An extraordinary UFO sighting was reported one night in March, 1958, during the Algerian War, at a Foreign Legion camp at Bouamama in the Sud Constantinois. The sole witness. Legionnaire N.G., was on sentry duty outside the camp. The site where he was consisted of a fortified emplacement dug out of the ground, lightly armored and equipped with a telephone connected to the camp. The night was cloudless and the moon was shining. All was silent on the desert landscape. No large-scale operations were being carried out in the area at the time so N.G., who had been in the Legion for three years, was not feeling especially anxious. He was sitting on the ground near the trench, and had his rifle. If anything unexpected happened he was supposed either to fire his rifle or call the camp by telephone. Suddenly, at a few minutes after 0.30 hours, something did happen. What it was that happened, we cannot say for sure. The witness remembers seeing a positive, physical phenomenon of enormous size. But he feels that something most unusual happened to him psychologically. And he freely admits that there might well be a difference between what he sincerely remembers and what actually took place. It began with a whistling noise, the sort of noise you hear if you blow into the neck of a bottle. This sound seemed to him to be coming down from the sky. He immediately looked up, and saw an enormous, roundish object descending. It stopped when it was about 35-40 meters (roughly 100 to 120 ft.) above the ground, and began to hover there, motionless and silent. He estimated it to be as much as 350 meters wide (1,000 ft.). As seen by him slightly from below, during the arrival and take-off phases, it seemed to be elliptical in shape, quite independently of the perspective effect that makes a disc look elliptical when observed from a point outside the disc’s center-line.
Its span might, he thought, have been in the neighborhood of 250 meters. He estimated the distance between himself and the nearest edge of the object at little more than 50 meters (150 ft.). When I asked Monsieur N.G. to extend his arms towards the ends of the object as he recalled seeing it, he held them out at an angle of about 100 between them. This estimate would fit quite well with the estimates given above of its size and its distance from him. The object was surrounded by pale green light, and an intense conical beam of emerald-green light was coming from the center of the under-part towards the ground. Legionnaire N.G. did not fire his rifle, nor did he pick up the telephone. He just remembers staring at the object for 45 to 50 minutes. The pale green and emerald colors were the most beautiful, relaxing and fascinating colors he had ever seen. Legionnaire N.G. had forgotten all about the war. All nervous or psychological tension had gone from his mind. He was just feeling happy. Then came the noise again, like somebody blowing into a bottle, and the object started rising gently, until it had reached a height of about I(K) or 120 meters. Then it flew offal tremendous speed towards the North-West, climbing as it went. What the Legionnaire then felt was a sort of sadness at the disappearance of this beautiful sight. After a few minutes this feeling began to fade, yielding place to a return of his ordinary state of consciousness, until his full mental faculties were back. He quickly picked up the telephone and reported what he had seen. To his great amazement however the officer at the camp simply replied in the manner: “Alright. We’ll see about it tomorrow morning.” Greatly disappointed at the officer’s reaction, N.G. continued his watch until he was relieved by another man in the early hours of the morning. He again reported his experience, and this time more attention was paid to him. Some of his superiors were inclined to believe his story, because N.G., then aged 28, was a well-respected soldier and was considered serious and reliable. The majority however thought it was just a case of psychological trouble caused by the tough conditions of war in the desert. A careful investigation was carried out at the scene of the sighting. N.G. recalls with a smile that the officers even examined the sand with a magnifying lens. No footprints, no marks, no alien material was found in the area, and no smell either. Probably more for medical than for “ufological” reasons, the witness was thoroughly questioned by officers. He stuck to his original story, and the affair was considered to be quite amazing. He was sent lo the Military Hospital at Val dc Grace in Paris. There he was kept for a week under dose scrutiny by neurologists and psychiatrists. An electroencephalogram revealed nothing unusual. The conclusion of all the doctors was that N.G. was in a slate of good physical and mental health. He had not been notably affected by the strains caused by wartime service in Algeria. He had no tendency towards drinking, and was considered to be competent for service in the Foreign Legion, which means an especially hard way of life. Indeed, no man with a tendency towards dreaming or science-fiction, or with an over-developed imagination or analytical, critical mind would he selected for service in the Legion. NOTE: The above image is a rendering.
