Green fire balls, Texas Panhandle, late 1950's.
My recent "lights in the sky, with military jets" experience of 19-Oct-2009 (which I reported to you about) has prompted me to share two other aerial sightings I have had in the past.
I am now 61 years old. I spent my childhood in West Texas, up around Lubbock, Littlefield, Levelland...places like that. My dad was a school administrator at two small towns, Pep and Bula, which were situated some 50 miles from Lubbock, 20 miles from Littlefield. I think at least one of them is still on the map.
As a young lad I often accompanied older farm boys, and my older brother, on jackrabbit spotlighting hunting trips. I usually rode in the back of a pickup truck whilst older boys with 22cal rifles shot at, and sometimes hit, jackrabbits that we caught in the beam of a good spotlight. Just drive slowly along any country road with that spotlight sweeping the pastures and you'll catch the eyes of many night creatures there on the high plains of the Texas Panhandle.
If you've ever seen a Texas jackrabbit run you'll appreciate that this is a most sporting form of hunting, taking a great deal of skill and marksmanship. There is a quote attributed to Chuck Yeager about country boy's marksmanship..."give a hillbilly a rifle and he'll hit the bullseye every time"...or something like that. Those farm boys were good shots. I got pretty good myself as I got older.
On two occasions I witnessed "green fireballs" flashing across the night sky. One I recall distinctly was traveling roughly southwest to northeast. Being a young lad who read science texts avidly, I just thought to myself "well, that meteor must have had a lot of copper in it". I thought this, of course, because I knew copper oxide is greenish in color.
Years later, while reading a paperback coauthored by Kevin Randle, I read an account of many sightings of green fireballs in the US. Some, it was reported, had their likely trajectories calculated to predict impact sites--but no debris was found.
So they say.
I saw at least two of these about 50 years ago, while riding in the back of a pickup truck underneath the brilliant clear night skies of the Texas Panhandle.
((NUFORC Note: Witness indicates that date is approximate. PD))
My recent "lights in the sky, with military jets" experience of 19-Oct-2009 (which I reported to you about) has prompted me to share two other aerial sightings I have had in the past.
I am now 61 years old. I spent my childhood in West Texas, up around Lubbock, Littlefield, Levelland...places like that. My dad was a school administrator at two small towns, Pep and Bula, which were situated some 50 miles from Lubbock, 20 miles from Littlefield. I think at least one of them is still on the map.
As a young lad I often accompanied older farm boys, and my older brother, on jackrabbit spotlighting hunting trips. I usually rode in the back of a pickup truck whilst older boys with 22cal rifles shot at, and sometimes hit, jackrabbits that we caught in the beam of a good spotlight. Just drive slowly along any country road with that spotlight sweeping the pastures and you'll catch the eyes of many night creatures there on the high plains of the Texas Panhandle.
If you've ever seen a Texas jackrabbit run you'll appreciate that this is a most sporting form of hunting, taking a great deal of skill and marksmanship. There is a quote attributed to Chuck Yeager about country boy's marksmanship..."give a hillbilly a rifle and he'll hit the bullseye every time"...or something like that. Those farm boys were good shots. I got pretty good myself as I got older.
On two occasions I witnessed "green fireballs" flashing across the night sky. One I recall distinctly was traveling roughly southwest to northeast. Being a young lad who read science texts avidly, I just thought to myself "well, that meteor must have had a lot of copper in it". I thought this, of course, because I knew copper oxide is greenish in color.
Years later, while reading a paperback coauthored by Kevin Randle, I read an account of many sightings of green fireballs in the US. Some, it was reported, had their likely trajectories calculated to predict impact sites--but no debris was found.
So they say.
I saw at least two of these about 50 years ago, while riding in the back of a pickup truck underneath the brilliant clear night skies of the Texas Panhandle.
((NUFORC Note: Witness indicates that date is approximate. PD))
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Off
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
Pep
USA
2sec
2sec
fireball
TX
Occurred : 1/1/1958 22:00 (Entered as : 01/01/58 22:00) Reported: 10/29/2009 2:13:28 AM 02:13 Posted: 12/12/2009 Location: Pep, TX Shape: Fireball Duration: 2sec Characteristics: The object left a trail
Green fire balls, Texas Panhandle, late 1950's.