I am sixty-five-year-old retiree who in 1997 had what I consider to be a dramatic experience that shattered my worldview regarding the existence of UFOs.

When I had my sighting in 1997 I was working in a highly classified job that required a Top Secret clearance. My education has been heavily imbued with the scientific method and my job depended on gathering information based on concrete evidence.

I thought that anyone who had claimed to see a UFO was either a fraud or incapable of rational thought. Not only was I dead wrong about UFOs but also, in retrospect, I am amused at how narrow-minded I was at the time.

It causes me to reflect on other subjects of high strangeness that I may have been wrong about.

My encounter occurred in the summer of 1997. I was coming home from work late, around 11:30 PM. I was driving from my job in Washington D.C. to my home in Fairfax, Virginia.

I lived near the Fair Oaks Mall at the time and I was in the westbound lanes of I-66 just a mile or two short of my exit. I was traveling about 60-65 mph and listening to the radio.

I had my eyes glued on the road but at some point I became cognizant of a large (about 40-50 feet) saucer-shaped object with a dome on top hovering in place just above treetop level (60-70 feet) at my 11 o’clock as I proceeded west on I-66.

It was located immediately off the right shoulder of the eastbound lanes, the opposite side of I-66 from my direction of travel, less than 200 yards ahead when I first became aware of the craft. I turned off my radio and powered down my driver’s side window.

There was absolutely no sound coming from the craft as I approached. There was, however, an intense white beam of light that emanated from the bottom center of the craft and shined directly on the ground below. I couldn’t slow down because there were other cars on the freeway and nowhere to pull off.

I proceeded past the craft, on my left as I passed, to my exit. I kept my eye on the craft by turning my head to the left as I passed and eventually used my left side rearview mirror as I passed the craft – the craft was low enough that I didn’t have to adjust my mirror very much to see it.

After I exited I-66 I briefly lost sight of the airship due to trees and buildings obscuring my field of vision. I reentered I-66 on the eastbound lanes as quickly as possible and proceeded toward where I had, two minute before, seen the hovering craft. It was gone.

I was extremely agitated for the remainder of the night, as my hard-wired world-view had just been shattered. The next day I foolishly called the Fairfax City Police and the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Department to determine if anyone had reported a strange craft at the location I supplied. That was a mistake.

Both dispatchers, voices dripping with sarcasm, pretty much blew me off as a crank call. I needed to talk to someone beside my wife about this matter; she was a little taken aback by my agitated behavior.

So, I began to scan the Yellow Pages of the phone book under Associations in hopes of finding someone to report my sighting to. Listed was an organization called FUFOR, which I hesitantly called. A man by the name of Don Berliner answered.

I talked to Mr. Berliner for quite some time. I initially refused to identify myself because of the nature of my job.

However, Mr. Berliner was quite supportive and very enlightening. Finally, I gave him my name and address and he sent me some material about his organization. I was quite surprised and impressed at the list of reputable academics and scientists with PhDs that were associated with FUFOR.

I’ve seen a lot of aircraft doing a myriad of jaw-dropping maneuvers. I spent 13 months in Vietnam and I’ve seen several fixed wing and rotor aircraft shot out of the sky.

I’ve flown in many kinds of aircraft and I know very well what conventional flying platforms manufactured on earth by human beings look like. The aircraft I witnessed near Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax, Virginia in 1997 was NOT from this planet.

Name withheld.