UFO

Finally, I am old enough that I can tell about my encounter with an unidentified flying object without worrying about what other people think.

It happened back in the early 1960’s . . . 1962 or 1963. The memory of it is vivid and unchanged.

My husband, Bobby (who died almost six years ago) and I had spent the weekend with his parents at Madison, Mississippi. We often left Madison at 5 a.m. and arrived at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg by 8 a.m. for class. We drove along from Madison through Jackson and then took southbound Mississippi Highway 49 to Hattiesburg.

I still remember everything about that morning. Bobby was driving. As we were riding along through Jackson on the edge of the city, we were discussing our weekend and the approaching week. The morning was clear and cool.

“Look,” I said. We saw it at the same time. I must tell you that I did not believe in UFO’s and considered it a waste of time to read about such foolishness! There it was though. Neither of us had a preconceived notion of what a UFO should look like.

A huge silent sphere sprung along in smooth graceful motion in front of us. It was just above us as it traveled down the highway. There was not another car on the road that morning. The sphere had the color and brilliance of fire. The orange, yellow, and red surface seemed to be constantly changing like a flame but not going out of the sphere.

I compared the size of the object with the large office buildings to our right. This UFO was taller than any of these two blocks away, and the circumference was bigger than the coliseum we were passing.

As the silent pulsating fire-like ball loomed in front of us, we could not find words to say. My husband kept driving.

We were not frightened. Instead we were intrigued. As I hear reports on unidentified flying objects, I realize that many people have seen objects similar to this one. I reiterate: I had at that time read no reports of similar objects. As a young married college student, I spent all my time studying and trying to be a good wife.

Now, after hearing and reading more about unidentified flying objects and after living under the shelter of God’s protection in all aspects of my life, I have learned to trust God wherever I may go and in whatever circumstances I encounter. No force, no matter how sinister, can overcome the angels who are watching over me.

Back to the UFO we saw: a friend caught a ride back to school with us that morning. We picked him up at Florence, Mississippi, which is 13 miles southeast of Jackson. Usually when we would see him, we would be talkative. That morning we said nothing.

He said, “What’s happening? Is something wrong?”

Both of us simply pointed upward. The object had traveled down the highway with us and in front of us. If we slowed down, it slowed. If we sped up, it sped up. When we stopped to get our friend it moved higher, but it remained significantly visible.

The friend looked up and saw it. He simply said, “Oh!”

We rode along in silence. Although the UFO stayed in front of us, it moved higher and higher. Finally it moved farther ahead. When we reached the town of Mount Olive, Mississippi, it flew eastward and disappeared.

We tried to tell some of our friends at the University of Southern Mississippi about it. “On the way down here from Jackson, we saw a UFO this morning.”

“Weather balloons,” they said. We gave up and didn’t mention it at school again because we did not enjoy being the objects of humor.

Two weeks later we went to visit my parents south of Taylorsville, Mississippi. Their farm was east of Mount Olive. I started telling my father, who was always up early taking care of the animals on the farm and doing his chores. He interrupted me and described a similar object he saw on that same Monday morning.