Strange Lights Over Louisiana

Andrew West Griffin wrote in the June 5th edition of TheTownTalk.com about Louisiana crop circles. Now he says his hometown is being visited by UFOs.

He writes: Controversy continues around the identity of strange lights appearing over areas in southwest Louisiana on August 28. The sightings have baffled residents in this corner of the state since then.

A spokesman at the Oakdale Police Department said several officers reported seeing unusual lights over that Allen Parish town. “What we know is that it was special helicopters from Fort Polk,” said Oakdale Police Sgt. Chris Oakes.

What sort of “special helicopters” from Fort Polk was unknown. Attempts to reach Fort Polk public relations officer Ron Elliott proved unsuccessful. Witnesses, however, insist it was unlike anything they had ever seen before.

It appears that the night of Aug. 28 was a busy one for UFO sightings within a 50-mile radius of Lake Charles. Dwayne Wilks of Moss Bluff, just north of Lake Charles, said his daughter Stephanie first noticed the strange lights at about 9 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 28.

“She was pulling out of the driveway when she spotted it,” Wilks said.

Stephanie called him outside. Wilks said he was startled by what he saw?a strange display of four amber-colored lights hovering over a graveyard, just north of his property.

“I would say it was about a quarter of a mile away and about 100 to 150 yards above the ground,” Wilks said. “It was flickering back and forth.”

Eventually, he said, there were about 10 people standing outside looking at it and “our jaws were all hanging open. I’d never seen anything like it.”

Wilks called 911. He said he told the 911 dispatcher that he wasn’t drunk or stoned and that he was seeing strange lights outside his home.

“She said that they were getting sightings from south Lake Charles and over to Iowa at the same time. She said some units are en route,” Wilks said.

The sighting lasted about three minutes.

As the witnesses watched where the lights had been, a bright beam of light, described as a white laser beam by Wilks, flashed across the sky. Immediately after the beam came and went, the strange lights reappeared in the same spot and remained for an additional four minutes before disappearing altogether.

Wilks videotaped the sighting and family members took print and digital pictures of the lights. The videotape and digital pictures turned out. The print photos did not.

Similar sightings have been made in central Louisiana.

In January 2002, residents in the Rapides Parish community of Sharp reported seeing strange lights in the sky late at night. After some inquiries, the lights were chalked up to flares dropped by the military over the Claiborne Bombing Range between Gardner and Woodworth.

Wilks said such a suggestion in his case is unacceptable.

“These were definitely not flares. They were stationary and there was no noise,” he said. “I’m not saying it was a UFO, it was just something that kept us in awe.”

Wilks said no one found any residual evidence from the sighting, however.

“You hear about crop circles, this and that, but neighbors near the graveyard said they didn’t see anything there,” Wilks said.

Southwest Louisiana is no stranger to unusual activity.

According to the Seattle-based National UFO Reporting Center’s Web site, UFO sightings in this part of the state are not uncommon.

An April 2002 report by witnesses in the Beauregard Parish town of Ragley, said several unusual amber lights moving in strange directions were seen. The description is similar to what was seen in Moss Bluff and elsewhere.

On the same Web site, a witness in Eunice reported seeing lights looking like the ones seen in Moss Bluff during the same hour that Wilks and his family had their sighting.

“I’ve never seen anything like that in my life,” Wilks said. “Definitely nothing that we have.”

NOTE: Uknowncountry received reports of fighter jets flying low over Miami and New Orleans on the morning of Sept. 6. Low-flying fighters have been associated with many UFO sightings in the past, but in this case, only the planes were seen. There were no UFO reports from either area.

Read other first-hand experiences of UFO sightings and abductions?as they really happened?in The Communion Letters.

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