SUBJECT: HOW FYFFE SIGHTINGS HAVE AFFECTED PEOPLE FILE: UFO1278
NEWS CLIPPING SERVICE
DATE OF ARTICLE: March 16, 1989
SOURCE OF ARTICLE: Weekly Post
LOCATION: Rainsville, Alabama
BYLINE: Susan Stockman
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THIS FILE WAS PROVIDED BY THE UFO NEWSCLIPPING SERVICE
AND PREPARED BY PARANET ALPHA -- PARANET INFORMATION
SERVICE
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HOW THE UFO SIGHTINGS HAVE AFFECTED SOME PEOPLE
A FIRST HAND GLIMPSE OF THE UFO
By Susan Stockman
RAINSVILLE-Up until this past week, I had only a reporters'
interest in the UFO sightings which have taken place in and
around Fyffe.
I reported the stories and events, took pictures and talked
with people who had actually spotted the object. I made phone
calls to various military bases, talked to the world's leading
skeptic on the UFO phenomenon and interviewed a person who
believed he had actually had an encounter with an alien
spaceship, not this time around, but previously.
All this was done strictly as part of my job as a reporter
for the Weekly Post. I had no personal interest. I believed the
people who had sighted objects were actually seeing something, I
just didn't know what.
My business interest suddenly changed to a more personal
nature Wednesday night, March 8, when I saw the object that has
received so much attention. As a bad as they were, I made some
pictures.
As I got a small taste of what others had been getting a
large dose of, my curiosity of the object grew.
That next night Teri Baker, co-owner and general manager of
the Weekly Post, and I decided to go back to Fyffe in hopes of
getting better pictures. That was, if the object decided to
reappear.
We were fortunate enough, and I use the word fortunate
literally, to see the object again. Teri made a series of
pictures of the movement of the object, and, just for reference,
made a picture of an airplane using the same photographic
techniques. That set of pictures appear in today's edition of
the Weekly Post.
We still do not know what the object is but we do know that
it doesn't move like any airplane we, or anyone else we have
talked to, knows about.
Teri's pictures were made with a Canon 35mm camera, shot
with the shutter wide open and a two-minute exposure time to
allow enough lights in for the horizon to be visible.
The pictures show the object moving slightly in that two
minute time span. They also show the airplane to have moved
about 10 times as far. One thing I need to mention is the fact
that there was only a silver of a moon out that night. The
pictures show what seems to be a full moon, but that is only the
result of the time-lapse photography.
When word of the photographs spread, the media descended on
us like people trailing into Fyffe on a Friday night. We were
literally besieged by television stations, radio stations and
newspapers from all across the country. We didn't tell a soul
that we had made the pictures. We still don't know how they
found out. They were calling Teri at 7:30 the next morning,
wanting interviews or copies of the pictures.
After a full week of doing interviews with those news crews,
both local and national, and talking to what seemed like a half
million interested individuals, both in person and on the phone,
I wondered what was the reaction of the other people who had
sighted the object.
I talked to as many of them as I could round up Monday and
Tuesday. Most said the same thing. That they were constantly
dealing with reporters looking for a story, just like I was in
the beginning.
Although many residents have reported sightings, the ones
who have received the most attention are Donna Saylor, Kathy
Green, Jill Worley, her sister Rhonda Gipson, Fyffe Police Chief
Junior Garmany and assistant chief Fred Works.
I tried to call each of them to see what effect this event
has had on their day-to-day lives.
Saylor said, "There are a lot of interruptions in my day by
the press. I have had calls from as far away as England. I
really don't mind talking to the people, but when the people from
'Inside Edition' aired the program like they did, I was really
put out, I gave those people four hours of my time and it was
wasted. After the show aired, I decided not to do any more
interviews."
Saylor said the only thing she regretted was using the
description "it was curved like a banana." She said if she had
it to do over again, she would have used another description of
the object.
Kathy Green said the only change in her day-to-day routine
was that people were always asking her what it is like and how
she felt when she saw the UFO.
"I really don't find it a bother to talk to these people.
It's exciting. Life really hasn't changed much around here
except that I am now more aware of what's up in the sky," Green
said.
Fyffe assistant police chief Fred Works indicated that the
"only way it has affected my life is my job. I have to talk to a
lot more people now than I did before."
Fyffe Police Chief Junior Garmany said, "Basically, it goes
with this line of work. We are always dealing with the media.
But, this has been slightly out of the normal. We're just
sitting back and waiting for things to get back to normal."
I could not reach Jill Worley or her sister Rhonda Gipson.
As for Teri and myself, it is getting a little easier to go
about our day-to-day activities. Friday, we could not even work
for having to answer the telephone or talk to news crews.
It has been a learning experience for me. Being a
reporter, I am accustomed to asking the questions and doing the
interviewing. It has been difficult to be the one interviewed.
All the people I talked to who reported the sightings agree
on one thing. that given the same set of circumstances, we would
have spoken out about what we saw.
The people have the right to know what is going on in the
sky above. Now, if we just knew.
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