NUFORC Sighting 08798

Occurred: 1965-05-05 05:35 Local
Reported: 1999-08-24 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 5 to 10 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: St. Louis County, MO, USA

Shape: Cigar
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object

I was walking to church very early on the morning of May 5, 1965. Cutting across the rear of the adjacent school parking lot, a bright streak of light caught my eye. After a few seconds, the streak reappeared and I followed the light in the direction it was traveling. Whirling to my left, the streak of light came to a halt and revealed a shape like that of a jet aircraft fuselage. It had a tail fin but no visible side wings. It had an overall color of light yellow and lightly colored bands of various colors running along the length of the fuselage. The object emitted no sound and there was no noticeable trail of exhaust.

The incident I’m about to reveal occurred when I was about nine years old. For several days after this incident, it was something I thought about quite a lot but soon I put it aside in my memory and never really thought much about it until several years later when I was a teenager. It was then that I sat down, drew a picture of what I saw and jotted down a few short notes about what happened. Although this happened some 34 years ago, it feels (the emotion of the event) as though it happened just yesterday and I remember it quite clearly. I was walking to church very early on the morning of May 5, 1965. It was still dark as I was heading to church to serve at the 6:00am Catholic Mass. From the subdivision where I lived there were a set of concrete steps from street level up to the back of adjoining school grounds. I got to the top of the stairs and began walking across the rear school parking lot when a bright streak of light, off to my left, caught my eye. I looked to the left but saw nothing. I continued to walk around the side of the school building when again a bright streak of light caught my eye. This time I stopped and faced the West to see if I could catch this streak of light. After a few seconds the streak reappeared and I tried to follow the light in the direction it was traveling. As I whirled around to my left the streak of light came to a halt (at a position about 180 degrees from when I first caught sight of it) and revealed a shape like that of a jet aircraft fuselage. It had a tail fin but no visible side wings. It’s overall color was light yellow, which seemed to glow and it had lightly colored bands of various colors running along the length of the fuselage. This horizontal pattern continued up through the tail fin. It’s hard to determine exactly how far away this object was from me. It was not hovering directly over me but it was stationary, off some distance in front of me as I faced the East. It seemed to be quite huge. I’d say, at arm’s length and using my thumb as a site, this object had to be some 10 feet or more in length. The object emitted no sound and there was no noticeable trail of exhaust such as there would be from a typical aircraft moving through the sky. My gaze was so fixed on the object itself I cannot say whether or not the object’s illumination cast light on the ground or nearby homes (less than 100 feet away) that it seemed to be hovering over. I stood there looking at this object for what felt like a full minute. First in awe at something I had never seen before and then extreme fright. I turned and began to run as fast as I could around the school and toward the church. I could feel my heart pounding and as I began to run my legs felt wobbly and I fell down. I got up but again my legs felt very heavy and I fell a second time. I began to cry and covered my face. I felt that if I could cover my face I would be safer. After what seemed like a minute or two, I got up and was finally able to run but all the while feeling like the object was still stationary in the sky. I ran all the way to the church, opened the front door and went in. I was 9 years old at the time. Although I always have had an interest in space exploration and science fiction I do not remember being preoccupied with such stories before this event that could have led me to dream or make up this story. I do admit that when this event occurred I did embellish the story about physical evidence that would indicate the object did appear. I thought that my parents or other adults would never believe me without this added information. I had claimed at the time that a rock I threw struck the side of the object and that the object burned the top of a chain-link fence.

Posted 1999-08-30