Robert Michael O'Connor Interview, 23 February 2005

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MO:

[Reading] Yeah, this is it "temporary loss of transmission" yeah, that's how I remember that "attributable to plasma" (laughs) "ball of light" Yeah, the 'ball of light,' yeah, I remember that.

TT:

Had you ever heard of ball lightning before?

MO:

No (laughs).

TT:

Most people hadn't back then. This was sent there [862nd CSG] so the Base Commander, at some point, he showed it to you.

MO:

Right.

TT:

And you all had a good laugh.

MO:

I just said, "This is BS and they're just blowing us off."

TT:

Had you ever seen anything like that before or since?

MO:

Never or since. I've seen streaks go across the sky and wondered what they were but you know—It didn't appear to be any type of aircraft that I had ever seen or anything that I knew about.

TT:

Let me see here, what have I got that we could go over. I just want to review this and see what your comments are. [Reading] Here's how you described the initial sighting, [reading] "when the object was first sighted, it appeared to be between two farmer yard lights which were a little smaller, the object grew brighter, moving southeast." That sound right?

MO:

Yeah, yeah.

TT:

[Reading] In response to the question of whether or not they stopped at any time while observing the phenomenon, he stated, "Yes, object seemed to be hovering, seemed to be observing us. When we stopped the object seemed to hover or stop when we turned out our headlights." Isley confirms that by saying, "We first saw the object to the east of us while we were traveling towards the site. It started moving south. We arrived at the site, then started observing the object from outside the truck—"

MO

Right.

TT:

"—it was moving in a large circular area to the south of us." You mean it kept going south and—

MO:

Well, it just moved around [gestures] it was just goin' you know and it would come back and then it—at one point it appeared to leave and then came back and then we were, you know, wondering what was going on.

TT:

Yeah, it was in the same area for two or three hours it said.

MO:

Right.

TT:

[Reading] "About this time a missile maintenance man called in and reported sighting a bright orangish-red object. The object was hovering at about 1,000 feet or so, and had a sound similar to a jet engine. That observer had stopped his car, but then he started it up again. As he started to move, the object followed him, then accelerated and appeared to stop at about 6 to 8 miles away. The observer shortly afterwards lost sight of it."

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