When I read the local newspaper headline “Mysterious Flying Object Might Have Been a Planet,” I shook my head in frustration. I couldn’t believe it. The unidentified flying object (UFO) I saw hovering over this lady’s pole barn was not a planet rising over the horizon! I wanted to shake some sense into the local college astronomer who suggested it. Even NASA engineers said the object was not a planet and gave their opinion that the metal was not manmade. I still have their report. And, fortunately, I videotaped the event . . .
It happened one early morning just before Christmas. It was still dark outside. My desk sergeant received a call from an excited, but frazzled, thirty-some-year-old lady who reported a “thing” hovering over her pole barn. She wanted to know what it was. I was dispatched around 6:30.
Both the sergeant and I admit we thought the call was from a “mental,” given the fact so many people had recently been released from a state mental hospital in our area. To this day, however, I regret not arriving at this woman’s house sooner, when the UFO was closest to the ground.
After I took my time writing a citation for a typical speeder on his way to work, I arrived on her front porch, and knocked on the door. I wasn’t too excited about this visit.
The woman answered and appeared visibly shaken. “Did you see it? Did you see it? Did you see it when you pulled into the driveway?”
I said, “Nope. ‘Fraid not.” I was unenthusiastic.
It should be noted that I am a fifty-year-old, cantankerous police canine handler, and have been a trooper for many years. I am conservative, a member of the school board, and a Christian Protestant. I may not attend church regularly, and I smoke cigarettes like a fiend, but I’m a quiet-spoken, mild-mannered guy who loves his family very much.
The woman urgently beckoned me in. “Then come in! Come with me! Right now! I will show you.” She grabs me by the hand and hustles me through the kitchen and dining room to her back sliding doors. I stepped out on the deck and suddenly my knees buckled! I looked up and was shocked! I felt all the blood drain from my face. My eyes must have been big as tennis balls. Even my body started to quiver, which is very unlike me. I had seen some strange things in my police career, but nothing like this.
This UFO was massive! It was as big as half a football field and hovered silently above this woman’s pole barn. Apparently it had risen since she’d first spotted it—but I could still see it clearly. The colors were amazing. I was scared and excited.
The lady was grateful I had come as she requested. Later that day, even Paul Harvey said it was the wisest thing the woman could have done—to call the state police. I don’t know if I would have believed just one person’s story. As we found later, it became important that we had each other to talk to.
I radioed my sergeant and advised him that this sighting was no prank and that the woman had a legitimate concern. My voice rarely cracks over the radio, but it did that day.
I know, you might think I’m a trooper gone wacky, but the object we saw could not have been from this world. It was too weird. I’ll never forget how silent it was.
It looked like the old-fashioned flying saucer in the Lost in Space television show, but the metal and its composition was different. As we gazed up, we saw the bottom of it. It was a strange, ethereal, brilliant array of colors and lights, interweaving and dancing over and under each other—difficult to describe well. The bottom looked open and hollow. These brilliant colors and shapes resembled Honeycomb cereal, all woven together. That’s the only way I can describe it. We commented to each other how the colors did not look real. They were colors we had never seen before—and they were BEAUTIFUL! I learned later that scientists believe there are other colors in the universe that we haven’t seen with our eyes. I think we were true witnesses to this concept.
Still shot from the videotape provided by the officer.
The lady had called her neighbor, Michael, just before I arrived. When Michael looked out his kitchen window, as she requested, all he could see was lightning bolts, radiating above her barn. He had to put his robe on and walk over to get a look at it.
I find it weird that neither Michael nor I could see the object at certain angles. It was only until Michael came over that he saw it, too. There was little obstruction in our initial views, from the driveway or from Michael’s kitchen window, yet neither of us could see it from those vantage points. (Maybe this is what they mean by “cloaking” in science fiction.)
At first the lady and I were going to try and assemble a new video camera that was wrapped underneath her Christmas tree, but then we decided we might not figure it out in time to videotape the UFO. So, Michael ran next door and retrieved an old video camera he had stored away. Michael videotaped some wonderful clips of the object, though it seemed to get higher and higher in the sky as time went on.
The UFO was visible for almost two hours, from 6:30 A.M. to 8:30 A.M. I can hardly explain how it disappeared from view. It was moving, but it wasn’t. It just didn’t seem real, yet it was clear as day to the naked eye and to the video camera.
The UFO was completely silent the whole time, yet the lady’s three dogs knew it was there! Perhaps it made a sound that humans could not hear but dogs could, or perhaps the lights affected them—whatever it was, they were petrified! Two of her dogs hid in the doghouse and would not come out when she called. A third dog, an Akita, hid under a bed in the house. Akitas are rarely afraid of anything.
When we first observed it, the morning was still dark, so there was some fog and haze around it, which caused the colors to shift and gleam and look quite eerie in the night sky. Plus, it was so big! As it rose above the barn and the sky got lighter, you could see the metal and the composition better. It had an outer shell that seemed to be spinning.
After about an hour, three military jets flew over the top of the house, as if to inspect it. As the jets flew over, the lights went out on the UFO, and then they came back on once the jets were gone. I called my sergeant and asked him to check with the F.A.A., Camp Grayling, and any other military bases in the Midwest to ask why these Air Force jets had flown over northern Michigan. I know an Air Force military jet when I see one. To this day, the F.A.A. and the military claim there were absolutely no military aircraft in our area. That is a lie! I believe our government knows much more than they care to admit or explain to common folks.
I do not think this object was a military project either. People have suggested it was a military experimental aircraft, but I beg to disagree. We sent our video to NASA, whose engineers inspected it closely. Several of them actually called me and clearly stated the metal did not appear to be manmade.
The lady, Michael, and I remained close friends after this sighting. Despite the amazing incident and the positive changes we experienced in our own attitudes about life—we had some mixed feelings afterwards.
The experience changed each of us in different ways. We talked about it for many years. For instance, the lady, now my friend, chooses not to focus on the sky so much anymore. She is grateful to be living her life, here, now, day-to-day, and to be experiencing everything she has at the moment. She feels the incident and aftermath “grounded” her somehow.
Michael felt much as I do. We no longer look at ourselves the same way as we did before. I’m more tolerant, open, and appreciative of the world we live in. The Universe is so much bigger than I ever thought, and we are like little grains of sand. I now realize there is a higher purpose, a higher meaning in life that is difficult for man to comprehend. In fact, it’s incomprehensible. The Universe goes beyond our minds, beyond our egos, and I am no longer as self-involved and self-absorbed as I once was. I watch and wonder more attentively now.
I still see those colors dancing in my head and I wish I could share them with people. Our universe has colors we’ve never seen before.
Trooper Glenn Guldner, Michigan State Police, Traverse City, Michigan
Note: Trooper Glenn Guldner is deceased.
The events he shared occurred several years ago.