Heard about those presidential UFO sightings, most notably the one by Reagan’s pilot?

There have been a lot of UFO stories associated with U.S. Presidents over the years… Jimmy Carter’s story was pretty good, which involved a sighting of an unusual object he and a group of men claimed to see while attending a Lions Club meeting shortly before his tenure as governor of Georgia. However, aside from observing a light that changed colors and appeared to move closer as he and his company observed it, little else could be said of the strange light, which he wouldn’t officially report until during his term as governor.

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Gerald Ford also talked about UFOs, though mostly on behalf of his constituents. JFK had made a vague reference to “unknowns” in a memorandum written to James Webb, regarding the proposition of a joint-U.S.-Soviet space operation. But perhaps no one would have quite so extraordinary a connection with UFOs, and also go on to serve the office of POTUS, as actor-turned President Ronald Reagan, “The Gipper”, whose encounter still stands out among reports of exotic aerial phenomenon.  The details of Reagan’s UFO encounter were apparently unintentionally released to a reporter with The Wall Street Journal shortly after the sighting took place, when Reagan described for Norman Miller a “white light” he and his company aboard then-governor Reagan’s private Cessna had seen. However, what is arguably the best description of the encounter was afforded by the pilot at the time, Bill Paynter, who described it thusly:

We were flying a Cessna Citation. It was maybe nine or ten o’clock at night. We were near Bakersfield when Governor Reagan and the others called my attention to a big light flying a bit behind the plane. It appeared to be several hundred yards away. It was a fairly steady light until it began to accelerate then it appeared to elongate.

The light took off. It went up at a 45-degree angle at a high rate of speed. Everyone on the plane was surprised, Governor Reagan expressed amazement. I told the others I didn’t know what it was. The UFO went from a normal cruise speed to a fantastic speed instantly. If you give an airplane power it will accelerate but not like a hot rod and that is what this thing was like. We didn’t file a report on the object because for a long time they considered you a nut if you saw a UFO.

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