Topic: Huge UFO seen in rural Texas with Airforce jets chasing

[UnCrash]

Not that I'm a believer in UFO's, but this is a good one from the news.  First is the report from the Star-Telegram which went to press before the Military changed their story that no military craft were in the area.  Second is a report from MSNBC where the military says that it was actually all fighter jets and optical illusions.

http://www.star-telegram.com/news/story/409903.html

Stephenville abuzz over reported UFO sightings
By ANGELA K. BROWNAssociated Press Writer

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS / DONNA McWILLIAM
Standing Monday near the area where he saw a large silent object in the sky, Ricky Sorrells talks about the sighting in Dublin, Texas. STEPHENVILLE -- In this farming community where nightfall usually brings clear, starry skies, residents are abuzz over reported sightings of what many believe is a UFO.

Several dozen people - including a pilot, county constable and business owners - insist they have seen a large silent object with bright lights flying low and fast. Some reported seeing fighter jets chasing it.

"People wonder what in the world it is because this is the Bible Belt, and everyone is afraid it's the end of times," said Steve Allen, a freight company owner and pilot who said the object he saw last week was a mile long and half a mile wide. "It was positively, absolutely nothing from these parts."

While federal officials insist there's a logical explanation, locals swear that it was larger, quieter, faster and lower to the ground than an airplane. They also said the object's lights changed configuration, unlike those of a plane. People in several towns who reported seeing it over several weeks have offered similar descriptions of the object.

Machinist Ricky Sorrells said friends made fun of him when he told them he saw a flat, metallic object hovering about 300 feet over a pasture behind his Dublin home. But he decided to come forward after reading similar accounts in the Stephenville Empire-Tribune.

"You hear about big bass or big buck in the area, but this is a different deal," Sorrells said. "It feels good to hear that other people saw something, because that means I'm not crazy."

=======================================================



Officials: UFO sightings were military jets
But residents of Texas town say they saw jets chasing unidentified object

Space News 
By Angela K. Brown

updated 7:28 p.m. ET, Wed., Jan. 23, 2008
FORT WORTH, Texas - U.S. military officials said Wednesday that fighter jets were training in a rural area the night of Jan. 8 when dozens of people reported seeing a UFO.

Although officials at the Naval Air Station Reserve Base in Fort Worth initially said none of their planes were in the area of the UFO reports, they changed their story Wednesday, saying that 10 F-16 fighter jets built by Lockheed Martin Corp. were training near Stephenville, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) southwest of Fort Worth, about the time of the sightings.

But, some residents say the military's revelation actually bolsters their claims because several reported seeing at least two fighter jets chasing an object.

[Cvillechopper]

Sweet!  I didn't know my model rocket went THAT far.  Think they'll send it back when they finally find it in someone's front yard?

[UnCrash]

Aaaaahhhhhh even the New York Times is pulling out the "tinfoil hat"

Just in from the New York Times:

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/24/f-16s-at-the-scene-of-ufo-sighting-in-texas/?hp

F-16s at Scene of U.F.O. Sighting in Texas
By Mike Nizza


Steve Allen points to the spot in the sky where he first saw the U.F.O. in Stephenville, Texas. He estimated that it was “bigger than a Wal-Mart.” (Photo: Jessica Horton/Stephenville Empire-Tribune, via AP) As the hype around a U.F.O. sighting in Texas garners an unusual amount of attention, a local Air Force reserve base stepped up on Wednesday with a statement that either completely debunks the story or fuels it further, depending on who you ask and when you ask them.
In the days since the reported sighting — which one witness said was of an object in the sky “bigger than a Wal-Mart,” with the addition of many, many strobe lights — officials at the airbase initially said that none of their aircraft were flying on the night in question.
But they changed their story on Wednesday: now they say that 10 F-16 fighter jets were indeed airborne between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. local time that night, on a training mission. That includes the 5-minute period when unidentified flying objects were sighted.
So is it time to say, “So much for aliens in Texas dairy country”?
Not if you ask The Associated Press, which published that line in an early version of its report before switching to a much more noncomittal lead paragraph.
One of the people expressing doubts about the F-16 explanation was Kenneth Cherry of the Mutual UFO Network, who asserted, “This supports our story that there was U.F.O. activity in that area.” He was apparently referring to one witness’s claim that the fighter jets were there to chase the U.F.O.
There are several others.
Video images that seem to show strange patterns of lights in the sky have surfaced on local television, but none have been deemed convincing by authorities whether they believe in aliens or not. A $5,000 reward for video proof has been offered by a Texas businessman.
The Dallas Morning News tries to answer an interesting question raised by the military’s announcement: Could 10 F-16’s, doing whatever they were doing, have been mistaken for something else?
In the article, which also runs down some alternate theories from an aviation expert that don’t pan out, the paper puts that question to Maj. Karl Lewis, a spokesman for the 301st Fighter Wing, which operates out of the airbase. Major Lewis’s door-slamming response will doubtless strike U.F.O. buffs as both unsurprising and revealing in its reticence:
“What we do down there falls under operational procedures that cannot be released because of operations security for our mission,” he said.
He also seemed to slam the door on the long-cherished hope Mr. Cherry expressed to The A.P.: “What we want is the government to admit there are U.F.O.’s.”

[tramp]

saw two real ufo's
don't know what they were but they were way to fast to be human pilotted

[seaweb11]

saw two real ufo's
don't know what they were but they were way to fast to be human piloted

If you fill the craft with gelatin you can go supper fast

[racerx95]

Bumper sticker: UFOs are real,the airforce doesnt exist.

[CrisPDuk]

All UFO means is the observer doesn't know what it was

This to me just ilustrates the difference between America and the Real World, the first instincts of most people would be;  "Oh look, the Air Force has got some new toys."

Whereas the first instincts of the average American is;  "Oh my God, Aliens!"

 

What's even more funny is that these reports always come from areas where the USAF, Lockheed, Northropp, Grummann, Boeing, et al, are known to have R & D centres

U2s SR-71s, B2s and F117s were all spotted but never acknowledged at some point during their development

[Terry in Australia]

Well I believe in UFO's, I'd like a ride in one, so if any of you guys are actually aliens, I'd just like it known that I'd even take the probing and the implants to secure an inter-galactic cruise?

And if you need me to breed with any other life forms (except Kiwi's and Canadians, of course) I'd be up for that too? Huh? Anyone?

[mick750F]

Well I believe in UFO's, I'd like a ride in one, so if any of you guys are actually aliens, I'd just like it known that I'd even take the probing and the implants to secure an inter-galactic cruise?

And if you need me to breed with any other life forms (except Kiwi's and Canadians, of course) I'd be up for that too? Huh? Anyone?

We are coming for YOU Terry!

[Bob Wessner]

So, Terry, why are you so quick to agree to probing?

[Aaron J Williams]

He wants to be Captain Kirk! Flying around in a spaceship seducing beautiful green chicks.

[Cvillechopper]

He wants to be Captain Kirk! Flying around in a spaceship seducing beautiful green chicks.

Maybe, but it sounds like he's signing up to be the seducee.  Maybe we've had it backwards all along and the sheep are willing participants

[Terry in Australia]

Well I believe in UFO's, I'd like a ride in one, so if any of you guys are actually aliens, I'd just like it known that I'd even take the probing and the implants to secure an inter-galactic cruise?

And if you need me to breed with any other life forms (except Kiwi's and Canadians, of course) I'd be up for that too? Huh? Anyone?

We are coming for YOU Terry!

The key is under the mat!

[slabbedask]

A mile long and half a mile wide? In Texas?
Gotta be the Bush family's new daily driver.....

[azuredesign]

Well I believe in UFO's, I'd like a ride in one, so if any of you guys are actually aliens, I'd just like it known that I'd even take the probing and the implants to secure an inter-galactic cruise?

And if you need me to breed with any other life forms (except Kiwi's and Canadians, of course) I'd be up for that too? Huh? Anyone?

I don't know if you got to watch the american tv show Outer Limits down under as a kid, but there was one episode where aliens finally made their appearance on earth bearing a book that was titled "To Serve Man". As earthlings, it was generally a relief to find that the event we were all subliminally worrying about, was diffused by a gentle race who had come to help us. We took the aliens into our homes and became friends with them.

Only at the very end of the show, as they were leading thousands of us onto the spaceship to experience the wonders of alien life, was it that someone realized the true intent of our new friends, raising the book up into the air, and yelling "It's a cookbook!"

As Sgt. Phil Esterhaus on Hill Street Blues used to say,
Be careful out there! 

[Terry in Australia]

Nah mate, never saw that show, I was born and raised in the country and we had 2 TV stations, the government owned station (Australian Broadcasting Commission) and a half-asssed local commercial station. I did, however, see a similar plot on the Simpsons, now I know where they got it from! Cheers, Terry.

[CrisPDuk]

As Sgt. Phil Esterhaus on Hill Street Blues used to say,
Be careful out there! 

Didn't one of the other Sgts also used to say "Let's do it to them, before they do it to us!"?


 

[fuzzybutt]

As Sgt. Phil Esterhaus on Hill Street Blues used to say,
Be careful out there! 

Didn't one of the other Sgts also used to say "Let's do it to them, before they do it to us!"?


 

characters name was yablonski i think

[TwoTired]

Ah yes, Hollywood and the entertainment industry teaching morality...

               

[azuredesign]

Ah yes, Hollywood and the entertainment industry teaching morality...

               

Like it or not, we were and are all influenced by tv, which my recently deceased aunt said was the worst innovation she had witnessed in her 100 years of walking the earth.  For the most part, I too believe that tv is responsible to a large degree for suggesting inappropriate social behavior, and has had a hand in increasing violence in our society. However, periodically TV has also had a creative influence especially when improvisation was an integral part of production. The Ernie Kovacs show, Jack Paar, Steve Allen, and the Outer Limits had a wonderful effect in stimulating my imagination and sense of humor in a positive way. 

[azuredesign]

Nah mate, never saw that show, I was born and raised in the country and we had 2 TV stations, the government owned station (Australian Broadcasting Commission) and a half-asssed local commercial station. I did, however, see a similar plot on the Simpsons, now I know where they got it from! Cheers, Terry.

So do you think the reason that you post such fun and funny stuff is because you escaped the tyranny of television as a kid, or because you watch the Simpsons now? ;

[mrblasty]

Well I believe in UFO's, I'd like a ride in one, so if any of you guys are actually aliens, I'd just like it known that I'd even take the probing and the implants to secure an inter-galactic cruise?

And if you need me to breed with any other life forms (except Kiwi's and Canadians, of course) I'd be up for that too? Huh? Anyone?

I don't know if you got to watch the american tv show Outer Limits down under as a kid, but there was one episode where aliens finally made their appearance on earth bearing a book that was titled "To Serve Man". As earthlings, it was generally a relief to find that the event we were all subliminally worrying about, was diffused by a gentle race who had come to help us. We took the aliens into our homes and became friends with them.

Only at the very end of the show, as they were leading thousands of us onto the spaceship to experience the wonders of alien life, was it that someone realized the true intent of our new friends, raising the book up into the air, and yelling "It's a cookbook!"

As Sgt. Phil Esterhaus on Hill Street Blues used to say,
Be careful out there! 

i saw a repeat of that episode as a kid and I will tell you it scared the #$%* out of me, I was freaked out for a good while

[azuredesign]

Well I believe in UFO's, I'd like a ride in one, so if any of you guys are actually aliens, I'd just like it known that I'd even take the probing and the implants to secure an inter-galactic cruise?

And if you need me to breed with any other life forms (except Kiwi's and Canadians, of course) I'd be up for that too? Huh? Anyone?

I don't know if you got to watch the american tv show Outer Limits down under as a kid, but there was one episode where aliens finally made their appearance on earth bearing a book that was titled "To Serve Man". As earthlings, it was generally a relief to find that the event we were all subliminally worrying about, was diffused by a gentle race who had come to help us. We took the aliens into our homes and became friends with them.

Only at the very end of the show, as they were leading thousands of us onto the spaceship to experience the wonders of alien life, was it that someone realized the true intent of our new friends, raising the book up into the air, and yelling "It's a cookbook!"

As Sgt. Phil Esterhaus on Hill Street Blues used to say,
Be careful out there! 

i saw a repeat of that episode as a kid and I will tell you it scared the #$%* out of me, I was freaked out for a good while

Me too, I think that's why I remembered it so well. Do you also recall the tv segment where Nikita Khrushchev is giving a speach to the american people which ends with  "We will bury you"? That scared the whoop out of me as well!

[mrblasty]

Afraid not, I'm not sure when that broadcast was made, if prior to '71 I was still a glimmer in my parents eye.

[azuredesign]

Afraid not, I'm not sure when that broadcast was made, if prior to '71 I was still a glimmer in my parents eye.

OK, it would have been around the time of the bay of pigs, '62ish.