Hunter AFB, Savannah Georgia 1962-1963: Luminous zig-zag disk
Our family had just returned from a day visit to a major department store near Savannah (could have been Sears, Montgomery Wards, or JC Penny). It was probably a Saturday with no school the next day so we were allowed to stay up late. I was 9 or 10 years old in 1962 or 1963 and at the store they were offering Mickey Mouse helium balloons. I brought one home that evening and was showing it off to the neighborhood kids on Hunter AFB in the military housing were we lived. It was probably about 9 or 10pm because the street lights had come on and the sky was dark. We decided to play a game with the balloon like this: We placed torn up pieces of paper between the ears of the Mickey Mouse balloon because the ears touched. We then let the balloon rise above the street light out of sight and then with a firm jerk on the attached kite string dislodged the pieces of paper from between Mickey's ears, down they would float into view below the street light and whoever co! llected the most pieces of paper won. On the second or third round something amazing happened.
The balloon was above the street light out of sight, I jerked the the string, and suddenly a luminous disk about the size of a car suddenly appeared and then zig-zagged half-a-dozen times above the street light first side to side then back and forth in a cross like pattern alternating aggressively, presumably it was checking out the balloon. Everyone stood there watching the object, while the pieces of paper floated down around us, and then as suddenly as it appeared it disappeared. We were excited and so we collected the papers in a frenzy, stuffed them between the ears, and sent the balloon back up, jerked the string and almost the exact same thing happened again. Except this time instead of disappearing after the zig-zag it took off in a straight line fast but still slow enough we could follow it into the distance. My brother ran to get my parents but by the time they came out to see it it was so distant they could not distinguish it from a star.
Of course, we tried to repeat the event but it only worked twice.
The disk was glowing silvery-amber, about the size of a car, no sound, complete silence, incredibly zippy, directly overhead so we could only see the underside during the zig-zag. When it traveled away the second time I did not note anything additional like lights or anything like that. Was too excited to make any additional observations.
Our family had just returned from a day visit to a major department store near Savannah (could have been Sears, Montgomery Wards, or JC Penny). It was probably a Saturday with no school the next day so we were allowed to stay up late. I was 9 or 10 years old in 1962 or 1963 and at the store they were offering Mickey Mouse helium balloons. I brought one home that evening and was showing it off to the neighborhood kids on Hunter AFB in the military housing were we lived. It was probably about 9 or 10pm because the street lights had come on and the sky was dark. We decided to play a game with the balloon like this: We placed torn up pieces of paper between the ears of the Mickey Mouse balloon because the ears touched. We then let the balloon rise above the street light out of sight and then with a firm jerk on the attached kite string dislodged the pieces of paper from between Mickey's ears, down they would float into view below the street light and whoever co! llected the most pieces of paper won. On the second or third round something amazing happened.
The balloon was above the street light out of sight, I jerked the the string, and suddenly a luminous disk about the size of a car suddenly appeared and then zig-zagged half-a-dozen times above the street light first side to side then back and forth in a cross like pattern alternating aggressively, presumably it was checking out the balloon. Everyone stood there watching the object, while the pieces of paper floated down around us, and then as suddenly as it appeared it disappeared. We were excited and so we collected the papers in a frenzy, stuffed them between the ears, and sent the balloon back up, jerked the string and almost the exact same thing happened again. Except this time instead of disappearing after the zig-zag it took off in a straight line fast but still slow enough we could follow it into the distance. My brother ran to get my parents but by the time they came out to see it it was so distant they could not distinguish it from a star.
Of course, we tried to repeat the event but it only worked twice.
The disk was glowing silvery-amber, about the size of a car, no sound, complete silence, incredibly zippy, directly overhead so we could only see the underside during the zig-zag. When it traveled away the second time I did not note anything additional like lights or anything like that. Was too excited to make any additional observations.
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Savannah
USA
3 minutes
3 minutes
32.04
-81.12
oval
GA
Occurred : 9/29/1962 22:00 (Entered as : 09/29/1962 22:00) Reported: 10/19/2013 10:30:55 AM 10:30 Posted: 10/23/2013 Location: Savannah (Hunter AFB), GA Shape: Oval Duration: 3 minutes
Hunter AFB, Savannah Georgia 1962-1963: Luminous zig-zag disk