NUFORC Sighting 88935

Occurred: 2012-05-04 22:25 Local
Reported: 2012-05-13 03:58 Pacific
Duration: 45 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Santa Fe, TX, USA

Shape: Circle
Characteristics: Changed Colo

Seven circular balls of white to orange light's taking on to different spectacular flying formations in the sky.

INTRODUCTION: On Friday May 4, 2012 I was on my way to work from my home in Santa Fe,Texas to Galveston where I work as a veteran police officer of 32 years currently assigned to the night watch 11: pm to 7: am.

DETAILS: It is a 23 mile one way trip of which I have been driving for twenty years.

This particular Friday night was no different than any other. I was driving east on FM Road 1764, a four lane with a center turn lane and narrow shouldered concrete state highway, in the right lane out of habit and right at the speed limit of 50 mph. I knew there were approx. four or five other vehicles or so behind me by their head lights in my rear view mirrors. This is a fairly consistently busy and traveled roadway all the way from State High way 6 in Santa Fe to Bay Street in Texas City.

As in any typical like story I was just driving along when something in the distant sky got my attention. For a few split seconds I saw what I initially perceived to have been the typical small red marker light of an air plane of some sort, frequently seen in this part of the country. There's quite a bit of air traffic around here as we are only about 20 - 25 miles or so to the south west of NASA Space Center Houston, Hobby Airport Houston, USAF Ellington field Houston, George Bush International north Houston, Shoals field Galveston, and a hand full of small privately owned airports as well.

In a matter of seconds I guess it was the fact this light I initially saw was getting much bigger because of its speed now that I think about it. In fact it is really beginning to bug me in that I can not remember verbatim the exact sequence of events but to get right to enough of what I did see is this.

This light began to pick up speed from a tiny red like dot in the lower part of the sky oncoming to the south east of me headed west as if it were may be originally running along parallel to the sea shore of and/ or coming in from The Gulf of Mexico out of Galveston. Then it seemed to have hooked a sharp 90 degree turn of some sort to the north, headed in my direction but ahead of me which would have been some where around IH 45 I guess. This was when I could clearly see that it just wasn't one light I was looking at. I could have sworn I was seeing a whole string of these things, as many as 40 plus? What ever they were began to make different formations, three abreast side by side in two coll om’s with one coll om slightly ahead of the other in multiple pairs of a distinct total of six and so on. I even saw them shift from this to the typical triangle type image you can find on Youtube in that all you could see was the lights themselves, no structure of any kind if any att! ached to. Then back to a single perfectly aligned long row just one after another headed back to the west. I had slowed down to 30 mph or so glancing back and forth from my rear view mirrors as I didn't want to get hit from the rear while desperately trying to watch this parade it seemed, of lights across the sky. This was when I noticed no one was passing me and could only assume they were doing the same thing in awe of these lights. Then again, they cut to the north switching to these same type of different formations, back to the west if I recall, then as if intended just for me and the few others behind me, to the north again just in time to parade across High way 1764 a short distance ahead right in front of me.

I was ahead of all east bound traffic the entire time in this area and had pulled over onto the narrow shoulder to a complete stop by this time. I was fanatically trying to find my Nikon digital camera I try to carry at all times with in reach of which turned up a little too late in the back seat of my car. I watched these lights disappear into the northern sky between glances back and forth looking for my camera. One thing I do in fact distinctly remember was that when they crossed over the high way in front of me, almost directly over head as I had to look nearly straight up through the upper part of my windshield from rolling to a gradual complete stop not expecting them to turn like they did and cross the high way, I counted 7 individual lights one right after another in single file as they crossed the high way. They were a sort of a hazy orange in color at this time and about the size of an orange regarding the distance in the sky from me in which I was watching. There was a darker solid looking orange ring around the circumference of it with no glow, tail,etc. such as a star or a comet and there was defiantly some sort of rotation going on with in. Once on the other side of the high way they went back to a staggered two column of three side by side formation with a single one by itself behind the six in front of it as if this position were some kind of safety watch for the six in front? I can also recall that when ever they did decide to maneuver one way or another in altitude or in making a turn on a dime as they say, it would be in this single file pattern all coming together one behind the other and kind of gave me a roller coaster feeling just watching them as I saw this several times in the entire episode from start to finish. This is exactly what it reminded me of in watching a roller coaster from the ground at an amusement park when you see the first car cresting over the steepest longest drop and all the rest following behind i! t as they one by one come into view picking up lighting type s! peed in a split second free fall, and then whipping into a sudden sharp embanked turn one direction or another at the bottom of fixed tracks, only this was a roller coaster ride taking place right before my eyes in the sky.

I don't know why I was not any more excited than usual at the time this was taking place.

May be it is because I am 57 years old now by just a few days and a total of 38 years of my adult life as a police officer in “nothing surprises me any more” in being just numb to it all.

Just losing my dear mother in March, family problems, just finishing an extended extra job just the day before didn't help anything either. I was tired and wore out from it all hence not being able to find my camera in time. I had awoken from about just three hours or so of no sleep in between headed in again for another eight hours. I was not in a good mood to begin with but on my way again just the same. During this ordeal I couldn't help but think, no I'm not going to get on the (police) radio with this and for what as in “it's best to remain silent and just have others guessing your a fool rather than opening your mouth to confirm it” and for what even though by force of habit I found myself reaching for it. They were gone in a matter or seconds any way. I found myself in this situation the rest of the way to Galveston. I know what I saw though and better yet I know what others behind me also had to have saw. When I got to work I called the Santa Fe Police dispatcher on ! the telephone as I refuse to have a cell phone since they are now so user friendly, and reluctantly asked her has anyone with in the last 20 minutes or so called in anything out of the ordinary in the sky? She stated that I was her “second call” in regard to. This was good enough for me in that I knew I had saw something that up until then, I have only heard others report of. What I found interesting was that she could only tell me that the call came from a female however who ever she was, reported seeing more or less the same thing only involving a total of SIX different lights. Whether my count or hers was off or not wasn't important. It was just the fact that I was assured I wasn't beginning to “see things that were not really there” and the part of human nature I guess in knowing I wasn't alone. It is now May 13, just a week and a day since I saw this event. For various reasons I haven’t been able to complete this report.

During this time by accident I caught in on part of what my youngest son was watching on The History Channel, “Ancient Alien's” a couple of days or so after the fact, newly released and very well put together I might add. I happened to see the part where Christopher Columbus reported his nearly identical sighting of unexplained lights in the sky as far back in his days which were explained as The Jewish Manor a in his words. These lights I saw were identical to the ones presented (recreated) in this program with the exception of in The Jewish Manor a there was a total of nine instead of the seven I believed to have seen and the six by the unknown to me report e to The Santa Fe Police Department. Since I wasn’t able to take any pictures this is the best example I can provide at this time as to exactly what I know I saw. The only question in my mind as in anyone else for that matter remains, just what exactly, were they? ACTION TAKEN: Report electronically submitted to Mr. Peter Davenport, director of The National UFO Reporting Center.

DISPOSITION: Letter to The Galveston County Daily News in attempts to bring forth any other witnesses of this particular occurrence and/or any others recently in this area forth coming.

Posted 2012-05-13