1977-07-20 - Williamsburg, VA - Cigar

My radio went dead just as my neighbors saw something unusual in the sky.

I was sitting in my living room (13 years old) messing with my hand-held 3-channel CB Radio. It went dead. I looked for new batteries in the house but found none. I turned the thing off and on several times. It began to work again. I thought it was weird but did not think much else about it. About 30 minutes later our neighbors showed up with a story. They had just sent some friends on their way and were standing in their driveway when they saw a very slow moving object in the sky above the trees and houses and particularly noted that it hovered across our house. It was flying low. It was shaped like a “cigar” as they told it and had lights around the circumference. They walked around to the back of their house to track the craft as it moved but when they got there it was gone. They did not see it speed off. It was just gone.

I remember my dad asking them (another dad and his son) if they were sure it was not a “blimp” that they saw and they reported that it was definitely not a blimp. I remember they debated about whether a blimp could leave so quickly. The other father was hesitant but finally reported the event to the local radio station (WMBG) in Williamsburg, Virginia.

I cannot say that the dead radio experience and the object seen were related but they did occur at the same time. I guess it would be possible for something like that to interfere with the crystals in the radio. But who knows? It could have just been a coincidence, which would presume the radio went on the blink for a few minutes just as the neighbors spotted the UFO. [I never had a similar experience with that radio before or after that night. It was a pricey and quality item my father had purchase for me as a birthday present that year.]