NUFORC Sighting 28764

Occurred: 1963-07-15 18:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2003-05-12 20:48 Pacific
Duration: 8 min
No of observers: 3

Location: Great Lakes, IL, USA

Shape: Disk
Characteristics: Lights on object, Landed

Couldn't believe how large it was and made no noise...

My father was stationed in the Great Lakes Naval Training area in 1963 and we were living in the Navy housing at the time. Our house had a chain link fence in the back yard and a road that ran along the fence with woods on the other side of the road. At the time of my sighting I was playing kick ball in the back yard with my brother and sisters. It was in the evening time probably around 6:00 and there was still plenty of light out, since it stays light later in the summer. I was 12 years old at the time and my younger sister, by 3 years, was the first to point to the sky and say, "What's that?".

When we all looked up to the sky, where she was pointing, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was a disk shaped flying saucer of a tremendous size. It seemed much larger than any airplane, but didn't make any noise at all. If I was to put my arms straight out in front of me, pointing my fingers straight out also, that is how much of the horizon this saucer was taking up in the sky. It was very slowly coming down for a landing. We stared in total awe at what we were seeing. My mother at this time was talking to the lady next door standing between the two houses. I ran to get her to come and witness this with us but she wouldn't come so I went back to watch it coming down with my brother and sisters. It was saucer shaped and it had an underside that seemed to have three colored spinning layers. The colors were like orange, blue and green or something like that. Each layer was spinning in the opposite direction from the layer next to it. It looked like each layer was spinning at the same speed though. Above the spinning layers was the main body of the craft that wasn't spinning. This area was much bigger than the three smaller spinning layers below. The size of this thing was amazing and it was coming straight down keeping perfectly level as it slowly came toward the earth. I listened very hard for any sound and couldn't hear anything. What amazed me was how large it was and that it didn't seem to be concerned about people seeing it. Yes, it was still light out and it was coming down for a landing very close to the Great Lakes Naval Training Facility. I was sure that other people must have witnessed what we were witnessing. It came down close enough from where I was that I could have gone over the fence and crossed the street to go through the woods and see where it landed. I was afraid to though. For some reason I had this feeling like I might not be coming back if I was to go over to look more closely at it. Looking back now I wish I had though. I also wish I had grabbed my mothers arm and insisted t! hat she come with me to see what we were seeing. All of these years she has acted like it was my young imagination. I'll never forget what I saw though. I have a theory about the spinning colored lower sections of the saucer. It looked like three gyros spinning in opposite directions on a single axis. It would be neat to be able to do an experiment with three gyros set up like that and see if it effects gravity in any way. Just a thought. I must say that this was the neatest thing that I ever witnessed in my life and I feel very lucky to have been able to see it. If anyone has any questions about what I saw, I will do my best to try to answer them for you. I would also love to hear from anyone else who was living in the Great Lakes area at that time and witnessed the same thing.

NUFORC Note:

We have requested that the witness have the other witnesses to the event submit reports, as well. We have also suggested that he check the local newspapers for the date, to see if articles were written. The witness is an engineer, and works in the space-exploration industry. PD

Posted 2003-05-13