A local resident has reached a turning point in life after seeing what he is convinced was an unidentified flying object, better known as a UFO.
Jim Oxford, of the Woolwine/Charity communities, said he was awakened around 3:30 a.m. on Thursday by his barking dog. When he ventured out to check on the dog, He also heard a coyote yapping in the distance.
Looking up and scanning the clear sky, Oxford said he noticed a glowing light in a northwest direction, towards Floyd’s Sugar Loaf Mountain Road.
The light “was glowing off and on,” Oxford said, adding he got his binoculars to get a better view.
Through them, he was able to more clearly see the object, which he described as a large, round yellow/orange object, “somewhat like the moon,” and with a shadow in the shape of a semi-circle across a portion of it, Oxford said.
Through binoculars, Oxford said he also noticed that when the glowing light dimmed, “there was a ring of what looked like 50 small brightly lit” lights that remained on.
While the lights looked small, “they had to be large, because they were quite a distance from me,” he said.
He said the object was traveling in a north, north-easterly direction.
He did not have a camera, and did not get photos of the object, but after watching for a few minutes, and based on its path of travel, Oxford said he called a friend who lives in Collinsville.
Oxford said his friend has seen UFOs in the past, and he hoped his friend may be able to spot the object if it traveled near his Henry County home.
A former military pilot with six years experience, Oxford also spent 10 years as a commercial pilot.
Oxford said he has spent a lot of time in the sky, and in the past, has always been skeptical about reported UFO sightings, even when reported by his Collinsville friend and his friend’s wife.
However, his own sighting Thursday “has truly made a believer out of me,” he said.
Oxford said he plans to share the details of what he saw with his Bible study group at Woolwine United Methodist Church “so they will know we are not alone.”
He also is sharing it publically in hopes someone else may have seen the same thing.
“I still believe in God, but I know what I saw,” Oxford said, adding he is no longer a skeptic.
“I’m not going to deny the truth,” he said. “The truth is the truth. This is a turning point in my life.”
