Mystery UFO: Citizens stand by story of unidentified flying object
by Charlie Goodyear

FAIRFIELD, CA -- Some people just have to believe.

Following reports in January of an unidentified flying object, officials at Travis Air Force Base declared it a case of mistaken identity, saying the object was actually a blimp advertising tax services. (That sounds logical...?!)

But not everyone is convinced.

All of the people contacted for this article were adamant that what they saw on two January nights was definitely not a blimp, and not easily explained.

"I'm not a believer in UFOs. I never had been. But what I saw made me think twice," said one Fairfield woman who swears she and her two teenage daughters experienced a close encounter.

"I was driving home from Benicia on Jan. 20 around 7:30 p.m. after dropping off a friend, and as I headed east on Interstate 680 I noticed something all lit up," she said. "I took the Rio Vista turnoff and noticed it again near the Budweiser plant. At that point I got a little freaked out."

Driving home through Suisun City, she saw the object again near Railroad Avenue and Sunset Boulevard. And when she pulled into the driveway of her home off Travis Street, the object, brilliantly let, was floating above the neighborhood.

"At this point I'm talking to myself. I said 'This is something the girls need to see' and I went inside to get my daughters," she said.

The woman's two daughters, 15 and 17, were inside the home. The 15-year-old had thought she heard a shot around the time her mother pulled into the driveway. The teen called 911.

"I had heard a boom and thought it was a gunshot. But my sister had her earphones on and thought it was something else. When my mother came in, I went outside with her and there it was with two bright lights, like headlights on a car," she said.

Mother and daughter followed the object back over to a clearing near Railroad Avenue.

It didn't make a sound. We rolled down the windows and we didn't hear anything like a plane or a helicopter. And it moved too swiftly for it to be a blimp," the younger daughter said.

When the two returned to the house, the 17-year-old daughter noticed the object following them back.

"I screamed. It looked like it was coming right at us. It was so low and it turned sharply. It was really scary to me," she said.

Two 19-year-old ROTC students had a similar encounter just a few days earlier on Jan. 16.

"We were coming back from Lucky's on East Wigeon Way and we spotted it out near Lawler Ranch and Grizzly Island. We both got a little scared. It seemed like it was following us.

"What convinced me it wasn't a blimp is that it moved too agile, too swiftly," one student said.

The teens were significantly impressed and made a drawing of the object and told their ROTC instructor, Col. Daryl Nelson.

Nelson, however, was skeptical and remains so. (Surprise!) "I wouldn't put any credence in what they're saying," he said. "I'm sure they believe what they're saying. But kids at this age get excited by these sort of things. And there was no physical evidence to support their claim."

Still all of the observers insist they know what they saw.

"I'm going to keep a camera in my car and keep an eye out when I pass by Grizzly Island, especially at night," the woman added.

(I know someone else who was followed home by a brightly lit UFO a year earlier. She was extremely frightened. I have also seen several UFOs in this area, one of which I described earlier in an interview entitled "Travis AFB UFO Sighting. The UFOs definitely exist and they are not blimps! More likely, IMO, at least some of the UFOs were built for the Air Force and are being stored and tested near Travis AFB. Perhaps others UFOs are observing these new anti-gravity craft piloted by humans. The fact that the UFOs are not particularly stealthy suggests to me that the government is preparing us for the existence of this exciting, revolutionary technology! -- David)