Post by aliensun on May 14, 2021 1:40:43 GMT
The following is a report of a UFO sighting that I had last Thursday, June 18, 1998. The sighting was remarkable in itself, but what made it even more so was the situation in which it happened, and I think that is what makes it relevant if nothing else. I was in Laramie, Wyoming, attending The 19th Annual Rocky Mountain UFO Conference. On that evening a session had finished at about 10 o'clock. At about 10:20pm MDT I was feeling "antsy" and stepped outside to do what I do often and that is to check the sky. My vantage point was from a slightly elevated position on the University of Wyoming campus looking to the north- northwest at downtown Laramie.
As I stepped out to the sidewalk, surrounded with buildings, trees, and exterior lights not at all conducive to sky-watching, I saw a fabulous sight. Framed in the only large area of sky between the several storied university dorm across the street, my dorm to my back, and the tree to my right, was a slowly moving group of immense strobe lights. Three of them were quite bright, huge and brilliant with an additional three, four, maybe five flashing at a far-less intensity than the larger ones. They all were a very white light, into the bluish range. Even the smaller ones were many times brighter than any aircraft strobes. They were more akin to those seen at some show events these days.
Believing in the first couple of seconds that I was seeing an aircraft, I marveled at how low it was. But the spacing between the lights was too great. I tried to reevaluate that assumption as perhaps they were instead a close formation of small craft (supposedly the explanation for the Hudson River sightings several years earlier. Note: this event was before small drones were common.) Multiple small aircraft would better explain the large spacing and the fact that they were a collection of multiple strobes confined within one area. And since I noticed no regular pattern or order to the blinking, that also indicated individual and independent sources. Except, that is, it seemed that never was more than one on at the same time.
There was no sound from it, and no traffic noise to mask it. The object was moving very slowly. It was about at the 2o'clock position as I generally faced west. After a few seconds of trying to come to terms with what I was seeing, it gave another type of strobe-like flash which illuminated the entire body but of which I saw no point of origin. Evidently, the flashing strobes were shielded from reflecting off the body of the craft, otherwise, I certainly would have seen a part of the body illuminated at each flash, especially with the larger strobes. The strobe called attention to the object, but made it difficult to discern its shape.
The impression I got in the short, illuminating flash was that it was triangular shaped, thick and wide. By that time, of course, there was no doubt in my mind what I was witnessing. I watched it, awe struck. A few seconds later, it again illuminated itself, confirming my impression of a very large, triangular body every bit as big as a C5 transport of a non-descript drab coloration. But this was moving too slow to be an airplane of any type, and it was silent. It was quite low, probably no more than 2000 feet over the town, probably no more than a mile away. Even an electrically-powered balloon would have made some noise.
I turned around and ran into the building, down a long hall, back into the area where a group of attendees were having a gab session. To the first one I came to, I quietly said, "I need a witness," and saying nothing more, turned on my heels and exited a door a few feet away which lead into the courtyard. The object was slowly moving as before, moving almost due east. By this time the object was toward the north at the same slow speed and altitude. My witness, Roger, was as impressed as I was, and due to the slow movement of the object, he rushed back into the dorm, to the fourth floor, to get his video camera. I rushed to my fourth floor room to get my binoculars only to discover that they were in my car in front of the dorm from where I then retrieved them. Roger had the same dumb luck in the excitement. He came down with his camera, but forgot his tape and had to go back to the fourth floor, again, to get it! (I include those details to give some idea of how slow this object was moving.)
By that time, a crowd of about 20-30 people had noticed the excitement and came out to also watch. I was the only one to see a definite body. So everyone is was less enthused about what we were witnessing than myself.
The object was in view for at least 20 to 25 minutes as it continued as before moving off to the east. Roger got some decent video of the flashing multiple flashing strobes even if he did have a bit of trouble holding his mini-8mm camera still because of all of his hurrying around. (Roger told me the next day that the tape only showed the flashing strobes and could, be said to be about anything. I understood that there would be efforts to gain more information from of the tape but never received any word of that. I did nothing with my sighting at the time but reported it on the old “Riskers UFOlist” web site where I was a member.
Since the object was totally unknown to us, no exact determinations can be made about how large it was, how fast it was moving or its altitude. However, everybody seemed to have the same impression: the object was very large by aircraft standards, not high, quite slow and silent. My observations are that it was bigger, bulkier than a C5A/747, had no wings or apparent control surfaces, not more than 2000 feet in altitude and moving steadily at no more than about 35 miles per hour with no noise.
It is amazing enough to have a decent sighting like this at any point in your life. But the high strangeness of this sighting blows my mind (and I won't even get into the personal meaning this event had for me). To recap, we had a UFO conference going on, people simply walking out of the building, and seeing a fantastic, unusual something move across the night sky that answered none of our concerns but only created more interest and questions. The object was a true UFO according to the air force definition of the term. But was it an alien ship, one of our new, super-secret craft, or something else? Was its appearance, shortly after the meeting ended for the night, just happenstance, or a planned event?
Did the strategists in our black-budget programs stage the flyover purposely for us UFO enthusiasts, expecting to whip us into a frenzy about an apparent genuine alien UFO flyover, thus, helping to shield the true identity of our own efforts with exotic craft, or was it a coincidence that a true alien craft was passing over? Was it part of the subtle “disclosure” program that works in multiple ways to engage our imaginations and conversations toward an eventual acknowledgement of alien intervention into our world? Or less seriously, was the craft was "one of ours" and our highly visible flyby was a joke to set us UFOnuts off. After all, showbiz loves attention-producing strobe lights and the craft had enough for a carnival!
(This version of the sighting has been somewhat corrected and cleaned up from the original written up a few days after the event.)
As I stepped out to the sidewalk, surrounded with buildings, trees, and exterior lights not at all conducive to sky-watching, I saw a fabulous sight. Framed in the only large area of sky between the several storied university dorm across the street, my dorm to my back, and the tree to my right, was a slowly moving group of immense strobe lights. Three of them were quite bright, huge and brilliant with an additional three, four, maybe five flashing at a far-less intensity than the larger ones. They all were a very white light, into the bluish range. Even the smaller ones were many times brighter than any aircraft strobes. They were more akin to those seen at some show events these days.
Believing in the first couple of seconds that I was seeing an aircraft, I marveled at how low it was. But the spacing between the lights was too great. I tried to reevaluate that assumption as perhaps they were instead a close formation of small craft (supposedly the explanation for the Hudson River sightings several years earlier. Note: this event was before small drones were common.) Multiple small aircraft would better explain the large spacing and the fact that they were a collection of multiple strobes confined within one area. And since I noticed no regular pattern or order to the blinking, that also indicated individual and independent sources. Except, that is, it seemed that never was more than one on at the same time.
There was no sound from it, and no traffic noise to mask it. The object was moving very slowly. It was about at the 2o'clock position as I generally faced west. After a few seconds of trying to come to terms with what I was seeing, it gave another type of strobe-like flash which illuminated the entire body but of which I saw no point of origin. Evidently, the flashing strobes were shielded from reflecting off the body of the craft, otherwise, I certainly would have seen a part of the body illuminated at each flash, especially with the larger strobes. The strobe called attention to the object, but made it difficult to discern its shape.
The impression I got in the short, illuminating flash was that it was triangular shaped, thick and wide. By that time, of course, there was no doubt in my mind what I was witnessing. I watched it, awe struck. A few seconds later, it again illuminated itself, confirming my impression of a very large, triangular body every bit as big as a C5 transport of a non-descript drab coloration. But this was moving too slow to be an airplane of any type, and it was silent. It was quite low, probably no more than 2000 feet over the town, probably no more than a mile away. Even an electrically-powered balloon would have made some noise.
I turned around and ran into the building, down a long hall, back into the area where a group of attendees were having a gab session. To the first one I came to, I quietly said, "I need a witness," and saying nothing more, turned on my heels and exited a door a few feet away which lead into the courtyard. The object was slowly moving as before, moving almost due east. By this time the object was toward the north at the same slow speed and altitude. My witness, Roger, was as impressed as I was, and due to the slow movement of the object, he rushed back into the dorm, to the fourth floor, to get his video camera. I rushed to my fourth floor room to get my binoculars only to discover that they were in my car in front of the dorm from where I then retrieved them. Roger had the same dumb luck in the excitement. He came down with his camera, but forgot his tape and had to go back to the fourth floor, again, to get it! (I include those details to give some idea of how slow this object was moving.)
By that time, a crowd of about 20-30 people had noticed the excitement and came out to also watch. I was the only one to see a definite body. So everyone is was less enthused about what we were witnessing than myself.
The object was in view for at least 20 to 25 minutes as it continued as before moving off to the east. Roger got some decent video of the flashing multiple flashing strobes even if he did have a bit of trouble holding his mini-8mm camera still because of all of his hurrying around. (Roger told me the next day that the tape only showed the flashing strobes and could, be said to be about anything. I understood that there would be efforts to gain more information from of the tape but never received any word of that. I did nothing with my sighting at the time but reported it on the old “Riskers UFOlist” web site where I was a member.
Since the object was totally unknown to us, no exact determinations can be made about how large it was, how fast it was moving or its altitude. However, everybody seemed to have the same impression: the object was very large by aircraft standards, not high, quite slow and silent. My observations are that it was bigger, bulkier than a C5A/747, had no wings or apparent control surfaces, not more than 2000 feet in altitude and moving steadily at no more than about 35 miles per hour with no noise.
It is amazing enough to have a decent sighting like this at any point in your life. But the high strangeness of this sighting blows my mind (and I won't even get into the personal meaning this event had for me). To recap, we had a UFO conference going on, people simply walking out of the building, and seeing a fantastic, unusual something move across the night sky that answered none of our concerns but only created more interest and questions. The object was a true UFO according to the air force definition of the term. But was it an alien ship, one of our new, super-secret craft, or something else? Was its appearance, shortly after the meeting ended for the night, just happenstance, or a planned event?
Did the strategists in our black-budget programs stage the flyover purposely for us UFO enthusiasts, expecting to whip us into a frenzy about an apparent genuine alien UFO flyover, thus, helping to shield the true identity of our own efforts with exotic craft, or was it a coincidence that a true alien craft was passing over? Was it part of the subtle “disclosure” program that works in multiple ways to engage our imaginations and conversations toward an eventual acknowledgement of alien intervention into our world? Or less seriously, was the craft was "one of ours" and our highly visible flyby was a joke to set us UFOnuts off. After all, showbiz loves attention-producing strobe lights and the craft had enough for a carnival!
(This version of the sighting has been somewhat corrected and cleaned up from the original written up a few days after the event.)