Arizona Mothership

SearchNet’s IUFO reports on an article in USA Today, June 20, 1997, by Richard Price

PHOENIX, Ariz.

Something happened in-the skies over Arizona the night of March 13. No one is sure what it was but thousands saw it dozens videotaped it and people all over the state are haunted by it still.

"I'll never be the same," Bill Greiner, 51, a cement truck driver, says. He was hauling a load down a mountain north of Phoenix when he saw two brilliantly lit orbs, shaped like spinning tops. "Before this, if anybody'd told me they saw a UFO, I would've said, 'Yeah, and I believe in the tooth fairy.'

"Now I've got a whole new view. I may be just a dumb truck driver, but I've seen something that don't belong here."

So what did Greiner and every- body else see? That question has rat- tied around this state for three months. Officials at Luke Air Force Base in nearby Glendale are bombarded with calls for an investigation, even though the US. government is officially out of the UFO business.

The subject surfaces constantly on talk shows. And the army of people demanding answers has grown to the point that a Phoenix city council- woman has launched an inquiry.

It could have been a hoax. It could have been an illusion. It could have been almost anything. But the events of March 13 may add up to the most contentious and confounding UFO report since the so-called UFO age was launched 50 years ago by the legendary crash of a "spaceship" outside Roswell, N.M.

The sightings come at a time when interest in UFOs borders on a national obsession, saturating the movie industry, television and literature. A Poll this month by CNN and Time magazine- found that 22% of adult Americans believe intelligent beings from other planets have been in con- tact with human beings.

A Gallup poll last September found that 72% of Americans think there is life on other planets. And 71% said they think the U.S. government knows more about UFOs than it's telling.

"The fact is that more people are seriously interested in UFOs now than they ever have," Don Ecker, research director and news editor at UFO Magazine, says. "Convincing the government may be an exercise in futility, but it's not hard to find believers on the streets."

Summary of Rest of Article

The incident over Arizona was the most dramatic I've Seen" Peter Davenport National UFO Reporting Center. He says most reports are "hog Wash" but not this one. "What we have here" he says with conviction, "is the real thing, They are here".

First report came from retired police officer from Paulen, 6o miles north of Phoenix. Calls came in from Wickenburg,, Glendale, Phoenix, Scottdale and Tempe Arizona.

Event lasted 106 minutes. Some saw orbs while others saw triangles. By far the most common description and one captures on video Was that of a V shaped object.

Witnesses agree that

1. It was enormous. The most conservative estimate describes it as three football fields long. Computer analysis puts it at 6,000 feet, or more than a mile.
2. It made no sound.
3. It moved slowly over Phoenix, cruising at 30 mph. Several times it hovered in place in the sky.

"We could see the outline of a mass behind the lights, but you couldn't exactly see the mass" Dana Valentine said, "It was more like a gray distortion of the night sky, wavy. I don't know what it was, but I know it's not a technology the public has heard of before."

Tim Ley says "It was astonishing and a little frightening. It was so big and so strange. You couldn't actually see the object. All you could see was the outline, as though something were blocking out the stars The lights looked like gas. There was a distortion on the surface. Also the light did not spill out or shine. I've never seen a light like that.

Hundreds seek explanation according to Jim Delatosa and Mcihael aTanner, partners who own Village Labs.