Are UFOs in our midst?

By Denise Dick

Triangular-shaped craft are reported in counties throughout eastern Ohio.

BOARDMAN — Residents for the past few months have reported seeing strange lights brighten the township sky.

There’s been no explanation to date.

Cue creepy organ music here.

Jason Loree was taking his trash out one evening last summer when he saw a collection of orange lights in the sky above his township home.

“They were in a diagonal pattern,” Loree said.

There was no sound.

“I went in and got my wife and she saw them, and I called my mom, and she saw them too,” Loree said.

The display lasted only a few minutes before disappearing.

“I’ve seen a lot of different aircraft — I’m not an expert — but I’ve never seen anything like it,” Loree said.

The lights seemed to be rising from the horizon, said Loree, who is the township’s administrator.

It’s not something he’ll soon forget.

Is it an X-File? Are little green men in our midst? Paging agents Scully and Mulder.

Loree isn’t the only one who’s seen the strange lights.

A poster to The Vindicator’s message board on Vindy.com recounted a similar sighting Dec. 4.

“I was coming down Mathews Road, I turned right onto Sheridan, and I saw nine to 12 lighted craft kinda in formation from the ground to the sky,” the poster wrote. “The lowest at about 700 feet and the highest at around 2,500. They all followed the same flight path to the same location in the sky, and they all disappeared one by one.”

Master Sgt. Bob Barko Jr., superintendent of public affairs at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station, said the base conducts night time flying operations toward the Boardman area. But those involve C-130s.

“They have a pretty distinctive look,” Barko said.

When those aircraft fly at night, they bear white running lights along the fuselage with red and green lights on the wing tips, he said.

Others have reported their sightings to the Mutual UFO Network database.

MUFON, an organization with chapters throughout the country, lists its mission as “the scientific study of UFOs for the benefit of humanity.”

On Aug. 3, another person reported seeing something peculiar in the sky the night before.

“Yeah, I know it sounds ridiculous, but around 9:55 p.m., my cousin and I were driving eastbound on Route 224 and witnessed three very bright orange glowing objects in the sky, flying in a ‘V’ formation, heading west southwest,” one person wrote.

The objects then seemed to “dissipate” into the night air, according to the account.

“We had no idea what they could’ve been,” the MUFON submission said. “Five minutes later, another barrage of three appeared and were heading in the same direction and also disappeared in the same spot as the first three.”

And we are not alone — in terms of sightings, that is. The existence of life on other planets remains a subject for debate.

Between August and December 2009 MUFON had approximately 25 sightings submitted from counties in eastern Ohio.

“Triangular shape crafts are witnessed in counties throughout Ohio,” Paul Althouse, MUFON webmaster wrote in an email.

Triangular-shaped crafts were sighted in Stark and Cuyahoga counties last November and December, MUFON found.

UFO NETWORK

How to join

Membership to Mutual UFO Network Ohio is open to all MUFON Inc. members. Membership is also open to a limited number of members who do not belong to MUFON Inc. (not to exceed 35 percent of the total membership). Annual dues are $20.

To join, send the following information along with a check or money order (no cash please) to cover the annual dues.

Name, address, city, state,ZIP code, phone, e-mail address.

Also indicate if you are currently a MUFON Inc. member.

Mail this information and your dues to:

MUFON of Ohio

715 Drummond Court

Columbus, Ohio 443214

Upon receipt and processing, you will receive acknowledgement of membership, a current newsletter, and other updates and announcements of group activities. The e-mail address is mufonohio@columbus.rr.com