UFOnauts: many shapes, sizes, and colors

It should come as no surprise to anyone that has been in the UFO arena for any amount of time that there are a myriad of UFO occupants that have been encountered by many people all throughout the world. One thing that can be said for sure is that they certainly don't all fall into the “Gray Alien” meme that has become so popular in our culture. As I've noted in previous posts (Little Green Meme?) they seem to come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. And boy that's no exaggeration! Over at AboveTopSecret a member by the name of karl12 has brought together an awesome thread entitled 'UFO Occupants ~Drawings,Sketches and Non-Human Reports' which showcases a large number of the varied Ufonauts seen by people.

Below are just a few of the examples, though I highly recommend that you check out the thread for more information on each of the cases included. First up will be The Flatwood's Monster.

I'm sure most are familiar with the baisc story of the Flatwood's Monster so I won't go into too much detail here. From the related ATS thread:

From the town of Flatwoods, of Braxton County, West Virginia, comes the mysterious tale of a burning craft which fell from the sky, and a mysterious being. The account began in the afternoon of September 12, 1952 when Sheriff Robert Carr and his Deputy Burnell Long received a call from witnesses who had seen the fiery object as it crashed into the earth. The unknown object had crashed on the Elk River, south of Gassaway. The natural assumption was that an airplane had faltered, and fallen from the skies. Not long afterward, a second unusual sighting was made by some school buddies at the Flatwoods School. Shortly before nightfall, four boys playing football saw something fall on a hill not far from the school playground.

The boys, at first frightened, succumbed to their youthful curiosity, and headed for the sight, which was on the property of one Bailey Fisher. They proceeded up the hill, stopping at the house of Kathleen May, excitedly telling her of what they had seen. Kathleen and her two sons joined the search party. Reaching the top of the hill, Mrs. May remarked that, the night was foggy and there was a mist in the evening air." " the air had a metallic smell which burned our eyes and noses." A dog was reported to have ran ahead of the group only to return with his tail between his legs, frightened by something.

Topping the hill, they could see a "glowing, hissing" object about 10 feet in diameter, about 100 yards away. Now completely dark, the night was shattered by two lights, about a foot apart. One of the boys had a flashlight, and when he turned it on the two distant lights, a creature ten foot tall appeared.." a bright red face, bright green clothing, a head which resembled the ace of spades, and clothing which, from the waist down, hung in great folds". Suddenly, the creature began to "float" toward them, sending the group running back down the hill to the May house, where they quickly called the Sheriff.

The boys also called some of their schoolmates, and when the Sheriff arrived, the scene of the event was full of locals, who had to see the creature for themselves. Reporter A. Lee Stewart, of the "Braxton Democrat," began interviewing witnesses of the unusual event. He would later state that all of the observers were extremely frightened by what they had encountered. Stewart, accompanied by one of Kathleen May's sons, made their way back to where the creature had been spotted. Approaching the sight, Stewart was overwhelmed by an odd smell, but saw nothing unusual. Returning to the exact spot the next morning, Stewart could observe "skid marks" where some object had been.

Next up will be the strange abduction account of a security guard in Italy named Pier Fortunato Zanfretta. I'll admit I was actually not terribly familiar with this case before coming across it in this thread. The story is as follows:

Shortly after midnight on December 6th, 1978, Zanfretta was on duty in Torriglia, a village near Genoa. It was a dark and moonless night. It was also very cold and snow had fallen during the day so that there was a dangerous film of ice on the roads. As Zanfretta approached a client's uninhabited country-house (called "Our Home" by the owner, Dr. Ettore Righi), in the area of Marzano, his patrol car, a Fiat 126, mysteriously stopped dead. The car engine, lights and radio all failed seemingly for no reason. At the same moment he saw four strange lights moving about in the garden of the house and stepped outside of his car to investigate with gun and flashlight in hand.

At first he thought that burglars were behind the house. So he walked through the open gate and crept along a wall in an attempt to surprise them. But Zanfretta had underestimated the problem and ended being the one who was surprised by what he had taken for thieves. Feeling himself touched from behind, the security guard whirled around and saw something that filled him with terror: only inches away stood what he called: "An enormous green, ugly and frightful creature, with undulating skin, no less than ten feet tall". When he directed the beam of his flashlight on the being's face, he was so frightened that he dropped it, but quickly it up again and run away. While running, he became aware of a large and very bright light behind him.

Turning around, he saw a huge, flat triangular form which was blinding in its brilliance. Zanfretta shielded himself from the light with his arm. This thing which he assured was a flying saucer, ascended from the back of the house. It was bigger than the house itself, and produced a hissing sound. Later, Zanfretta said that he felt an intense heat. He made it back to his car and tried to call his security company's operations center in Genoa. It was 12:15 A.M. Carlo Toccalino, the radio operator, has testified that Zanfretta was speaking in an excited and disconnected way. He kept saying: "My God, are they ugly!". 

The operator then asked if "they" were human and if they were assaulting him. The answer was: "No, they aren't men, they aren't men". At that point, the communication were abruptly broken off and Toccalino called the chief of the security service, Lt. Giovanni Cassiba. An hour later, a couple of other patrol guards, Walter Lauria and Raimondo Mascia, found Zanfretta in front of the country-house, lying on the ground. It was 1:15 A.M.. When he saw them, he jumped up, gun and flashlight at the ready. Eyes bulging, Zanfretta didn't seem to recognize them, nor to understand when they told him to lower his weapon. The other patrolmen rushed and disarmed him. To their surprise, his clothes felt warm even though the December night air was quite cold.

The account continues at this thread; much like Zanfretta's abduction experiences (bad joke heh). Moving onward; we now turn to another abduction which allegedly occurred in the Yukon territory of Canada. The hunter that experienced the abduction actually tells the story in his own words. It's a bit of a lengthy account, but is highly fascinating and I would suggest you follow this link to read it. Here's an overview of what occurred:

In August or September 1987 (later determined to be Wednesday September 2, 1987), I left Ross River (where I lived) and headed up the North Canol Road by myself on my motor bike for moose (hunting).

I was planning on spending 3 days in the area between Sheldon Lake and Macpass. A guy I worked with and a friend of his were to leave a day later and I was to meet them for some fishing. We were all to stay at a trailer at Dewhurst Creek.

I left Ross River early in the morning and the temperature started to drop. Then it started to rain very hard and very cold. When I got to Gravel Creek, I stopped at Art John's Cabin and put on extra clothes while standing under the edge of his roof. I knew the rain would not stop, so I got back on my bike and headed off.

I arrived at the trailer ½ hour before dark, very cold and very tired. I lit up a fire, cooked supper and went straight to bed looking forward to the morning hunt. Over night the rain had stopped.

At daybreak (September 3, 1987) I put my gear and my gun on my bike and headed towards Macpass. A couple of miles down the road, I was putting along at about 10 mph looking into the trees and watching the hillsides. I decided to stop for a pee.

I was standing just in front of my bike watching the mountains to the south, when I noticed to the left out of the corner of my eye, what I first thought was an airplane. It was 400 to 500 yards away and about the size of a DC-3 plane or a full-size school bus.

It was travelling north to south, at about 40 yards above ground and moving maybe 30 km/h. Right away I thought "boy is he low". I blinked my eyes because I couldn't make out any tail fin or wings.

Right away I thought, somebody must be here and I've got to tell them what I saw. The noise I heard sounded like a heavy trunk lid on a car slamming shut.

I quickly walked along the edge of the road to the corner to see who was there.

I came face to face (about 20 yards) with 2 grey creatures in blue jump suits, about 5 ft. tall with big insect looking heads, pointy faces, big eyes, thin arms, body and legs. I immediately thought "they're not little green men*, they're grasshopper people".

Finally the last one that I want to look at comes from some lumberjacks in Finland in 1971. I'm including this one just because of the unusual size and overall characteristics of the entity involved. From the account:

On the snowy, overcast afternoon of February 5, 1971, two Finnish lumberjacks – 21 year-old Petter Aliranta and 18 year-old Esko Juhani Sneck – had a close encounter that would haunt them for the remainder of their days. The fantastic event began at approximately 3:00 pm. when the young duo — who had spent the morning cutting down trees in the forests near the village of Kangaskyla in Kinnula – decided to call it a day because the overcast conditions were making it too dark to continue.

According to their account, Aliranta had just turned off his chainsaw, when he suddenly noticed an odd metallic object hovering at tree-top level. He claimed that it was shaped like “two saucers” on top of each other and was about 15-feet in diameter.

At the bottom of the vehicle there were four thin landing legs with rounded bases, which he estimated to be more than 6-feet long. If the craft made any sound it was no doubt overwhelmed by the continued roaring of Sneck’s chainsaw.

Aliranta stared in amazement as a weird, green garbed entity to slowly descend through the open portal from the bowels of the craft.  He later described this unusual entity as being less than 3-feet in height with its entire body covered in a green, one-piece suit. On the front of the head was a faceplate that was described as being akin to that of a scuba diver. Although the creature had arms and legs, the suit gave no indication of hands or fingers.

You can follow this link in order to read more of the account and to see some other artist renditions of the occupants that were encountered by the lumberjacks. Also as I said earlier you really should go to karl12's thread in order to see all of the different Ufonauts that are available. I think it's safe to conclude that occupants of UFOs are far stranger than just the stereotypical grays that have been seen over the last twenty-some odd years. I certainly wouldn't go so far as to say that there are 57 varieties of ETs visiting our planet, it does however give one pause for consideration.

Is our planet some way station for intergalactic tourists? I don't know for sure. My gut reaction would be to say no. It seems more likely to me that the phenomena is malleable and there is some combination of the occupants altering their appearances and the human brain filling in the gaps of perception. I would certainly be interested in hearing what you guys think about this. Until next time this is your friendly neighborhood Fortean Philosopher saying “Stay Classy, Internet!”