Hello and thank you for the warm welcome. I know it's automated, but thanks anyway! It's a nice touch. I am 39 years old, going on 40 in August. I have been through many trades in my life since my teen years. I grew up on a small farm, and we raised many different animals, so there's that. I bucked bails, mowed lawns, worked at gas stations, and even spent a year in a DieCast factory making anything from aluminum Daisy crockpot liners, to corvette door handles. I spent ten and a half years in the United States Marine Corps from 1993 through 2003. I also earned a BS in Game Software Development (which I have yet to actually use). I currently work as a software developer, both independent (not much work yet) and for a large company.
I was listening to the past Sunday's paracast podcast and both Gene and Chris stated that they hadn't seen the Nevada/Phoenix/Arizona (whatever you want to call them) lights back in the mid 90's (I forget the year). I was stationed at MCAS Yuma AZ when that event took place. Me and my Marine bros were taking it easy and drinking a few brews on the ladderwell attached to our barracks (north end). It was just sunset when we saw the lights appear. It was a while back so the memory is a bit hazy, but I seem to remember them appearing a couple or maybe one at a time (maybe a few at a time). I don't think they appeared all at once. They moved extremely slowly across the sky. I mean, I remember watching them for at least an hour. Again my memory is hazy, so forgive me if my mind is tossing in details. It started in the northwestern sky, and they couldn't have been more than a low cloud height. Maybe a few thousand feet, I am not sure, they were pretty far away. If they were about 10 to 15 miles away (arizona is pretty dang flat between the foothill areas), then the thing had to have been a half mile to a mile wide. I am not good at judging distances in the sky, we were only really taught to visually estimate ground target distances.
It was pretty exciting, but no one really went too nuts over the ordeal because that whole area is a training ground for all types of craft (the area between camp pendleton CA and phoenix, AZ). So that was my second sighting of a UFO. I have heard folks on your program try to explain what the definition of UFO is and how it actually ties to flying saucers or some such nonsense. I am using the literal definition of "unidentified flying object". It was in the air, and I couldn't identify it, nor could anyone else. I seem to remember some politician (maybe the AZ gov at the time?) stating that they would get to the bottom of this. But then I never heard about it again.
My very first possible sighting was over Palmyra Missouri when I was a teen. We were playing basketball out behind our house at around 9 PM when these clouds moved in and we saw what looked like riverboat lights shooting up into the clouds. The spots were moving in a circular pattern and it was east, so we thought it was just coming from the Mississippi river. Then they moved over the house and farther west. No way it could be a boat. That's it. That's my experience with possible UFO sightings.
I believe there might be something out there. I don't really buy the stories that there might be a civilization underground. I also don't buy that there are ghosts. I think that it may be something more sinister at work. I am a Christian, and Christ did mention a great deception, so what if this is all part of a great deception by non corporeal beings who have the power to do so? I am just throwing darts like anyone else. I think we have to be open to the possibility that maybe there really is a God, and there really are fallen angles who want to muck things up for us. Is it any more outlandish than believing that civilizations live within the Earth, or that aliens have visited from space? If there were a God, wouldn't He be somewhat of an alien? Could he be just an extremely powerful alien? Or, could He really be the creator? Could it be that we are just hoping there is no God so that we would not be held responsible for our lives (some of us anyway)? I think there is very strong evidence going in both directions to be honest. I don't know, I like to keep an open mind and listen to what others have to say.
Thanks again for accepting me to the site.
Welcome aboard and thanks for sharing.