September 1st Fairfield Sighting - Eyewitness Account Recital From Ben
This is a summary of Ben's description and accounting, as related to me by him personally on 9-2, of a sighting he witnessed between 9:13 and 9:26 P.M. on 9-1.
At aprox. 9:10 P.M. Ben had gone outside to tend to the water hose on a strip of lawn in front of his residence. When he was bent down he noticed his cat looking up at the sky in an odd fashion. When he turned around to she what she was staring at he could not believe his eyes.
A huge black triangular object was seen slowly traversing across the sky very close at what he estimated to be 300' off the ground. It was witnessed at aprox. a 60 degree angle traveling from a Northwest to a Northeast direction, seeming to be possibly over "Air Base Parkway" and heading toward the North side of Travis. This object was completely silent, massive and solid in its structure, as the star fields behind it became blocked as it moved along in a slow controlled trajectory.
Ben immediately tried to associate this with a C-5 aircraft since he has lived by Travis AFB all his life. He is well familiar with the giant Galaxy Transport aircraft which are constantly flying above during all hours of the day. However it was perfectly clear to him this was not anything of a conventional nature, for it 2-3 times the size of a C-5 and it emitted an uncanny 'flame', which was iridescent blue in color, stretched out aprox. 200', and had a sparkly transparency to it.. This flame was a term used by him for lack of a better explanation, however he was adamant that this was highly unusual in it appearance, and how it trailed behind the object.
Ben described the object as a huge black mass which might have gone un-noticed if it were not for this trailing flame which shone behind it. As he stared in awe at this huge mass in such a close proximity he began to look for details on it. He noticed several small independent white lights, which were spaced randomly on the object, and emitted a continuos white light. He noticed that the lights revealed some sort of piping apparatus details around them, on the surface of the craft.
He had stared at this object long enough to realize this was not a normal aircraft, and indeed he felt as if he might be witnessing a UFO of some sort. In the height of his exhilaration he charged in to grab his mom to witness this sight. When he charged back out to show her, the object was obscured by some 50' tall trees which are in front of my residence. They both then saw the object re-appear beyond these trees, only this time no trailing flame could be seen. Just a huge dark mass could be seen heading in a Northeasterly direction away from there visual point, for approximately 2-3 seconds, and then it just disappeared.
He states that a flurry of activity could be heard coming from Travis within 10 minutes after the craft disappeared. He even indicates that he heard 1 dozen 'Tomcats' take off, however it is confirmed by Lt. Seydel that there are no fighter aircraft out at Travis. Ben immediately proceeded to draw out all the details of this sighting on paper while it was still fresh in his memory. His dimensional estimates were done by comparison to a football field. This was easy for him as he plays on a team and knows a 100 yard distance very well. When he initially did his sketch he mistakenly indicated footage's, which he meant to be yardage's, so the diagram's dimensions are actually 3 times larger then indicated.
The mother verified the exhilaration that Ben displayed, however she is vague in what she witnessed when she came out. She claims she did see something for only a few seconds and then it disappeared. At one point in a later interview she had retracted her earlier claim, and stated she may have seen nothing. This uncertainty appeared to be due to the objects disappearance not allowing a firm conviction in its momentary viewing.
It should be noted that when our secondary witness John was located, Ben confirmed John's description and account as bringing back a vivid recollection of the event. He stated that John's description of the 'flame' was more precise then his own. That the sparkling effect was a predominant oddity in the phenomenon.