Military Says UFO's were Jets

[LegionnaireX]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22810569/

My mind is split over this. I support the government's story when it comes to such things as 9/11, but I'm not sure what to think about this. I'm sort of an armchair ufo researcher and based on solid evidence provided by credible investigators, the military has something to hide and has lied in the past. What would make the military come out with this new information weeks after the alledged sightings? Are we to disregard corraborating witness testimony because the military issued a vague statement two weeks late? What are your thoughts?

[Kiljan Arslan]

Of course they got something to hide its called testing planes and they don't like having their testings watched.

[roy34543]

Yep. Its most likely new prototypes that theyre testing, it would not be good if some other country got their hands on the technology. or that it even exists.

[Blau&Gruen]

F-16 prototypes?

Afterburners or just jet-eninges from back during night might be an explanation. I sometimes watch the liners from the airport 15 miles away at night and where I grew up we had an airbase long the plains. The pictures from the video look not so different to me.

But who knows ...

[Lunar4]

Did any of you read the article?

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.

"This supports our story that there was UFO activity in that area," said Kenneth Cherry, the Texas director of the Mutual UFO Network, which took more than 50 reports from locals at a meeting last weekend. "I find it curious that it took them two weeks to 'fess up. I think they're feeling the heat from the publicity."

Several dozen people swear that what they saw 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.

"I guarantee that what we saw was not a civilian aircraft," Steve Allen, a pilot and freight company owner, said Wednesday.

Allen said that the fighter jets' training area in the Brownwood Military Operating Area, which includes Stephenville's Erath County, is not in the airspace where he saw the object. Also, Jan. 8 was not the only day sightings were reported.

Anne Frazor, who owns a fabric store in Stephenville said many in town have seen military aircraft zoom overhead from time to time as part of training operations. But she said that is different than what she saw Jan. 8.

"I couldn't begin to say what it was, but to me it wasn't planes," Frazor said.

[Blau&Gruen]

Yes, Sir.

[danzig]

Its what they say or its some military test as others have said here. People just want to believe in aliens, look at the rock thing on Mars people are convinced is a man running across the terrain or some statue of an ancient civilization

[Kiljan Arslan]

Yes we did Lunar and once again mabey they were testing airplanes that they didn't want someone like china, or Russia to find out about?

[MadBurgerMaker]

I wonder if Bell still has facilities at Arlington Municipal. They flew black Ospreys out of that little airport when I was there (late-ish 90's), so weird aircraft/UAV testing certainly isn't out of the question in that area.

[Simetrical]

Obviously the government is going to lie about classified information. If it's scheduling tests of top-secret prototypes, it's hardly going to admit that. Probably it reflexively denied everything and then only later did someone order that a cover story be made up.

Regardless, the intrinsic improbabilities in aliens being on Earth are so great that no amount of circumstantial evidence is going to convince me.

[danzig]

Obviously the government is going to lie about classified information. If it's scheduling tests of top-secret prototypes, it's hardly going to admit that. Probably it reflexively denied everything and then only later did someone order that a cover story be made up.

Regardless, the intrinsic improbabilities in aliens being on Earth are so great that no amount of circumstantial evidence is going to convince me.

I just like how these aliens always scope out the rural areas...one would think if aliens were interested in spying on our planet they would pick oh I dont know New York, London etc some place big. Meanwhile if the military wanted to try and keep prototype testing quiet they WOULD do it in rural areas. Common sense stuff really. We do it with our own exploration, we dont exactly sent out probes, rovers etc to areas/planets that dont scream hey lets check this out but evidently space aliens are more interested in cornfields and cow pastures then major cities.

[Problem Sleuth]

...Are you kidding me? What you're talking about it a town. With nearby aircraft testing grounds. Now, y'see, most of the population isn't going to be an expert on classified, prototype aircraft. There are going to be lots of both old and new aircraft flying around constantly, some of which may be unusual in shape, or may look outright odd. Did you ever notice how just about all these places have one, if not more nearby air bases? Christ. Is it that hard to see the connection?

[LegionnaireX]

I just like how these aliens always scope out the rural areas...one would think if aliens were interested in spying on our planet they would pick oh I dont know New York, London etc some place big.

Occasionally there are ufo's spotted over urban areas by hundreds or thousands of people. Ever heard of the Pheonix Lights? Mexico City sightings? UFO's over Washington DC?

...Are you kidding me? What you're talking about it a town. With nearby aircraft testing grounds. Now, y'see, most of the population isn't going to be an expert on classified, prototype aircraft.

No. But they would be experts on the sounds and sights of conventional aircraft. You're either talking of some extraterrestrial explanation, or from what the townspeople described, the military has technology that is 100 years out of the public eye. Either way is fairly interesting.

Obviously the government is going to lie about classified information. If it's scheduling tests of top-secret prototypes, it's hardly going to admit that.

Why not? If the government would just say "we were testing new aircraft" that would put an end to the entire debate. A vague statement like that would not release any important information about the craft, it would only ease the minds of the witnesses.

The military often comes up with ridiculous cover stories. In 1947 witnesses saw an aircraft crash in the fields near Roswell, NM. The military says it was a weather balloon. It seems to me that simply stating that a military aircraft test ended fatally would be a more believable story.

Regardless, the intrinsic improbabilities in aliens being on Earth are so great that no amount of circumstantial evidence is going to convince me.

That doesn't sound like a very open minded approach. Your skepticism is good, but what makes you believe that it would be unlikely for extraterrestrial life to visit earth? There could be many ways to break the speed of light, humanity has only scratched the surface of Quantum Physics.

[Problem Sleuth]

...You can only reach the speed of light if you become energy. Massless. Current scientific thoughts says it isn't possible to go faster than the speed of light. Wormholes don't make you go "faster" than light, you merely take a shorter route. And, as I mentioned in a previous thread, they may take you to anywhere in existence. Let's see. Earth... Tens of quadrillions of other planets, stars, etc, as well as a ton empty space... Earth... I wonder which one is more likely. Besides that you're still looking at fairly long transit times.

So, you don't take a wormhole and move at a thousand times the speed of current rocket technology. Well, good job! But guess what? It still takes you centuries to go from Point A to Point B. Congratulations on dying mid-flight!

[danzig]

Occasionally there are ufo's spotted over urban areas by hundreds or thousands of people. Ever heard of the Pheonix Lights? Mexico City sightings? UFO's over Washington DC?

Yeah but they are rare in comparison and usually explainable (though some people wont take any explaintion that doesnt say yes it is a ufo and aliens). Way I figure it if UFOs really do exist then fine let them plop down in Times Square or on White House lawn otherwise either they dont exist or they arent interesting in anymore then site seeing. Either way doesnt matter, Im not gonna worry about someone(thing) that doesnt want to talk to us

[Lord Rahl]

Occasionally there are ufo's spotted over urban areas by hundreds or thousands of people. Ever heard of the Pheonix Lights? Mexico City sightings? UFO's over Washington DC?

Yes, they are UFO's, not aliens. I've "heard" of these urban sightings, but as soon as I hear about them, I discard them, because my mind tells me that if hundreds or thousands of people saw some sort of an alien spacecraft, accepting the fact that that many people would come to that conclusion, then there would be enough chatter, attention, and media coverage to make it an actual news story that would be extremely important.

That doesn't happen though. I'm not sure of the exact reasons, but my mind tells me, again, that if so many people saw such UFO's, they wouldn't believe that what they saw was an alien spacecraft(s). They would take the more logical approach to the situation and come to the conclusion that what they saw was most likely an airplane. Or the flash of light in the sky was not a UFO. It was actually swamp gas from a weather balloon was trapped in a thermal pocket and reflected the light from Venus.

Why not? If the government would just say "we were testing new aircraft" that would put an end to the entire debate. A vague statement like that would not release any important information about the craft, it would only ease the minds of the witnesses.

Because when the US unveils the F-117 for the first time, it is a huge surprise to everyone and makes the world's governments wonder what the hell they can do to counter it.

That doesn't sound like a very open minded approach. Your skepticism is good, but what makes you believe that it would be unlikely for extraterrestrial life to visit earth? There could be many ways to break the speed of light, humanity has only scratched the surface of Quantum Physics.

Because if ET life came to Earth, we, as a planet, would most likely know. NORAD tracks everything in the sky, and everyone has a camera. If aliens came to the Earth, how could the US government possibly cover it up? If the thousands upon thousands of regular people around the world who have seen a UFO can't prove aliens are here because they don't have enough evidence, how could the US government actually GET some aliens, or a spacecraft, and then keep it a secret?

Basically, there are a billion more probable reasons why, if aliens came to Earth, that we would know about it, rather than the US government being the only ones knowing of it and trying to cover it up. And this isn't even including whether or not aliens actually exist. I don't believe in aliens, but if we actually find some one day, I wouldn't be so surprised. I've seen a UFO once. I was outside, looked up at the sky, and saw a white smoke trail, like those of airplanes, cross the sky in about 3 seconds. Maybe my mind was playing tricks on me, but I still believe what I saw. Nothing could have moved that fast. I don't know what it was, but it might have been a hypersonic plane. Who knows?

The fact is that those who believe in aliens have come to Earth, and believe that the US government is covering it up, want to believe that there are aliens. They want to believe it so much that they cast aside every other much more logical and easy to understand alternative explanation given to them. Can I blame them for wanting to believe that there are aliens? No. It'd be awesome if that were true. And who doesn't like an alien movie? Basically everyone wants to believe, in some way, that aliens exist, but the overwhelmingly vast majority of people who want that know also that it almost certainly can't be true, because there is certainly no credible evidence to support such a belief. Most people hear the much more logical and easy to understand alternative explanations given to them, and find them to be the correct belief. That is where I think the line is crossed.

[DisgruntledGoat]

That doesn't sound like a very open minded approach. Your skepticism is good, but what makes you believe that it would be unlikely for extraterrestrial life to visit earth? There could be many ways to break the speed of light, humanity has only scratched the surface of Quantum Physics.

From another thread on this forum about aliends visiting earth, I share sims opinion by the way:

Aside from all the conspiracy theories etc I'd like to weight in on the convo regarding aliens, and alien visitation to earth. I read a book a few years ago and decided to crack it open again. Coincidentally I was reading it just the other day about the enormity of space and aliens when I say this thread. Bill Bryson wrote "A Short History of Nearly Everything" and here is his take on aliens (and I totally agree):

Quote:
Space, let me repeat, is enormous. The average distance between stars out there is 20 million million miles. Even at speeds approaching those of light, these are fantastically challenging distances for any traveling individual. Of course, it is possible that alien beings travel billions of miles to amuse themselves planting crop circles in Wiltshire or frightening the daylights out of some poor guy in a pickup truck on a lonely road in Arizona (they must have teenagers, after all), but it does seem unlikely.


I believe there has to be life out there. There are so many galaxies and stars out there that they are essentially infinite. In that infinite amount of galaxies, stars and planets we just can't be the only ones. That said, IF an alien race invented the ability to travel at speeds greater than the speed of light and travel hundreds, even millions of light years to earth I think they would do more than just kill cattle and scare red-neck hicks. Aliens are not visiting earth, the US government doesn't have hidden alien wreckage and there is no such thing as alien abductions.

And this

Seriously, the closest star system to earth is 26 trillion miles away. 4.3 light years, and it has no habitable planets. If you take the Drake equation there are millions of advanced civilizations in our galaxy at an average distance from one another (thanks to the vastness of space) of about 200 light years, thats roughly 1200 trillion miles. Can you honestly believe that an alien race will travel that distance and all they do is kill cattle and make complicated designs in our corn fields. It doesn't add up. Most likely there are millions of civilizations just like ours looking out into space, knowing life other than theirs exists out there; but also knowing they will likely never meet thanks to the vastness of space.

[jankren]

We need to get Tom Cruise ready because he was a War of the Worlds veteran.

[God-Emperor of Mankind]

We need to get Tom Cruise ready because he was a War of the Worlds veteran.

Nonsense, we need Will Smith and Harrison Ford on this right away.
They both have good knowledge on how to fight aliens.
All Tom Cruise did was run around with a annoying screaming daughter and a idiotic son who Tom Cruise abandons to be killed.

[DisgruntledGoat]

Nonsense, we need Will Smith and Harrison Ford on this right away.
They both have good knowledge on how to fight aliens.
All Tom Cruise did was run around with a annoying screaming daughter and a idiotic son who Tom Cruise abandons to be killed.

But somehow mysteriously survives and beats cruise to the parents grandparents house....


Meeting aliens is something that will forever remain the domain of science fiction. The way things are, and how we understand the universe, the hard facts of it all are that humanity is probably never going to even reach the edge of our own solar system let alone travel to some distant star.