NUFORC Sighting 156783

Occurred: 1968-08-09 20:30 Local
Reported: 2020-05-30 11:36 Pacific
Duration: 10-15 minutes
No of observers: 0

Location: Memphis, TN, USA

Shape: Sphere
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aura or haze around object

Ref Shere Observed In 1968.

I turned 21 years old on August 3rd of that year, which was a Saturday. The next Friday, August 9th, a friend wanted to take me out to a local pub for my first “legal” beer. He came over to my duplex near the University to pick me up about 8:30 that evening. It was almost dark when we left my house to walk to his car, which was parked on the street and facing South.

There were low, thin scattered clouds that evening. So low that they were illuminated by the ambient light of the street lights, neon signage and automobile lights of the area. As we walked Eastward down my walkway to the street, I saw a red light streaking from the Southwest, skimming the clouds and illuminating them from above, turning them pinkish. What really caught our attention was the speed of the object and the fact that there was no sound associated with it.

It simply stopped like it had run into a brick wall when it was due East of us. Still no sound of any sort. It started “pulsing”, then made a small circle. When it was moving it didn't pulse. It stopped and started pulsing again, then made a another small circular maneuver. We watched it repeat this for several minutes, and were joined on the sidewalk by three US Navy personnel who were stained at the Naval Air Station at Millington, TN, who watched dumbfounded.

As we all stood there, it started pulsing faster and faster until it was a constant red, then it shot away like it was fired from a cannon. It was literally gone from view in a second, and seemed to be receding, as if it was moving away from us at an angle. What size it was is difficult to say because there was no point of reference or scale. It's apparent size was like a piece of bird-shot held at arm's length. Just a glowing red sphere with no discernible features, and never made a sound. The Navy guys started arguing among themselves about what they had just seen , and one of them went inside to call the air station, but he said all the lines were jammed when he came back.

I don't know what it WAS, but I can tell you what it WAS NOT. It wasn't an airplane or a helicopter. It wasn't a Chinese lantern or the planet Mars or swamp gas or any other darned thing.

The names of the Navy guys are lost to history, and my friend has always refused to discuss the incident ever since that evening.

Posted 2020-06-25