Washington UFO hunters not ready to throw in the towel

The truth is out there, or is it? UFO researchers in England are meeting this weekend to re-evaluate whether they’ve been wasting their time chasing sightings and strange flying objects. Some of them are ready to call it quits.

These researchers say they’ve found nothing concrete that indicates UFOs are real or that we’ve been or are being visited by beings from somewhere else.

Maybe the truth isn’t out there.

But don’t tell that to Jim Clarkson. He’s the Washington investigator for the Mutual UFO Network, a nationwide network that tracks sightings and investigates them.

“We’re up and at ’em and going strong here in Washington,” he said. “There’s a lot going on.”

Clarkson is a former police detective in Aberdeen who doesn’t consider himself a nut or a true-believer. He simply believes that strange things deserve to be looked at and investigated. Clarkson said he’s working a case from just last weekend in Castle Rock involving fast-moving, bright lights that moved like nothing man-made. He believes the source is credible.

The sighting happened Nov. 10 at 6:28 p.m. in good visibility.

“These were very large lights that were down close to the ground,” he said. “He [the witness], described in his report, having to stop his car because he was concerned whether or not something was going to touch down on the roadway.”

Clarkson is looking for other people who might have seen these lights near Castle Rock or even captured them on video or with a camera.

He said one of the biggest hurdles in his research is that people are afraid to come forward because they’re worried others will mock them or dismiss them. Clarkson said he’s been fighting the perception of UFO witnesses the public holds.

“They’re just every day people,” he said. “Frequently they have high-powered professional credentials, and they’re willing to put that on the line and say ‘This is what I saw and this is what I experienced. Will you please help me try and understand it?'”

In 25 years of investigating these sightings, Clarkson said he’s seen enough to believe there is something happening. He just doesn’t know what it is.

“There’s way too much smoke for there not to be any fire,” Clarkson said. “The forces of secrecy, bless their hearts, have gone to way too much trouble to shut down particular sightings and particular witnesses. If there wasn’t some kind of truth behind all of this, I can’t see why they’d bother.”

So while some UFO researchers in England are ready to throw in the towel, Clarkson and others like him are just getting going.

The truth is out there and he’s looking for it.