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That's when she saw the strange lights in the sky. In all directions.
By the time the UFO show was over, Rinaldi and her son, Dalton Mosher, had seen weird, inexplicable sights.
"I saw four of them in a row, and I went, 'wow,'" Rinaldi recalled. "The lights were reddish-orange. I called Dalton out. We looked left and saw two more. And then we saw them going through the trees. That's how low they were."
The family's experience was one of at least four reported Wednesday -- all at about the same time and in the same general area -- to the Somerset County Communications Center.
There might be an explanation in the form of the Vermont Air National Guard.
Marie Endsley, Vermont Air Guard spokeswoman, said a unit did practice maneuvers in Maine on Wednesday night with three F-16 jet fighter planes. The training mission could explain the lights that several residents reported seeing fairly close to the ground.
"We were conducting our normal training missions and were flying through there," Endsley said. "They were for a short period of time."
Endsley said F-16s now fly lower than 7,000 feet. Flares, she said, might look reddish-orange, but would disintegrate well before hitting the ground.
Tom Hawley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gray, said there were no weather-related conditions Wednesday night that could have caused such sightings.
Other calls came from Skowhegan Road in Fairfield, Main Street in Norridgewock and Norridgewock Avenue in Skowhegan. The Fairfield caller reported seeing "strange lights in the sky heading south," while the Skowhegan caller reported seeing yellow lights in the sky over Skowhegan.
Somerset County Sheriff's Deputy Richie Putnam took the calls from Anson and Norridgewock. Putnam said neither the Federal Aviation Administration nor the Brunswick Naval Air Station reported any flights in the area.
"(People) were seeing streaks of white light, and it wasn't anything that they recognized," Putnam said.
Rinaldi, who moved from Arizona to Anson only three weeks ago, tried in vain to photograph her close encounter with her 35 mm camera, but it jammed.
"It worked for me inside the house, for the birthday party," she said. "It shut itself off outside. It would not take a picture."
Rinaldi also said she saw one UFO that streaked sideways over the sky, like a comet.
When she went inside to check the camera, she heard her son hollering.
"Mom, Mom, there's more!" Dalton Mosher yelled.
By that time, Mosher recalled, he was getting a little scared -- especially when he saw lights moving through the trees.
"There were a bunch more," he said. "One just shot across. It looked like it had a tail on it. I was just scared. I didn't know what to think of it."
Gehri Rinaldi said she doesn't spook easily.
"The part that startled me the most was when I went back out 30 or 40 minutes later to have a cigarette, and all the dogs were howling," she said.
UFO sightings were reported a week ago in the Farmington area. Lt. Niles Yeaton of the Franklin County Sheriff's Department said he thought they were flares from military planes in training. People in the area have heard low-flying jets at night, Yeaton added.
Somerset County Sheriff Barry A. DeLong said he doesn't dismiss stories of UFOs, because he has seen one.
It happened back in the 1970s, when he was on patrol one night in Bingham.
"I didn't want to talk about it," DeLong said. "I didn't want people to think I was crazy."
DeLong said the lights he saw were not far from the ground.
"They were hovering about 15 feet from my cruiser, late at night," the sheriff said.
"It had fixed lights that were spinning. It was huge, and oval-shaped. I knew it wasn't a jet fighter. It slowly started backing off toward Sugarloaf, and then at a terrific speed."
Larry Grard -- 474-9534, Ext. 343
lgrard@centralmaine.com
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If you remember correcty, as it was in print as well, that last year we (Somerset County)also experienced "unexplained loud booms" and "tremors" that also received similar comments and events from all over the United States from the West Coast to the South and as far way as Germany and England. No one could explain those either, except many tried.report abuse
They just appeared, period. And went away for moments at a time. Then reappeared further away, with no flare to indicate that it was a military flare being tested or whatever.
Another person has commented to me that this type of military practice maneuver is fairly common near the Canadian border...hence, the low levels as it's a mountainous area...but...the low level I observed was below the level of the hill we climb when driving towards Canaan proper. This has me stymied. Our 'hill' is quite high and part of our property...with a view to the west once we are up there. These lights were definitely below that level, but not on our property...they were across the road over a field.
I do not believe these were flares now...even though I did mention earlier that I felt it might be an acceptable explanation...But, upon thinking about this occurance, I am sure that it was not a flare at all...after all, flares flare, don't they? No light bursts occurred.
The lights were not so bright as to bother the eye...just very obviously out of place and visible, very visible. No pulsing, just appearing in varied numbers, always in a line. I observed them for over a half hour both on and off the road.report abuse
If the national guard has a training session, what are they training to do? Are they preparing to Start an all out nuclear War?
We are all the "Living Dead," we have been consigned to be turned into nuclear waste by our nuclear armed enemy Fiend elite class.
We only exist due to the intervention into our world by the ET.
Our nuclear war fighting enemy Fiend elite have comfortable shelters in the underground where they have been planning to sit it all out while they burn us all up. It is so obvious.
The good news is, ET is still planning on preventing a full blown nuclear war from happening.
Lt. Felix Moncla was arrested on November 23, 1953 by the Extraterrestrial forces, over Lake superior.
He has been sitting in cold storage in a state of suspended animation, awaiting his return to earth.
His F-89 jet fighter was found at the bottom of lake superior in 2005. It is still intact with the canopy in place.
The ET may be planning to send him back during the recovery of his plane, as a way to awaken humanity to what the game plan really is. The plan still is to immolate humanity with the use of nuclear weapons.
That has been the plan since April of 1947, when the decision was made to go ahead with a full scale nuclear build up, with the intent to genocide humanity.
We are now in the 3rd generation of our nuclear armed enemy fiend elite, these are the grandchildren of the original fiends of 1947, and these grandchildren are still trying to exterminate us all. This is why the intervention by the ET is still classified several points above top secret.
Former F.B.I. Director J.Edgar Hoover said: "An individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a conspiracy so Monstrous, that he can not believe it exists."
Believe it folks; our nuclear armed enemy fiend elite have already pulled the nuclear trigger on us several times over the years since 1947
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It was the oddest thing I've seen in quite some time. It hung there, and then when it was clear that it was moving, it just... "took off" at a very high rate of speed and ... disappeared off into the distance. Didn't die out, just... stopped emitting light, or whatever, I couldn't tell. I just know that I suddenly couldn't see it any more.
I live in an area that sees a lot of military plane action overhead, so I have a feeling people may poo-poo the notion that it was anything more than a jet or a P3 or something, but I'm certain that this was something ... "different". It was definitely "unusual" and not a plane, unless a plane can hang in the sky for some time... same goes with a helicopter. We were in our vehicle without the radio on, and when I noticed the light phenomena I rolled down my window. I heard nothing unusual.
I didn't realize how unusual I would consider this event until it was all over with. It's just odd that I see this article! I've been thinking about it since last week!
Interesting.
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Oh well. I've seen them in Newport, too, when I worked at the portrait studio in WalMart.report abuse
One of these was by a deputy sheriff on his way back to Anson from a Farmington movie theatre on route 43 I believe.
It was a similar story with a glaring, bright light that hovered over the highway, causing him to stop.
Several other stories existed at the same time, one in Norridgewock, that was investigated by researchers from Boston, that involved an incident on US route 2, where a young woman crashed her car, driving straight off the highway, plowing into the woods. The ironic part of the story was that even tho it was at night, the woman was found with sunglasses on. The assumption at the time ws that there was a bright, blinding light glowing over the highway that prompted the use of the sunglasses.
Another story involved a sighting along the highway, route 4 in Rangeley, by an RFD mail carrier.
Who are we too suggest that there are not others in the universe?
In those early 80s, I held a late night vigil broadcast with my radio michrophone, and about 40 locals from the western Maine area in Starks near where the sighting had occured. We saw nothing.
But, on the lighter side, Steve Bull of Farmington,wrote a very entertaining song called, "The UFOs Of Farmington" by Steve and The Bullettes, that continues to get local airplay on special occasions. Now might be the right time to dust off the record jacket!
Larry Bisbee
Former WKTJ radio broadcaster/news directorreport abuse
Ok...flares...explains why one would disappear right before my eyes, leaving two...also soon gone. Only to 'reappear' a few miles down the road, right out of nowhere.
BUT...here's the catch...if this is going to be a regular military exercise...the public needs to know...or this is going to cause a serious accident some day...and that would be a tragedy, just for a little practice at 'flare delivery...'
Those skies are ours, too. Strange things in them are going to gain attention...how about some common sense here? And a little public education?
And, yes...the lights were off in the direction of Skowhegan, as birds fly! But the 'flares' were very, very low. Below tree level, as the eye gazes...and large...very large. report abuse
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