“Hey, Mr. Spaceman
Won’t you please take me along for a ride.”
–Roger McGuinn
We all enjoy a good UFO story. Reading my friend Don Rhodes’ book–Mysteries And Legends: Georgia True Stories of the Unsolved And Unexplained–I decided my favorite article in this inimitable collection counts as “Jimmy Carter And The UFO”. I almost forgot about this fascinating report.
In 1969, long before he became President of the United States, Jimmy Carter witnessed a UFO in Leary, Georgia. Carter was standing outside the Lions Club with about 25 other men in October, around 7:15 p.m. President Carter even filled out a form for the International UFO Bureau in Oklahoma City, OK, during 1973, which Mystery And Legends contains. Carter reported he witnessed the unidentified flying object for 10-12 minutes. Carter shared his mysterious experience various times through the years.
In 2005, President Carter discussed the experience with the writer, Wil. S. Hylton, for GQ magazine. Carter told Hylton: “We all saw it. And then the light got closer and closer to us. And then it stopped. I don’t know how far away, but it stopped beyond the pine trees. And all of a sudden it changed color to blue, and then it changed to red, then back to white. And we were trying to figure out what in the world it could be, and then it receded into the distance.”
Author of seven books, Don Rhodes’ “Ramblin’ Rhodes” music column has been published weekly for more than 42 years. He was twice named “Media Person of the Year” by the Greater Augusta Arts Council and has received the Louis C. Harris Media Person of the Year Award. Rhodes still writes for the Augusta Chronicle.
Truth is stranger than fiction.