Now I will tell you my second close encounter, this occurred on Oct. 24, 1973, I was 19 years old. It was in the same town, which was Jacksonville Beach, Florida.
There was a "wave" of UFO sightings in September and October of 1973, and I spent a great deal of time sitting in my front yard looking at the sky that month. That was not unusual for me, as I have always been into astronomy. I owned a telescope back then, and I own one now. The weather was always warm in Florida, so I would spend many hours looking at the sky, but especially when there were all these many reports.
On the night I saw this UFO, I saw a red light in the sky that sat in one spot for a long time. That got my attention, because only helicopters or blimps can do that, but this light made no sound. Still, it was just a light, so I was not sure what it was. After awhile it slowly moved off toward the ocean, it was around 11PM. I went in and told my Dad I was driving down to the beach to see if I could get a better look at this object.
I drove down to the beach and parked beside a Holiday Inn in our town. This was right on the beach. I stood on the boardwalk and looked out to the northeast, where I saw this red light again. It just sat still in one spot for a long time, over 10 minutes. That was interesting, but after awhile I became bored, as all it was was a light, I could see no detail. Finally, I decided to go back home.
When I turned around to walk back to my car, I suddenly saw this very large orange object coming right down the beach. I was facing south, and it was coming north directly toward me. It was shaped kind of like a football, but more like a diamond with straight lines and angles. It glowed a bright orange and looked exactly like hot steel looks in a furnace, and it was surrounded by an orange haze or halo. It made absolutely no sound whatsoever. This object was probably about a half mile down the beach and directly over a car that was driving north on the beach. Both the object and the car were approaching me at maybe 20 miles per hour. This object looked to be no more than 150 to 200 feet up. I would estimate it was about 60 feet wide and 20 feet high, or about the size of a house.
The car turned to my right and exited the beach at a ramp, but this object continued to approach me until it was only maybe a block or two away from me, VERY close. I actually started to get a little afraid and looked for a place to hide from this object. I was going to go down into a stairwell that led down to the beach when I noticed a man standing in front of the Holiday Inn smoking a cigarette. He was leaning against the railing on the boardwalk and looking straight out at the ocean, completely unaware of this object just above and to his right. I ran over to the man, pointing up and saying, "Look at that!". He looked up very surprised and exclaimed, "What is that?!?" I answered, "I don't know, but I think it is one of those UFOs." We both just stood there and stared at this object, which had stopped still in the sky and was just sitting there. It still did not make any noise whatsoever.
As I said before, this object looked solid, like steel in a furnace. It seemed to have waves of light that passed upward through it, like a Jacob's Ladder that you see in a Sci-fi movie or Frankenstein. Then the object seemed to morph or flatten out into a long flat rectangle. The man said, "Did you see that?", I answered "Yes". We continued to watch. It just sat there about another minute, and then it did something I will never forget, it shot off like a bullet to the east out over the ocean. When I say shot off, I mean, this thing went from ZERO to many thousands of miles per hour INSTANTLY, I have never seen anything move so fast. It moved so fast that it appeared to stretch like a piece of taffy, and then it turned into a little orange ball that shot over the horizon. As it passed over the horizon it seemed to dive downwards, showing it was following the curvature of the earth. It left a long orange vapor trail like the haze that had surrounded it, that took 3 or 4 minutes to fade away. I did not make any noise whatsoever when it did this.
The man asked, "Do you think that was a rocket?" I said, "No, rockets don't sit still in the sky". I knew what I was saying, because I have seen many rockets from where I lived. Back in the 60s we could see the huge Atlas rockets when they went up, and even the Space Shuttle years later. Even rockets do not shoot across the entire sky in a second.
Anyway, the man asked me if I was going to tell anybody, but I told him I didn't know who to tell. I drove home and told my Dad, but he was half asleep and I don't think he heard me. The next day I told some people at work, and they all laughed at me, which made me embarrassed and angry. But luckily for me, a report came on the radio that said several people had reported seeing this UFO. When my co-workers heard that they began to believe me, which made me feel a little better. Still, I have found most people think you are crazy when you tell them these stories.
So, this UFO sighting was pretty dramatic, especially when this thing shot away. I have NEVER seen anything move so fast before or after.
When experts admit Life is rare, although they sound like Cheerleaders FOR Life when they say it; it's easy to deconstruct those numbers even further...
