I am now 56 years old. In 1978, my friend and I (both 18) drove to the given location, parked and began to drink a beer before going to one of the final high school parties preceeding our senior graduation. We parked right beside the lighted water tower at the given location.Only a few moments after parking, still seated in the car, we both noticed a white light on the SW horizon; it was moving at what seemed to be impossible speeds over great distances, and was making direction changes that defied understanding. This display was happening in the skies above Whiteman Airforce Base and Sedalia, Mo.Although I could not I identify the object, my instincts told me it was something I had never seen before nor had understanding of.The object continued with it's aerial show for a couple of minutes and then began to close on our location. The white light seemed to bound forward for a distance (getting closer) and would then go stationary as if hovering ; over a period of about a minute, it appeared larger and larger before us. Eventually, a very large object with 4 prominent lights appeared in the farm field directly in front of us. Approximately 150-200 feet above the ground, it was drifting very slowly/silently toward our location beside the water tower. It came to a stationary hover over and exactly centered above the water tower and us (still in the vehicle). I observed single large white lights on the 3 corners and one apparently larger white light in the center.All the while this event was unfolding, the car engine was shut off, the exterior lights were off and interior dome light was on illuminating us from inside. As the object came to it's hover above us and the water tower, I slid my upper torso out of the fully rolled down passenger door window and looked up in utter amazement. I was viewing a nearly totally silent triangular object, hundreds of feet in length on all sides suspended above me. It blocked out the night sky; and for me, had a detectable audible hum. I quickly looked over at my friend to register his response to the phenomena. As my head turned, I saw his hand reaching up to to turn off the dome light inside the car. At the very instant the car's dome light was switched off, a barely visible reddish beam of light was projected form the object down onto us. I felt the nearly invisible light against him skin as if feeling pressure in the air or static electricity. Dust particles inside the vehicle seemed to rise up and suspend in the air before me. This light was only shown on us for a few seconds and went out. I then placed my torso back outside the passenger side window of the vehicle and looked back up at the object. It began drifting slowly toward the NW for about 10 seconds, after which it instantly disappeared from sight in a streak white of light.Oddly, I never felt fear during this incident; instead, I was filled with a sense of wonder and amazement. I intuativly felt I was seeing something that represented military tech which we the people did not yet know of. My friend and I both agreed that mentioning this event could bare undesirable consequences for our futures and we agreed never to mention the incident. Only after many years had gone by did we speak of this again. I joined the US military only days after this incident and eventually served in 2 branches, followed by a police career in a major west coast city. I later served in international missions for various organizations as a peacekeeping advisor.At 56, it is strange to me that I am experiencing an awakening of sorts at this time; but I know we are being lied to; I also sense it it's time to divulge the truth.