Astronomer Marian Rudnyk hunted asteroids for NASA and also mapped lava flows on Mars and ice fractures on Jupiter's moon Europa. After a sighting that changed his life forever, Rudnyk was thrust into that which he'd previously condemned: the bizarre universe of UFOs. In his work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) he recalled laughing at UFO researchers who would show up asking to see original imagery from unmanned space missions. This changed when Rudyk said he found a cache of film canisters hidden under the floor at JPL that supposedly contained images of UFOs from the Gemini space missions. When he examined the films, he found that the relevant frames "had been cut out of the film."

On January 1st of 2017, Rudnyk had a dramatic sighting of four disc-shaped objects in formation and took video and pictures of them. He mentioned the sighting and photos to a friend who had a relative in the Air Force Space Command. During a phone call, he was told that his sighting was "real all right." He was informed, "you're going to turn all of this over and you're not going to say anything to anyone." When he finally surrendered the video nearly a month later, he noticed that F18s were flying regular sorties over the area of the sighting as if conducting a search. Rudnyk was soon subject to harassment with his devices, on social media, and in person. Faced with this frustration, he said that the agencies or organizations bothering him "should just hire me."

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Terry Lovelace, a 64-year-old retired lawyer, and former Assistant Attorney General, kept a secret for much of his life. In 1977, Terry and a friend went on a camping trip to a state park known as Devil's Den. But instead of a wilderness adventure, they experienced an encounter with something unknown and unimaginable. Lovelace recounted the night of the incident began with the sounds of the forest, which had eerily "all gone quiet." They soon noticed a triangular formation of lights that rapidly approached, blocking out the sky between them. The object moved over their camp, and the two friends felt the need to immediately go to sleep. When they woke up about 4 hours later, they observed what Lovelace described as approximately 16 "little guys in twos and threes" walking near the campsite. They quickly stepped into a beam of light and disappeared.

The two terrified friends finally worked up the courage to bolt for the car and leave. When they reached an all-night gas station, they were so thirsty they drank water from the faucet in the bathroom. They noticed an apparent sunburn all over their bodies "even [on] the soles of my feet," said Lovelace. Both were in the Air Force, and authorities questioned them closely. Lovelace said that he was able to remember being inside the object with many other terrified people and "these little grey guys running all around." He observed a tall, human-looking figure, which seemed to read his mind when they locked eyes, and a praying mantis-type creature. Lovelace was hypnotized and interrogated by Air Force personnel who had likely questioned others with similar experiences.