The Great UFO Wave:
October, 1973

More than 20 UFOs reported in Tennessee

The Cincinnati Post, pg. 1
October 1, 1973

Hornbeak, Tenn. (UPI): Sheriff Nathan Cunningham's office in Obion County is beginning to take on the aura of a traffic control center for UFOs, reported zipping across northwest Tennessee skies at 100 miles an hour.

Cunningham said he personally saw three UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects), including one which raced over his house glowing and humming.

He said at least 20 callers reported similar sightings in the county; which is at the Kentucky border in northwest Tennessee.

"I saw something and I don't know what it was," Cunningham said, "but it was sure unidentified to me. It had a bright white light in the center and red, green and blue-looking lights around it. You couldn't tell how far away it was or how big it was. From a distance it looked like the big glow was 10 or 12 feet square."

Cunningham said he saw two UFOs hover over a Hornbeak riding ring and then disappear Saturday evening. When he arrived home later, he said his phone was ringing constantly. As he looked outside, a third UFO passed by.

"It was low enough that I could hear this one," he said. "It made a humming sound that didn't sound like a plane or a helicopter."

"Just a wild guess, I'd say it was moving 1000 miles an hour or better. It just zoomed right on over. It stopped over the north for four or five minutes then came back south and finally disappeared."

Another report came from George and Vickie Rogers who were returning by car from Reelfoot lake in the northwest corner of the state.

"We had been sitting at the lake and my wife kept seeing red and blue lights go around the lake," Rogers said. "I told her it was an airplane and we forgot about it.

"But we were coming home and there over a field was a six-or seven-foot bright red light. It was so bright I couldn't see. It lit up an acre and a half of land. Then the light went out and we couldn't see anything. There were seven or eight cars on the road and they almost hit each other."

The reported sightings were the latest in a rash of such incidents throughout the Southeast.

An unidentified flying object, alternately shining brightly and faintly, was reported over the Memphis area for about four hours last night by at least five Shelby County law enforcement officers.

A Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) spokesman said a bright white light seen as it passed near the airport was not spotted by FAA personnel.

"About 15 years ago, one of the guys up here said he saw something in the sky he couldn't explain, and the Air Force contacted him and sent him about 15 feet of papers to fill out. I don't think anybody up here is going to see anything unfamiliar again," the spokesman said.