Saw 3 house size balls of fire come straight down, turn to fly horizontal straight at us for 40 miles in 3-4 seconds then pass out of sight. Large number of police saw 3 objects within an hour of our sighting but on the other side of mountain that they disappeared over. Interceptor aircraft attempted to engage. See below.
Sometime around this time, (1966-1969)...It may very well have been Labor Day Weekend in Sep 1967, I was camping near Crestone, Colorado with several cousins. It is 40 miles north of Alamosa.
We had just watched the sunset and could just see the other side of the valley to the west. We all saw the same thing. I saw it first. It looked like a very large meteor was about to hit the other side of the valley.
I got everyone's attention as the object got closer. It was a ball of fire coming down from space. At around 30,000 feet, it split into three balls of fire. At that point our mutual reaction was that it was a mirved missile hitting the western range of mountains surrounding the valley.
We started to take cover behind a very large boulder when the three objects made a 90 degree turn and came across the valley straight at us. Our thoughts later were that they were intelligent and had detected us watching and decided to buzz us.
They took approximately 5 seconds to cross the 40 mile wide valley flying perfectly horizontal and in a 3 abreast formation with one slightly ahead of the one on either side.
We were at about 9000 feet on the side of the 14,000 foot Crestone Mountain range. The three objects were trailing several thousand feet of sparks (?) and looked like they would pass just overhead and hit the mountains behind us.
We rushed to the other side of the boulder and took cover, but the three objects disappeared over the mountains peaks to the east. We stood around in silence for a few moments and then started asking each other what we saw.
We were all recent college graduates. I was leaving for Air Force Officer's Training School on the 13th of September and then going to Pilot school, so it very well could have been September 1967 right before I left.
We decided that it could not have been UFO's or anything in the Human inventory, but we still were thinking (hoping) meteors. We had all expected a huge impact explosion and minor earthquakes when they surely hit on the other side of the mountain range, but felt and saw nothing. The three objects had made a roaring noise that had drowned out attempts to yell at each other until the silence after the passage.
The next day we went down to the Crestone trading post to buy a newspaper, but there was nothing in the paper. We telephoned the Alamosa Sheriff's office and asked about large meteor impacts or UFO reports...nothing.
The next morning, we bought another paper and discovered that less than an hour after our sighting the Colorado Prison on the east side of the Crestone Mountains had seen three lights hovering around the prison. The Colorado Highway Patrol and local police had chased the lights around for over two hours while the off duty guards were recalled to duty in case of a helicopter prison break. Nearly 300 police saw the lights that night.
Finally, the Colorado Highway Patrol called Petersen AFB to check for radar images and the base reported positively and at the request of the Colorado Highway Patrol launched two F106 intercepters. The Air Force thought they were police helicopters patroling around the prison or looking for escapees and didn't know the lights were being chased by the police for two hours.
The pilots had the images on radar shortly after takeoff and were closing fast. The lead pilot asked for permission to fire weapons and while waiting, the radar images and the 3 lights went straight up accelerating far faster than an air to air missile could have flown.
The weapons release was never given to the pilots who had attempted to follow them until their F106's could climb no higher and the objects went out of sight straight up into space.
We all purchased copies of the newspaper to keep forever, but none of us have ever been able to find those newspapers or any other record of the incident. One of these days after I retire and have lots of time, I would like to find the old newspaper files.
None of us have ever taken drugs or had enough alcohol to impact our judgement even though we are all over 50 now. In fact one of the cousins does not even drink coffee because it is a stimulant.
If you have any records of the incident I would gladly pay for copies. It would be nice to have the hard copy documentation for my own satisfaction.
I'm sure my cousins that were there would also like to have copies of their own.
I have a security clearance and still work for the US Air Force, one of the cousins is now a lawyer, and the other is an emergency inhalation therapist and ex-Green Beret.
This should be well documented because of the number of people that saw the lights near the prison and the newspaper article.((Number deleted))
((NUFORC Note: Witness indicates that the date of the event is approximate. PD))
Sometime around this time, (1966-1969)...It may very well have been Labor Day Weekend in Sep 1967, I was camping near Crestone, Colorado with several cousins. It is 40 miles north of Alamosa.
We had just watched the sunset and could just see the other side of the valley to the west. We all saw the same thing. I saw it first. It looked like a very large meteor was about to hit the other side of the valley.
I got everyone's attention as the object got closer. It was a ball of fire coming down from space. At around 30,000 feet, it split into three balls of fire. At that point our mutual reaction was that it was a mirved missile hitting the western range of mountains surrounding the valley.
We started to take cover behind a very large boulder when the three objects made a 90 degree turn and came across the valley straight at us. Our thoughts later were that they were intelligent and had detected us watching and decided to buzz us.
They took approximately 5 seconds to cross the 40 mile wide valley flying perfectly horizontal and in a 3 abreast formation with one slightly ahead of the one on either side.
We were at about 9000 feet on the side of the 14,000 foot Crestone Mountain range. The three objects were trailing several thousand feet of sparks (?) and looked like they would pass just overhead and hit the mountains behind us.
We rushed to the other side of the boulder and took cover, but the three objects disappeared over the mountains peaks to the east. We stood around in silence for a few moments and then started asking each other what we saw.
We were all recent college graduates. I was leaving for Air Force Officer's Training School on the 13th of September and then going to Pilot school, so it very well could have been September 1967 right before I left.
We decided that it could not have been UFO's or anything in the Human inventory, but we still were thinking (hoping) meteors. We had all expected a huge impact explosion and minor earthquakes when they surely hit on the other side of the mountain range, but felt and saw nothing. The three objects had made a roaring noise that had drowned out attempts to yell at each other until the silence after the passage.
The next day we went down to the Crestone trading post to buy a newspaper, but there was nothing in the paper. We telephoned the Alamosa Sheriff's office and asked about large meteor impacts or UFO reports...nothing.
The next morning, we bought another paper and discovered that less than an hour after our sighting the Colorado Prison on the east side of the Crestone Mountains had seen three lights hovering around the prison. The Colorado Highway Patrol and local police had chased the lights around for over two hours while the off duty guards were recalled to duty in case of a helicopter prison break. Nearly 300 police saw the lights that night.
Finally, the Colorado Highway Patrol called Petersen AFB to check for radar images and the base reported positively and at the request of the Colorado Highway Patrol launched two F106 intercepters. The Air Force thought they were police helicopters patroling around the prison or looking for escapees and didn't know the lights were being chased by the police for two hours.
The pilots had the images on radar shortly after takeoff and were closing fast. The lead pilot asked for permission to fire weapons and while waiting, the radar images and the 3 lights went straight up accelerating far faster than an air to air missile could have flown.
The weapons release was never given to the pilots who had attempted to follow them until their F106's could climb no higher and the objects went out of sight straight up into space.
We all purchased copies of the newspaper to keep forever, but none of us have ever been able to find those newspapers or any other record of the incident. One of these days after I retire and have lots of time, I would like to find the old newspaper files.
None of us have ever taken drugs or had enough alcohol to impact our judgement even though we are all over 50 now. In fact one of the cousins does not even drink coffee because it is a stimulant.
If you have any records of the incident I would gladly pay for copies. It would be nice to have the hard copy documentation for my own satisfaction.
I'm sure my cousins that were there would also like to have copies of their own.
I have a security clearance and still work for the US Air Force, one of the cousins is now a lawyer, and the other is an emergency inhalation therapist and ex-Green Beret.
This should be well documented because of the number of people that saw the lights near the prison and the newspaper article.((Number deleted))
((NUFORC Note: Witness indicates that the date of the event is approximate. PD))
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
Off
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Crestone
USA
30 seconds
30 seconds
37.95
-105.68
fireball
CO
Occurred : 9/3/1967 21:00 (Entered as : 9/3/67 21:00) Reported: 7/2/1998 00:37 Posted: 1/28/1999 Location: Crestone (near Alamosa), CO Shape: Fireball Duration: 30 seconds Characteristics: The object left a trail, There was an aura or haze around the object, The object made a sound
Saw 3 house size balls of fire come straight down, turn to fly horizontal straight at us for 40 miles in 3-4 seconds then pass out of s