I doubt this is the best way to introduce myself to your list, but I suppose you'd find out how unconventional I am eventually anyway...
In August, 1979, my grandmother, my mother, myself, and everyone else in the parking lot saw a large UFO very close up in the broad daylight around mid day from the Amtrak train station in Landover, Maryland, a few miles from Washington, DC. We had gotten out of the car to put me on the train and noticed many people just standing there looking up so of course we did too and received an excellent view.
It was indeed saucer shaped (like two deep plates placed face to face), silvery gray, and was moving slowly across the sky at a perfect view of about 45 degrees. I couldn't determine any sound. The oddest thing was how it moved, wobbling just like a child's toy spinning top does just before it falls over. After a few seconds of wobbling slowly across our view, it suddenly stopped wobbling (I'm almost positive it was spinning) and took off so fast, that there didn't appear to be any real period of acceleration. A gray blur across the sky and it was just gone.
We all stood around in the parking lot looking rather blankly at each other for a minute before it really sank in what we had witnessed. I don't think we talked much about it except feeling the awe of it all. I got on the train and went home to NC thinking about it all the way home.
There was no way that it could have been anything ours or any other earthbound military created. Nothing that big (actually there was no way to gauge size, though it did take up a goodly amount of the sky), or that quiet and fast from a virtual standstill is possible by our technology by any stretch of the imagination. I did not imagine it as I had family witnesses who of course verified the sighting later. So we joined the ranks of many others who have seen UFOs. I can see why pictures haven't been taken after experiencing the event and being so stunned. I can't imagine the presense of mind it would take to remove your eyes for an instant to take a picture, though how I wish I could have... What a beauty it would have been...
It lets me know that the universe must indeed be a loving place since aliens with technology like that could happily play target practice with us if they cared to, or wipe out anything they wanted. Its encouraging to think that maybe our own human evolution or growth is in that good tolerant direction.
----- tully