Documentary

In June of 1982 I was fishing in a secluded mountaintop lake with my friend Willie Nelson. No, he wasn't the country singer. He was a State College, Pennsylvania DJ. He is a giant kind of fella who stands about 11 feet tall in his socks. It was a Sunday night, June 20th, the night before my birthday, and we decided to spend an all-nighter at the lake fishing. The place was in the middle of a wooded area, and there was nothing around for miles. Just before midnight and my birthday, we both saw something I'm sure we will never forget. I've since lost track of Willie. Last I heard he was living on a boat in L.A. So if you're out there, buddy, drop me a line. What we saw was a series of bright lights in the sky. They were flying extraordinarily close to the ground and moving quite slowly across the sky. What impressed both of us most of all was that they never made a sound. At first we suspected they were individual objects. I remember thinking they might be missiles of some kind. But as they flew overhead, the space between them blocked out the stars. It was a solid object. We went immediately back to the radio station and phoned the FAA, local airport, and whomever else we could think of. It was a hell of a thing. I still don't know what we saw that night, but it still appears vividly to me if I close my eyes. I wrote down the experience as a song for my Invented Memories album, which I will include at the end of the review should you be interested in hearing it.

We're not alone. I don't mean in an extraterrestrial sense. I mean as witnesses to an unidentified flying objects. There have been millions of such reports over the decades. Often these sightings are dismissed as coming from crackpots or just someone desperate for attention. The government has waged a long campaign to discount these sightings as either unreliable or something more explainable like weather balloons or flares. But there have been some very credible witnesses over the years, people you would be hard-pressed to lump into any of the categories I've named. We're talking trained observers with sterling reputations. Together many of us reject these government claims of what we might have witnessed. To those claims we join in unanimously: I Know What I Saw.

"I make a living in the movies, but for the past 20 years I've also been a cop. And, along with some of the finest deputies on the force, I serve the people of Jackson Parish, Louisiana. My name is Steven Seagal. That's right, Steven Seagal, deputy sheriff."

We've all seen Steven Seagal kick the bad guys butts in the movies. Since 1988's Above The Law, Seagal has gained a reputation for playing a tough guy. What most people didn't know is that for just about as long he has been a fully commissioned police officer working a beat in Southern Louisiana. Recruited by the legendary Sherriff Harry Lee, Seagal works as a reserve officer for the Sherriff's office there. He pretty much does what any cop in the field would do. He responds to calls, makes arrests, and serves in whatever capacity might be required. He also uses his own extensive martial arts training to teach workshops for his fellow officers and up-and-coming officers in training. Now, on the surface you might be tempted to look upon this work as some kind of publicity stunt or half baked celebrity honorary role. The fact that A&E is now doing a reality show on his exploits on the force would tend to solidify such feelings. However, the truth is that he's been doing it for 20 years, actually going out of his way to avoid bringing attention to the gig. Believe it or not, this stuff's for real.