From: dona@bilver.uucp (Don Allen) Newsgroups: alt.alien.visitors,alt.conspiracy,sci.skeptic Subject: MUFONET: Germany Sighting Report - article Message-ID: <1993Mar11.143417.1720@bilver.uucp> Date: 11 Mar 93 14:34:17 GMT Organization: W. J. Vermillion - Winter Park, FL Lines: 213 AREA:UFO Mon 1 Mar 93 18:17 By: Don Allen To: All Re: Germany UFO Sighting --------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Forwarded from "MUFONET" * Originally by John Komar * Originally to All * Originally dated 1 Mar 1993, 15:26 MUFONET-BBS GROUP - MUFONET-BBS NETWORK ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GERMANY SIGHTING REPORT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [NOTE: I received this sighting report recently. It is provided here with the approval of the author/witness.] ZDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD? 3 About ten years ago I had a rather unusual experience 3 3that I've never discussed with anyone in much detail even 3 3though I think about it all the time. So, I thought I'd post3 3my little UFO story here and see what people could make of 3 3things: 3 3 3 3 In the Fall of 1981 I was a young teen serving as an 3 3Army tank crewman with Alpha Troop 1/10 Cavalry 4th 3 3Mechanized Infantry Division, Ft. Carson Colorado. I was a 3 3gunner aboard an M60A1, the antediluvian predecessor to the 3 3M60A3. 3 3 3 3 In early September of that year, my unit shipped out for 3 3West Germany as part of the annual Reforger exercises. We 3 3arrived on September 6th, drew our equipment, and headed 3 3straight for the field. 3 3 3 3 After about three weeks into the exercise my Squadron 3 3took defensive positions around a little village called 3 3Ramrod or Butzbach, I can't remember which. In fact, the two3 3villages may be very close to each other, I've never checked3 3a map. (I'm pretty sure it's Ramrod) 3 3 3 3 Our tanks and M113s were placed in a thick little patch 3 3of forest on the edge of a 1/2 kilometer wide by one or two 3 3kilometer long field of thick green grass amidst slightly 3 3rolling hills. Our gun tubes faced North towards the village3 3some two kilometers away. 3 3 3 3 The field itself was surrounded on all sides by thin- 3 3trunked German fir trees with an average height of 90 feet. 3 3A paved, two lane, road ran through my unit's position and 3 3down the middle of the field into the village. 3 3 3 3 After waiting two uncomfortable days for the British to 3 3attack our positions, my Troop commander decided to let us 3 3take trips to the sportzplatz in the village below for 3 3showers. We hadn't bathed in over a week. 3 3 3 3 I went in on the second run with most of my platoon, 3 3about twenty guys. It was a cloudy, overcast, mid-morning. I3 3cannot remember the day or the date. We were riding on a 3 3full canopied 2 1/2 ton truck. I sat at the rear of the 3 3vehicle, near the tailgate, because I liked the view and 3 3didn't smoke. The back-flap had been rolled up and tied 3 3open. 3 3 3 3 If none of you here have ever ridden on a canopied 2 1/2 3 3ton truck, then understand that it is a jolting, jarring, 3 3noisy, completely deafening experience where all aboard 3 3acquire many bruises and stiff rearends after even the 3 3shortest of drives. Communication is achieved only by 3 3yelling to one another at the very top of your lungs. 3 3Communication with the driver, from the back of the vehicle,3 3is next to impossible. 3 3 3 3 But I digress... 3 3 3 3 As the truck made its way along the road at a 15 to 3 320mph clip, something moving in the air above the trees to 3 3the East (The directions given here are only for purposes 3 3of orientation) caught my attention. Less than 100 yards 3 3away, just above the treeline, moved what appeared to be a 3 3large (make that DOUBLE large) Glad Bag "rolling" about 3 3through the air as if caught by the wind. 3 3 3 3 Its speed must have been less than five miles an hour. 3 3 3 3 Intrigued, I watched as the "bag" loped along 3 3southwards, skirting above the trees, and then chaotically, 3 3haphazardly, curved west towards the open field and began 3 3descending. 3 3 3 3 Now, this was all very unexciting until I noticed that 3 3the "bag" was changing shape and color. 3 3 3 3 As it made its westward "turn" and sloppy, rolling, 3 3descent (just as a large, half-inflated, giant, garbage-bag 3 3would if caught in a slipstream at 90 feet), its color 3 3changed from flat green, to flat red, to flat black, to 3 3flat blue and so on. As this was happening, so too did its 3 3baggy, bulky, shape, begin to smooth and flatten the closer 3 3it got to the ground. 3 3 Pay special attention to the word -smooth-. It was as if 3 3all turbulence had ceased and every crinkle, every ripple, 3 3every bump, every possible exterior surface distortion that 3 3might be caused by the slightest movement of wind "within" 3 3the "bag", had vanished. 3 3 3 3 Indeed, it was elongating and flattening to become a 3 3smooth disk. 3 3 3 3 At an altitude of scarcely twenty feet, all downward 3 3motion suddenly ceased as the "disk" made a precise and 3 3radical maneuver that sent it on a perfect horizontal 3 3glidepath above the field. At this very instant, in reaction3 3to the sudden and completely artificial maneuver, my Platoon3 3Sergeant, SFC Venero, said, and I quote him exactly: "What 3 3the f___ -IS- that thing?" 3 3 3 3 To which I replied "It looks like a garbage bag that 3 3changes color!" (Brilliant words indelibly etched in my 3 3mind. ) 3 3 3 3 I hadn't known he was watching, but he'd seen everything 3 3just as I had. 3 3 3 3 As the disk then continued to descend again, this time 3 3with a very steady and controlled forward speed of ten 3 3miles an hour or so, my truck crested a hill. Moments 3 3before this "thing" would have landed, my view was blocked 3 3by the hill as we moved downwards towards the bottom. 3 3 3 3 I did not say a word. I did not scream "STOP THIS 3 3TRUCK!" I did not in anyway try to jump off the moving 3 3vehicle and run like hell to see what it was because I KNEW 3 3I'd be... yelled at by my Sergeant. I was a disciplined 3 3soldier and the thought of being yelled at kept me GLUED to 3 3my seat. 3 3 3 3 After the UFO disappeared behind the hill, Sgt. Venero 3 3looked at me, blinked his big dull eyes once or twice, then 3 3shrugged his shoulders. "Hmm" he said. 3 3 3 3 Because the whole event was so very undramatic, because 3 3there was no Close Encounters of the Third Kind theme music 3 3playing, because the truck was rattling and swaying and 3 3bouncing and because I would've looked like a fool, 3 3screaming at all of them to shut up and tell the driver to 3 3stop, I said not a damned thing. 3 3 3 3 Nada. 3 3 3 3 Later, when I tried telling others about what I'd seen, 3 3the standard response was the heady "Sure, Conley. Sure." 3 3 3 3 Sergeant Venero, not the most interesting, thoughtful, 3 3or well read fellow, chalked it up as being "Just one of 3 3those things." 3 3 3 3 Now, whenever I've told this story to fellow military 3 3people I get the usual "Hey, it was probably just an RPV." 3 3 3 3 This is a very logical possibility, but I've seen quite 3 3a few remotely piloted vehicles and ALL of them have wings, 3 3ALL of them fly in relatively straight flight paths, ALL of 3 3them change direction with a dip of the WINGS (which, as I 3 3said, this craft did not have) and NONE of them change color3 3and NONE of them change -SHAPE- in flight. (Forget midget 3 3craft with variable sweep wings. This UFO did not have 3 3wings.) 3 3 3 3 Because of the noise in the truck, I can't tell you if 3 3the craft made any noise. I will say that I heard nothing. 3 3 3 3 What I saw just did not appear to be man-made. 3 3 3 3 Has anyone here ever seen anything like this? 3 3 3 3=END= 3 @DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDY FMail 0.92 * Origin: * On Topic? What's that? <*> Fidonet UFO Moderator (1:123/26.1) ** EOF ** ============================================================================ NOTE: Sometimes mail will bounce going to my uucp address (bilver!), so the best way to contact me is via my main Fido point (1:123/26.1) or p1.f26.n123.z1.FIDONET.ORG!Don.Allen That's the MUFONET HQ BBS - 901-785-4943 (14.4 baud) You can also find me on ParaNet and on the Fido UFO echo as I'm the Moderator. 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