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--by Lynn Taylor
Bloomington, Indiana
2FEB98
(Tuesday)
After several weeks of
inclement weather, the night sky finally cleared, giving us a perfect window of
opportunity to patrol the sky for "unidentifieds". I picked John up around
10:30 PM, and headed toward Bloomington. From a high point overlooking the southern edge of
the city, we could see five brilliant white lights parked above the town, with it’s
citizens most likely oblivious to their presence. As we drove around the suburban streets
below trying to get within camera range, Jet planes began converging on the stationary
lights. Slowly, the lights began moving in a northward direction. Urged on by the trailing
jet aircraft, the glittering balls of light gradually disappeared from view.
Next, our attention
turned south toward Lake Monroe. We took up a position in the parking area
on the spillway flat. Fifteen minutes had passed when another brilliant
white light ball appeared over the water to our east. It remained motionless
for a brief time before it began floating northward. That was about the time
we noticed the jet planes circling us overhead like giant metallic buzzards.
For another five minutes we watched as they continued moving around us, and
all the while, the object in the distance slowly moved beyond the ridge and
out of sight. We concluded that the planes were not leaving until we did.
Time wasting away, we gave in and set a new course back toward Bloomington.
Back near our starting
point, south of town, we spotted two more light balls quickly heading north.
It was 12:30, and John was ready to call it a night. “This is just going to
be a ‘cat and mouse’ thing.”, he said, as I turned the van around to take
him home. Later, as I started to pull away from his driveway, John remarked,
“Keep an eye out going home. You may see something else.”
I assured him I would
be vigilant, then headed north again.
I was traveling up
highway 37N, and was approaching the west side of the city, when two more
lights appeared in the sky, straight ahead. The chase was on again, as I put
the pedal down. (My warp drive is never on line when I need it!) As I
approached Whitehall Pike, I pulled to the side of the road, my tires
sliding in the loose sand, and kicking up dust. I tried desperately to snap
a picture of one of the lights, but by now I was completely enveloped in a
dust cloud.
Back in the van, I
raced on northward. I could see them in the distance, heading for the Bottom
Road area, north of Bloomington. When I got to the Bottom Road turn-off, I
headed cross-country with the objects still in sight. As bad luck would have
it, they turned east, back toward Highway 37, where they followed the road
on to Martinsville, 18 miles further north.
Back on 37 again, I did
my best to catch up with the objects. I had just passed Morgan-Monroe State
Forest, and broke the crest of a hill when, dead ahead were three light
balls flying in a “V” formation. I had scarcely traveled a mile, when I
looked to my left to see a strangely lit aircraft. A few seconds later, I
looked to my right to see another aircraft in a complementary position. I
found myself in the middle of a giant “V” formation. It was as if I was
being “escorted” to Martinsville.
When I approached the
southern outskirts, I took up an observation position as the three light
balls spaced themselves over the town. Occasionally, they would drift in one
direction or the other, but their position was basically fixed from
approximately 1:10 AM until 2:15 AM.
What appeared to be jet
airplanes, circled the stationary objects, as I flashed my “Maglight” at
them, hoping to draw one in for a better picture. It wasn’t long before one
of the “planes” turned and started in my direction. It banked and turned
about 100 feet in front of me, and less that 100 feet above the deck. I’ve
never seen an airplane with a lighting configuration like this thing had. It
had two large white lights in front, one a few feet behind the other. Two
white lights formed the other two points of a triangle. Near the left
trailing white light was a flashing blue light. Left of center and a few
feet to the rear, was a red flashing light. I could not hear any sounds
emanating from the craft over the noise from my truck engine.
To complete the scene,
jet aircraft circled the whole town. Some were obviously airliners in a
holding pattern waiting their turn to land at Indianapolis International, 35
miles to the north. Others circling closer to the objects were smaller jets,
possibly military, although there was no way to be certain.
Finally, the light
balls began to move north, over the White River. The strange “airplanes”
followed close behind, with the smaller jet aircraft taking up the rear.
Mooresville was their destination, I was sure of it.
On the way back home, I
couldn't help thinking about how John was going to feel when he learned he
had just missed the main event of the evening. With any luck, we might get a
second chance.
The next day, I phoned
John to brief him on what had transpired after I dropped him off the night
before. His reaction was immediate; "We've got to go back up there tonight!
I agreed, and when he
rolled into my driveway, just after 10:30 that evening, we made a bee-line
for Martinsville. On the way up I was making a bet with myself; "No way this
is going to happen two nights in a roll." I thought, " We can't be that
lucky."
We could see the glow
from the street lights, as we neared the city limits from the south. John
was looking off to the east when he detected several illuminated objects
flying north-west, directly toward Martinsville. Moving quickly, they were
soon out of view as we struggled to keep up.
We reached the city
limits, then turned down the darkened stretch of gravel road to a wide
turnaround at the end. As the van pulled to a stop, we turned our attention
toward town.
Before we could speak a
word, a brilliant flickering ball of light appeared out of nowhere, and
hovered motionless near one of the towers on the north side of town. It was
soon joined by another, then another, until the sky over Martinsville was
crowned by twelve glittering jewels of light.
We watched as some
remained motionless, while being crisscrossed by others. The objects
continued their aerial ballet for another twenty minutes before moving
northwest toward White River, and eventually on to Mooresville, further
north, and out of view.
"Okay," I said, "Let's
see what they're up to."
We loaded up and headed
over to State Road 67N, which parallels the west bank of the White River. we
were passing a row of fishing shacks on the river bank when we caught sight
of first one object, then another. Finally, five objects could be seen. Two
were straight ahead of us, while three were over the river bottom to our
right, and all were moving north.
"We need to get
closer." John declared. "We've got to get some decent video of these guys."
We were beginning to
gain ground when an open area with a wide spot appeared up ahead. I quickly
pulled over and shut the engine down. One of the two objects over the
roadway continued on, while the other joined the three objects over the
river bottom, who by now, seemed to be almost stationary, giving us our best
chance to document the event.
I loaded a new roll of
film into my Canon 35mm while John began video taping with his Canon 8mm.
While we were busy on the ground, small jet planes began to circle closer
and closer to the stationary objects. One of the planes turned and flew low
and directly over our position. That was about the time the four objects
dimmed down and scattered in different directions. We watched one go
straight up, while another headed east. The remaining two turned northwest,
toward Mooresville, so we decided to tag along.
We had just reached the
south edge of Mooresville when we lost the two objects at a stop light. From
where we sat, it looked as though they were beating a path to Indianapolis.
We turned around and
went back to the south end of Martinsville, where we took up our previous
position. As we drove down the gravel road, we could see eight objects that
had reappeared over the town. By the time we reached the turn-around at the
far end, there were twelve again.
Of course, then came
the military jets, and the whole scene started over again. Some objects
blinked out, while others moved toward the surrounding hills, where they
continued there peculiar ritual of cross patterns. It was 2:00 in the
morning, and by now, we were experiencing sensory overload. Out of film. Out
of tape. Time to call it a night.
There was one rather
curious post script; When I had my film developed, it was blank, as if it
had never been exposed. My 35mm Canon is one of those "idiot proof" cameras.
You know; auto-everything. It even has an automatic lens cover. There's no
way to screw up a roll of film, it simply won't allow it. So what could have
happened? If the film had been exposed to a burst of X-radiation, it would
have been dark, not clear. I am not a photographic expert, but I have to
wonder if there is some type of energy burst that could essentially, render
the photo-reactive coating non-reactive. In that case, the film could not
turn dark, as it normally would, to light exposure. I would welcome any
possible explanations on this phenomenon, or if anyone has had a similar
experience with film, please drop me a line. ♦ |
