EXETER, N.H. —
The Pentagon released declassified files this week on UFOs, now referred to as unidentified anomalous phenomena, and while the files don’t provide answers, New Hampshire’s own history with unidentified objects keeps the questions alive.
Amy Delgado, of Kensington, said she started asking questions after her children saw what they said looked like a flying car.
“Two of them had seen it,” she said. “I was driving, so I looked into it and I’m like, what? What on Earth could this be?”
A field in Kensington is the site of what became known as the “Incident at Exeter” in 1965, when an 18-year-old hitchhiker reported seeing strange lights in the sky.
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In the 1960s, Portsmouth residents Betty and Barney Hill claimed aliens abducted them in Franconia Notch.
In 2018, a retired Navy commander living in New Hampshire said he saw unidentified objects while flying in 2004.
The files released by the Pentagon go as far back as the 1940s. They don’t claim that the objects were of extraterrestrial origin, and experts have provided explanations for many of them.
But some of the objects do appear strangely shaped, move unusually or exhibit odd behavior.
“That one’s kind of bizarre, though,” said Janine Fabiano, of North Hampton, looking at one of the files. “I don’t know any plane that would do that.”
Some said the release of the files was just a distraction from the administration’s unpopular decisions.
“They’re trying to kind of sweeten the pie,” said Jackson Conway, of Rye. “That’s how it sounds to me.”
For others, the files leave more questions than answers.
“I think it is a good thing that they’re trying to be more transparent, but I really don’t know what to make out of it,” said Maggie, of Stratham.
Delgado said she sees the file release as a sign of more to come.
“A lot of things get swept under the rug, and there are systems of control that just don’t want this information out,” she said.
President Donald Trump said people can decide for themselves what the files mean.