The Summer of the UFO - 2012 - My UFO Experience

I take a week each year and spend it in Holden Beach, North Carolina. It's a quiet and quaint coastal community off the South Coast of North Carolina. It is unique in that you get both sunrise and sunset views from this location. Holden Beach is a barrier island separated from the mainland by the Intracoastal Waterway. It really is a unique place. There are no hotels to block your view. There are only a handful of small businesses on the island itself. The area is also rich in history and the wrecks of many Civil War era blockade runners lay in the surrounding waters.

The Summer of 2012

My partner's uncle owns a place in the West 400 block, but 2012 was the first year we rented our own place located in the West 100 block. The small cottage was located on the opposite side of Ocean Blvd. from the ocean meaning we had to cross the road to a public access to get to the beach.

Our tradition is to spend evenings well into the night on the front porch watching the stars and cars with adult beverages. It's so peaceful and relaxing. 

Our first sighting occurred the first night of our vacation in 2012. I will attempt to recall the details through pictures and online postings I did at the time. I thought I'd done a detailed write-up shortly after our sighting, but I can't find it online or remember where it was, so you get exclusive content, Steemit!

My Stance on UFOs

I'm not a proponent of UFOs and aliens. My belief in them as a Christ follower is the rather unpopular opinion that they are from the Evil One. That's all I'll say about that. 

Also, this is encounter was strictly UFOs...unidentified flying objects.

The First Encounter

It was early to mid September of 2012. We were just getting read to head inside for the night when my partner exclaimed, "Look!"

I looked up to see just over the row of houses across the street, 5 orange lights in the sky in a single line that disappeared one by one parallel to the shore. They made no sound.

I reported the events after in a report on NUFORC.

We stayed out probably another hour or so as we watched high-level airplanes patrol up and down the beach.

The Sightings Continued The Whole Week

We started going out on the pier each evening at dusk to get a closer look. Our efforts didn't disappoint. Unfortunately, our cameras were just simple point-and-shoot devices and we are only amateur photographers at best. As per usual with trying to capture images of UFO's our photos are blurry and inconclusive.

In this horrible video from the pier, the lights appear as white pinpoints just left of the light pole and about the 11 o'clock position from the corner of the pier itself. They appear and then quickly dissipate.

As you can see we weren't the only ones observing the strange phenomena. 

For 4 nights, we witnessed the same occurrences: orange lights appearing in various formations and then disappearing as if they "burned out".

Well, What Are They?

Chinese Lanterns

There was some talk, especially on the pier, that these were Chinese lanterns as many weddings take place on the beaches of North and South Carolina in the summer months. I don't buy it. Wouldn't you see Chinese lanterns for longer than a few seconds?

Military Activity

There are a number of military bases in the general vicinity including, but not limited to, Camp LeJeune (Marines), Seymour Johnson (Air Force), Cherry Point (Navy), Ft. Bragg (Army). 

Many chalk the activity up to various military drills that happen every summer, and this is probably the most viable explanation. 

The military will not confirm or deny any drills taking place. 

I've heard people say that they were flares dropped by military planes. My response...I never saw or heard a plane or any sound at all during any of the sightings. 

UFOs

Well, they are definitely that. I have no idea what they are, they are some kind of object, and they are in the air, so I assume thy are flying. That's all I know...that and our experience is not exclusive. There have been hundreds of sightings up and down the coast and into South Carolina. I will include links below. 

My Pictures

Disclaimer: These are terrible and I know it, but they do depict something!

Obviously, there's a lot of movement indicated here. That's me, not them. We never observed movement with these object. They simply appear and disappear like someone turning a light on and off. I'm including this photo to show the color of the objects in darkness. They are orange in hue and range from pinpoints to slightly larger kind of like a planet in the night sky...that size.

The rest of these were shot off the Holden Beach pier at dusk. They have been cropped out of the original pictures to show max (even though crappy) detail. 

To the naked eye without zooming cropping, these appear very small in the sky...slightly bigger than the head of a pin.

This is the clearest image I was able to capture. 

So Have We Seen Them Again?

We went back the next year with better cameras and a tripod for Pete's sake! We saw the phenomena only once in 2013. We waited with cameras at the ready, but they never reappeared. We haven't seen them since although we go down every year and watch for them. However, other people have seen them in more recent years. Check some of these reports below.

Sightings by Others

• http://bit.ly/2uxEASy - Just a description from August 20, 2014
• http://www.openminds.tv/ufos-seen-multiple-witnesses-north-carolina-beaches-photos/29639 - Multiple images and a video similar to mine above. The image below is exactly how they look in the dark only on a much smaller scale.
  
  Image Credit:   Woozy Dell/WWAY 
• https://ufo.net/tag/holden-beach/ - Description of sighting from December 31, 2013
• http://lightsinthetexassky.blogspot.com/2011/10/pilot-videos-lights-at-ocean-isle-beach.html - Ocean Isle is the next barrier island West of Holden Beach. This includes a description and video which I'll embed below with the others
• http://www.myreporter.com/2012/09/what-are-the-orange-lights-in-the-sky-at-night-off-oak-island/ - Oak Island is the third of three barrier islands and lies directly East of Holden Beach
• http://www.eluminary.org/en/QnA/Lights_in_sky_over_holdenbeach_nc_(Astronomy) - A reported sighting with a commentator attempting to explain them as military flares
• http://www.wcti12.com/news/unidentified-red-orbs-spotted-off-our-coast/15590361 - August 27, 2014 - a report with much commentary including military

Videos

From August 2012 that is very similar to mine above, but better quality. It's obvious to me that we witnessed the same phenomena.

From October 12, 2011 shot by a pilot from Ocean Isle, West of Holden Beach.

June 2017 - Just crazy!

2012 Holden Beach

That's a Wrap

I still don't know any more than I did then. Even though we have vigilantly waited to see them again year after year, we have only seen them once or twice in the last 4 years. What do you think about it?