Triangle UFO Over Isleta Indian Reservation Bridge

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By the beginning of the year of 1995 J and I had gone our separate ways. Nothing uncommon for me. Business as usual.

I had started classes at the University of New Mexico’s College of Pharmacy, but continued to work at least three 12 hour shifts per week in the ER for one of Albuquerque’s hospital systems. Most of the time these shifts took place between 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on the weekends, but occasionally there would be other hours.

I took care of my mother during both the times J and I were together, up until the day she died. She was a brittle diabetic (old term), hypertensive, arthritic, but her mind was intact. Her eyesight was not the best, and her reaction times had slowed, therefore she quit driving. I picked up the slack for her.

I was headed to my mother’s home one night after an 11a.m. to 11 p.m. shift at one of St. Joe’s Hospitals ERs. This one was located on the West side of Albuquerque, so I was able to take the back roads to my mother’s. This allowed me to go through the Isleta Indian Reservation and cross the Rio Grande via their bridge.

As I came across the Reservation and started across the bridge I looked up the Rio Grande River northward. Hovering silently about 100-150 yards from the bridge was a large triangular shaped craft. It was just about tree top level and the bottom of the craft reflected in the dark waters of the Rio Grande. The only lights visible on the craft were what I would say were portholes or windows along the upper third of the thickness of the craft, and three large, brilliantly white lights on the bottom. I know they were there because they reflected back from the river.

Artist Concept

I looked at this vehicle, and it was like it was an everyday sight for me. The tingling in my neck was going off madly, but I felt extremely calm. I didn’t stop or even slow down my car. I made it through the Reservation and home.

I mentioned this to an Uncle (uncle by marriage) that had traveled Hwy 317 many times over the years. He laughed and began to describe a disc shaped craft he saw hovering in the yard of one of the many folks who had land along that Hiway. He said that was one of many sightings he had had over the years.

A Journey of Missing Time on Highway 350

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Both J and I had been attending The University of New Mexico taking classes in computer programming. At the end of 2.5 years of computer languages, and debugging a program in C++ at 6 in the morning, I decided I was going to go back to something I knew, medicine. 

We both applied to UNM’s College of Pharmacy, but to hedge our bets we also applied to University of Colorado Boulder’s CoP and University of the Pacific’s CoP.

It was in October of 1993 and we had interviews in Boulder. Since I was born and raised in Colorado we decided we would stay with a long time friend of mine and his family. 

We got a late start out of Albuquerque, and the drive to La Junta is approximately 5 hours. We left Albuquerque at 3:12 in the afternoon. We arrived at my friend’s home around midnight.

As we were making our way from Trinidad, Colorado down Hiway 350 towards La Junta, it was extremely dark. There are very few lights along that portion of the highway as most of the area is farmland and ranchland. As we were driving the discussion once again turned towards UFOs. We were discussing many of the sightings that had taken place over the years, when I noticed two repetitive sets of lights. They consisted of two lights that were a set distance apart. They were a brilliant white and moved quite slowly. As I watched these two sets of lights the hairs on the back of my neck stood straight up. I got J to look at the lights just as the trailing set of two lights began a marvelous display.

The lights began to flash, much like a strobe light. The flashing started as regular intervals, first the leading light, then the trailing light. They also appeared to have slowed down in their traversing the terrain. All of a sudden these two lights began flashing in a wild and disrythmic fashion. In such a way as it appeared that the lights had multiplied and no longer flashed in a linear fashion. They literally flew around the area defined by the original two lights, but in no predictable sense. The display was breath taking.

After arriving at my friend’s M, he asked why we were so late. I had no explanation. I told him about the lights, but J claimed she never saw them. He said perhaps they were military as the army had put in an installation along Hwy 350 since I had moved away.

Perhaps.

Travis Walton: Was He The Only Abduction In That Forest Range?

After our discussion about what had occurred to me in Socorro, J seemed to accept what had happened without much discussion or disbelief. It was during this time that I was contact with the Intruders Foundation run by Budd Hopkins, and Ms. Kathryn McCampbell. I was having more frequent, overt experiences. Most of which I’ve already covered.

The last immediate occurrence happened just prior to our going to go see “Fire In The Sky”. It was the night before the movie opened, J and I had been at work until midnight. I dropped her off at her home, and I drove the 23 miles South to Peralta. I felt incredibly tired, which was not uncommon after a shift from Hell in the ER.

I made it home and went immediately to sleep. I really don’t know how long I had been sleeping when my bedroom was flooded with a brilliant white light. Much like the klieg lights they use here in California for a movie. There was absolutely no source around my home for such a brilliant light. As soon as I noticed it, I was back asleep.

The next afternoon I picked J up from her home in the Northeast Heights of Albuquerque. We watched the movie, which was a tad over done for me, but close to the experience none the less. As we were driving to go to dinner J asked me if the movie bothered me. I said not exactly, but it did bring some memories to the fore.

She then began to tell me how she that it was crap, and that I couldn’t have possibly gone thru what was portrayed in the movie. I was trying to explain to her that I was sure that there was ‘artistic license’ being used in the production. She moved away from me and sat next to the window of my truck. I explained to her that the Mogollon Mountain range, the very same range that Travis Walton logged in, ran just to the South and West of Socorro.

Our experiences happened very close to one another, and that the probability of it being the same craft and crew was highly likely. J then said I needed to shut up about this and how could she possibly be proud of a boyfriend who had a fantasy such as this.

This sudden shift in her point of view was totally out of character for her. But it was one which didn’t change, and probably signaled the end of a 9 year relationship. The next year we took a trip to Denver to interview for Pharmacy School.

That will be covered next time.

Purgatory, Pandemonium and a Question of UFOs

There is nothing comparable to the wonder of the blue skies of Southwestern Colorado over the vast white of the ski runs of Purgatory, now Durango Ski Area. This was the end of winter 1988 and my girlfriend and I were headed out to get one last ski trip in for the year.

We were staying in a motel at the north end of the main street in Durango. It was filled with folks from the various states in search of that perfect run. The weather was beautiful and the sky was clear. At night, from the hot tub you felt that you could reach out and touch the Milky Way, the Pleiades, Ursula Major and Minor. We tracked satellites with ease, it was breathtaking.

On our last day we headed to the ski are via a shuttle service (read old yellow school bus) that was provided by the motel. We gathered our equipment together, and met at the bus. As equipment was getting loaded onto the bus, that familiar tingling started right at the base of my neck. I looked everywhere in the sky, but did not see anything that I felt could account for that feeling. We headed out.

For the early part of the day, my girlfriend skied with her brother’s girlfriend, teaching her how to ski. I was left up to my own resources, and made a couple of new friends from Texas. We had skied down a run called Lower Pandemonium and were heading back up to the top, when the gentleman next to me on the lift asked me my opinion on ETs and UFOs.

I told him that I was quite certain that there were other sentient beings beside us on this planet. We chatted for the better part of the lift ride to the top of the run, where he began to tell me about a crash that had taken place near the Texas/Mexican border, Laredo I believe, and the retrieval. We then got off the lift he waved goodbye and headed down the run. I never saw him again. Never. Not on the run. Not on the bus back to the motel. I didn’t think twice about it at the time.

That night we were getting ready for bed, and J and I were discussing the day. I was telling her about this Texan that I had met, and she asked me where he was from in Texas. I didn’t know. What was his name, again not a clue. We finished getting ready, showered and gathered our belongings so that the next day would go off without a hitch. I was out like a light. 

The next thing I know I have the feeling of falling. The bed compressed as I ‘hit’ it, and it bounced J up and then back down. She awoke with a start and rolled over to see what had happened. According to her there were several seconds that I had laid there, my eyes opened, but not responding to her voice. 

Needless to say, it shook her up. Then I had “The Talk” with her regarding Socorro.

Sandia ER and a Case of Mistaken Identity

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Albuquerque, NM. The year is 1988. 

My girlfriend and I had had many discussions about life on other planets and other planes of existence.  We were both basically on the same page as to the reality of it all.  However, the other staff members at the hospital where we worked varied on the subjects.

We worked the “war zone” at the hospital's Emergency Room. I was in an administrative position, so it was stress-relieving fun for the staff to give me my ration of s__t for my beliefs. 

It was all in good fun and I took it that way but to me a person should never be ridiculed for their beliefs; be it religious, political or life in general. 

One day in the midst of our duties, my ward clerk suddenly came running in from the ambulance entrance, breathless. It was about 5 or 6 in the evening and the setting sun had cast it’s coloration along the Sandia Mountains turning them the color that gave them their name…a watermelon red.  

He was very excited and urged me to go quickly outside and look just above the ER.  He said that their was a metallic craft hovering, and it wasn’t moving. I thought that this was quite odd as I didn’t have any tingling that I would normally associate with the presence of a craft. 

I walked out the ambulance entrance and down the drive.  I looked up and indeed there was a metalic object just sitting there in the sky. I went back in and retrieved my clerk. We walked back out and I pointed to the object. It was sitting there quietly hovering and not moving perceptibly.

I looked at my clerk and said “That, my friend, is what a weather balloon looks like.  Notice how it looks like an ice cream cone? That's a dead give away.” He looked at me in disbelief.  He said he could understand how someone could actually mistake one for an unidentified craft.  I smiled and went back inside.

My girlfriend and I were planning an end-of-the-season ski trip. 

More on that next time.

Manzano Mountain, Sandia Labs Sightings

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Back to the timeline…1985...

After a long period of abstinence, both from sightings and females, I started seeing the girl who would be with me for 10+ years. She didn’t have any problems with my history, at first.

Our first outing was camping in an area just South of Belen, NM, in the Manzano Mountain range. Keep in mind that the Manzano Mts were where Sandia Labs were doing propulsion and weapons testing. Much of our nuclear stockpile was stored there during the ‘Cold War’.

We drove down I-25 South, took the turn off for Isleta and headed down Hiway 47. This trek took us thru Bosque Farms, Peralta, and Los Lunas. We followed it down past Belen, NM and took a dirt road that ended at a trail head. 

It was early October, the air was very crisp and there was the promise of snow in the air. We hiked up the trail head about 2 miles when I noticed a very large, shallow cave on the right side of the trail. We made our way to the cave and set up camp for the weekend. It was just dusk when I got the campfire started. We had our supper, sat there telling stories, jokes and I passed time blowing on a harmonica that I always took camping. 

After it was dark we sat looking at the sky, and my companion looked at me and said “I’ve never thought we were the only ones here. That would be the stupidest statement one could possibly make.” I agreed and we turned in for the night.

About 2 hours passed, when I got that tingling in my neck. I woke her and we went out the tent opening. There was a glowing object passing from West to East, silently, at a fairly rapid rate. It was about the size of a match head at arm’s length. We turned back in and snuggled down in our down bag.

The next morning, we decide to hike along the ridge that was just East of our camp. As we came up a draw, near the top of the opposite ridge, was a bubble-like object sitting next to a pine. I quickly took a photo of it and wanted to hike towards it. My date, however, felt otherwise.

Needless to say, we did not go and explore near the bubble. This was the beginning of an interesting 10 years.

Note:

I am currently going thru multiple boxes and photo-books to find that print. When I do I will post it here.

UFO Sighting and Albuquerque: Lost Week-end

Please forgive me for a bit of regression here. 

It is amazing what friends remember.

This past week I was talking with one of my friends from my years at NMMT in Socorro. I was mentioning this blog and we were comparing notes from that time. She asked me if I had mentioned what I apparently called a “Lost Weekend”. The following is the meat of our conversation.

Apparently in late 1976 or early 1977 my friend had agreed to take a mutual acquaintance to the Albuquerque Airport. They had left Socorro at around 4 a.m. on a Saturday morning. Her friend was headed back to Pennsylvania for a family emergency. They were headed North on I-25 when they got to the “Twilight Zone” just south of Belen, NM.

She was driving her Triumph sports car, when they pulled over to the side of the road. She was unable to recall exactly why they pulled over, but as soon as they had come to a complete stop she looked above them.  Moving silently across the sky was what she describes as a HUGE deck shaped object.  She judged the length of one side to be about 300 yards. There were multiple lights between the top of the craft and the bottom, making the appearance of it being a multi-storied object. It moved silently, heading West across the interstate.  Her other observation was that it appeared to be landing, just West of Los Lunas, NM. She said that if her passenger hadn’t had to be at the airport to catch his flight, she would have chased the thing.

According to her, that weekend I had headed up to Albuquerque. I left Socorro right after band practice, so that would have put it around midnight. When I returned to Socorro, I complained that I had ended up coming into Albuquerque from the West side. I had taken a cut-off that I was sure was a shortcut to Albuquerque. I arrived in ABQ late Saturday afternoon, feeling blank. I told them when I returned to Socorro that I felt like I had lost my weekend.

Even more interesting is that I hadn’t remembered that incident until we talked this past week. Even now it is a piece meal affair of memories.