four, disappeared, and the four lights moved extremely quickly due south and disappeared.

Thank you to the witness for the report.

File your UFO sighting to Brian at: houstonbri7@gmail.com or please use the online Sighting Report Form.

Brian Vike, Director Kamloops British Columbia Canada UFO Research. Email: houstonbri7@gmail.com

The Vike Factor Blog.

Kamloops British Columbia Canada UFO Research.

1976 UFO Event Burnt Ground And Unusual Metal Men In Suit At Clovis New Mexico

Brian Vike's Favorite Cases.

Date: 1976

Brian Vike’s Note: I have removed a person's name from this report I was sent due to not having permission to make the person's name public as I just have not spoken to the person. Also I want to make it very clear, the person who wrote this report up wants to stay anomalous. Here at HBCC UFO Research I respect everyone's wishes. I will not be giving out this person's name.

Hello again, Brian, To answer your question, (name removed) name appeared in the Sunday article in the Clovis News Journal. I don't know if he gave permission to use it, as he is now located in Las Vegas, Nevada. His father was quoted, just joking about the whole thing, but that's the kind of man he is.

I took some time to sit down and write what I remember about that time, thirty years ago. I remembered quite a bit, maybe more than my friends. Here is the text:

I was a senior in high school, and was approached by a local young man named (name removed). He had heard that I owned a large telescope, and wondered if we might use it together to try to get a view of some objects he’d seen in the sky and taken pictures of the previous night. I had a 6" reflector telescope, and back then, it was uncommon.

I accompanied him and a young reporter from the Clovis News Journal for the next 36 hours or so. We had the telescope with us in the trunk of the car. We went out to several remote areas at the edge of town, and my friend described what he had seen the night before. We set up the scope, and binoculars, and looked at the sky. There were several moments when we thought we saw movement in the star field, but couldn’t be sure. Sometime after midnight, we decided to doze at the News Journal office, on a couple beat up old couches they had there, and listen to the police scanner.

After a short while, we heard a call go out for a “public service” to the “burn spot” behind the Colonial Park church, at the northwest edge of town. “Public service” meant fire, police, and emergency medical services were all to respond. We scurried out to the car, piled in and beat everyone but the state police to the site. When we arrived, a State Policeman told us that a couple had been “parking” (we knew the young couple from high school) behind the church when they saw a craft with green lights land in the field beside the church. It stayed a few moments, then blasted off into the sky. When it took off, it started the field on fire. When we got there, the fire was not burning. We could smell the burnt grass, so we crossed a barbed wire fence to get to the burned spot with flashlights in our hands.

The burned area was very strange. The prevalent winds here are from the west, and I remember that the burn spot ran north and south, about 100 yards long and 30 yards wide, contrary to the wind. There was a strange pattern at the edge of the burn also. The grass inside the burned area was burnt to the ground, then at the edge, the short grass wasn’t touched, and the taller grass farther out was singed only at the tops. Some of the grass fifteen feet from the edge of the burn was singed on the top, with untouched grass in between. So it seemed that a giant flame had played over the field, completely unlike a natural grass fire, which has a clear line delineating the edge. This peculiar pattern was all around the edge of the burned spot.

In the middle of the burn, we found a weird clue. There was a square of grass, about 18 inches, perfectly square, and the grass had been pressed down hard into the dirt. Around the square the grass was completely burned away, but the grass flattened in the square was untouched, but for being pressed down. It seemed as if something very, very heavy was sitting there, and left a footprint in the grass. We spread out, looking for other similar “footprints,” but there were none, only the one, singular square.

As we were in the field, walking around the burned spot, a four-door sedan pulled up to the edge of the field where the firefighters and local police were waiting. The sedan had four men inside, all of them wore suits. The state police waved us over. The men were pretty much nondescript, clean shaven, average looking, short haircuts, but not quite military. They started asking us questions. One of them opened the trunk of the car and it was filled with electronic equipment. He took a device out of the trunk and closed the trunk. We told them about the square footprint, and they wanted to see it. We all walked to the field, and showed them the spot. With the flashlights playing on the spot, one of the men took his shoe and rubbed the spot out, obliterating it. I remember his words to this day. “That’s nothing."

We were instantly angry. I marched off away from the group and more towards the edge of the burn, where we hadn’t looked around. I was fuming, shining the light around hoping to get another clue. I found one.

It was a piece of constructed metal, about two feet long. When I picked it up, I noticed that it was very light, yet strong, like titanium. On one end was a tube, about two inches in diameter, and attached to the side of the tube and running along its length was a small flat bar. The bar was about twice as long as the tube, and on the end of the bar was attached a fin. The fin was about 8" wide, and very flat and thin.

I yelled to my friends, but before they could get there, one of the suits ran up and snatched it from me. He hauled it away so fast that my friends only got a glimpse of it. The suits then told us to leave the area. We stomped off, and hung around by our car. What the suits didn’t know is that the young reporter, who had his camera around his neck the whole time, had taken a photograph of the square footprint. That photo is still somewhere out there.

The police, firefighters, and ambulance were all leaving, as there were no casualties and no fire. The police announced they were all going to Denny’s, a local restaurant, for coffee. The suits asked if one of us young people would ride with them, and since I was the youngest, I was “elected."

I sat between two of the suits in the back seat. They interrogated me while we were driving, asking all kinds of personal questions, about me, what I did with my time, what movies I liked, my hobbies. Even at a young age, I knew they were fishing. I was polite, and was very happy to get out of their car. We all sat at different tables at the restaurant, and didn’t talk much, as the suits were listening.

When we left, everyone (including the suits) went to the old empty Hotel Clovis, and I hauled my big telescope up to the roof. The suits had binoculars and several small, box-like instruments they were peering through. I remember how strange it was, them letting us youngsters even go up there. We watched the sky, waited, and watched some more.

I was getting dreary eyed when one of my friends noticed some strange movement in the star field. It was as if a star would just zip across the sky to another location where it would just stay. We’d watch it a while, and it would zip again, with excited shouts going up, “Did you see that?” “Did you see?” The suits would always deny seeing anything.

This watching went on for several hours, but no stunning play of lights or colors appeared. We all went to our homes and slept until the next night.

The next day, we read in the paper that the burn had been made by fireworks. In January. I knew it was a cover-up, as the burn pattern couldn’t have possibly been made by fireworks. They also said that what was seen in the sky was Saturn. There was no mention of the footprint, or the strange piece of metal.

Brian, there is more to the story, but I’ll have to get to that later, if you’re interested. Just let me know.

I would like to extend my many thanks to the person for this wonderful report which adds a lot more information to what took place in 1976. Also there will be more to come.

File your UFO sighting to Brian at: brian_vike@telus.net or please use the online Sighting Report Form.

Brian Vike, Director Kamloops British Columbia Canada UFO Research. Email: brian_vike@telus.net

The Vike Factor Blog.

Kamloops British Columbia Canada UFO Research.

Triangular Formation Of Bright Oval Shaped Lights Clovis California

Brian Vike's Favorite Cases.

Date:  February 1995

Time:  Approximately 10:30 p.m.

Location of Sighting: Along CA Hwy 168, 20 miles E of Clovis, CA.

Number of witnesses: 1
Number of objects: 6
Shape of objects: Oval-shaped lights, very white.

Full Description of event/sighting: Hello, Brian. I reported a UFO sighting to you some time ago about a sighting on 6 Sep 1982 in Auberry, CA. Since then I have had another UFO sighting.

It was in Feb of 1995, but I can't remember the exact date (unusual for a history major). I was returning home from a Wednesday night class (grad school) at CSU Fresno, and had pulled over on Highway 168 to let a couple of cars go by. I checked to see if there was no traffic, and then just looked up, and saw a formation of lights.

Each was oval-shaped, and very white. The best analogy I can give is the brightest white lights at a baseball or football stadium, but these were brighter. There were six of them in a triangular formation.

One at the apex, then two right behind, and then three at the base. I turned off the car to see if there was no sound, and there was none. I didn't remove the key so the lights and clock would still work and noted the time-10:30 p.m. (PST). The formation was several hundred feet above, and each light was about the size of a dime held at arm's length.

The formation was flying in a N to S direction, and the whole sighting took about 2 minutes. I noted the time when I restarted the car as 10:32. When I got home at 10:55, I asked my grandmother (now deceased) if she'd heard any unusual scanner traffic on either the Fresno County Sheriff or California Highway Patrol channels, and she said no. And there was nothing on any of the Fresno TV stations' 11 PM newscasts that I can recall.

I don't know what these were, but they were not F-16s from Fresno ANG Base, or F/A-18s from NAS Lemoore, nor any kind of commercial aircraft. Weather was clear and cool (about 45 or 50 F)

There was no interference with the car's engine or lights before I turned the ignition off, and it started up again normally. If you need more info, feel free to contact me at the above e-mail address, and I will get back to you.

Thank you to the witness for their report.

File your UFO sighting to Brian at: brian_vike@telus.net or please use the online Sighting Report Form.  

Brian Vike, Director Kamloops British Columbia Canada UFO Research. Email: brian_vike@telus.net

The Vike Factor Blog.

Kamloops British Columbia Canada UFO Research.

Ex Air Force Serviceman Talks About What He Knew About The Clovis New Mexico UFO

Brian Vike's Favorite Cases.

Date:  January 1976

My next door neighbor and I also had some involvement with the Clovis UFO. I also knew Steve Muscato, the photographer who took the original picture for the local newspaper. His photo is of the stationary object that hung directly over Clovis for several days. I believe it occurred over quite a few days. 

There was one stationary light, in addition to other moving objects that many people saw. Plus, there was a photo in the paper of a mystery object found in a field. At the time, I was 14 years old. 

My next door neighbor Bob was an Air Force electronics technician who was an amateur ham radio operator and amateur astronomer. He and I spent a night on the top floor of the Hotel Clovis observing the UFO hanging in the sky. He used some sort of equipment to determine how high in the sky the stationary object was. 

He excitedly reported that in his judgment the object was approximately 300 miles above the Earth. I also took some photos, but I no longer have them. Bob was told to shut up by the base and quit "exciting the locals with wild stories."  Bob didn't tell me about this, but his wife later related the story of the phone call he got from his boss, to my mother. 

I also heard stories of guys coming from "Project Blue Book" to investigate, but my Dad, an Air Force master sergeant, said that was ridiculous because Project Blue Book didn't exist. As an adult, I served a number of years in the Air Force and my job put me in contact with virtually every plane in the U.S. and NATO inventory. Some have claimed that the UFOs were British harrier jets. Absolutely not so. 

I grew up around jets my whole life and could identify them even as a child. Neither were they weather balloons. I would have to research, but I'm not sure the harriers were even operational at that time. In all reality, one has to try very hard in order to mistake a jet fighter for anything else. The whole thing was very interesting, and ended as mysteriously as it started. 

There was no real closure. But if you recall, Clovis was part of a rather massive UFO "scare" that occurred for a few years  nationwide, beginning with the incident at Pasagoula, Miss, I think a couple of years earlier.  It was a busy time for UFO activity.

You can contact me at (private contact information removed) if you like.

Thank you to Jonathan for his report, and also thank you to this gentleman for taking the time to have a long telephone conversation over this event and other things.

Brian Vike, Director Kamloops British Columbia Canada UFO Research. Email: brian_vike@telus.net

The Vike Factor Blog.

Kamloops British Columbia Canada UFO Research.