CHARLOTTE (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — If you saw a U.F.O., would you tell anyone? What if you were a high-profile politician? Would you admit it, or would you be silenced by the stigma that often accompanies such out-of-this-world tales?
A lawmaker who would eventually become the 39th president of the United States reported his encounter, and the reaction may surprise you.
A lot of people don’t know this, but the late former president Jimmy Carter saw a color-changing U.F.O. in Georgia back in 1969.
His willingness to discuss it leaves behind a unique legacy of openness about U.F.O. sightings.
Carter’s personal encounter happened outside a Lions club in Leary, Georgia. He was with a group of about two dozen witnesses who all saw a bright orb changing colors from blue to red to white. According to history.com., the orb moved toward and away from the crowd, stopped, and then disappeared behind pine trees. Carter said the object was self-illuminated and not solid in nature. It was in view for about 12 minutes before it passed out of sight.
When Carter was governor in 1973, he filed an official report with the International U.F.O. Bureau. He spoke freely about the encounter and even promised, during his 1976 presidential campaign, to release all government information if elected.
According to reports, he backed away from his pledge, citing security concerns and defense implications.
A member of the Carter family did some research and decided it was likely from the release of a glowing chemical cloud produced by rockets launched from Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. Some of these sodium and barium chemical clouds were visible by the scattering of sunlight as far away as Leary, Georgia, appearing around the same time of the sighting. A copy of this report is at the Jimmy Carter Library.
Carter is quoted as saying, “One thing’s for sure. I’ll never make fun of people who say they’ve seen unidentified objects in the sky.”
Carter left a message cast to the cosmos in 1977.
USA Today reports that in a message sent to space, along with recordings of Earth’s music, languages, and images, Carter left a message on a golden record launched on the space probe, Voyager 1, saying, in part, “We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations.” The message continues to travel beyond our solar system today.
