Navy petty officer has UFO 'Close Encounter' along secluded CA highway

March 11, 11:45 PMUFO ExaminerRoger Marsh

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Digital art by Keith Bastianini.

An off duty Navy petty officer second class had just gotten off duty at California's then Naval Air Station Miramar when his vehicle suddenly shut off along a dark and secluded piece of what is now Interstate 15.

As the man retrieved a gas can from his trunk for what could be a long walk into nearby Kearny Mesa - he hears an unusual sound - "a release of air" - that draws his attention into the darkness on the other side of the four-lane highway. He sees "an object of some type that is long, low and extremely streamlined and silohutted." The year is 1971.

Following is his original account of the incident. Only minor editing changes were completed.

Original report

In 1971, I had a close encounter that was later explained to me was a "Close Encounter of The Second Kind". My understanding is that a sighting in the sky is an encounter of the first kind, an encounter where the craft has touched down within close range is the second kind and an encounter where there is physical contact is the third kind, such as the movie years ago.

Many years prior to the movie, I was on my way home after getting off duty from the Naval Station at Miramar, which is now a Marine Corp Air Station, in San Diego. The year is 1971, it is about 3:00 a.m. there is no traffic and I am headed down interstate 15 and my car is running on gas fumes.

About 5 miles from my destination, the vehicle suddenly shuts off and I coast over to the side of the road. I am thinking I am out of gas and would have to walk the rest of the way into the next surburb of Kearny Mesa. I get out the car and there is no traffic and it is very dark with only a little moonlight. I get a 5 gallon red military issue gas can out of the trunk and stand there trying to figure out what to do. I was flat broke and it was still a week before payday.

As I look North and South on the Interstate, not a soul can be seen.

A craft silently lands

Still looking South as I stand there by the drivers side of the door, I hear a release of air as if it is coming from a high pressure nozzle and I hear gravel crunching like something heavy is pressing it down. I look across the Interstate which in 1971 was only four lanes and see an object of some type that is long, low and extremely streamlined and silohutted.

I keep looking because I was wondering how something could be there when it was not there when I got out the car and as dark as it was, I never saw any lights or heard any other car engines. At this time, I was still thinking I was looking at an extremely long car kind of like a limousine, but it was much longer. There was total silence and no movement from the vehicle or on the Interstate.

Panic took over when I saw that the vehicle was sitting flush on the ground and their were no tires, plus, I could see that it had opaque silver type windows that were paneled, but no other things like door handles or anything that could make it a car. My mind starting putting together the fact that this was no car and the noise I heard earlier was the craft settling down about 40 yards across the Interstate from me. I was scared to death at this point and jumped into the car. The only thing I could think of was getting out of there before something came out of the craft.

Even though I thought the car would not start, I turned the key and it started and I put it into gear and took off.

When I got home, my family got scared because I was in tears and really scared. They had never seen me in this shape before and it frightened them. I told them what I had seen and they believed me, because they knew I was too terrified to make it up.

Return to the scene

The following morning, I went to my neighbors house and asked him to go back with me. We tried the car, but it would not start, it was out of gas. We borrowed money from other neighbors and went back to where the incident occurred. We only saw a slight indentation in the gravel where something had been.

I was traumatized by the event and had trouble sleeping for a long time after that. I still can not sleep with my back to a door. When it first happened, I was so shook up, that I talked to doctors who recommended that I undergo hypnosis to digress to the night of the incident. They kept asking me exactly how long was I there that night and to me it only seemed like a few minutes from start to finish. Others say that I could have been there longer and just do not know it and may have seen more than what I thought.

I never underwent the hypnosis, because I do not want to know anymore than what I already know. I know what I saw that night and it will haunt me the rest of my life.

Blemish appears on lower calf

Later that year, a blemish appeared on the left inside of my lower calf above the ankle. It is about the size of a dime and it has never went away. Right in the center is a little black dot surrounded by a lighter tan circle. I thought it was some type of skin cancer and went in for a check up, the doctors say no, they have no idea what it is other than a blemish and not to be concerned. Well, I am concerned because I do not know really how long I was there and what happened from the time I stopped to the time I left. I could be from the encounter, but I have no idea.

I have seen objects from time to time since then, but they have been in the sky and usually others report them. I have not ever had another close encounter and really do not want to.

Thanks for listening, it is good to vent that story from time to time. I just look forward to the day when all of us can be validated when a sighting beyond comparison will take place and it can not be disputed.

Additional description

The craft was a grayish type color and very smooth in appearance. The shape was very aerodynamic with the length being about 18-20 ft. The height was about 6ft. from the bottom of the craft to the top of the slightly domed shape top in the center of the craft. Their looked like some type of window or pane devices that were very dark, like a really dark tint on a car or presidential vehicle, but it was not glass, it was some other type of alloy. Although the vehicle looked really light in weight, it had to be heavy because it made the gravel crunch as it settled on the shoulder on the side of the roadway. I was standing by the 68 plymouth fury, light blue, on the southside of the interstate, looking across the interstate to the east, that is the direction I heard the escaping rush of air and heard the gravel crunching. UCSD has an observatory of some type now in the area near the sighting. At the time I was there in 1971, a red & white checkered water tank was in the field close by the interstate.

Area background

The Naval Air Station Miramar is today the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, home to the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, an aviation element of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, located about 10 miles from downtown San Diego. The airfield is named Mitscher Field after Admiral M.A. Mitscher who was the commander of Task Force 58 during World War II. The air station is the former location of Pacific Fleet fighter and Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft (F-4 Phantom II, F-14 Tomcat, E-2 Hawkeye) and is best known as the former location of the United States Navy Fighter Weapons School (NFWS), its TOPGUN training program and the movie of the same name. In 1996, NFWS was relocated to Naval Air Station Fallon in western Nevada and merged into the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center (NSAWC). During the heyday of TOPGUN at NAS Miramar, the station was nicknamed "Fightertown USA".

Other selected sightings in CA from 1971

FLARE MOVED ALONG HILLTOP AND TURNED INTO A CIGAR 5 STORY SHIP
From National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC)
Occurred : 9/1/1971 04:00 (Entered as : 09/01/71 4:00)
Reported: 11/24/2008 9:45:17 PM 21:45
Posted: 1/10/2009
Location: FREEWAY BY AIR FORCE BASE, CA
Shape: Cigar
Duration:30 MINUTES

WE WERE TRAVELING NORTH ON FREEWAY 4 AM AND SAW ON THE HILLTOP COMING TOWARD THE FREEWAY A BRIGHT RED FLARE. NOT SURE WHY IT WOULD BE THERE OR WHAT WOULD HAPPEN WHEN IT REACHED THE FREEWAY BECAUSE THE HILL ENDED AT THE FREEWAY WE WATCHED IT AS WE DROVE THEN IT REACHED THE EDGE OF THE HILL AND THE FLARE DISAPPEARED AND A 4 OR 5 STORY CIGAR SHAPED SHIP STOOD STRAIGHT UP AT THE TOP OF THE HILL. IT GLOWED REDDISH GOLD WITH NOT APPREANT LIGHT SOURCE. IT STOOD THERE WITH NO MOTION AND NO SOUND FOR SEVERAL SECONDS THEN SHOT STRAIGHT UP AND OUT OF SIGHT WITHIN SECONDS. I WANTED MY HUSBAND TO PULL OVER AND SEE IF ANYONE WOULD STOP SO WE COULD SEE IF ANYONE ELSE SAW WHAT WE SAW. HE WOULD NOT. HE DID NOT ACT SCARED BUT REFUSED TO STOP.

((NUFORC Note: Witness indicates that date of incident is approximate. We spoke briefly via telephone with the party who submitted the report, and she sounds to us to be a quite serious-minded person. She is going to attempt to determine the U. S. Air Force base she and her husband were near, at the time of the sighting. PD))

Vehicle buzzed in California desert by UFO in 1971
From National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC)
Occurred : 9/15/1971 01:00 (Entered as : 09/15/71 1:00)
Reported: 9/3/2006 5:30:00 AM 05:30
Posted: 10/30/2006
Location: Mojave Desert (remote area of), CA
Shape: Disk
Duration:10 secs

This is a sighting that i experienced over 30 years ago in the California desert. I was returning from a trip to the Colorado River with my boyfriend. It was very late at night, as we waited until it was cooler, to avoid driving during the daytime heat. We had left Parker on the Calif/Arizona border and were on Hwy 62 going toward Desert Center and I-10. It was midweek and late at night, so there was no traffic at all and very dark night.

Coming toward us over the road and from above, came a very fast large white light that swooped down at our car and then straight back up. It was moving so fast it trailed light as it went. It made no sound and it arched sharply as it went back up as it approached the car. We both leaned forward over the dash to try to see it as it went up. It happened so quickly, but we stopped the car immediately and got out. We could see quite a distance around us, but it was already gone in a matter of seconds. Over the years, I did the usual guessing "it must have been a top secret government plane, etc" But as a reasonable person today, I know for a fact that there is nothing today that could move like that, and certainly nothing that many years ago. I am convinced that the UFO spotted a single light moving in what must have been a vast amount of ground darkness and came down and buzzed us to see what we were.

((NUFORC Note: Witness indicates that the date of the incident is approximate. PD))

Particially hidden, behind cloud, hovering craft with large observation window clearly visable
From National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC)
Occurred : 12/20/1971 16:00 (Entered as : 12/20/1971 16:00)
Reported: 12/3/2004 1:19:27 PM 13:19
Posted: 12/3/2004
Location: Mountainview, CA
Shape: Triangle
Duration:10 minutes

My wife (at the time age 21 a receptionist at the Stanford business park) and I (age 29 a marketing administration manager for a national medical instrumentation company)were about to do some Christmas shopping in what was then called the "White Front Store".

After parking the car, I happened to glance up to observe very low hanging clouds and peeking out from one such cloud was a triangular shaped portion of a craft just exposing enough area to include a large observation window. Of particular note was the rootbeer metalic color of the craft. I have since seen such metalic colored material on 5 inch wide ribbon cabling used on experimental micro wave missiles. This area is very near a military airbase. Moffett field.

The craft remained motionless and no noise was heard. It was as if it was hovering very still as observations were being made. After approx 10 minutes of viewing the craft, I went into the store. When I returned 45 minutes later, it was gone.

Cigar-shaped craft at Boulder Creek
From National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC)
Occurred : 4/1/1971 21:00 (Entered as : april 1971 21:00)
Reported: 1/19/2004 2:37:55 PM 14:37
Posted: 1/22/2004
Location: Boulder Creek, CA
Shape: Cigar
Duration:20min

I saw the craft slowly and silently gliding along a fire trail in the Santa Cruz mountians where I usually went on walks to chant on my beads. I was down-hill when I noticiced this metallic blue-silver, brighter than neon light with no windows. The light didn't light up the surrounding area but was extremely brilliant. I was chanting at the time I saw it and I wasn't afraid. I am grateful for the opportunity to be able to tell about it as my husband wouldn't believe me when I told him.

There seemed to be no dissipation of the glow coming from the sphere. It surrounded it, stretched in one direction and stopped!?
From National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC)
Occurred : 5/29/1971 21:00 (Entered as : 05/29/71 21:00)
Reported: 7/8/2003 10:45:31 PM 22:45
Posted: 7/16/2003
Location: Palos Verde (northeast of), CA
Shape: Sphere
Duration:12-15 minutes

There seemed to be no dissipation of the glow coming from the sphere. It surrounded it, stretched in one direction and stopped!?

As my friend and I neared the end of our month-long drift down the Colorado River, we noticed a concentrated illumination going from right to left and stretching halfway across, maybe 300 meters downstream. We speculated it was coming from car headlights, but reminded ourselves we were still quite a ways from a driveable road. Guiding ourselves close to the bank using partially submerged stumps and branches to steer us, we came to an inlet and up on the bank which rose at about 30 degrees we observed an incandescent sphere of light hovering about three feet above the ground and perfectly still. It was somewhere between twelve and sixteen feet in diameter and was no more than 30 or 40 feet away from us on the level ground above the bank. We observed it for the longest six minutes or so and noticed that it appeared perfectly symmetrical and hazily transparent except for an irregularly shaped denser bluish-green core, maybe four feet across and two feet high. We could not see through this portion of the sphere. It made no sound and eerily all sounds on the river (muskrats diving in etc.) seemed to have ceased from when we first noticed the (beam) light. Holding our position right by the bank, I considered the prospect of exiting the boat and walking up to the sphere. Before I actually decided on this, the sphere moved both upwards and backwards in the blink of an eye shot into the clear black sky. I kept my eyes fixed at the point where it had seemed to disappear and within seconds observed an emerald green streak shooting from right to left at about 15-20 degrees. The whole thing lasted only a fraction of a second and we let go of the branches anchoring us we resumed drifting downstream. My friend and I and talked about the event(s) facing each other seated in the boat, he at the bow, I at the back facing foward. It was only minutes later that I observed what seemed to be a bright triangular opening in the sky at 11 or 12 o'clock and this turned into a widening bright puff and eventually something similar to a smoke ring before disappearing. I have since come to recognize this as a probable VanDeberg launch which would easily enough date the event exactly as I am only guessing now at the date. I was pointing this out to my friend when suddenly the river came alive with the sound of helicopters. We had now positioned our boat close to the center of the river and though it appeared the craft was flying along both banks, we could not tell how many there were. They were apparently painted in a dark color and try as we could, neither of us could make out any markings on the fanthom shapes. If there were any lights, they were minimal and they used no floodlights or other means to illuminate the area. We did not sleep that night and when the next morning we came across the first riverside business in almost a month, we inquired if anything unusual had been reported the night before, and were told "nothing."

((NUFORC Note: We are confused by several elements of this report. Perhaps the witnesses observed a launch from Vandenberg AFB, but their description is of something much closer. Moreover, missiles are launched to the south from Vandenberg, so a missile would not have been seen from the Colorado River moving from left to right, unless it was a launch out into the Pacific. However, we believe that those launches, intended to test the anti-ballistic missile capability of rockets launched in the mid-Pacific Ocean, began only relatively recently, not in 1971. We have asked for clarification from the party who submitted the report. PD))