------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
To:            skywatch@wic.net
Subject:       UFO incident, mid 1980's
From:          nkdchf@juno.com (Noel K. Desmond)
Date:          Wed, 02 Jul 1997 11:05:45 EDT

TO:   Bill Hamilton or Col. S. Wilson, Ret.

     I would like to relate to you an incident which accrued to my
     family
and I in the mid 1980's. It was documented by our local newspaper " The
Chiefland Citizen ", also my wife, daughter and I are not the only one's
to have observed the following.  Please be informed the former executive
officer of our sheriff's department and a group of airline pilots
observed the same.
     Now to get on with the story.  My wife, daughter and I were
returning from Crystal River some time after 9pm and while coming up our
drive ( we live on 80 acres of land surrounded by 20,000 plus acres of
uninhabited forest.)  Observations are very clear because of the absence
of artificial light. my daughter noticed something in the sky to the
west south west of our home at some distance. I at first thought it was
the good year blimp coming toward us head on but at a slight angle. My
next thought was, what the hell is the good year blimp doing out here. 
We live under a military air corridor with the center line about 100
yards to the south of our home.  All three of us got out of our car and
proceeded to observe these objects. What we saw was 30 to 35 bright
objects of two or three varying sizes flying in staggered level
formation at a height of two to three thousand feet on a heading of east
north east.  The objects speed was around 600mph to 800mph.
   This is the clincher though,  all of these objects were surrounded as
a whole by a pulsating bluish light that varied in intensity.  This
surrounding light had a distinct shape and reminded me of exactly what I
think it was, some sort of electromagnetic force field. It was shaped
like a wing, higher on top and shallower on the bottom and tapering to
the rear, but the tapering ended before it could form a trailing tail or
following edge. Instead it was ragged shaped like a pair of clothing
shears would make on cloth after being cut.  We observed these objects
for approximately three to four minutes.   After these objects went out
of sight, we went into our home and I called FaxFac in Jacksonville,
Fla.
 I had their phone number in my phone book because we had been having
trouble with very low flying military jets ( tree top level ) coming
over our house.  I dialed FaxFac and contacted a duty personal. I then
related what we had observed stressing that I didn't want to sound like
some kind of nut.  The person I reacted with these exact words
were " man, I don't know what the hell they are. there right over us now
and we have them on radar, one of my men is outside now looking at them.
Elapsed time from end of our observation to phone call to Jacksonville
about three minutes or less. ( 125 miles ).  I then found the number for
Norad and called there relating again what we had observed.  I was told
by Norad that what we saw was a Russian satellite reentering and the
subsequent breakup of same.   I informed the duty officer this
explanation was an insult to my intelligence.  I told him I had spent
two years of my life on an attack aircraft carrier ( U.S.S. Frankly D.
Roosavelt CVA-42 ) as part of the flight deck arresting gear team.  I
have seen meteorites reentering both in the service and while living at
my present residences and I believe satellites would react in the same
manor.  Please be aware that I have seen many hundreds if not thousands
of all kinds of naval aircraft landing and taking off ( day and night
)of a flight deck in all kinds of weather conditions. Two or three days
later I again called FaxFac and spoke to the civilian head of that
department, Mr. Kaidinhead who I had spoken to many times before over
the overflights of my home by military aircraft.  He told me the
official response was the breakup of a Russian Satellite.  I told him I
don't think so. He told me this supposedly "Russian Satellite" came in
from the Gulf of Mexico near St. Petersburg, Fla. turned East North East
and flew at level flight to the northern Va. boarder then turned right
90 degree's proceeding into the Atlantic Ocean.  In the Tampa/ St.
Petersburg area the official word at first was that it was a laser light
show.  Let me tell you I am also a former police officer, and I have
been trained to observe in detail what I'm looking at. When your life
depends on what you see, hear and perceive, you pay attention. A mistake
is to costly.   I am also a 100% disabled american veteran.  With all
the Roswell talk I thought it was time to relate this story to some one
who might listen.

                                                       Respectfully
                                                       Yours

                                                       Noel K. Desmond

                                                       P.O. Box 1939

                                                       Chiefland, Fla.
32644