Mount Vernon, IL - Disk

a late summer afternoon in a suburban neighborhood on a very clear day, with a moderate breeze blowing from the west. I looked up to watch the Ozark flight come over the house. Directly behind it was a strange, metallic object flying at least as fast as the plane. There were approximately 10 neighbors outdoors at the time, engaged in gardening, playing with kids, berbecuing, etc. When the object was seen, all stopped what they were doing and came to watch. It had stopped and was hovering over an apple orchard that was maybe three blocks south of the neighborhood. It was a saucer-shape, definitely metallic and had a copperish or bronze sheen to it. The size is hard to determine, but it must have been at least a large as a 1960's car, given the distance from which we were seeing it and the detail we could see. It definitely had port holes, or circles near the mid-section. It rotated around as it hovered. It was totally silent, there was no noise when it entered the area, hovered and left the area. Everyone was dumbfounded and stood together for quite a while. Finally, someone shouted he needed his binoculars and another one said he had a camera with film. As the men began leaving the group, the object then rose into higher and accelerated rapidly away, leaving in a westerly direction, against the winds and disappeared in the distance. Everyone was stunned by the event and we children were warned not to mention it to anyone. No report was ever made of this for fear that the reputations of the observers would be damaged. Those who were there included an insurance agent, a regional sales representative, an employee of the USDA, a vice-president of a small factory, housewives and children of varying ages. All were totally sober and unimpaired at the time. I was about 14 at the time and my brother was 8. He also remembers the incident well.