NUFORC Sighting 37463

Occurred: 1980-08-16 23:30 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2004-06-07 21:41 Pacific
Duration: 2 to 3 minutes
No of observers: 3

Location: Pine Springs, TX, USA

Shape: Light

A Falling Star That Changed its Mind because it went back UP!

A weekend in late August 1980 is one, which three of us in the group will never forget. It was our second and final night camping in the Guadalupe National Park near Pine Springs, Texas with part of our Boy Scout Troop from Midland, Texas. I was an Assistant Scout Master at the time and I worked as a News Reporter/Anchor at a radio station in Midland. There were 4 adults and approximately 15 scouts camping out under the open sky on cots and open pick-up truck beds. Two Scouts, about to become Eagle rank, and myself had settled in the back of a pick-up truck bed staring at the clear Eastern sky full of stars.

Best as I recall it was on August 16th close to 23:30 hours. I suddenly saw what appeared to be a "Falling Star" drop down in the Northeast. It came in at a fairly moderate speed and I thought how great it was to see such a bright falling meteorite approximately two to three miles away and guessed its circumference at 100 feet. This size of the ball of light seemed too large for a meteorite. I was a little alarmed that there was not a trailing light tail and its brightness was not decreasing which would indicate burn out. I was even more alarmed when it dead stopped approximately a thousand feet above the horizon.

It then begin to move South, stopping then moving North a little then moving South as well as changing some in elevation. This jerking motion occurred over 5 times until it dead stopped for a few seconds approximately 4 to 5 miles South of where its point of entry had been. The light remained the same size whiteness and intensity the entire time. There was no sound heard. It began its same jerking motion back toward the North where it dead stopped a few seconds at the point it had stopped after entry. Suddenly it went straight up at a speed that only recently I can barely compare to the Stealth airplane going straight up at an air show. But this ball of light did this from a dead stop! The white ball of light accelerated straight up at seemingly impossible speed and disappeared out of sight in approximately 4 seconds.

During this observation I heard myself say,” What the heck,,, is,,, that?" One Boy Scout said, "I dunno?!!" and the other Boy Scout said, I dunno either but lets not tell anyone cause no one will ever believe us!" The next morning I ask if anyone had seen anything unusual in the sky and not one of the others said they had. When they ask why I ask, I just said, "Oh, just wondering." I considered our observation a personal experience and never reported it on the air as news and never told a soul until the past couple of years, this now being 2004. I never saw a UFO before that night and I have not seen any since.

NUFORC Note:

Time and date are approximate. PD

Posted 2004-06-18