SUBJECT: WYTHEVILLE, VA UFO SIGHTINGS                        FILE: UFO1203

PART 2


#: 2 S0/EasyPlex
    23-Oct-87 16:12 MST
Sb: APva 10/23 1653  UFO Sightings
Fm: Executive News Svc. [72135,424]

By DIRK BEVERIDGE Associated Press Writer 
   WYTHEVILLE, Va. (AP) -- Five people who claim to have seen UFOs said Friday
a secret military operation has stirred up the recent flying saucer craze in
Wythe County, but they offered no evidence to back the assertion. 
   "It appears we are dealing with something of a military nature," said news
director Danny Gordon of radio station WYVE. He and four other people talked
about sightings they said they made Thursday night. 
   "A lot of people are scared," Gordon told reporters. "Will the military
please tell us where they are?" 
   Spokesmen for various branches of the military have denied knowledge of
operations that would have prompted the series of flying saucer reports that
began in September. 
   One of the members of the panel assembled by Gordon, New York photographer
John Stember, said he took a videotape and still photographs Thursday night of
a dome-shaped object flying in tandem with a smaller, roundish object. 
   "I saw this large, sort of orange glow," Stember said. "The first seemed to
be a large domed shape, with an ambient light behind it." 
   He said his still pictures were being processed, but the pictures would be
available to reporters. But when approached after the news conference, Stember
said he had removed his film from the area to protect it. 
   Another member of the panel, Andrew Convery, a systems analyst with the
Virginia Beach-based Navy software contractor Computer Dynamics Inc., said he
believed there had been some kind of crash in the area. He refused to elaborate
and refused to say why he would not elaborate. 
   "We have very substantial reasons, we just can't produce any proof," Convery
said. 
   Convery said he had come to Wytheville on his own time because he for years
has followed UFO stories. He said he thinks the military is operating the
mysterious flights because other military craft operate routinely in the area. 
   Convery said he does not think the military would fly its jets at low
altitudes in the area of flying objects it could not identify. 
   "They fly aircraft over the top while these things are flying down below,"
Convery said. 
   Gordon said some of the UFOs have swooped down and harassed motorists in the
county, at times chasing them down the road with spotlights on them or even
running some people off the road. 
   "Imagine you're a bored fighter jock," Convery said. "To relieve the tedium
you chase a local around." 
   
   
Copyright 1987 by the Associated Press.  All rights reserved. 

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