Fife Symington
| Fife Symington |
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Fife Symington III (born 1945) is a former Republican Governor of Arizona (1991–1997) who was among the witnesses to the Phoenix Lights — the massive UFO sighting of March 13, 1997 — and who later admitted he saw one of the craft personally, reversing his initial public stance of ridicule. His 2007 reversal — published on the tenth anniversary of the sighting and followed by appearances on CNN and the Larry King Live program — made him one of the most politically prominent elected officials ever to publicly confirm a UAP sighting.
Background
Symington was born in New York City and educated at the University of Arizona. He served as Governor of Arizona for two terms beginning in 1991. His governorship ended in 1997 when he was convicted of bank fraud in connection with loan applications made during his business career before entering politics; the conviction was later overturned on appeal. He was subsequently pardoned by President Bill Clinton in January 2001.
The Phoenix Lights sighting
Main article:
Phoenix Lights
On the evening of March 13, 1997 — during Symington's second term as Governor — thousands of witnesses across Nevada and Arizona reported a vast, silent V-shaped or triangular craft traveling southward across the sky. Symington was among the witnesses to the first event — the V-formation — though he did not disclose this publicly at the time. He later described the object as "enormous and inexplicable."
The day after the sighting, Symington held a press conference at which an aide appeared dressed in an alien costume, mocking witness reports. He later explained that the ridicule had been a deliberate strategy to prevent public panic.
Steven Greer stated that he was personally present in Phoenix on the night of the sighting, working at a digital lab that had been loaned to his team to assemble a briefing for the Vice President's office, when someone ran in to report the event unfolding overhead. He also noted that the national news did not pick up the story until June 1997, despite the March sighting, a delay he found significant.
2007 admission
In March 2007, on the tenth anniversary of the incident, Symington published a written account acknowledging that he had personally seen the V-formation craft. He gave interviews to CNN anchor Anderson Cooper and to Larry King Live, each time confirming his account and calling for a serious government investigation. The admission placed the Phoenix Lights incident in a new public context: no longer merely a civilian mass sighting, but an event reported by the senior elected official of the state where it occurred.
In the literature
Symington's case — a sitting governor who witnessed a mass UFO event, publicly ridiculed it, and later reversed himself — exemplifies the pattern documented by Richard Dolan in which politicians and officials privately acknowledge the UFO reality while publicly maintaining deniability under institutional pressure.