NUFORC Sighting 33686

Occurred: 1993-06-15 23:40 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2003-12-08 21:50 Pacific
Duration: About 5 minuets
No of observers: 0

Location: NAS Whidby Island/Oak Harbor, WA, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Left a trail, Emitted other objects, Changed Colo

I was in the Military at the time stationed at Navel Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington. My military occupation was Aviation Ordnance technician. I was assigned to an EA6-B Squadron. I don’t remember the exact date this happened but it was in the month of June, I remember that because I had just started working "Swing Crew" (that’s the shift that starts at 23:30 and ends at 07:30) at the beginning of June. We were just doing a shift change and there was a heated discussion between the two Petty Officer First Classes that were the supervisors of each shift and it was about something to do with some duties that were not completed by the previous shift. The supervisors had all of the people from my crew and the previous crew leave the shop while they had there heated discussion. Are hanger is on the side of the base closest to the water of the Puget Sound. Are shop was a trailer type building out side the west side of the hanger on the flight line. There is a clear view of the water when on are flight line. On this night, all flight sorties were over and the field and control tower was shut down for the night, which doesn’t happen that often, and it was very dark on the flight line that night, with all the runway lights off and all.

There were about five people on my shift. With the exception of my self, they headed to the "Gedunk" (snack-bar) in the hanger. I decided to just hangout out on the flight line and wait for the Petty Officers to get through. I walked over towards the wash rack that was to the west of are shop. It was a very clear night and some times you can see the northern lights. I had seen them from the flight line maybe a month or so earlier. I was also looking up to see if I could see any falling stars or satellites passing over. I had been out there about four or five minutes looking up and facing west, when all of a sudden I saw out of the corner of my left eye what looked like a meteor falling at what I would guess to be around a 70 degree angle towards the earth. I looked right at it and I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing. It was bright white and moving very fast, I could clearly see a smoke trail following it and it was so close to where I was standing, that I could actually hear it sizzling. I was waiting for it to impact the water of the Puget Sound where it looked to be heading. All of a sudden it changed directions abruptly at what I would guess to be some where between 200 to 500 feet above the water.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, it leveled off and headed in a northwest direction. I was speech less, I felt like a panic attack was happening to me. I looked around real quickly to see if anybody was around besides me to witness what I had just seen. I didn’t see anybody and looked back at the light right away. I couldn’t believe I could still see it. I was watching it for a few more seconds now and it turned from a bright white light to a red light. A second latter two more lights split horizontally from each side and there were now three red lights in a horizontal formation moving away from me towards the horizon, a second after it split into three, it did it again and now there were five red lights in a horizontal formation. I watched them until they flew out of sight.

I told the guys on my shift about what I had just witnessed and they just laughed and thought I was pulling their legs. I asked around the squadron if anybody else had seen it and somebody said that some one else was talking about seeing strange lights in the sky that night, but I didn’t find out who that was. I watched the local news the next day and there were reports of people seeing strange lights in the sky around that time. I can’t explain what I saw that night, but I know for a fact I didn’t hallucinate it.

NUFORC Note:

Date is approximate. PD

Posted 2003-12-09