Fireball observed at night

My father observed a fireball when I was a child in the mid seventies when we lived on a farm west of Lawton Okla. close to Hwy. 7. He came in from outside and matter of factly said he saw a UFO.He said it made no sound and it traveled from north to south, east of where we lived.He said it  didnt  travel slow but that he didnt think it was supersonic either.I also remember him saying that it turned several colors and that he didnt believe it was a meteor or asteroid or something burning up from earth reentry.He said that it was very close and just didnt have the characteristics of something like that.My father was not an ordinary witness in the fact that he was a bomber pilot during the second World War,and worked for Boeing on the Saturn project, and the FAA.I can remember saying"Dad tell me about the UFO",and he would remind me that UFO didnt mean flying saucer but that he just couldnt identify what he had seen.Since then He has never told me of seeing anything he thought was weird in the sky.
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Date is approximate.  PD