At 40th anniversary of Pascagoula UFO incident, survivor says it turned his life upside down

In this Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2013 photo, Calvin Parker, Jr., stands in the area where he and fellow Mississippian Charles Hickson were allegedly abducted by aliens on Oct. 11,1973, on the banks of the Pascagoula River in Pascagoula Miss. The incident made headlines, sparked UFO sightings nationwide and became one of the most widely examined cases on record. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) (The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Oct. 18, 1973 file photograph taken in Gautier, Miss., Charles Hickson, left, and Calvin Parker Jr., of Pascagoula, Miss., recount the experience of their alleged abduction by aliens from the banks of the Pascagoula River where they were fishing. (AP Photo/Mississippi Press, Gary Holland, File) (The Associated Press)

Calvin Parker Jr. says he met an unidentified flying object and its occupants on the banks of a river in coastal Mississippi 40 years ago.

Today, the 58-year-old man is still grappling with his encounter with what he says were gray, wrinkly-skinned, crab-clawed creatures.

The Oct. 11, 1973, Pascagoula (PASS-kuh-GOO'-luh) incident made headlines, sparked UFO sightings nationwide and became one of the most widely examined cases on record.

Parker's friend and fishing buddy that night, the late Charles Hickson, never tired of telling the story to anyone who listened until he died in 2011.

But Parker says it turned his life upside down. He tried to dodge the spotlight for decades, moving frequently before returning to Mississippi's Gulf Coast in recent years.