UFO Stories Shared at Gathering in Exeter

By Dean Merchant, March 1, 2009

features@seacoastoline.com

 

The Loaf and Ladle’s riverside dining room overlooks the laconic Exeter River that transverses some of the hottest UFO real estate in New Hampshire.

 

On Feb. 6, UFO aficionados gathered at “The Loaf” to share their experiences.  They listened as two of the state’s premiere investigators and meticulous researchers, Sue s. and Kathy B., proclaimed 2008 to be a banner year for UFO sightings within our borders.

 

The women maintain a Web site, www.nhufo.org.  They do not reveal their last names, which only adds to the mystery and aura that surrounds the subject.  While police and government officials are often hesitant to go public about UFO sightings fearing later professional recriminations and credibility issues, some investigators are concerned about the “pestering” that might cross from their public role into private life.

 

Responding to questions at the informal meeting, Kathy at times referred to her thick journal of N.H. UFO documentation and gave detailed answers regarding particular sightings.  The book’s pages are filled with hand-drawn diagrams and sketches of crafts and information gleaned by interviewing primary observers.  The seemingly out-of-this-world volume is reminiscent of something from the “X-Files.”

 

Sue is the more pragmatic of the duo, saying she is comfortable speaking to groups of 300-400.  Many of her own UFO sightings have been out in deep space as she peered through the lens of her telescope.  She is the Website “techie.”

 

Both women agree that to see a UFO, one must be “looking upward” and getting in “plenty of sky time.”  Late-night excursions are not necessary, say the ufologists; they suggest between 8 and 10:30 p.m. as the most productive time.

 

Along with Kathy and Sue was an eclectic and enthusiastic group, sharing personal UFO stories.  Host Andy Ulery tended bar and smiled knowingly when some UFO sightings “newbies” told of their recent electrifying close-up encounter with a craft in a wooded hollow behind their home – an event that turned skeptics into believers in an instant.

 

Ulery is an old hand at UFO adventures, but to the Windham couple telling their story, the breathtaking excitement of this first-time encounter had not yet diminished.

 

Some individuals also shared their stories outside the meeting.  Theresa Rynn told of her exciting encounter 30 years ago while in the company of her sister-in-law in the Pickpocket Woods area near the Exeter town line.

 

“My sister-in-law and I used to go to the Pickpocket Road many years ago and we saw a UFO up close and personal,” she says.  She recalls that it was April or May, about 9 p.m. on a Saturday or Sunday night.  “It was searching the field to the left of us to begin with across the road,” she says.  “It was 20 to 30 feet off the ground, absolutely soundless, not even a hum coming from it.  It had a huge spotlight that was the only thing showing.  It seemed to be searching for something for about five or 10 minutes.  Then the spotlight went out.  A minute later when it appeared over the telephone pole to the right of our car, it was about 20 feet away, if that.  My sister-in-law and I almost had heart failure.”

 

Rynn says they could see the side of the craft but not the shape, which was big and dark; the lights were so intense and blinding and so awesome it was hard to see past them.  We were looking straight up so the most visible thing was the lights that got our attention,” she says.

 

“Not only that, but we were in a state of shock.  The lights seemed to follow a pattern...red and white and green, I think, going in a counter-clockwise direction around the bottom of the craft...It was a terrifying and exciting experience and it is something I will never forget, that’s for sure,” says Rynn.

 

James (not his real name) also shared a story, but because of his top security clearance, asked for anonymity.  James told of contacting Betty Hill at her Portsmouth home during the late 1970s.  He arranged to join her on a nighttime UFO quest in the Exeter/Kensington area.

 

“We were not disappointed,” writes James.  “As I stood next to Betty we saw at least two in the air and one parked on a straight run of railroad track...One of the most singular things I do remember was there was absolutely no sound at all.  I listened intently for engine or prop signatures but there was nothing and we were only at best guesstimate 100 yards if that away.  Also, there were graceful aspect changes, not herky/jerky characteristics.”

 

The sightings took place near the Exeter/Kensington town line.

 

Present at the Exeter gathering was Carol Adams of Dover.  Later this spring she hopes to discuss her personal questions about alien abduction with Seacoast alien abduction researcher Kathleen Marden.  Adams has unexplained childhood memories for which she seeks answers.

 

“As a child my parents kept a Sea Ray boat at the Moultonboro Marina on Lake Winnipesaukee,” says Adams.  She recalls her parents discovering her in the middle of the night, walking “the plank,” a narrow, railed area around the boat’s bow.  “I would wake up with no recall as to how I got there,” she says.

 

But Adams vividly recalls “the dream.”  She tells of being “in the sky, in some kind of craft...I was seated on a chair in a room - a window above my head, beyond reach, on the left wall.  I was small, maybe 7.  I could see the stars in the night out the window.  I felt so lonely – not scared – but far, far away from home.  I had never been in a plane before, so I must have been there.”

 

Adams also still visualizes a later-in-life unexplained occurrence.  “It was late at night.  I was lifted off my bed screaming and woke up in the morning with a pin-sized drop of blood on my pillow and a bead inside my nose,” she says.

 

Sharing a table at the Loaf were four school teachers, a merry crew, especially considering they had arrived in Exeter at 5:30, thinking the 8 o’clock event began at six.  They’d made good use of their time and had already dined and taken a UFO safari tour around the area (becoming briefly lost).  One of the groups, a teacher named Lynn, well remember the night of the “Incident At Exeter,” because as a child she, her siblings and her mother saw the UFO that same night out their back window.  They were all huddled together upon a bed, excited and with questioning eyes.  Later, when they were living in California, author John Fuller visited and interviewed them about their sighting.

 

A sign-up sheet was put out for anyone interested in an Exeter “UFO Incident” day on Sept. 5, this year.  The initial response was positive.  Does an “Incident” day sound good to you? 

E-mail Dean Merchant at:  features@seacoastonline.com.

 

FAITH

for David

No one’s gonna believe him.

No one ever does.

They’ll ask him cookbook questions

like ‘Do you have a pet dog?

Was it outside?

Was your wife at home?  Did she see it?

Did you have the radio on?

Can you give us a detailed description?

Did it make a sound?

No one’s gonna believe him.

They’ll gather up the information,

say ‘Thanks very much.  Be sure to phone us

if you see it again’.

Then they’ll hustle back to their headquarters

and file a report...

Newspapers will call him.

They’ll ask him the same questions,

and he’ll give ‘em the same answers.

No one’s gonna believe him.

He doesn’t want others to know him

by his last name,

so he only gives his first.

Says it was moving quite slow

for a ship that size.

With all its tonnage, he wonders

why it didn’t drop from the sky.

And yes,

it was silver in color

with an aura of red-orange, and yes,

it stretched to twice its size,

then it vanished into thin air.

And no one’s gonna believe him.

No one ever does.

 

Bob Moore, East Kingston,

Inspired by “Davids” UFO experience, reported in the Exeter News-Letter in 2005

 

Note from nhufo.org:  “Davids” UFO sighting happened July 20, 2005 It can be found in the Archives and also a newspaper article under Research - UFO Sighting in Exeter - Again