There was no solid way to refute the UFO claims, so theories abounded. The UFO needed power, one story went, so it was headed to a nearby nuclear plant. Another explanation had the UFO looking for President Bush at his Crawford ranch, about an hour's drive from Stephenville.
In the deeply religious community, some believed the lights could be a sign from God. A Bible study group at the Bread of Life Ministries discussed the events at one meeting, and Sandra Evans, 59, said she thought maybe they were guardian angels sent to Earth.
Her husband, Keith, 60, pastor of the church, wasn't sure. "Could be the military," he said. "Could be the end of times."
James Huse, 53, thought that whatever the lights were, they had brought him unexpected good luck. People suddenly repaid him money, legal problems with his father's estate resolved and an old girlfriend called him out of the blue.
"It's kind of a crazy thing -- it's almost like a blessing," said Huse, a retired telephone equipment installer.
Allen felt that he had witnessed something transcendent and was driven to understand what it all meant.
He flew his Cessna over Erath County's countryside, scouring the land for any sign of an alien spaceship. For three afternoons, he surveyed hundreds of square miles but found nothing.
Two weeks after the sighting, a break came in the case. Correcting its earlier statement, the Air Force said 10 F-16s were on a training mission over Erath County when the lights were initially spotted.
The town splintered into believers and skeptics. To some, the lights were becoming a joke.
"It's ridiculous," said Pam Kinsel, a member of the Stephenville High School science club. "It makes us look like a bunch of retarded hicks."
"Yeah," sighed her friend Morgan Lanier. "Inbred."
Joiner doubted the weird pattern of lights reported by Allen and others could be explained by military aircraft. Allen wasn't buying it either. "Our military wishes it had what we saw," he said.
Gaitan reasoned from the presence of the F-16s that he probably had seen a military experiment the Air Force couldn't fully disclose. "We're in the middle of a war right now," he said.
Gaitan nonetheless found himself repeatedly scanning the sky for another glimpse of the lights. One February morning at dawn, while driving the highway west of Stephenville, Gaitan spotted a mysterious ball of light shining through a field of leafless trees. He pulled over and aimed his police camera in its direction.
