Stephenville UFO: the facts so far

Posted by admin on January 29, 2008

F-16 CJ (wildcat)

I thought it would be good, to correlate all the information, that has been collected on this sighting, and pull it all together, and try and see what we have? If there is anything i have missed, please alert me to this, and i’ll ammend the records. (please also see my other posts on this site for more added details).

Sighting:

The main sighting that sparked media interest= January 8th 2008; between 6.15pm + 4.30am (9th january). However, it seems to have also happened over several days, up to the 10th january, i believe.

WITNESSES:

 40 + in Stephenville area (including piolt/business owners/county constable). Later, as events unfold, it seems the UFO was also seen in San Antonio, Victoria + Corpus Christi (also on the 8th january). At San Antonio - cigar shaped ufo with a multitude of lights present (information from MUFON).

WHAT: 

UFO - MOST COMMON among varied reports were;

very bright lights (lights similar to strobe lights), low and fast moving, no noise.

some accounts below:

” lights spanned about a mile long, half a mile wide….lights went from corner to corner” and that it’s speed was approx 3000 mph.

red glowing lights then white flashing lights…. dancing around appeared, reappeared. spread out in the sky, formed formation, then took off at high speed; it appeared attached.

Some suggest that ufo was chased by jets (possibly F-16s). One witness saw very bright yellow lights.

OFFICIAL RESPONSE:

Military: No airplanes in the air that night: said ufo was an illusion caused by 2 commercial airplanes.

MUFON get involved; seems like Chicago/O’Hare airport + Pheonix lights - authorities are covering up something? what is it, is the question?

January 18th - MUFON investigators arrive at Dublin to take witness statements/accounts (in detail). Alot of media there to cover the event.

Pilot statement made to media - (Fort worth medical helicopter pilot) suggested it was flares (seems like pre-meditated disinformation to me). 

I also made checks on NASA (recent debris) database site - no man made space debris, re-entering on that date/or near that date.

Larry King show - several programmes to this event shown.

Cell phone photo - (seems to be a dog star and unrelated).

Then most significantly, 2 weeks after event, military changes its story; It says it had 10 F-16s from the 457th fighter squad training between 6 and 8pm, in Brownwoods military operating area (which it says includes Erath County).

Witnesses + MUFON says this enhances their story…as some say ufo chased by fighter planes. Many say this U- turn is a cover up?

MUFON to travel to San Antonio area to gather more eye witness accounts.

Recently it has come to light that, the Air Force could have been protecting the Presidential Ranch- edge of restricted zone (clas D air space), 16 miles SE of Stephenville. I do not understand why the local press did not pick up on this earlier? this is significant information…. i for one did not realise it was this close to Stephenville.

CONCLUSION:

Whatever happened at Stephenville, the government are not telling us what the hell is going on? i’m afraid. Unless, of course they take us for being stupid.

For instance, i did a little research on F-16 combat formations…. admittedly the most useful i found was from 1996, but it gave some interesting facts. It mentioned that “the basic combat formation employed by tactical fighters is the four-ship flight. The two-ship element is the basic flight unit….. [.] there is a need for both line abreast and wedge formations” (p22). Goes into great detail, with diagrams of the different formations used. Also it says that “Adding additional four-ships to increase to 8-12 jets has been combat tested with some controversial success”. See here for source.

 So basically, this is a rarity, and not often used. SO we can conclude that this is:

1. not one formation (very unlikely-not totally impossible, but very rare)
2. Therefore a combination of 2 and 4 jets ….
3. Unlikely to be all from the same base
4. Protecting the presidential Ranch??
5. Did the fighter jets come from further afield?   
6. Are they responding to radar,ect
7. Were special forces involved

 Additional information on military in texas:

TEXAS AIR FORCE BASES

1. Brooks AFB
2. Dyess AFB
3. Goodfellows AFB
4. Kelly AFB
5. Lackland AFB
6. Laughlin AFB
7. Randolph AFB
8. Sheppard AFB

 ARMY

1. Fort Bliss
2. Fort Hood
3. Fort Sam Houston
4. Red river Army depot

 NAVY

1. NAS Corpus Christi
2. NAS JRB Fort Worth
3. NAS Ingleside
4. NAS Kingsville

Also Lockhead Martin Aeronautics Company HQ (home of F-16 fighter Falcon + joint strike fighter). & miles west of Fort Worth, Texas.

Brownwood Military Operations Area (training area for fighters). 

• There are many question and so little answers for now?

This sighting along with the O’Hare airport incident, and the Pheonix lights has got some asking “are these sightings related in any way?”  Also they seem to follow a similar pattern as far as the government/military are concerned. Cover stories tried, then hoaxing/disinformation is made to try to calm the incident down at a slightly later date ( to be honest this is so easy, it’s annoying, lol)…. it works?

Also, there are similar accounts of the ufo sighting, but there are also conflicting accounts of the ufo sighting. Why? 

Is the military hiding a black op secret plane being tested? if so, why near public? possibly to test our reaction to it, maybe? 

Also i say again

1 Why is a training exercise classified? as they will not go into operational procedures, not even the basics? Possibly because near the presidential ranch?

2 F-16s do not hover (unless i am wrong in this).

3 F-16s create sound ! and lots of it.

4 F-16s are not 1 mile wide.

Remember, all we are trying to establish here, is whether it is an UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) nothing more at this stage.

Maybe, the media should attempt to contact the F-16 pilots and ask them for a response (unlikely due to national security issues, i should imagine, but worth a try). Ask for a copy of their communications with ground controllers (AWACS). I hope they will generally put the heat up a bit, and apply pressure…. we need answers to our questions?

I’m also waiting for the Air Force, to next say that flares where used (does this sound familiar), especially using them in populated areas.

Also MUFON has had eye witness accounts, from the same time period, either side of the 8th january, in other areas, all with the similar accounts to Stephenville… were their trained F-16s all over the place? Also, did the training last for longer than january 8th? it would have had too. 

Will the Air Force hide behind classified information, and National Security, to bluff their way out of this one. Again, i say we need answers to questions? whether we will get them is another matter?

Will update on any other theories i have…. What do you think? whats going on?   

EXTRA INFORMATION  just seen:

An interesting article has come to light, and normally, i would just show a link and highlight some of the article; however, i think it warrants the full article here on this post: 

  UFO theories fly again Recent ’sightings’ raise questions

By Trish Choate

Monday, January 28, 2008

WASHINGTON — Put the alien theories on hold and get the men in black a cup of coffee. You know how they like it.

Instead of beings from outer space visiting Big Country skies, the Air Force could be secretly working out the kinks in the next U-2 spy plane or B-2 stealth bomber in the skies over the Big Country.

U.S. military pilots might have been at the helm of Unidentified Flying Objects decked out with secret technology, accounting for reports from Erath, Brown and Comanche counties the past two months.

After all, the military possesses experimental technologies the public might not know about until decades after development.

“For national security reasons, of course, they’re disinclined to tell us about it,” Michael Shermer, executive director of the Skeptics Society and editor of Skeptic magazine, said.

Besides Shermer, an author of more than 20 books on secret and stealth technology, a think-tank expert and a former “Skunk Works” chief weighed in.

Among the possibilities: The government is conducting a campaign of disinformation, spreading UFO stories to cover up the truth, which is out there.

Or eyewitnesses surprised by fast-moving spheres and a gigantic “mother ship” simply saw jets from a nearby military base.

That includes the UFO sighting Jan. 8 around Stephenville, Texas, the day the Air Force said it had jets on a training mission in the area.

Either way, Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas, isn’t involved in black — classified — aircraft programs.

“We strictly deal with B-1s and C-130s here,” 1st Lt. William Powell, Dyess spokesman, said. “If it didn’t come from this base, which it didn’t, then I wouldn’t know what kind of aircraft was flying in that area on that date.”

John Pike, a defense and intelligence expert, said he believes the government has thrown up a smokescreen before, like with Area 51 in Nevada, to discredit witnesses.

“If they get people seeing lights all the time, and they don’t know what it is, one way of making the whole thing seem silly is to have people recall flying saucers,” Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, said. “And that way the whole story just kind of goes away.”

Area 51 has played a role in modern American mythology about everything from secret military technologies to alien spacecraft. Beliefs vary as to the truth about the southern Nevada location.

Back in the 1950s, the Air Force exploited the UFO scenario to divert attention from the U-2 being tested at a secret base in Nevada, said Bill Sweetman, who’s written extensively on stealth and black technology.

The U-2 was the only aircraft that could fly at such a high altitude for as long as it could, Sweetman, editor of Defense Technology International magazine, said.

“Airline pilots who didn’t know that a secret airplane was out there would see this object way up above them, and they would report it as a UFO,” he said.

Those sightings led to “Project Bluebook,” efforts to make people think they’d seen a natural phenomenon or something unexplainable — not a secret airplane, Sweetman said.

He didn’t want to hazard a guess about whether West Texans have spotted secret aircraft, but he was doubtful.

“Why would you fly it near a populated area at all?” he said.

And it’s impossible to speculate whether the Big Country UFOs were a sign of a secret program, said retired Air Force Col. Tom Ehrhardt, a former Pentagon chief of the “Skunk Works” or the Strategy, Concepts and Doctrine Division.

“That particular location for it seems improbable because, usually, we have more secure sites to do that sort of thing in than there,” said Ehrhardt, now of the nonprofit Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington.

Sites such as Area 51, he said.

“But you never want to say this isn’t one of those because I don’t have that knowledge,” Ehrhardt said.

Theories to the contrary, the UFO story hasn’t gone away yet.

“Our initial analysis is that we have at least two very promising pieces of evidence,” Ken Cherry, state director for the nonprofit Mutual UFO Network, said.

Video and still images show spheres in incredible maneuvers at high speed in the Big Country, Cherry said. Others have told MUFON of “a mother ship” a mile long and a half mile wide.

Eyewitnesses are ranchers, farmers, oilfield workers, shop owners, defense workers and others who talk of activity as far back as 30 years ago in the area, he said.

But could fast-moving spheres simply be the afterburners of 10 F-16s?

In an about face, the military said 10 F-16s from the 301st Fighter Wing at Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base were on a training mission Jan. 8 in an area including Erath County.

Maj. Karl Lewis, a fighter wing spokesman, said it was just a mistake when he first told reporters the base had no planes in the sky that day.

“I did my best to correct it as soon as possible,” Lewis said.

But the story has wings.

Washington regional correspondent Trish Choate (source can be seen here ).

Source: Stephenville UFO: the facts so far