NUFORC Sighting 75330

Occurred: 1976-04-25 21:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2010-05-06 20:49 Pacific
Duration: 1 minute
No of observers: 2

Location: Brownsville, TN, USA

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

I saw a wheel within a wheel

Even though my sighting occurred back in April of 1976, I remember the event like it was yesterday. It’s something I will never forget.

My Navy buddies and I, all stationed at NATTC Millington at the time, were driving back from a weekend in Nashville. We were traveling in two cars. I was driving the second car, my red Fiat X1/9. Since my car was only a two seater, it was just me and one other guy who witnessed the event. It was a Sunday night and warm enough to drive with the hardtop removed from my car. Our view out the roof of my car was perfect.

I don’t recall exactly which back road we were traveling on, but we did exit I-40 at some point, west of Nashville, so that we could come into Millington from the north. I’m fairly certain we passed through Covington, so I’m guessing we were on highway 54, west of Brownsville...thanks to Google maps today that would seem the most logical route we would have driven. Today, it seems a bit out of the way to get from Nashville to Millington, but you have to keep in mind I was young, loved to drive my convertible, and because it was a warm night out, I was most likely looking for any excuse to drive with the top off and delay our arrival back to the barracks as long as I could.

I was the first to spot the bright light that was slowly moving to the north of the highway. It was quite low to the ground and moving parallel with us. I would say it was about a quarter of a mile away, maybe slightly further. At first I thought it was a helicopter shinning a spotlight on the ground. I then pointed it out to my buddy.

I was driving the speed limit, which was most likely 55 mph. As we continued to watch the light, for maybe five seconds or so, it began to accelerate at a high rate of speed (still moving parallel with us), then in an instant, it changed direction at 90 degrees (turning to its left) and rapidly accelerated perpendicular to us, which put my car on a direct path to meet "this light" about a 100-150 yards ahead.

Because it was obvious to me that our paths were going to cross rather quickly, I immediately took my foot off the gas and began to slow down. I still had no idea what this thing was.

This light was nearly instantly on the right side of the road, then it slowly passed over the highway directly in front of us, 60 to 80 feet off the ground. So it was pretty low. It was at this point I realized this was no light.

It was perfectly circular in shape, with a brushed metallic color much like a stainless steel appliance. The bottom of the craft was about the same diameter as the width of the highway. I’ve always estimated it to be about 40 to 60 feet in diameter. What I’ve always referred to as the "flight deck" of the craft, was about two-thirds the diameter of the bottom section. (Imagine a round piece of cake with a smaller diameter piece of cake stacked on top of it.) A Christian friend of mine once told me I witnessed the "wheel, within a wheel." The non-Christian I am, has since learned it’s a biblical reference from Ezekiel. (Still not enough proof to change my mind.) As the craft passed directly in front of us, I noticed the flight deck section had an array of windows that were rectangular/trapezoidal in shape, translucent in color, arranged in alternating colors of red, yellow, green.

It passed from our right to left, directly in front of us. When it reached the left side of the road...just above the south ditch area of the highway, it began to bank to its left, directly toward us. I can’t swear to it, but I’m pretty sure my car was at a near dead stop at this point and I’m sure our mouths were hanging wide open.

As it passed directly over us, I noticed a circular row of lights on the bottom of the craft. They were in the same color scheme as the upper lights...red, yellow, and green. But these lights blinked on and off in an orbital fashion.

One thing I distinctly remember is that it was perfectly quiet. The craft made no mechanical noise. The only sound I recall was the sound of a big hunk of something cutting through the night air. I tell people it sounded like buffeting wind...similar to the sound a low flying goose makes as it passes overhead.

The craft passed right over my car, with the two of us looking straight up out of the top of my car. Once it passed over us, I turned to look back over my right shoulder and it looked like it was going to land in a field just past a grove of trees, on the north side of the road. At that point I just wanted to get the heck out of there so I hit the gas.

Get this. My buddy was a die-hard amateur photographer with a 35mm camera and extra lenses...all packed in his camera bag tucked behind the seat he was sitting in. Plenty of photos of The Grand Ole Opry, I’m sure...but neither of us had the presence of mind to pull the thing out to snap off the proof the world has been waiting for. (Whenever I hear critics argue..."but there’s no proof," I can understand why.) I drove back to the base with both of us looking behind us the entire time. When we walked into the TV lounge area of the barracks, our buddies who we had been following asked us where we had been. They claimed to have been back on base 45 minutes before we had arrived behind them. I haven’t a clue as to where those 45 minutes went. I try not to think about it.

The next morning during our first class break, my buddy and I pulled aside our class instructor...a Marine Corps gunnery sergeant. We began telling him our story, and then he stopped us and took us into his office to hear what we had to say. Because we were stationed on a Navy training command that also included a Naval air station, my buddy and I were convinced the air station’s air traffic control tower would have some sort of record keeping or electronic recording from the previous night’s air traffic activity. Gunny wouldn’t have any of it and ordered us to never repeat our story. I’m guessing he thought we were two sailors attempting to come up with some nut-case story to get a discharge.

I feel fortunate to have had the experience...whatever it was. It’s something I’ll never forget.




NUFORC Note:

Witness indicates that date is approximate. PD


Posted 2010-05-12

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