Excerpted from the Manuscript of Flying Colors 2003 by Larry Maurer

archived as http://www.stealthskater.com/Documents/UNITEL_8.doc

more UNITEL is archived at http://www.stealthskater.com/UNITEL.htm

"Flying Colors"

excerpted from the manuscript of Flying Colors ©2003 by Larry Maurer

an autobiography of the UFO sighting-"demonstration" which created UNITEL,NW

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Summer 1981

… … … In pursuit of my dream of learning to fly, I contacted the Base Commander at LeMoore, California Naval Air Station about my acceptance into Flight School wearing contact lenses. To my surprise, the commander told me that he was from Creswell, Oregon which is in close proximity to Eugene. The Commander asked me cheerfully “How’s the weather up there?”

Years earlier, my Uncle Harold Hogan (who was a career Navy pipefitter stationed at LeMoore, NAS) told me that he personally knew that at least half the pilots on the base wore contact lenses. I never really figured that I would have any chance at being accepted in the military for flight school because I wore glasses and contact lenses. When I talked to the Base Commander, he acknowledged that what my Uncle had told me about so many pilots wearing contact lenses was true. However, he also told me that the pilots (that my Uncle was talking about) had eyes were perfect when they first enlisted. And later they began wearing contacts.

The Base Commander then made the decision that because of the high percentage of pilots wearing contact lenses, I would be accepted only after completing physical (Boot Camp) training. I had enough education requirements so that I could easily obtain a military degree taking night classes. Earlier during the my employment at BBP (Bonney, Bennett & Peters, Consulting Engineers, Eugene, Oregon with 110 engineers & technicians which was the second largest engineering firm on the West Coast including Los Angeles and Seattle), Gene Davis (Manager of the Sales Dept.) came to my desk one day and asked me to draw up a flyer for his mountain climbing group which I wholeheartedly accepted.

He talked of their climbing team’s many mountain climbs and had quite a few exciting stories to tell. Gene talked of boulders as big as dump trucks falling on the group on their descent to the top of Mt. Jefferson. It was Gene Davis that told me about the “Pamelia Lake route” whereby climbing gear was not needed to ascend to the summit of Mt. Jefferson. He even said that an elderly woman had performed the climb to the top of Mt. Jefferson without gear! The quest to perform climbing the Pamelia Lake route was to be the beginning of many trips over the forthcoming years with friends and family, especially since the area was close to Warm Springs Indian Reservation where I had several close friends residing there including Walter Quinn and his brothers Jack, Bob, and Lowell.

First Sighting on Sunday evening, approx. 7:30 pm October 18th

On Sunday Oct. 18, 1981, I was hiking near Mt. Jefferson with Michael Miller and a couple of friends from Ohio (Diego Morris and his girlfriend Jeannine Falcon). Diego and Jeannine along with Diego’s sister had hiked near Mt. Jefferson the previous July ’81. It was phenomenally warm weather for that time of year and great for hiking. Diego and Jeannine wanted to accompany us in our hike towards the Pamelia Lake route from the Carl Lakes trail. I was preparing for boot camp at the U.S. Navy’s Flight Training School. I had to get myself into shape. We left Walter's residence in Warm Springs Indian Reservation for a short hike after telling him that we would return before nightfall. At approximately 2:00 pm, we started out on the Carl Lake trail (which is a long steady up-hill climb).

When we finally got to Carl Lake, it was nothing but a dried-up swamp. Disappointed, we voted to go onward to Table Lake which was 12 miles further up the trail. When the trail finally leveled off at an altitude of around 3500 ft. about 2 miles southwest of Forked Butte, we rested [Position '1' on photograph]. It was shortly after nightfall (around 7:30 pm) and there were a couple of inches of snow on the ground. The evening sky was clear, and it was still relatively warm. The trail was flat and we could clearly see the lights across a wide, flat, field of snow from the towns of Warm Springs, Madras, Redmond and bend off to the East.

Suddenly Diego said, “Hey! Do you guys see those strange lights?” as he pointed to the West. They were 2 flying objects with a single (strobing) white light (much like an ordinary aircraft warning light) approximately 2-3 miles due West, flying at an altitude of approx. 10,000 ft. moving in a North-to-South direction [Position 'A' on photograph]. We could not see anything but the <blinking> lights at that distance in the night sky.

The flying objects were performing some sort of maneuver. They both had what appeared to be solid white "lightning bolts" with what appeared to be like some sort of “light pellet” moving within the 2 separate streaks of light. The streaks of light would shoot straight down, stopping slightly above the ground. The light pellets traveled down the streaks slightly after streaks appeared. The streaks (and then light pellet) would then turn at a 90° right angle, traveling slightly above the ground. We could roughly make out 2 craft flying above where the lights emanated from and moving parallel to the lights in the same direction. After a few seconds, the light streaks and then the pellets would shoot back up to the vehicle flying overhead. All movements were at right angles. Both craft repeated the process several times.

All 4 of us were quite intrigued with this very strange light show. We started signaling them with our flashlights for 5-10 minutes with no acknowledgement from the flying objects that they could see us. Michael at that time said that he was going to try signaling in a "Fibonacci sequence" with his flashlight to see if they would respond.

Mike’s signaling worked. Right after he signaled, a "light pellet" started to travel toward us as the other vehicle continued to perform its light streak maneuvers. When the light pellet came closer, it then appeared much as if it were a helicopter with a single bright search light in a forward position. The vehicle then stopped in a hovering mode slightly above a ridge (just South of the Cathedrals outcroppings that are near and South of Mt. Jefferson) directly due west about a half-mile from us.

We decided that we must have hailed a rescue helicopter as it pointed its bright light and hovered there above the ridge [Position 'B' on photograph]. We all agreed not to shine or signal our flashlights anymore and to continue to walk along the trail in a Northerly direction towards Mt. Jefferson and Table Lake. The vehicle -- still hovering -- moved in a sideways motion at the same walking speed as we were moving. It appeared as if the vehicle was tracking us -- paralleling our direction -- just above and behind the trees on top of the ridge.

This went on for several minutes. We noticed a peculiarity when the vehicle came to a collier (or treeless spot), it would then drop down below our line-of-sight and then pop back up to continue its tracking mode behind and above the tree tops. It was as if it were playing some sort of "peak-a-boo game" with us. This "peek-a-boo" maneuver happened about 4 times.

We weren’t entertained, though. We were all very worried that my friend Walter may have called in a rescue helicopter because we did not return to his place before nightfall. We thought that the craft was a helicopter, and it was following us because we flashed our flashlights at it making them think we were hailing them to rescue us. The craft followed us walking for approximately 45 minutes, hovering just above the treetops on the top of the ridge to the west of us. The craft tracked us slowly in a Northerly direction as we walked with our flashlights turned 'off' as the trail was easy to follow even at night.

When we were nearing the end of the flat ground on the trail where the trail dropped off into a very steep canyon and the hovering craft with its bright light that was slowly tracking us was reaching the end of the ridge, I was wondering what it would do next. It then dropped back down out-of-sight and disappeared. Suddenly someone noticed that the same vehicle -- with it’s bright search light -- appeared 180 degrees due East, 1½ miles away, at about 10 feet above the snow southeast of “Forked Butte” [Position 'C' on the photograph].

The answer to what I was wondering would happen to the craft when it hit the end of the ridge came as a startling surprise. We had decided that the craft must be a rescue helicopter, and it would most likely go away since we no longer were waving our hands and turning our flashlights off. After the 45-minute walk, we figured that whoever it was would have decided that we did not need any help and just wanted to be left alone as we were obviously okay.

We certainly did not expect the craft to fly completely around the Forked Butte flying out-of-sight … and then suddenly appear, coming directly towards us from the East. It was coming directly toward us [Position 2 on the photograph] “snaking” back-and-forth as if it were searching for something in the long flat field of snow that lay between the vehicle and us. At this point, none of us thought that the craft was any type of rescue helicopter traveling back-and-forth so close to the snow covered ground. The hair on my arms were beginning to stand up and the back of my neck was beginning to tingle. Fear was definitely setting in.

At approximately 1 mile away from us while we were staring at it, the vehicle suddenly and silently <popped> to a position 10 FEET from us and directly in front [Position 'D' on the photograph]. Obviously, as one might imagine, this scared the living #*!%! out of all 4 of us! This happened so fast that my heart nearly gave out from the shock of the incident. I felt as if we were mice and a giant snake just snapped upon us. The vehicle then “turned off” its main white light while it hovered above the snow. An interior light came on as if someone had opened a car door exposing an interior light.

This revealed a lens which we could see through. It was in 3 equal parts (like a Mercedes-Benz emblem) with each 1/3 part filled with a different color: Red, Green, and Blue. We could see a box inside that looked like a sewing machine case. The vehicle was tear-drop shaped, and its fuselage appeared to be composed of a “whitish” colored metal with a disc-like structure located at it’s stern. Sparks were coming off the stern that were 'orange' in color. Some of the “sparks” that were flying off the corona discharge at the stern looked much like slag from a welder’s arc. This slag was somewhat spherical, and some of the bright orange pieces were larger than baseballs!

The craft seemed to “quiver” with energy as it hovered a couple -of-feet or less above the snow. There was no noise whatsoever except the hissing from the snow melting from the heat beneath the craft. When it moved rapidly in its flight mode, it snaked back-and-forth like a tadpole does when it swims in the water. After only a few seconds, the vehicle then flew up and away in a slow steady motion toward and above Mt. Jefferson and disappeared in the night sky [Position 'E' on the photograph]. It appeared very much like a spaceship from the old 1930’s movie “Buck Rodgers” or “Buster Crabb” with a shower of sparks falling away from it as it ascended.

When I returned home, I drew a color picture of what I saw and presented it to the 3 other witnesses. Everyone agreed that the drawing was a good representation of the vehicle. I immediately turned the simple sketch I drew into a detailed set of engineering drawings.

Second sighting on Sunday evening, approx. 10:30 pm, December 22nd

2 months later on the evening of December 22nd 1981, I decided to drive into Eugene from my home in Horton to do some last minute Christmas shopping with my son Jason (who was 11 yrs. old at the time). I invited Michael Miller residing in nearby town of Blachly. Michael decided that he needed a few more items for Christmas and decided to come along with us to Eugene. Michael and I were still quite excited over our October 18th sighting. It had become a regular “thing” for me to take Michael into town as he preferred not to drive and always made a generous offer to not only pay for gas but also to buy pizza and beer at our favorite restaurant (Aquardi’s Pizza Parlor) or a fine Mexican dinner (at our friend Taco Sams). I usually brought along Jason to keep peace with the "old lady" so she didn’t think I would get into too much trouble.

The 3 of us were returning from Christmas shopping at around 10:30 pm. We were at the “straightway” part of Fern Ridge Dam Rd. where the road drops down to a long straight one-half mile section along the north levee of Fern Ridge Lake approximately 10 miles NW of Eugene. At that place, I noticed an 'orange' streak that snaked rapidly across the night sky directly above (12 o’clock) and moving the same direction (from East -o-West) as we were. I immediately said to Michael (who was sitting in the front passenger seat of my Volvo sedan), “That was no meteor!” Meteors usually move in straight lines and are bright white flashes of light that last only for a brief period of time. The o'range' streak covered the whole sky in front of us.

A second later, we were buzzed by no less than a dozen vehicles! My son Jason (who was in the back seat) was terrified at what was happening. It was the second time for Miller and I to be accosted by these strange vehicles. But I must say I was somewhat frightened myself.