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
Kamloops British Columbia Canada UFO Research.
