Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter passed away at the age of 100, leaving behind a legacy for future generations to ponder, including his encounter with unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Many may not be aware that Carter had promised to publicly release classified UFO files but was unable to fulfill that promise.
According to the History Channel, in 1973, while serving as the Governor of Georgia, Carter reported to the International UFO Bureau that he saw a color-changing UFO in October 1969.
Carter described the sighting as occurring around 7:30 pm outside a Lions Club meeting venue in Leary, Georgia. He observed what he described as “the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen” in the sky.
He stated that 10 to 12 other witnesses also saw the object, which was “very bright, changing colors constantly, about the same size as the moon.” It hovered about 30 degrees above the horizon, then moved towards Earth before disappearing into the distance.
In a 2005 interview with GQ magazine, Carter recounted the UFO sighting. He mentioned that a man suddenly pointed and said, “Look, to the west!”
They all saw a bright light in the sky that kept getting closer until it stopped. Carter couldn’t determine how far it was, but it stopped beyond the pine trees. Suddenly, its color changed from white to blue, then to red, and back to white.
Carter said, “I never believed it came from Mars. I knew enough physics to know there can’t be a physical flying object from Mars flying around, looking at things, and then going back.”
He noted that he wrote down the experience when he returned home, allowing him to accurately describe what he saw. It was an unidentified flying object, but he didn’t believe it came from outer space.
The History Channel reported that during his 1976 presidential campaign, Carter pledged to urge the government to publicly release all information related to UFOs to the public and scientists. However, after being elected, he reneged on his promise, citing national security concerns.
In another mysterious revelation during the GQ interview, Carter was asked about investigating the Roswell incident from 1947, a UFO crash near Roswell, New Mexico, if he had looked into any cover-ups.
Carter answered, “Well, in some ways, I have a better understanding of what our intelligence agencies are doing. I can only tell you one story now.”
He shared that the U.S. government had a twin-engine plane crash in the Central African Republic, but they couldn’t locate it. So, they had satellites orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes passing over the plane’s possible location to take photos, yet they still couldn’t find it.
Subsequently, the CIA director contacted a woman in California who claimed to have supernatural abilities. In a trance-like state, she wrote down the latitude and longitude of the plane’s location. They then positioned the satellite over that coordinates and found the plane.
Carter expressed skepticism about the incident, unsure if it was merely a coincidence, but it remained an unexplained event for him.