UFOs

OAK RIDGE, TENNESSEE Aerial Phenomenon A compilation of observations by Lilwanhna Casioses Sodi 1962 - 1997 Dive Theme 340kb wav
BACKGROUND: Oak Ridge, Tennessee was a top secret World War II project by the U.S. Army to provide nuclear fuel for the atomic bombs used at Hiroshima, and Nagasaki. The town continued to manufacture weapons material and bomb parts for the United States Department of Defense, under the Department of Energy until the early 1990’s. Oak Ridge experienced circumstances of missing plutonium, as well as mercury, and other strategic metals used in nuclear technologies. The area also had a fledgling UFO research group as early as 1969.
	When I was a child in around the summer of 1963, my brothers and I were playing in our living room of our home in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. My older brother "Eddie" said to us through an open door from the porch, adjacent to the living room, "You guys come out here and look at this shooting star." It took a moment for us to get off the floor, and a moment to walk outside (total about 7 seconds) to the porch and fix our eyes on the area in the sky my brother was pointing to. We saw a round white light about three miles away traveling straight up from the horizon. Looking west, traveled about 60 miles an hour directly up and then separated into two lights in a "Y" with the left light moving up steadily past the right one. Then again, the left one broke or split apart and another piece of it seemed to separate to the left this time. The three balls of light then converged in a line and dimmed out slowly. The entire event took about 12 -15 seconds, far longer than any meteorite I’ve witnessed as an amateur astronomer in my adult years. The object, and later group of objects moved steadily and did not make noise or shower sparks like fireworks, which each of us had experience with.

GREEN DOT IN THE NIGHT SKY: The fall of 1971 our town of Oak Ridge experienced a phenomenon that deserves a decent explanation. In the evening hours starting about early October, a faint green dot appeared in the sky about 35 degrees from the horizon and in the East. It was seen mostly on overcast nights but also on clearer nights. Many citizens of Oak Ridge saw it over the period of about 10 days. It appeared as a fuzzy, light green, patch. It did not move or change intensity. It’s size would have been about thirty to forty feet in diameter and over the city about two thousand feet. The town newspaper carried a "Mysterious Green Spot" story, and later ascribed it to smog drifting in from a Birmingham steel mill illuminated by city lights. It hasn’t been see before or since.

	LARGE WHITE BALL: The Summer of 1974, I was talking to my girlfriend on the phone at 11:15pm at the family home in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. All family members were asleep I was conversing quietly over the phone, laying in the completely dark house in a hallway with a picture window plainly in sight. Then, a large bright ball crossed behind a craggy pine tree in the next door neighbor’s yard. I cursed an exclamation and threw the phone down to run outside for a better look. There, hovering quietly above the next door neighbor’s driveway was a huge, internally luminous ball about 35 to 40 feet in diameter. It was at least bigger than our house. It’s outline was clear and distinct, the object seemed slightly transparent or full of glowing white smoke. The inside seemed foggy like a crystal ball with clouds in it. It was a startling sight, as I was 60 to 90 feet away from it, and it gave off a faint shuttering, or swishing sound. I could of easily thrown a rock and hit it but I didn’t want to take my eyes off it. It was traveling about 1 mile an hour and dipped down into our yard slightly but stopped when I got there as if it was looking at me. I did sense that it, or someone was looking at me. I stared at it awestruck for about 45 seconds to a minute maybe, then it eased up and started gliding slowly away. I ran back into the house for binoculars and followed it as it made a gradual "S" curve over Oak Ridge picking up speed, and then went out of sight. This was not a weather balloon, and moved too intelligently to be a gag. I will never forget it.
September 7th, 1997: I and a group of friends were sitting up talking in the living room of my home on Black Oak Ridge in Knox County. About 2:15am my brother pointed dropped-jawed at something out over the valley. "UFO" he said, and we scrambled outside on the balcony. The object had very bright white lights 50 to 70 feet apart and a flashing red light between and above the white ones. It traveled east\southeast at about 70 miles an hour just past a group of trees about 800 feet from our location with no discernable noise. As it moved away, the white lights were still plainly visible as before. I thought that was unusual, although with a bluish tint, and slight atmospheric halo. The lights moving away gave both of us the impression of the semi-conical and cupped tail lights of a 1959 Mercury. I said, "That looked like the back of a…" and he chimed in "Mercury!" Also, the red light (above and to the center) did not rotate, it pulsated, never going completely out. The cause for my brother's alarm he said, at first he thought it was a plane out of control - stalling and drifting sideways, thinking it might hit the house, then quickly his mind locked on to a more bizarre judgment. He remains firm. My Brother was a U.S. Army trained field observer, trained in air and spacecraft "identities" by U.S. Army doctrine which by the way, covers the topic of UFOs. He contends: "A UFO is the only explanation." PROBLEMS: I’ve lived on this ridge for ten years and I hear all jet, prop, and helio activity. At the time of this encounter, we heard only the low humm of Interstate - 40 about two miles away. If there was visual doubt, it still doesn't account for the lack of noise, which I’m sensitive to. This could have been a dare-devil late-night glider out of control. But, at some point, it must have been traveling sideways or backwards. This is the only explanation for the way the lights appeared. The other possible explanation (apart from the peculiar maneuver) is a dangerously low flying commercial size jet. But, this being the case… (the only aircraft big enough to fit the size of the description) would never have been so close over a residentially populated ridge, and if so, would have blown the windows out of the house.