1974-10-20 - San Jose, CA - Fireball

The Santa Clara Valley is bordered on the east by the Hamilton mountain range, and on the west by Santa Cruz mountain range. At the southwest corner of the valley, in the Santa Cruz range, sits Mt. Umnum. Mt. Umnum was the sight of a very large and powerful US Air Force radar station. One clear cold autumn morning, I was sitting in my car, at the foot of Mt. Umnum, waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive, so we could begin our job of landscaping a new housing tract. As the sun slowly began to ascend over the Hamilton range to the east, turning the sky above the still shadowy valley a bright blue, I noticed what appeared to be a morning star, or lingering planet above the fog enshrouded peak of Mt. Umnum. As my gaze lingered upon the brightly shining object, I noticed that it appeared to be oscillating back and forth ever so slightly. This immediately grabbed my attention, and as I now gazed intently at the object; it began to grow brighter, and appeared to get larger as it continued to oscillate ever so slightly. this process continued for about 2-3 minutes until the brightly shining object descended to the same altitude as the fog enshrouded radar station, and hovered there, still visible, about a half mile away from the station. It hovered in this position for about 5 to 10 seconds, at which point it changed direction and headed directly for the radar station. As it entered the fog bank, it literally burned a hole in the mist. This hole lasted for several seconds before finally converging in on itself. This sighting leads me to believe that this particular fireball may have been of U.S. military origin, as the radar station was supposed to have a landing strip in it's proximity. The radar station has since been decommissioned.