This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people.

Our next story, well, it's been considered one of the most spectacular and best

corroborated UFO close encounters of all time. Here to tell the story is Ashley Lubinsky.

She's a frequent contributor here on Our American Stories, and she's the former co-host of Discovery

Channel's Master of Arms. Take it away, Ashley.

Aliens or extraterrestrials have been the subject of fascination for pretty much all of mankind,

with some people theorizing that aliens were responsible for many ancient structures.

The pop culture interest, though, waxes and wanes.

Yet the fascination never quite goes away. From H.G. Wells's

War of the Worlds in the 19th century to more modern movements, which include the really odd

pre-COVID memes that gain traction for people to quote unquote storm Area 51, which is mildly

terrifying and luckily I don't think actually happened, to, something more serious like the congressional testimony in 2023.

All of these things show a desire for people to believe in the unknown, something beyond us.

And that endures the test of time and really takes up residents in the minds of skeptics and believers alike.

One small town in New Hampshire became known for one of the most well-documented UFO sightings in American history. Now the

term UFO unidentified flying object is now kind of defunct. They don't use it as much anymore.

The official term now is UAP, unidentified anomalous phenomenon. And the reason

that they've changed it is because unidentified flying object doesn't necessarily mean alien. It

means something they can't identify that's in the sky. Well, there are lots of things in the sea and on

land that they can't identify either.

So the government uses UAP as more of a catch-all for these things that they can't identify.

But it is also important to point out that just because you can't identify it does not necessarily mean it is alien.

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