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I peered into the heavens on Friday, July 2, but saw nothing but raindrops (and a few bugs when the clouds finished the process of emptying their bladders.)

There was nary a UFO in sight…at least for my eyes last Friday.

For full disclosure, I failed to gather with others on that particular day to watch the skies for unidentified flying objects.

For those who, like me, missed it, Friday, July 2 was World UFO Day. Even that fact is confusing as some celebrate World UFO Day on June 24, which, according to Wikipedia, is the date that aviator Kenneth Arnold reported what is generally considered to be the first widely reported unidentified flying object sighting in the United States.

Arnold claimed to have seen nine unusual objects flying in tandem near Mount Rainier, Washington on June 24, 1947.

1947 must have been a popular year for UFOs. On July 8 of that year, the Roswell Army Air Field issued a press release stating that they had recovered a “flying disc” from a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico.

That sequence of events was triggered in late June or early July 1947 when William “Mac” Brazel, a ranch foreman, noticed clusters of debris on the Foster ranch, which was about 30 miles outside of Roswell. Brazel told the local sheriff about his findings on July 6.

Two days later came the press release from the Army Air Field, but military officials quickly retracted the statement and said instead that the crashed object was a conventional weather balloon.

I told you all of that just to make one simple point….why was July 2 chosen as World UFO Day? Did Brazel stumble across those “clusters of debris” on that date in 1947? If so, why did he wait four days to inform the sheriff of his findings? And if that’s the case, then why did it take the Army two more days to issue its press release?

Whatever the case, the Roswell incident, over the decades that followed, sparked numerous theories, conspiracy claims, and accusations of a military cover-up. There was even claims that a Roswell area mortician had seen the alien bodies captured by the Army while another individual claimed to have film footage of an autopsy performed on those aliens.

Fast forward to the present day and we are hearing and seeing reports of continued sightings of unexplained sightings in the sky. That has led our government to tell us about the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs) Task Force. They are reportedly a group within the United States Department of Defense (DOD) formed in August of last year tasked with, according to the DOD website, “to detect, analyze and catalog UAPs that could potentially pose a threat to U.S. national security.”

The Task Force was scheduled to present a report to Congress last month, detailing the data they have collected thus far. In advance of that report, the DOD publicly released several videos taken from Navy jets that showed UAPs. Those unidentified crafts were moving at speeds not known to otherwise exist.

There are many who believe there is intelligent life within our universe, and that those aliens have paid us a visit…whether that’s only a “fly-over” or that they possibly walk among us.

I read somewhere a while back that roughly 95 percent of UFO (or UAP) sightings can be explained. Most turn out to be helium balloons (sort of like weather balloons), satellites (which as of lately there have been numerous launches, some of which are in low-level orbit), and weather phenomena.

In all my travels over the course of a 40-plus year newspaper career, there’s only one thing I witnessed that I can’t explain. It was in Ahoskie, somewhere in the early to mid 1990’s time frame. I was the Sports Editor back then and was covering a basketball game at Hertford County High School.

At halftime of the varsity boys game, I slipped out the back door to enjoy a cigarette. I was alone and it was a dark night (the parking lot back then wasn’t as well lit as it is today).

I had a very strange sensation that something, or someone, else was there. I happened to glance up into the night sky and saw what appeared to be some sort of three-dimensional craft slowly floating past, roughly 50-to-60 feet above my head. There were no lights; there was no sound.

I froze in my tracks – too startled to move or even take a deep breath. And even stranger for me is that despite having my trusty 35mm camera and flash hanging on my shoulder, it never crossed my mind to snap a photo.

To this very day I can still see that image in my mind. What it was remains a mystery.

My mysterious encounter from roughly 30 years ago leads me to believe that if there are indeed aliens from another world visiting our solar system, then wouldn’t it be in their best interest to make their presence as least conspicuous as possible?

I’ve read reports, as have many of you, where people report seeing strange lights in the sky. Think about that for a moment…why would an alien aircraft need lights? If their technology is advanced as we think it might be – especially with the ability to zip through the sky at speeds never before witnessed – then they don’t need to lights to aid their navigation. I mean it’s not like they need a blinking light to warn of their presence or to let us know they’re getting ready to change direction.

I’m curious to know what you think of the possibility of life on another planet or solar system….or if you have ever witnessed something in the sky that you aren’t able to explain. Contact me at the info shown below.

Cal Bryant is the Editor of Roanoke-Chowan Publications. Contact him at cal.bryant@r-cnews.com or 252-332-7207.