I swear I just witnessed a UFO chase. Either that, or one heck of an Air Force training exercise.
It was about 7:25 p.m. MST on a partly cloudy night before the moon came up. I’d just walked up to the road with a spotlight to meet my wife when she drove in. The driveway is all torn up and very muddy, and there isn’t any lighting. From up there in the daylight, one has at east an 80-mile view to the west and 360 degrees all around. Very scenic.
As I stood there in the dark and cold, I could see a few stars, but not many, due to layers of thin high clouds. Suddenly I saw what I first thought were two lights moving silently way overhead from the east at a high rate of speed. I thought they were satellites, and then I heard the far-off roar of a jet, the sound appearing to come from quite some distance behind the objects. I could now tell that the first one was a tight cluster of three yellow-white lights, all in a bunch. I couldn’t discern a pattern or formation, but there were three lights. Well behind this object was what I took for a military jet with a white light forward and a red one aft. (None of these lights were flashing.) Then they all began to turn, making a tight circle toward the south and heading back east. A 180° turn, in other words. I was amazed at their speed but didn’t think it unworldly. One or both of them had to be military.
As they passed by again overhead moving east, they made a tight but steady 90° turn south, disappearing into thin clouds. At that exact moment, I hear a second far-off but surprisingly loud roar of another jet behind me, also coming from the east the way the first two objects had. But this one seemed even faster, and turned 90° south too in apparent pursuit. The weirdest thing to me was that the third object had an extremely bright flashing white light that came on approximately once a second. After turning after the first two objects and disappearing, its flashing light was visible for a few moments, lighting up the clouds.
I’ve never seen anything like that flashing light on an aircraft. And only two of the three objects made any sound–my impression, admittedly, and not a proven fact. There was never a sonic boom, but I have considerable experience watching planes in the air, and these guys were moving…
Probably it was just the USAF. But the first thing that came into my head was that I was watching them chase a UFO. This is northern New Mexico, after all.
(There are things here…)
Related posts:
I’ll...
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Dear John-
I, too, have seen the most unusual things in the Taos nightsky. It usually happens while I am soaking in the hot tub watching for shooting stars. (My record is twelve.) I love that sky!
from Arthur C. Clarke, re: UFOs…..
1. Of course UFOs exist.
2. If you’ve never seen a UFO then you’re not paying attention.
3. UFOs have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with extraterrestrial life.
4. It is impossible to prove or disprove 3.
It must be the Air Force screwing around. But two things were definitely chasing the first thing!
Picts are neat, lots of room to breath out there, nothing is flying around down here in the swamp, i’ll have to wait a bit for the only ufo’s i’m familiar with, we call em’ “no see-ums”, they swarm and bite and annoy and you never see them coming! You remember them from yer muraland days? Other than the black choppers that circle around the end of July, (its been 7 years and they are still looking) not much that can’t be identified, i feel left out! , seems everyone in the world is getting a view of something in the sky, i have been tracking Orion’s belt and see a smudge of stars that i’ve been calling the Pleadies, whilst getting wood from the pile each night to keep things civil down here at Rancho Malario. Maybe we are too close to the coast, too small, by the time they may be flying by they are gone? I’d have to go to Mt. Trashmore to get above the pines for a more extended view, but i’m too old to be embarrassed by getting caught sneaking into the dump at night to look for ufo’s, i still have to try and make a living down here, someday, when the swallows and the work returns from wherever it went.
The preceding (musk o’ the rennovation) was pure poetry from the Lower Slower, ladies and gentlemen, by my esteemed fellow existential traveler & trusted buddy JM up in Merryland. Thank you, Jeff!
Doing well here–made it this far, by God– wish you were here, etc. etc.. Except of course there are no jobs, so you have to bring one with you. Mine as you know was being an Internet columnist, which worked fine until they fired all the columnists. We burned through the chintzy house sale profit, our savings, and what my generous cousin gave us in no time flat, and then I discovered I could write credit checks to myself.
In the meantime we got stinking old, started social security, she got her pension, and people started giving me money for websites. This is all just dandy except that we still live with major funk, I still in hock to Mr. Visa, and any websites but my own are boring to work on.
The Plan therefore is to have more fun, write and sell stuff, pay off the debts, and then see where we stand. Or maybe where we’re lying down. It all depends. Tropical Finland is looking good.
John
Hey. My name is Devon Jackson. I’m the editor of Santa Fean magazine down in Santa Fe. I’m doing a small small story on the cattle signs with the UFOs on them (and attendant tractor beam) that are all around the Taos area.
Wondering if you know when these started appearing? And if you might have any comment on them. I can be reached at the above email address. If you’re up for being quoted, I’d appreciate it. Thanks. (I’d definitely ID you and send people to your blog here.)
Devon Jackson