2005-08-01 - Lawara (Afghanistan) - Light

I saw a light while pulling a guard shift in Afghanistan that at first I assumed was a satellite.

I was stationed in Afghanistan from Spring of 2005 to winter of 2006. In my first few months, we were put along the Pakistan/Afghanistan border to stop Taliban from having free travel across country to country. It was the hot spot of the country at the time. We had observation posts (OP) all along the border. Each having from one squad to an entire platoon stationed on each OP.

My squad was stationed on an OP right in front of a big plain the locals called the "Dashteh". Put along a ridge line we watched over the border. 24 hours, someone was always on guard obviously and we would rotate through our company of pulling shifts, OPs, patrols and time off. So we were low on sleep sometimes but I was not at the time. I was well rested.

A Special Forces soldier that we were stationed with told me of how there is absolutely no light pollution which is why at night we could literally see every star the naked eye could see. We could even see satellites....just small white dots of lights that moved along in the sky, orbiting the earth. Simple put, they looked like moving stars that did not flicker. They were easy spot and very common. Looking at the sky at night you could easily see 2-3 of them in 10 minutes....and shooting stars. We saw plenty.

I was pulling my guard shift one morning right before the sun was rising. When I was woken up for my shift, it was dark, when my shift was coming to an end, the sun was beginning to rise (Early Morning Nautical Twilight). The sun was not up yet but it was starting to shed light to begin the day.

Nearing the end of my shift, the moon was still out and I saw, what I assumed, was one of the satellites I have already seen so many nights before. For some reason, I kept my eye on it. I watched it for about 30 seconds or so before it did what it did. It slowly moved along in the sky, just as all the other satellites did that I watched. It cruised along, directly under the moon moving from South to North. The moon was nearly full and from where I sat, two adult hand widths above the horizon. The second the light got on the North side of the moon, it's speed changed to drastically fast, shifted directly up 90 degrees towards the sky, shot away in a straight line, straight up, and faded away in about 1 and a half to 2 seconds. From start to finish, it's flight path was like a capital L. I asked if any of my squad members saw what I saw but no one else was awake. It felt unreal and I was very frustrated that I was the only person that witnessed it.

Where we were at was absolutely deafening silence. If you stopped breathing, you could actually experience being deaf. The craft made no sound or anything of the sort. It didn't flicker, change shape, or change color. It stayed constant (a small white dot of light traveling South to North) until it got on the North side of the moon and shot away. The only thing that changed was it's speed and direction. It did not leave a trail.

Now, I am a skeptic with ghosts and UFOs and what not but I do not see how what I saw is explainable. No human aircraft can make that sort of maneuver let alone move at that sort of speed.


((NUFORC Note: Witness indicates that the date of the incident is approximate. PD))