I have kept quiet about this for 47 years as I saw others ridiculed for reporting what they'd seen. Now that I'm retired I could care less so here is my story. For the sake of brevity I will use the names Jack and Jim for my brothers.My experience was in the Fall of 1964 on a Saturday night around 10:00 PM. I lived three miles from the nearest town on a major highway 12 miles outside of Erie, Pennsylvania. My two younger twin brothers(13) and I (15) hitched a ride home from a skating rink and as we got out of the car that gave us a ride I noticed lights coming from the back of our property. This was about 300 yards from the highway and the lights were like a big glowing ball. Nobody was home as my Mother was working and all our weekly renters were out on the town. We had a storage shed at the very back of our property and the field in front of the shed was lower and shielded from view by a long picket fence and roses bushes.I unlocked the front door and we raced to the kitchen in the back of the house without turning on any lights. The kitchen was lite up from a light coming through the windows from large outside security lights. I got a flashlight out of a drawer as they looked out the window over the kitchen sink. I told them I was going to get my shotgun.When I returned to the kitchen my brother Jim was learning on the stove shaking with fear and mumbling. Jack was looking out the window in obvious fear. As I loaded the gun with the light from the flashlight I placed on the counter, I told them it was probably somebody trying to steal things out of the shed and we would scare the daylights out of them.Jack kept saying those are awfully strange looking lights and they don't look like lights from a car. I had a quick look out the window but nothing but a glowing light and the top of some structure.Both of my brothers were acting very weird and totally out of character. I told them to follow me and I went out the back door. I quickly realized they weren't behind me and so I went back in the house. They were still frozen with fear. I looked at them and said: "What in the world is wrong with you two? Why are the two of you acting like wimps?" Jim yelled "I'm not going down there". He kept repeating this over and over like his brain was stuck as he still was leaning on the stove as fear obviously took out the use of his legs. I was completely dumb founded by his reaction to a glowing light. Jack who was normally an arrogant loud mouth was dead quiet. I said come on Jack let's go as he stood looking blankly out the window. I said why are you guys wimping out on me like this? I have a gun and you know I never miss. Jack slowly followed me out the door as I told him nothing would hurt him. We had five double motel units perpendicular from the highway beginning 75 feet from the back of the house and ending 125 yards at the edge of a field. The shed was another 300 feet from the front edge of the field. All lights were on as well as a dozen driveway lights and two pole lights. The area was lit up like a supermarket parking lot except where the craft landed. We sneaked along the back of the units and Jack having regained his courage moved ahead of me by ten yards. He looked around the corner of the last motel unit and quickly came running back to me. He started shaking all over from fear. I asked him what he saw as he walked by me heading for the house. He said "I don't know but I'm getting the hell out of here. I told him to wait and I then peered around the corner with my 16ga pump shotgun and holy shit I couldn't believe my eyes. There was a huge spacecraft and the outer diameter was only 30 to 40 yards away. I then ducked back around the corner and asked my brother what he thought and he said "I don't know but I'm getting the hell out of here". I told him to wait again and leaned the gun up against the back of the building as it was more apt to provoke an attack by these creatures. I peered around the corner again to have another look. I took a long hard look to get all the details but saw no alien creatures. I said do you think we could get closer for a better look. He looked at me like I'd lost my mind and said hell no and ran towards the house.Believe it or not but I didn't have any fear just a fascination at what I had just seen. My heart was beating out of my chest and I realized I might be brave but I wasn't about to be down their all alone and quickly caught up to Jack.The spacecraft was roughly a hundred and fifty feet in diameter with a band of dim blue-green and crimson colored lights around the perimeter. It was around twenty feet high and a dull silver metallic looking craft. It was a beautiful looking machine with no obvious seams or rivets of any kind. It was like three different saucers one on top of another but looked like the whole thing was stamped out of one piece of material. It was supported by four landing legs and the lights were about 1 1/2 feet high by a 3 feet long of alternating blue and red around the biggest diameter of the craft. The lights were pulsating counterclockwise and it gave you a strange feeling. The top had too rectangular black windows about five feet long and two and a half to three feet high.We were all big for our age and afraid of nothing before this experience. I being older really wanted to get closer but again I wasn't about to go it alone. We got back to the house and Jim hadn't moved from his leaning on the stove. He asked what we had seen and Jack said you don't want to know. I explained in detail exactly what we had seen. He said that was enough for him and said I'm outta here. I stopped him in his tracks as he was heading for the front door and said he shouldn't go outside alone.There was a bar about a city block away and I had just enough money for three cokes. We ran the 275 yards as fast as we could run and walked quickly through the front door. We walked through the bar area and continued into the dining area. We took a seat all out of breath. Both Jim an Jack were white as ghosts. The 8-12 patrons at the bar looked at us and probably wondered what the heck was going on with these strange acting kids.Six people in the dining area were looking at us as we took our seats. The old woman that owned the place with her husband quickly came to our table and asked me if there was anything wrong. I just smiled and said no we were just running and out of breath. I thought she was going to kick us out because of our age but she let us stay. She looked at my brothers and then back at me and said are you sure you're all right with a questioning look. I assured her nothing was wrong and ordered three cokes and pretzels. Jim was shaking and looking down at the floor and Jack was looking straight ahead out the window. Both looked a complete mess. We stayed there for three hours with this sweet old lady coming around every fifteen minutes with the same I know something's wrong look. We said nothing and agreed to keep our mouths shut as people would think we were crazy. We then went home and the craft was gone. We said nothing to our Mother as she was having a difficult time with my Father passing at 38 years old only two months ago and having to be the bread winner.The next morning Jack and I checked out the site at daylight hoping to find some evidence. All we found were weeds flattened where the three foot diameter landing legs of the craft had been. Jim refused to go any where near the site. The area was all gravel ground and it had been very dry and warm. You could have driven a semi-tractor trailer over this weed and grass field and it wouldn't have left a tire track. I was hoping for burn marks or something but none existed.My two brothers and I discussed that night only a few times as it very much upset them. January of 1966 I tried discussing this again as we moved and were not anywhere close to the site and they still reacted the same. Then around six months later they couldn't remember a thing and said I was crazy. Both have no memory of this event today although it took months for them to get over it. Jack remembers the morning after when we looked for evidence of the spacecraft landing site.The really strange thing was the quickness of their negative reaction. We could be laughing and telling jokes and one word from me about that night and it was like I'd flipped a switch in their brains. They would only look at each other and then the fear would start. It was like they had their own pact between them. I believe that night was the first close contact for me but not for them. This experience had happened to them before, I'm sure of it now as why would they react to a glowing light with such fear. It's the only logical explanation as only two things could have taken place for them not to remember. One is they were abducted and their memory erased or fear made them forget it. If fear made them forget then why did it take so long. To my knowledge neither have told anybody anything to this day. This disturbs Jack as well as he remembers looking for evidence of a spaceship landing but can't remember why he was doing it. Jim has absolutely no memory but he was never quite the same person after that night.After talking to Jack for months of things before and after the actual event to try to jog his memory he finally remembers. He called me one night and told me the whole story including details that I had forgotten.After that event many sightings in the area were reported and of course people laughed and questioned those people's sanity. This cemented our initial pact to be silent. People on the news were saying the sightings were probably weather balloons or lights from the city reflecting off clouds.Well we didn't live in a city and this sure wasn't a weather balloon. I didn't see no little green men but wouldn't have been surprised if one tapped me on the shoulder that night. I was a pretty fast runner back then but I'm sure the Olympic record would have been shattered for the mile if that would have happened. I wish I would have had a camera and taken a photo although it probably wouldn't have shown to much in the dark. It was a very small area for this craft to land in as large 70 foot oak trees were across the back of the property and around the shed with am almost shear cliff to a creek 20 yards further. Along one side was a grape vineyard and the other side had rows of three foot high Black raspberry bushes. The craft itself took up at least half the field's depth and over a third of it's width. It was 250 yards from the back kitchen window of our house but only 86 yards from a neighbors house.People today accept stories of sightings much better then they did back in 1964. I still get some strange looks when I tell this story by some people who think humans are the highest form of intelligence in the universe. They always say I'd walk right up to the craft and knock on the door. Talk is cheap and until it actually happens to you it's just all speculation on how you would react. Why I wasn't scared that night I have no idea. Maybe it was my love of the old Buck Rogers TV program in the 1950's when I was a little kid. His spacecraft never looked anywhere near as good as this one. I do know that one experience is enough and I don't wish for this to happen again at least not this close. I got within 90-120 feet of this thing and that was way too close. Thinking back I must have been crazy for wanting to get closer but even now sometimes I wished I would have as I don't think I'll get another chance. After reading about some close encounters with some bad results Jack might just have saved me some pain or even my life. We can only surmise what might have happened.If this ever happens to you I would suggest writing it down and have everybody sign it as I've read stories with similar results as my brothers losing their memory.Update:I had only estimated the spacecraft's size and distances but decided yesterday to use Google Earth to view the landing location to see if I could scale the measurements. I had tried this before but couldn't get the scale right. My plan was to see if I could print a picture of an aerial view and then draw in the spacecraft. My family has not owned this property for 46 years and I have not lived in the area for 21 years.I did build a house 10 miles away and lived there for 18 years. I knew the dimensions of that property and used the dimensions to scale this property.I was looking at the property where the landing took place and saw something very startling. I could see an outline of a circle in the field exactly where the craft had landed. A lot of things had changed on the property but the field looked untouched. The huge expanse of lawn that was in front of the field was now a grape vineyard but the exact landing site was still there. The farmer was obviously driving over the one side of the circle to tend to his vineyard but the rest of circle is still there.I really don't know if this is just a case of other factors causing the existing circle but I find it interesting. The existing circle is 143 feet in diameter. I had originally from memory said the spacecraft was around 100 feet or over and had revised the estimate to 150 feet.The link below shows the circle in the field. The other areas are grape vineyards or apple vineyards and that's why you see the lines running top to bottom. Remember this was 47 years ago that this landing took place.( link moved to FI box) cms 11/18/11 08:05 cst flg

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