NUFORC Sighting 23545

Occurred: 1953-08-01 14:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2002-06-30 22:46 Pacific
Duration: 15 minutes
No of observers: 10

Location: San Bernadino Mtns, Church Camp, CA, USA

Shape: Disk

UFO SAUCER APPEARS TO 7TH GRADER GROUP IN CALIF. 1953

I was a church counselor at Forest Home Camp in the San Bernadino mountains. A group of 7th graders were supposed to swim in a lake on the mountain top, but moss or scum was on our side of the lake, so we just started talking. The subject was Hawaiian dancing, I remember, and suddenly, one little boy screamed, "Hey! Look at THAT!!!!" It was silver, and looked like two saucers glued together with windows where they joined. It was so close, we could see figures at the windows that surrounded the middle seam. This was 1953, and none of us had ever seen anything move like this craft did. It hovered and then it completely disappeared until it hovered diagonally from where we had just seen it. These 7th graders were beside themselves enjoying this unbelievable demonstra- tion of mechanical manuvering. I was awestruck and was sure it belonged to our govern- ment, and how wonderful! The boys in the group knew it was a UFO, but I didn't until years later. My friend and I went to the Iowa State Fair, and they announced that there was a showing of a guided missile. I was so excited to see it up close, and when we got there, it was like a stove pipe with a tin hat and nothing compared to the craft we had seen. I asked the military man where the craft was that looked like two saucers with the windows in the middle, and that hovered here and hovered there and disappeared in between times, and he looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Lady, we don't have ANYTHING like THAT!" Well, I was so upset to think that what I saw might not belong to America, that my friend and I walked four miles home and I was in terror the whole time thinking how I was so wrong and those little seventh graders were so hep and right.

I don't know how large this thing was because we had nothing to compare it to since it was above us and we were on the top of the mountain looking up. The windows were not clear glass, and we saw moving figures, but they were dim and didn't seem large-sized from where we were looking. (Years later, my husband and I heard a woman at my Dad's house in Myrtle Beach, SC, tell how the same type of craft that I saw landed on a freeway where she was driving, and it was enormous in size, and all the people moved to the side of the road and got out of their cars to get a better look. Some teen-ager was behind this woman, and he was so excited, he grabbed her and started jumping up and down and screaming..."I finally saw one! I finally saw one!" She was more afraid of him than the UFO. She said she was always afraid to tell anyone about her experience because she felt people think you're crazy to admit you had such an encounter.)

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NUFORC Note:

Date of incident is approximate. PD

Posted 2002-07-01