U.S. Air Force Veteran's Account of ‘Giant Ball of Plasma’ Outside Vandenberg Air Force Base in 2012 Fuels Worries Regarding Security Incidents at Vital U.S. Facilities
Credit: Andrew Pearce - all recreations approved by the witness
Written by Christopher Sharp - 13 September 2023
In 2012, a decorated U.S. Air Force (USAF) Security Forces Airman, responsible for guarding Intercontinental Missiles (ICBMs) at Vandenberg Air Force Base, witnessed and reported a “giant ball of plasma” outside the base.
The object resembled “the size of the moon”, hanging in the night sky above the expanse of the Pacific Ocean.
To his bafflement through night vision goggles, the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) transformed into small spheres orbiting around a central sphere. The veteran, who wishes to remain anonymous, told Liberation Times that the encounter lasted for a total of around 35 minutes.
The encounter, coupled with another incident that occurred at the base in 2003 and was recently unveiled during a Congressional hearing, has given rise to significant concerns regarding security at one of the United States military's most vital installations.
At the time of the encounter, the veteran had just completed a deployment in Afghanistan and had been highly decorated in his role. He was on guard duty at North Base, which is a section of the giant Vandenberg Air Force Base spanning the western Pacific coastline of California.
In May 2012, the veteran was on night duty fidgeting with equipment when something caught his attention:
“When looking up, I felt confused, as I thought the sun was rising, which didn’t make sense as it was midnight.
“But what I was seeing was a giant object in the night sky, the size of the moon. It looked like a giant ball of plasma - it looked like those images of the sun from space - it looked like burning lava.
“The object was above the ocean, west of the base - but it was clearly in the sky.”
The veteran witnessed the event alongside a female colleague. After deliberating on the situation, they reached the conclusion that the object needed to be reported to base officers.
Subsequently, they reported the object to a desk sergeant at the base.
Speaking to Liberation Times, the veteran recalled clearly telling the sergeant:
“Hey, there is something in the sky, and I don’t know what it is and it’s above the ocean. It looks like lava or a giant burning ball in the sky.”
While awaiting the arrival of senior base personnel at the scene, the veteran drove his vehicle below some cliffs and toward a nearby beach to obtain a clearer view.
While on the beach, the UAP seemed to gradually descend closer to the ocean. The veteran recalled:
“It had been as high as the moon, but when I got onto the beach, it seemed to have descended.”
Anticipating the arrival of senior base personnel after filing his report, he ascended the cliff once more, only to discover that the object had reverted to its former position in the sky. It was at this juncture that the veteran retrieved his night vision goggles, leading to an encounter that would forever be imprinted in his memory:
“When looking through my night vision goggles, I could see a sphere in the middle, with four to five smaller spheres orbiting around it - it looked like an atom, I do not know how to better describe it.
“They [the smaller spheres] were orbiting around it extremely fast, in fact, they created a blurred effect. And they each had a specific orbit - both diagonal and horizontal.”
How the object appeared in the night sky and how it appeared through night vision goggles
It took 30 minutes for the base’s area supervisor and a flight chief to arrive.
Both had no idea what the bright object was and bafflingly seemed unconcerned.
“They looked at it, said it was weird, and didn’t know what it was - there was then a brief silence before they just left,” recalled the veteran.
Subsequent to the visit by senior personnel, no discernible actions were undertaken—such as deploying fighter jets for interception.
As recounted by the veteran, the object exhibited a gradual fade, its luminosity diminishing until it ultimately vanished. During this fading process, distinct small spherical shapes continued to orbit a larger sphere, as seen through the lens of night-vision goggles.
The subsequent morning, he received a summons to the office of a Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO), who informed him that the base had reached out to the Coast Guard. Surprisingly, the Coast Guard attributed the enigmatic object to fishing lights—a conclusion at odds with the veteran’s vivid memory of the object's extended presence in the sky throughout the encounter.
In recounting the incident to Liberation Times, the veteran shared that the NCO delivered this explanation with a tone that seemingly conveyed an awareness of its implausibility—a tone that suggested he recognized the inadequacy of dismissing the phenomenon as mere fishing lights.
The veteran still recalls his colleagues mocking him for reporting the incident. Strikingly, his flight chief did not request an official report about the sighting, a step that might have been anticipated for such a significant security occurrence. This oversight is particularly noteworthy considering the Pentagon's inability to dismiss the possibility of UAP in some instances serving as manifestations of adversarial technology.
Vandenberg Air Force Base, now known as Vandenberg Space Force Base, doesn't hold any nuclear weapons but does store and test nuclear-capable ICBMs. It is also home to the secretive X-37 Space Plane, operated by the U.S. Space Force.
The veteran, whose credentials have been reviewed by Liberation Times, played a pivotal role in security operations during the first landing of the X-37. His distinguished military service resulted in his receiving the Medal of Achievement.
A missile is launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base - Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
Significantly, he would go on to take charge of supervising the second-largest armoury within U.S. Space Command. As his career neared its conclusion in 2019, the veteran ascended to the rank of staff sergeant.
The sighting of the UAP comes at a time when the U.S. Congress is increasingly taking the topic seriously, and amid allegations that the USAF has shown a lack of engagement and transparency on the matter.
To this day, the veteran remains unconvinced by the USAF's official account of the event. The object's presence in the sky and its perplexing characteristics as observed through his night-vision goggles defy easy explanation. While the veteran refrains from labelling what he saw as unequivocally "supernatural," he maintains a sense of scepticism.
During the Congressional UAP hearing in July 2023, former naval aviator Ryan Graves recounted a notable incident that unfolded at Vandenberg Space Force Base in 2003. He detailed an occurrence where a colossal red, square object—measuring as large as a football field—was witnessed hovering above the base. Graves emphasized that this event was observed by a group of Boeing contractors actively working on-site.
Speaking about the event, Graves said:
“They observed a very large, 100-yard-sided red square approach the base from the ocean and hover at low altitude over one of the launch facilities,”
He added:
“This object remained for about 45 seconds or so before darting off over the mountains.”
The object then returned that evening after the sunset, but this time with more “aggressive behaviours,” Graves said.
Both events raise serious questions about the USAF and its handling of the UAP issue. Another recent event recounted by Representative Matt Gaetz at July’s UAP hearing regarded a UAP sighting of a spherical object by a USAF pilot close to Eglin Air Force Base in Florida and over the Gulf of Mexico.
Representative Gaetz Commented:
“One of the pilots goes to check out that diamond formation and sees a large floating, what I can only describe as an orb, again, like I said, not have any human capability that I'm aware of.
“And when he approached, he said that his radar went down. He said that his FLIR (infrared camera) system malfunctioned and that he had to manually take this image from one of the lenses.”
Liberation Times is awaiting further details about the event from the Department of Defense.
However, a NORAD official told Liberation Time that it retains “no information about any radar tracks near Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, currently or earlier this year.”