Surprise! Texas UFO Mystery Solved.

[edhopper]

http://cbs5.com/watercooler/ufo.mystery.solved.2.636292.html

I don't know why they put a "?" in the title. Seems pretty clear to me. Another hyped up media non story. Another UFO sighting that's not so "unidentified" afterall.

[NNN0LHI]

1. Oh you know the Air Force is just covering up for an invasion by space men

Some nuts do believe that.

Don

[rpannier]

21. I believe it...

I'm sure that these aliens came to Earth to enlist in the Army to fight radical, Islamic, Islamo-fascist, Islamists over there so they wouldn't have to fight them up there.

If Bat-boy can enlist in the military, so can aliens.

[tekisui]

2. Why did the Air Force deny they had jets in the area first?

Seems strange.

I wasn't there, so I don't really have an opinion.

[Hydra]

3. Really...10 F-16s?

They couldn't come up with something better? That's pretty lame.

[SpiralHawk]

36. Are there that many working F-16? The repubs have TRASHED our military

under Commander AWOL and Dickie "5 Military Deferments" Cheney.

Surprised that many might still working...

[DaLittle Kitty]

57. F 16'S DO NOT HOVER!!!! AND THE PIC IN DAYLIGHT OF THE SAME THING... IS NOT AN F16!

It shows the Sun Setting on the right clearly and a huge glow brighter than the sun on the left... Yep the air force had to come up w/ something... First no f16's then... MORE THAN A WEEK LATER... THEY HAD A TRAINING EXERCISE? I feel sorry for our command structure they cannot tell who's on first... any better than that...

I'll believe the people who say they saw what they saw, including a PILOT that they saw something not of our air force... :)

[Horse with no Name]

4. Odd that they initially said there were NO navy planes in the area

and for the record...I DO believe there were navy planes in the area...but WHY would they initially lie about it?:tinfoilhat:

[Hydra]

8. Because they probably weren't F-16s

They were probably their prototypes, and we don't talk about those- and there is no area 51.

[Horse with no Name]

10. I actually wonder if it was Lockheed out doing some

maneuvers and testing new prototypes. They got a bunch of contracts last year...

[Hydra]

15. I say 50/50

They might really not have been up to anything that night and they were surprised when asked for a comment(like roswell).

OTOH, many stealth aircraft look ufoish and I've seen some theoretical gravity generators that they probably have working pretty well in the non-civ world.

[Beausoleil]

31. Area 51

You mean "Homey Airport"?

Area 51's New Name: 'Homey Airport'

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/01/area-51-customs.html

[cherokeeprogressive]

23. The Navy doesn't own or fly F-16's

So I think the initial statement issued by a Naval Air Station could quite probably be correct.

[hack89]

28. Not that it applies here, but the Navy does fly F16s

they use them for aggressor training. But they wouldn't be flying in Texas.

http://www.f-16.net/f-16_users_article24.html

http://www.f-16.net/units_airforce166.htm

[book_worm]

5. so on this we take the military official version?

[Subdivisions]

6. Air Force "made a mistake"...

How do you have a squadron of jet fighters take off from the Carswell Joint Reserve Base and mistakingly say: "We had no jets in that area on that night"?

I guess the janitor answered the phone.

[Horse with no Name]

12. Lockheed.

Would be my first guess.

[SpiralHawk]

39. "The janitor anwered the phone..." ROFLMAO

You are ready for a job as the Bush White House Spokespropagandist, Texas Explorer. LOL.

[balantz]

7. I think some interplanetary agency showed up to oversee

that we have fair elections.

[Hydra]

9. Tell them they can abduct all of the WH staff while Bushco high command is there

That'll fix most of our current problems.

[The Stranger]

37. You kiddin'? Shit, I want to get on that big space ship and get the fuck outta here.

Adios, motherfuckers!

[JuniperLea]

49. Come On! Take Me Away!!!

Strange shapes light up the night
Never seen them though I hope I might
Don’t ask if they are real
The men in black, their lips are sealed

Fantasy it fills my mind
To leave this place before my time
Release myself from earthly care
My dream may be your nightmare

I turn my hopes up to the sky
I’d like to know before I die
Memories will slowly fade
I lift my eyes and say
Come on, take me away
Come on, take me away

Come here, girl, close to me
A thousand stars your eye can see
First star we see tonight
I wish I may I wish I might

I turn my hopes up to the sky
I’d like to know before I die
Memories will slowly fade
I lift my eyes and say
Come on, take me away
Come on, take me away

I turn my hopes up to the sky
I’d like to know before I die
Memories will slowly fade
I lift my eyes and say
Come on, take me away

[The Stranger]

56. A Blue Oyster Cult allusion? Holy smokes.

Now you're freaking me out.

[JuniperLea]

58. Having a flashback?

hahaha!







I'm not a fan or anything... naw...

[dysfunctional press]

38. why would they want to abduct their own shape-shifting comrades?

:shrug:

[LandOLincoln]

11. Nope--looks like another coverup to me.

Sorry, too many credible* people have seen too many UFOs for me to accept these lame "official" explanations.

Besides, IIRC witnesses claimed this particular UFO made no--or very little--sound. Noiseless JET engines?? Please...



* Credible as in a couple of airline pilots, at least one astronaut, and Jimmy Carter, among others.

[edhopper]

19. Jimmy Carter's UFO

was the planet Venus.
Airline pilots reporting an unidentified object does not mean there are aliens from space visiting Earth.

[LandOLincoln]

20. Who says Jimmy Carter's UFO was the planet Venus?

Got a link for that?

Also, please show me where I said or even implied that UFOs = "aliens from space visiting Earth."

And bag the patronizing tone while you're at it.

[edhopper]

30. Here you go

http://www.debunker.com/texts/carter_ufo.html

http://unmuseum.mus.pa.us/ifonat.htm

http://www.wral.com/weather/blogpost/1908528/

[Pale Blue Dot]

35. Listen to Carter yourself

Here's a link to an actual interview with Jimmy Carter in which he says

1. What he saw was NOT of extraterrestrial origin;
2. There is NO Government cover-up of UFO evidence.

Listen to him in his own words:

http://www.theskepticsguide.org/archive.asp Episode #105

[Richard Steele]

27. Jimmy Carter disagrees, and I'll take his word over yours. Good day. nm

[Pale Blue Dot]

34. No he doesn't.

Here's a link to an actual interview with Jimmy Carter in which he says

1. What he saw was NOT of extraterrestrial origin;
2. There is NO Government cover-up of UFO evidence.

Listen to him in his own words:

http://www.theskepticsguide.org/archive.asp Episode #105

[JuniperLea]

50. I couldn't agree more...

We are arrogant and ignorant to think that our planet is the only one that supports life, or that we are the most intelligent among them.

There will be those, even here on DU, who will call us both idiots and tell us that what the government is telling us is true... riiiiight. The government NEVER lies to us, do they?

Strange shapes light up the night
Never seen them though I hope I might
Don’t ask if they are real
The men in black, their lips are sealed

Fantasy it fills my mind
To leave this place before my time
Release myself from earthly care
My dream may be your nightmare

I turn my hopes up to the sky
I’d like to know before I die
Memories will slowly fade
I lift my eyes and say
Come on, take me away
Come on, take me away

Come here, girl, close to me
A thousand stars your eye can see
First star we see tonight
I wish I may I wish I might

I turn my hopes up to the sky
I’d like to know before I die
Memories will slowly fade
I lift my eyes and say
Come on, take me away
Come on, take me away

I turn my hopes up to the sky
I’d like to know before I die
Memories will slowly fade
I lift my eyes and say
Come on, take me away

[edhopper]

62. Accepting the possibility of life on other planets

even intelligent life, does not mean that there is technically advanced intelligent life capable of interstellar travel, nor does it support the notion that said life has visited Earth.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

[JuniperLea]

63. And the oposite is true as well...

There's no proof either way. I prefer an open mind. Earthling! :)

We have left our planet and have traveled much farther into space than anyone would have imagined just within the past 60 years. Who is to say for certain our civilization (term used loosely) is the oldest?

[edhopper]

65. 60 years past?

Ever hear of H G Wells?

No proof, exactly. Extrodinary claims demand extrodinary evidence. Those making the claims are responsible to provide the evidence. It's something called science.

[JuniperLea]

70. If people didn't have open minds...

There would be no such thing as science!

[jayfish]

53. Witnesses Also Said That They Saw The F-16s...

but they were chasing the object. The AF should have just struck to their original story.

Jay

[DireStrike]

13. Yes, this is very clear

There's a UFO sighting, and a short time afterward the military issues some claims contradicting the original story. Everyone goes back to sleep.

[tridim]

14. I remember the official excuses for my 1987 sighting very clearly

There were hundreds of witnesses spread out all over the city.

First it was, "No, we're not testing aircraft in the area, we don't know what you saw", then later that night it changed to, "The local military base is testing in the area" (this was a dense suburb of Kansas City), then the next morning it changed again to "A Soviet booster rocket reentry". The final excuse was brushed off as no big deal, even though Russian space junk was apparently raining down on the Midwest during the tail-end of the cold war.

Three different official excuses in a 12 hour time span, none of which we're based on observed reality. Great job feds! :eyes:

[balantz]

18. They always have a few different stories.

Seems to be the common practice in coverups.

[StarryNite]

41. Phoenix LIghts

They pulled the same thing with the Phoenix Lights. First they deny, then they start throwing out "explanations" to see what sticks.

[tridim]

42. Yep it's S.O.P.. Actually comparing my sighting to the Phoenix event..

I'd say what I saw was much more unexplainable. It was complex and jaw droppingly beautiful, and definitely NOT a booster reentering the atmosphere. I've seen space junk burning up and know exactly what it looks like. This was a large craft, moving slowly across the sky from north to south in a straight line, shooting a half mile long, multi-colored, Aurora Borealis-like, sparky, twinkling thrust out the back. Not a fire/smoke trail, but thrust that was exiting at about twice the speed the object was moving. I've tried dozens of times to replicate what I saw with my animation software but I can't get it right. Someday I'll figure out how to render what I saw because I wish everyone could see it. It was just so complex and unreal that it's difficult to get right.

On video the Phoenix lights look like flares on parachutes, but I know the people who saw it live disagree. I'll trust the actual observations over what I see (and what the government saw) in the videos.

[StarryNite]

59. There were two different events

that occurred that night. There were the lights that appeared to be stationary. Those are the ones that were caught on so many still shots and videos.


But then there was also this other object;


Between 9:00 and 9:30 PM on the 13th, one extraordinary description was made by a family in Mesa. They said that an enormous craft with a distinctive structure flew over their area. They described a triangle-shaped object with lights at the three corners, and another larger light in its center. Amazingly, they could clearly see panels on the craft which were in a grid pattern.

There were also, about this same time, several reports of two round objects which seemed to detach from the larger "V" shaped object, only to later rejoin the mother-ship. One witness described the "V" shaped mother-ship dividing itself into two separate craft as it moved toward the city of Tucson.

Another dramatic description of the mother-ship was made by a group of real estate agents who had subdivided property over the northern part of Phoenix. They would also get a close-up view of the gigantic disc. They estimated the craft to be a staggering two miles wide as it flew at a low altitude near Phoenix. They could see dozens of bright lights along the leading edges, and also a row of windows with "silhouettes of people." It also seems highly probably that for some reason, the giant craft turned off its lights, as observers could see only the windows with what appeared to be people shadowed in the glow of the inside. Another family got a brightly lit view of the unknown object, and described its color as "flat blue-black, like the color of a shotgun barrel."

Among the most reliable witnesses of the craft's movements that first night were two airplane pilots, one retired from an airline, and another from Vietnam, who was also a U. S. Marshall. Though seeing the object at different times and places, both men described a craft of "immense size," measuring up to a mile long. The Marshall could also see the city lights of Phoenix reflecting from the bottom of the massive object, while it "blocked out the stars." One of the pilots also videotaped the UFO, but had the tape confiscated in a "men in black" encounter. In a completely separate incident, a group of witnesses had reported a "huge discoid" craft which was "larger than Sun Devil Stadium at Arizona State University." This object was hovering just above tree tops at the west end of Sky Harbor runway between 2:00 and 3:00 AM about two weeks prior to March 13.

http://www.ufocasebook.com/phoenixlights.html

[Fox Mulder]

16. Yeah, right...

first of all, they said there was no military aircraft in the area, and now they say there was.

Whatever. :eyes:

[orleans]

17. oh bullshit. i don't believe it. no one said the ufo looked like a fucking

air force jet anyway. does the air force have some piece of shit that is a mile long??? DOUBT IT.

"The Air Force Reserve said that on the night of January 8, ten F-16 fighter jets were conducting training flights in the area. Many of the suspected UFO sightings took place on that night.

"Originally, the 301st Fighter Wing at the Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base said none of its jets were in the area that night.

"In a statement today, a Wing spokesman says they made a mistake and that jets were flying in the Stephenville area that evening, reported CBS station KTVT-TV in Dallas.

what bullshit!
screw the air force and the liars puking out their little statements.

[Orsino]

40. I can believe that a formation scattered over a mile...

...looks like a mile-long object. The stories I've seen are vague about what the observers actually saw.

[DaLittle Kitty]

60. Larry King showed some video, (poor) But A Pic was very good... A Mile Long for sure!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

22. You mean it WASN'T Elvis??

[Pastiche423]

26. Hey!

Elvis was fat, but not that fat!

[Dukkha]

24. surprised they didn't try the "weather balloon" cover story

equally as implausible and solves nothing.

[Canuckistanian]

29. Swamp gas

That stuff gets everywhere.

[orleans]

43. yeah--"swamp gas"! i always liked that one. n/t

[JuniperLea]

51. I wonder if Swamp Rat gets swamp gas?

:rofl:

Hey Swampy! You know I say this with much love;)

[Duer 157099]

25. Hahahahaha, that's a laughable explanation

when you consider some of the eyewitness testimony.

But, par for the course.

edit to add link to one witness story who clearly was describing not-a-jet:

http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1377&category=Environment

[zorahopkins]

32. How Stupid Do They Think We Are?

My goodness, how stupid does the Bush/Cheney regime think we all are?

The "explanation" provided is an insult!

[Kingofalldems]

33. Another sighting--Jan.1 in same area, here it is

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/gen/page2398.html?theme=light

Click on date for more info.

[tridim]

48. You don't think that looks like Venus?

That's really cool, I wish I saw it.

Chances are if something that big was here recently, it's either still here or it'll come back. Keep looking up!

[Evoman]

52. That looks more like a malfunction in a holodeck.

Maybe the Earth as we know it is just a big holodeck.

Computer. End simulation!

[Kingofalldems]

55. It was a simulation of what he saw

Click on the link and go to the date--1/18 towards the top and click. You will get the whole story along with other drawings by the witness.

[originalpckelly]

44. If this is bullshit, why even put out a story about it?

Why care about this enough to address it?

Why not tell people in this country when these little exercises are going on, so they don't think it's a UFO, BEFORE it happens? Why not tell people on the news, or put out a press release?

It doesn't make sense.

[Kingofalldems]

45. Kick--check out post #33

[Medusa]

46. The military admitted to flying one day

these people saw these things over the course of two weeks. And since when did we get a plane that is silent as these people said? I believe them. Our government has a long history of lying to us.

[MilesColtrane]

47. "No other object as been misidentified as a flying saucer more often..

...than the planet Venus."

"Even the former leader of your United States of America, James Earl Carter Jr., thought he saw a UFO once ... But it's been proven he only saw the planet Venus."

"Venus was at its peak brilliance last night. You probably thought you saw something up in the sky other than Venus, but I assure you, it was Venus."

"Your scientists have yet to discover how neural networks create self-consciousness, let alone how the human brain processes two-dimensional retinal images into the three-dimensional phenomenon known as perception. Yet you somehow brazenly declare seeing is believing? Your scientific illiteracy makes me shudder, and I wouldn't flaunt your ignorance by telling anyone that you saw anything last night other than the planet Venus, because if you do, you're a dead man."

[HCE SuiGeneris]

68. I Got It! Woo Hoo

"Jose Chung's, 'From Outer Space'"

Good one!

Currently watching it on the SciFi channel.

[MilesColtrane]

71. One of the greatest episodes of any TV series.

How can you not love Jesse Ventura and Alex Trebek as shady, threatening Men in Black?

[Akoto]

54. They'd deny it if the aliens landed and came out to chat.

[Kansas Wyatt]

61. Okay, who thinks our government has already been in contact with the aliens?

So they just obfuscate and cover-up sightings.

I can't say one way or the other, but for the most expensive military in the world, they sure never know shit about anything. It wouldn't surprise me at all.

[Phoonzang]

64. The witnesses originally said there were F-16s chasing the UFO

when the reports first came out. So....this explanation doesn't even make sense and shows that the Air Force isn't capable of even reading a news article. If anything it just adds veracity to the claims. It confirms that indeed a bunch of F-16s were out that night, whereas the Air Force had previously said nothing of theirs was up.

People around that area know what the hell F-16s look and sound like. 10 F-16s make a lot of damn noise.

[edhopper]

66. Consider,

The possiblility of life and even intelligent life on other planets is a completely different subject than whether we have been visited by aliens.
That UFO proponents think that to deny that UFOs are alien spacecraft somehow means you don't believe there could be life on other planets is a failure of logic.

[Ilsa]

67. Even Joe Scarb and Mika don't believe this explanation...

They said the people said the F-16s were chasing the UFOs, not the UFOs themselves. They agreed it was a cover-up.

[Xenotime]

69. Why are these stories always the same?

[ithinkmyliverhurts]

72. Ummm, the answer is clear:

Texas . . . drunk. Next.

[alfredo]

73. They've seen some in Baghdad

[SmellsLikeDeanSpirit]

74. Anyone buying this explanation is so naive.

Air Force lost all credibility in July 1947.