no, not smoking...it was a reference to the Cigarette Smoking Man on the show X-Files. But I guess noone here watches it as it went over like a lead balloon!<br><br>

Sounds like a once in a lifetime job for sure.<br><br>However there are possibly many whom could argue that the lights you saw were actually generated by the jet fighters forward adjusted landing lights or even sighting lights can often be invisible between the plane and the spot where the light appears to land/reflect. this spot which may even be on moisture haze in the atmosphere, that light reflects from. <br><br>Mind you I will not attempt to argue that point as I did not see your objects.<br><br>There is no doubt that there are many things that occur which can leave you with that "most memorable feeling of my life".. feeling. Most of them are just too hard to talk about since we afraid someone will tell us we are looney or worse treat us with suspicion. <br><br>I had a strange experience with the police when I rang and asked had anyone reported noises when an earthquake like occurrence, caused me to want to know if others had sensed it. We are in an non seismic area. The police were acting as if I was accusing them of seccretly blowing something up... but there was no need for that, they were just covering their arse.. I published it in the paper after having had two other confirmations (this earthquake occurred at 2:15 AM). I received another seven phone calls, all from sane people who had for some reason been up at that time. We tracked it in a line from my place almost 40 kilometres, from our "sensings". I checked with the seismic authorities and they said that an earthquake of any magnitude had not been detected. I checked with the local soil and water management scientific faculty, as I knew they had a device which measured the slight fluctuations in the water table. I was informed that the disturbance had happened between readings so it had no possibility of being recorded but they suggested that the seismic stations were too far away, to have recorded an earth tremor below 1 on the richter scale.. and went on to say that if one had occured at depth immediately below us and was as much as 1.6, that no detector could have picked it up. <br>So I felt vindicated in my assessment. <br>and it was an unreal experience to be alone on a crisp frosty night under a 360º sky where there had never been an earthquake in living memory and I had never experienced one before. An experience I will always claim as one of those "most amazing happenings" yet Californians just shrug off earthquakes 5 times the intensity, on a regular basis.<br><br>

Now you've gone and scared the beejeezus outta me.<br><br>And here I was thinking I was a hardened skeptic...<br><br>deebee<br><br>

yep.. plonk. I didn't watch enough X files to get it.. my son would have though.<br><br>I thought you were saying that you smoked "straight" cigarettes and the rest of us must be on the "wacky baccy" ;)<br><br>

I'm am SO anti-aliens and sh!t it's not funny. It's worse than a skeptic. I'm a UFO atheist-- I don't believe in them period. I've never watched the X-files and don't want to. (Give me Peaks, or give me death..)<br><br>Anyhow, a few years back, I was driving through the general area of Roswell New Mexico heading East across the country. It was high noonish, sunny, clear skies. No clouds anywhere. While I was driving (alone, undistracted) I noticed a greasy black band in the sky, ahead of me to the left. It was like an oil streak, streaking across the sky. Like a black rubber band snapping.<br><br>I thought it was some kind of stealth flyer or whatever, but then I realized it made NO sound. I pulled over and the mostly empty highway. It was quiet.<br><br>It then hit me that what I saw moved REEEEEAAAAALLLLYYYYYYY fast. That it might have been a black object BLLUURRRRIIIINNNNGGG itself across the sky.<br><br>I told my military tech/science guy friend about it when I arrived East. He said something surprising. He said a few years back, an object travelled from San Francisco to LA an a truly impressive speed. So impressive, it registered on all the Califonria earthquake equipment. I can't recall how fast it was going, but it was WAY past human speeds. That's all he'd tell me, and he's not the type to fsck with you.<br><br>Of both stories, I presume it's a military tech more than aliens.<br><br>But I'm clueless, so don't quote me..<br><br>Do you rhumba? Excellent! Now pick a rhumba and sit down.. GM

Dude, there's no way I'm dissing your experience. My response to Carp was a confession that I had not considered the satellite angle in the case of the experience that I shared.<br><br>I'm also not saying Carp's explanation is the correct one. And as he added at the finish, the third possibility is that it remains a "UFO" with all that entails.<br><br>Your instance was entirely different to mine in the sense that we were not observing the same event. So my judgement of what you saw is absolutely in line with what you reported.<br><br>What it was you saw will remain a mystery. Moreso perhaps than my encounter. <br><br>

Well I can't claim to have any answer to your UFO puzzle, Steve. Whatever those things you saw were, there seems to have been a reaction from the military. If they discovered the "truth", I guess we'll never know. But there's always a chance that our children's children's children might be privy to the truth. I hope so.<br><br>The one thing about these first hand encounters is that it's the witnesses' testimony. It's not some writer or journo using someone else's story to get famous or rich. And for that reason, I for one am more inclined to believe that testimony.<br><br>

Well aware of what you were saying, I was responding in a way to the whole thread of replies just making sure that everyone realises that I have gone over and over this event with all witnessing parties concerned, it happened some 25 years ago or more. There can be no doubt that it was not, Min Min lights or any such explanation As it just does not fit any known phantasmagoric assertations *w*. The only similarities with your sighting are that it was low, it was fast, it was just a light and it left you in complete doubt as to what it could possibly have been. Sorry it was mere coincidence that my last post landed in the queue after your name.. Nobody else seems to follow any rules about where in the order they place their posts... and what is this word dissing.. ?<br><br>

Fear not. WalMart is selling beejeezus for $1.99/lb. So you can replenish. <br><br>

Yep... seeing is beleiving.<br>The night we saw the big meteor for example there were three of us we had been out watching Halleys comet and it was maybe 2:30 am we were all about to wind up and head to bed. It is faily customary for males her to empty bladders before the drive over rough roads home so that is what we were engaged in when I spotted the spark of entry of this huge meteor.. I pointed it out to the others but whther they were too tired or whether they partly missed it, I cannot be sure as the other two were never keen to report it. Not long afterward I began to hear stories about how we had been missing meteors that came straight at us.., in our detection of approaching bodies and that some had managed to narrowly miss us. Later I noticed that many years before someone had caught one on camera near Florida in the daytime. I saw the photo in some magazine at the dentists. It was identical to mine in almost every way except for the daylight background. Yep it made so much light that it could be the foreground in a daylight shot.. when it as actually millions of miles away. Maybe someone would beleive if I happened to have a camera rolling at the time.<br><br>