SIGHTING: BENTON, LOUISIANA (UNITED STATES)

Witness Testimony

"My 2 kids & I were driving home after picking up some batteries at the Dollar General store at 5497 Airline Drive in Bossier City, Louisiana. The receipt says I checked out at 6:43pm, so it probably took about 10 minutes to get to the area where we all 3 saw the object. In order to get home, we drive north on Airline, turn right (east) onto "Linton", then right again onto "Parks". This road, "Parks", is very winding & runs along the edge of a bayou/large man-made lake, "Cypress Lake/Black Bayou". We had just gone over the very small bridge on "Parks" that goes over the water there (you can see this all in detail on Mapquest using 5497 Airline- zip 71111" "as the start & "220 Running Deer Lane -zip 71006" as the end, although the road doesn't look near as winding on the arial view because it doesn't show the road blocks that are up now, etc.) at which point the road makes a very sharp turn & is flanked by a tall levy on the left (north) side & a swamp area on the other. In the distance ahead, above the levy, we could see a very bright "star" off to the left side of the horizon above the trees. It was very cloudy, with no other stars visible, I noticed. It was very still. I saw it, but said nothing, as my hubby is always on the lookout for ufo's & I do believe they exist, but unlike him, I don't like talking about it with the kids so much, as I think it might be a bit confusing to them. So, I just looked & said nothing, but then my 8-year-old son says, "Hey Mom, look at that star over there; isn't it weird?" I said it was pretty bright, at which he asked if I thought it was the North star. I told him I didn't think that it was a star, really. Too big & bright. Maybe it's a light on the top of an oil derrick or a REALLY tall crane. (I'd never seen either there before, but there's been quite a bit of construction right in that very area were now driving through.) "An oil derrick, THAT HIGH???", he answered, skeptically. "I bet it's a UFO.""Oh, God. Now his dad's got him all into that stuff too", I thought. "Well, I don't know about that for sure. We'll see in a minute when we get up here." Ok. So all that transpired in about 30 seconds time, maybe, & the bright light was now directly ahead of us, I'd assumed it looked like that because of the sharp curving of the road, not because the light itself moving. It was so smooth & slow & level, it seemed. I was trying to NOT think of this as a weird situation with my kids! In fact, by now I was so dumbfounded that I only put together certain details that didn't add up to its being anything BUT a UFO/government craft until after it was over & I had time to think about it. Because of the heavy road construction & short detour, the trees blocked it from our view as we passed the dam (clearly visible on the arial-view map) but I could see it as we rounded the bend & it was bright as ever & now on our RIGHT side & still up ahead, but it appeared to be much closer at this point, which was about 3600 feet from where we first saw it at the bend in the road. We kept traveling up the road at the same speed of about 45 mph for another 2000 feet or so, & the thing was still there as big & bright as up in the night sky right ahead of us. So we are all just saying,"Oh my God!!! LOOK! Do you see that?!", to each other, even though, of course, we all do. As I turn around the last very sharp turn on this road, it comes to a stretch of road that is very straight for about 1400 feet before ending in a "T" at "Crouch Rd,". (On the arial map, this will appear as a right-angle some distance after the dam, which then makes another very sharp, almost-right-angle immediately after the first. It was this second turn after which we saw the UFO very closely) Right when I made the turn, it was just there plain as day, about 4 stories(?) above the ground, very low. I saw the triangular shape & the flickering lights on the back & said aloud to myself, "Oh, that's just something from Barksdale", as it looked rather like one of those pointy stealth planes. But then I thought, WAIT- IT'S NOT MAKING ANY SOUND & IT'S NOT MOVING EITHER! To say that I was tripping out would be an understatement. I neglected to mention that there was another vehicle, I think it was a truck, behind me riding my bumper this whole time, & so as I thought of stopping for a closer look, I also was afraid they'd rear-end me. I knew there was a road coming up on the left, "Cypress Village", that NEVER has any traffic on it, so I planned to do a U-turn & then stop to get a better view.It was all happening so fast! As I approached that road, we were almost under it & we could see the huge dark shape of it above with 3 round, bright lights in the middle in a triangle pattern, & with 4 smaller red & white lights in a row along the back end which were lighting up in a certain rapid sequence over & over. I can't recall if they lit up clockwise or counter-clockwise....At the very end before I turned, I had to lean completely up over the steering wheel & look straight up through the windshield to still see it. It was jaw-dropping, scary, yet amazing. I did the fastest u-ee ever on that street & by the time I had done the 180, it was far up into the sky appearing as a plane flying over might look. it was also going back in the direction we'd just come from rather quickly. I grabbed my phone & called my hub, as this would've been his ultimate dream to have experienced, & told him we were now following the craft back in the other direction. We stayed on the phone for the short time that we could still see it, way up ahead, & by the time we rounded the blind-spot detour this second, speedier time, it had vanished. It was amazing that the phone worked, because that whole area, from that very first curve by the bridge all the way to some good distance up "Crouch" is usually a dead zone, although there has been a couple of other times where it didn't drop my call. I was glad he got to hear what was happening at least. My son said afterward that he was shaking from fright, & my 5-year-old daughter isn't afraid of anything, so it was really just an adventure to her. :) I was quite shaken & feel as if I must be crazy, although I know & my kids know what we each saw that night. I sat in the car talking to my friend, whom I called right after it was over, & my son went inside the house, & unbeknownst to me, started drawing a pic to show Dad what it looked like. (He's actually rather good artist for his age too!) After I came in a few minutes later, I took Dad into the back of the house to tell him all about it, & drew a very simple sketch showing the basic shape & position of the lights on it. Shortly after that, my son came in & held up his much-better version of the same thing I'd drawn only minutes before. At this point, I'm still a bit confused about why it did that, & only wonder where it came from - space, or from the nearby Barksdale AFB. And who was in that truck behind me & where did they go? I didn't notice in the middle of my freakout....I'd like to find them & talk about it; surely they saw it too. Also, I'd like to mention that we saw another mysterious light in the sky back in the summer this year. It was in South Shreveport, on a piece of property owned by my boss on Wallace Lake Rd. As I said, dear hub's ALWAYS keeping an eye out, & I've gotten called away from doing dishes or other tasks to check out things that turn out to be planes, satellites, etc. on many occasions in the past. But this night, as we were out stargazing, we saw a BRIGHT light in the sky verrrryyyy far away amongst the stars which stopped & started a few times & then just shrank inward from a big bright halo of light to absolutely within maybe a minute's time. Very odd, but this recent event tops it all!!! I'll try to send a copy of the sketches soon!"