Some people don't believe in UFOs or Bigfoot creature at all, and those who do can't even agree on the theory of their origins.
"It's not up to us to make any judgments on anybody's ideas, "Gordon said. "We're trying to deal with things more as a scientific phenomenon to find evidence that those things (that are being reported) are out there. We're still looking for the answers of what this is all about."
At one time, the United States Air Force actively investigated reports of UFOs in operations called Project Sign and Project Grudge. "They later wound up being called Project Blue Book," Gordon said. "In 1969 they dropped all public level of UFO research and stated that the government has no interest in UFO reports. However, through the Freedom of Information Act, I and other researchers around the country have obtained many documents from major agencies such as the Air Force, CIA, FBI, NORAD and the NSA that show there have been many cases of UFO investigations through the late 1980s. There are still reports coming in."
Incidents with UFOs are classified in three levels. A close encounter of the first kind involves the sighting of an unexplained aerial object within 500 feet. These are by far the most common. Take for instance the persistent UFO that a prominent Westmoreland County man encountered at about 11:55 p.m. August 30, 1983, on Route17 between Derry and Kinston Dam (on Route 30). "There were some lights and he looked up and saw an object above his vehicle." Gordon said. "He heard sounds like 'whoop whoop whoop' and the noise was so intense that it vibrated his body from head to toe. He was frightened."
The man kept his car moving so that it passed under the object, but it went ahead of him above the road so that he had to drive under it again. Then it moved ahead of him so that he passed under it a third time before it disappeared.
"He described it as 100 to 300 feet in diameter and it stretched across both sides of the road," Gordon said. "There were many lights, glowing amber, and when he passed under it he had a claustrophobic feeling like being closed in. He described it as feeling like going into an underground parking garage."
If anyone else saw the object, they didn't report it. But several persons individually observed and subsequently reported a UFO sighting on February 10, 1988, near Blough, a village near the borders of Somerset and Cambria Counties. The sightings occurred between 7:45 and 8:30 p.m. over a creek near Hooversville. Three cars stopped and the occupants watched a lighted craft send down about a half dozen laser type lights onto the treetops in the woods. It hovered noiselessly, as if there were no propellers nor engine. They said it was about 50 to 60 feet long by 25 feet wide, and it looked like a shiny metallic football. There were two rows of steady lights. In the distance, there appeared to be another circular shaped object in the sky. Then at 8 p.m. a motorist going over the nearby McNally Bridge saw something rise from below. Another person near Davidsville saw a small silent "ship in the sky," about 20 feet in diameter with blinking lights. He drove to a rise in the road to get a better view, but it disappeared.
A woman driving her car on Route 220 near Altoona had not only a sighting but also what she claimed was an indirect encounter with a UFO. It was about 8 p.m. October 15, 1983, and as she approached the Bellwood turnoff she became aware of a loud whirring sound. Through the right window she observed a bright, silvery, saucer-shaped object about 24 feet in diameter and 30 feet off the ground.
As it passed over to the left, the right side of her car lifted about two to three feet off the ground. She grabbed the steering wheel and tried the brakes but there was no response. The headlights were blinking off and on. The car went down for a second, came back up, then thudded back to the ground, stalled and wouldn't start for 20 minutes. Gordon later learned that others claimed to see UFOs in the area at the same time.
Close encounters of the second kind leave some sort of physical evidence, like broken tree tops, burnt areas on the ground or in more recent years, the mysterious "crop circles" that have appeared all over the world.
At about 2:30 p.m. September 2, 1989, a man near Ebensburg saw an unidentified craft hovering noiselessly over his pond 50 feet from where he stood. It was about 30 feet off the ground, 15 to 20 feet long and 8 to 10 feet high. "He said it was more spherical in shape, with a silvery upper part and underneath it was orange red," Gordon said. "In the center were glass-like structures, like amber windows, and there were yellow-green lights and protrusions from the sphere."
The witness saw a mist coming down from the craft. It suddenly moved "like a hummingbird" and was gone. The whole sighting lasted about 45 seconds. He then found that a grassy area about four feet tall had been swirled down in a 12-foot circular pattern, counterclockwise.
In 190 similar types of circles made news around the world and in the states but there was no media coverage of a series of circles in rural areas of southwestern Pennsylvania. In a Washington County field, a farmer found three rings arranged within each other like a target. The circles measured 54 and 40 feet with a smaller circle in the middle. The other incident happened in August near Chicora, Butler County. Those three circles, measuring 32 to 33 feet in diameter, were interconnected in an oat field. In both cases, the crops wee swirled without the stems breaking, unlike being trampled, and there were no tracks into the area.
Gordon believes that the farmers' insistence on anonymity supports their sincerity. They had nothing to gain by making bogus reports. Furthermore, when he and other PSU team members wee investigating the Butler County incident no less than three separate individuals videotaped a spinning top-shaped object hovering nearby.
Close encounters of the third kind involve an unknown object accompanied by some type of life form. This the most rare type of indent, but also the most frightening.
"There have been sporadic reports of occupant sightings in Fayette, Indiana Butler and Westmoreland Counties," Gordon said. "We've had alleged abduction reports over the years, and we get numerous people who call us about their missing time experiences, most for which involve having seen some type of UFO."
Some people claim to consciously remember certain details of being taken aboard UFOs. Others recall details under hypnosis. The lifeforms they say they encounter appear to be humanoid, and the universal description is the same: three to four feet tall, abnormally large heads, very often with large and usually slanted eyes. Witnesses report undergoing physical exams that include probing and tissue sampling, and they frequently have little scoop marks in their skin. Others are later plagued by unexplained physical and emotional symptoms.
"These encounters have a major effect on their lives, and it varies from positive to negative," Gordon said. "Some people develop emotional problems from dealing with their encounters. People are very reluctant to talk about this because they're afraid people will think they're crazy. But when they realize others have gone through what they have, they're able to go through it much easier."
All of the cases pose more questions than there are answers, and Gordon doesn't claim to have explanations for any of them. He just knows that there are things going on that defy logic as we know it, and are yet to be understood.
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