As MUFON Utah Asst. State Director I was hesitant to report this sighting being my first credible UFO sighting, but now the shoe is on the other foot.
To set the stage, my balcony looks east to the Wasatch Front. To the north is Ben Lomond, directly east from is Mt Ogden, and then southeast you can see beyond the radar towers on Francis Peak. My home is right on the flight pattern of Ogden Airport (1/3 mile), Hill Air Force Base (3 Miles), and Salt Lake City Intl. (20 Miles). So lights in the sky has been has been a part of my life for nearly 45 years.
On 03/11/2016 I woke up at 0505 did my morning ritual, walked over to the sliding glass door, poked my head through the curtains, saw a light 1000 ft. above and behind Mt. Ogden (9505 elevation), Azimuth 40 degrees N41E. I first thought it was a star but then it flashed and moved upward and then very slowly headed NW toward Ogden. I had to put both hands up to the glass door and face to block out the surrounding light on the glass to get a clearer picture. Randomly the light would flash 2-3 times a pure clean white light in comparison with a strobe light. Then randomly a pure clean red flash located below and a little forward of the white flashing light would happen. Again, the lights were completely independent from each other. I knew that with my 37 years around aircraft and USAF Chief of Safety for 10 years, this was not in the military inventory.
I have always had all of my UFO investigation gear next to the sliding door just in case something like this would occur I would be totally prepared. Unfortunately, I had been out of town the night before on a UFO investigation and had put all of my gear downstairs in the office.
So I hurried to turn off the security alarm, went downstairs to grab my gear, headed back up to the balcony all along being away from the sighting approximately 60-90 seconds. Fortunately, when I got back it was still there. I immediately threw a few shots of my green laser light at it with no response from the UFO. It is now over downtown Ogden, basically a short distance from the original sighting. You could tell that it was just starting to lose its flashing brilliance now moving NWN. Within 15 seconds it faded out to the north like a gray cloudy mist and was completely gone. That was the strangest part of this whole sighting Had this been a plane I would have seen it still flying at a much further distance with the lights flashing. The speed of the object during this whole sighting was that of a small plane.
There are many lessons learned here for me even though I've played this scenario out in my head 100's of times. Take a deep breath or three, always have Binoculars/monocular, green laser, night vision, camera/cell phone charged and nearby. But the big lesson I learned...why didn't I just grab my phone 25 feet away. I may have had a chance to put it on film with something to show instead of just a witness report. If recording wouldn't have shown up then I at least gave it my best for visual evidence. Just remember though, " Absence on evidence, isn't evidence on absence."
