While Standing In Formation For Reveille We Saw A Saucer
When I was in preflight for pilot training at Lackland AFB just before Xmas we were standing in formation for reveille we all saw a saucer, just across a small 2 lane street hovering over a small one bedroom house.
It was there for approximately 3 minutes.
If you are looking for a close sighting with lots of witnesses, this is a classic case.
I've never seen it discussed before.
When I was in preflight for pilot and observer training in 1953 on Lackland AFB, about 3 weeks before we went home for Christmas leave, about 500 underclassmen and a few upperclassmen were standing at attention for reveille just after 4:00 a.m.
As officer candidates, when we stood at attention we were not even allowed to move our eyeballs/gaze.
That's when I heard an upperclassman yell:
Underclassmen may gaze.
I looked to my left and directly across the narrow street was a small one bedroom house, perhaps used for some kind of communications.
Hovering directly over the house, about 10' or 20' above it, was a very clear view of what I could only describe as a flying saucer.
It was the shape of 2 saucers placed face to face with a gondola type protrusion below.
The gondola had lines of light around it, as if it had a series of portholes but was spinning.
There was no actual heat or sound, but thinking about it later, there seemed to be a sensation of heat and sound, as if it were just out of the range of our senses.
We watched the saucer for a full 2 or 3 minutes, it seemed much longer.
It was a good long uninterrupted look.
We had the distinct impression that it was watching us.
Then, one of the upperclassmen started across the street toward the house, which scared me, and then the saucer moved from that spot to out of sight over the horizon, soundlessly and rapidly.
It was probably out of sight in a half second or a second.
We could see a blurry line of light while it was passing.
When we got back to the barracks, always pressed for time, we had little time to discuss it, but we did briefly discuss it amongst ourselves.
By that afternoon or the next day, I'm not sure which, we were told the upperclassmen had reported the incident.
They were told that we were mistaken, that it was not a UFO, but also that it was to be considered confidential.
Therefore, being on a strictly operating honor system, none of us discussed it after that to my knowledge.
It would have meant we washed out.
And if someone else mentioned it to us, and we didn't report it immediately, it would also have meant we washed out.
So I simply formed a habit of not talking about it, and I never told anyone till perhaps 30 years later.
When I was on my way home for Christmas, a man came up to me on the train and asked what the epaulettes on my uniform meant.
I joked about it meaning I was secret service.
He started a conversation with me and eventually began to tell me about the time he'd seen a flying saucer.
He kept asking me if I'd ever seen one, and I insisted I hadn't.
I didn't think much about that till I got back to base after Christmas.
Then some of the cadets from our bay in the barracks never showed up after the leave.
I can't remember how many. Maybe 2, maybe 5 out of a bay of 25.
Someone said they had washed out on a security violation.
Later when 5 of us were talking, though tiptoeing around without actually ever mentioning the saucer incident, we all remembered being approached by someone who wanted to talk about flying saucers.
One said he was approached in a bar by someone who kept asking him if he'd ever seen a UFO.
Because I haven't kept track of anyone from from that class, I've never discussed this with any of them.
If I could find some of them, I'd really like to talk to them and see if they remember it the way I do.
If you wanted to investigate it, it would be easy.
It was the J-54 class.
Started preflight in 1953, scheduled to graduate 12 months later in 1954.
Right during the Tony the Tiger program.
There was a write up in Look magazine about that class that showed one picture of the whole group about that time.
The questions at the bottom of this page are too simplistic for me to answer.
For instance, as I mentioned, there was no sound, but there was an impression of sound.
There was no real aura or haze, but there was a slight glow because it was somewhat luminous.