'The story is very true. That's what has bothered me for 45 years.' UFO witnesses speak.

'The story is very true. That's what has bothered me for 45 years.' UFO witnesses speak.

It's a story that has fascinated people for decades. Two Pascagoula men claim they were abducted by aliens while fishing on the Pascagoula River. As was expected by the two men — Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker — their story was often met with skepticism and ridicule..

Now, three more witnesses have come forward. All three of them say they saw some sort of flying object with a bright blue light at the same time and in the same area as Hickson and Parker.

One of the witnesses says she saw what she originally thought was a man in the water but now believes was one of the aliens.

Three legless creatures examined both men aboard their ship

"It was Oct. 11, 1973," Parker said. "We'd gotten off work that day, and a friend of mine, he and I went fishing.

"The old abandoned shipyard; they had a little pier out front and we were on that pier. I'm going to guess it was about six o'clock in the evening. It had just started getting dark, but it was kind of a bright moon."

Parker said he saw blue light reflecting off the water and thought law enforcement officers had arrived to tell them to leave the property. However, when Parker looked up, he realized the light was coming from a craft like nothing he'd ever seen.

"A big light came out of the clouds," Parker said. "It was a blinding light.

"It was hard to tell with the lights so bright, but it looked like it was shaped like a football. I would say, just estimating, (it was) about 80-foot. (It made) very little sound. It was just a hissing noise."

Parker said three legless creatures floated from the craft. One had no neck with gray wrinkled skin. Another had a neck and appeared more feminine. Parker described their hands as being shaped like mittens or crab claws.

When one of the creatures put one of its claws around his arm, Parker said he was terrified, but then another feeling came over his body.

"I think they injected us with something to calm us down," Parker said. "I was kind of numb and went along with the program."

Parker said the creatures floated him and Hickson into the craft and performed physical examinations on the two. Then they were taken back to the bank of the river.

Hickson, who died in 2011, was very public about his experience. Parker, who now lives in Moss Point, was not and spent much of his life distancing himself from the event. However, he published a book about his experience in 2018 and since, people who had been largely quiet about their experiences that night are now speaking out.

Maria and Jerry Blair of Theodore, Alabama are among them.

Couple across the river saw same blue light and a flying object

Maria and Jerry were sitting in their 1969 Pontiac GTO in the parking lot of Graham's Seafood on the opposite side of the river. Jerry worked for the business and was waiting on a boat captain to take him offshore. The captain was late and the Blairs waited for hours. Just after dark Maria saw something strange.

"I was looking at the sky and I noticed a blue light in the sky over where they were fishing," Maria said. "It started moving and it seemed like it was following along the Pascagoula River.

"I just seen the lights on it. It was just going back and forth. Sometimes it would just sit there. It went on for 20 to 25 minutes."

Maria said she initially thought it was a plane, but realized the flight pattern and hovering were not indicative of a plane. Jerry watched it also but didn't think much of it.

"I thought it was a helicopter initially and just blew it off," Jerry said. "It landed about 150 to 200 yards from us.

"I was just north of the bridge and it was just south of the bridge. I was there, but stupid me didn't pay much attention to it. I was just going offshore and thinking about other things."

Woman believes she saw one of the aliens in the water
After they lost sight of the craft, the two went to put Jerry's clothing and other items on the boat. While walking down the lighted pier, something else caught their attention.

"We heard this loud, thumping splash in the river," Maria said. "I looked over the side of the pier, and that's when I thought I saw a person in the river.

"I was looking right down on it. It looked like a person, but there was something different about it. It only came to the surface of the water. As soon as I saw it, it just went back down in the water."

Whatever Maria had seen, which she thought was a person in some sort of diving gear, did not resurface. Jerry, who was walking ahead of her and didn't see it, said it must have been a dolphin. She said she is positive it wasn't a dolphin.

Jerry went to work that evening and Maria returned home. In following days she heard reports of Parker and Hickson's experience. The descriptions of the aliens matched what she had seen in the water.

"I thought it was a person, but now I think it was an alien," Maria said. "What Parker described was exactly it."

Another woman said UFO made her radio go crazy, car to die
Later that evening, Judy Branning was sitting in a car a few miles away at a traffic signal with her roommate and their dates.

"We were on a double date that night," Branning said. "We were at a red light at Chicot and Highway 90, and we were basically sitting on the railroad track. I saw some lights, and I wasn't sure what I was looking at because it was so far away."

Like the Blairs, Branning thought it was an airplane at first, but as it came closer and flew over the car she was in, the four realized it wasn't.

"It didn't make noise," Branning said. "It had bright, bright lights.

"It got closer and it was hovering. It was kind of a saucer shape or disc shape with a rounded top. The radio started sounding like it was running through all the stations and the car went dead. We were freaking out."

Branning said after it passed over the car, the craft shot straight up at a rate of speed she'd never seen and disappeared. It left her shaken.

"I didn't sleep that night thinking about it," Branning said.

'When I saw what Calvin and Charles went through, I kind of backed down'
Branning said the four agreed not to say anything about what they saw. She said over the years she told a few people but not many because she was scared of people's reactions. Now 74 years old, she said she does not care if people believe her or not.

Maria said she told people what she'd seen but largely stopped talking about it in the weeks following that evening.

"When you talked about it back then, people thought you were crazy," Maria said. "Back then, when I saw what Calvin and Charles went through, I kind of backed down talking about it.

"The story is very true. That's what has bothered me for 45 years. It's been on my mind for 45 years."

Parker has met with the Blairs and Branning and said he's happy they are now telling their stories publicly.

"I checked the people out as best I could, and they seem credible," Parker said. "It means a lot to me that that they came forward."

Parker feels there are more witnesses out there.

"I definitely do," Parker said. "There's been two or three people that have contacted me privately that didn't want their names used.

"I believe there are more people that haven't come forward. Back in the '70s you just didn't talk about it."

A Look Back: Charles Hickson talks of his abduction by a UFO in Pascagoula
One of two men who claimed to have been abducted by a UFO in Pascagoula in 1973, Calvin Parker, has finally explained what he remembers about that night 45 years ago in a new book, "Pascagoula — The Closest Encounter, My Story"

The other man, Charles Hickson, told Clarion Ledger columnist Billy Watkins his account of the event in great detail 16 years ago at his home on the Gulf Coast. Hickson died Sept. 9, 2011, at the age of 80. During that interview, he revealed something he had never talked about publicly.

Here is Watkins' story from Oct. 20, 2002.



GAUTIER — Charles Hickson has no proof. No photograph he can pull from his wallet, no papers certifying his story.

Just his word that 29 years ago this month he and a fishing buddy were abducted by a UFO, examined by a machine resembling a giant eyeball, then released physically unharmed.

He has told his story under hypnosis, told it to Johnny Carson on national TV. Recently, while sipping coffee in his modest home in Gautier, he told the story to a Clarion-Ledger reporter. His account of that night never changes. He has passed numerous lie-detector tests.

What Hickson hasn't talked about publicly, until now, is that he believes whatever - or whoever - was on that craft has kept track of him.

"I think they know where I am at all times," he says. "Too many strange things have happened."

Hickson, a retired shipyard foreman with five children and a no-nonsense demeanor, is 71 and spends most of his time caring for Blanche, his wife of 48 years who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis. He is fighting health problems of his own, including clogged arteries in his neck.

Hickson says he is a God-fearing man who "believes Jesus Christ died for my sins." Whether people believe his UFO story doesn't seem to be a big deal to him. "If you were in my place right now, I'm not sure I'd believe you or not," he said.

But others saw something that night, too.

Several people later reported strange lights in the Gulf Coast sky just after sunset on Oct. 11, 1973 - about the time Hickson and then 19-year-old Calvin Parker say they were abducted.

Mike Cataldo, a retired Navy chief petty officer now living in Rotonda West, Fla., says he saw "a very strange object on the horizon" late that afternoon while driving on U.S. 90, between Pascagoula and Ocean Springs.