Strange Happening

Flare Theory DISCREPANCY

The following information is considered KEY DETAIL regarding the March 26, 1997 happening over Southern Ohio. The event, as you may recall, was dismissed by a Springfield, Ohio Air National Guard Sergeant as being explainable as 'NIGHT INTERCEPT' training exercizes using flares launched from eight F-16 A.N.G. jets that were in the area.

At 9:45 p.m. on April 13, 1997, a phone call was placed to New Vienna, Ohio, to speak with the Mayor of New Vienna. The mayor acknowledged being a witness to the event on March 26, but added that he felt his wife could furnish more details.

The Mayor's wife came to the phone and sounded alert and very intelligent. She was very courteous and willingly provided the following details regarding the objects she observed on March 26 around 8:00 p.m.

The objects would 'disappear' from one place and suddenly 'appear' from another. She added that there were quite a few witnesses that she knew about. The objects, as she used the term, made no noise. She added that they would be visible anywhere from 5 seconds to 5 minutes.

She said that it was kind of cold that evening, and she thought about getting her video camera, but thought she would miss the action if she would have made the effort.

She said, "if I were to go back in and get my video camera, I would miss it, so I just disregarded it, but it lasted for a good 45-minutes, longer than I expected. You would see the lights off and on. And then all of a sudden these four planes came from the left of us and went heading toward the lights there. These planes were flying so low, I had never seen anything like it before. I had talked to my brother at 11 0'clock , we were watching the news... and his son was standing outside with me, so we talked and my nephew said that he was outside playing basketball after he left my house, and he saw something drop from the sky and bounce back up off of the ground in that area."

The witness went on to add, "Other people also saw this light drop from the sky and bounce back up, and the word I had heard from someone at Airborne Express who I know was that 'these planes were testing some kind of secret weapon,' or that they was using some kind of secret missile, but whatever the case, the missile dropped, hit the ground and distentegrated, and there was a hole in the ground between Highland and Leesburgh on Underground Road. But they said the missile rose back up into the sky again. I don't know if it was reported to the Sheriff's department."

The kind witness also recalled of strange events happening in the area later that night. "There were helicopters flying around, more so than I've ever seen out here before. The helicopters were circling around Route 28, and I've seen Airborne Express and other planes out here a number of times, but these were helicopters, and there were quite a few of them, and it seemed like they were looking for something, I could speculate. I went driving after 11:00 p.m., and that's when I saw them. I was driving north on 28, and they were everywhere. I saw them and I heard them. I don't know what kind of helicopters they were."

At 10:30 p.m., a phone call was made to an official with the New Vienna Fire and E.M.S. Rescue Service. The witness was coherent, intelligent, and viewed by this investigator to be credible and reliable, and freely discussed the March 26 incident. He was contacted courtesy of assistance provided by the wife of the Mayor of New Vienna, Ohio, who furnished information on his whereabouts.

While travelling on Rt. 729, the E.M.S. officer travelled to Route 72 and followed the bright lights that were in the sky. He advised of hearing reports of 'Wright Patterson Air Force Base doing some dog-fighting in the area. What follows are the comments made by the E.M.S. official:

"Before it hit the ground there were three triangle-type lights in order, not flashing... an exact pryamid shape in the sky. There was one object behind the three that was flashing. They looked like a large ball of light that kept getting brighter. You wouldn't see it and then all of a sudden there it was again."

"We hunted for the area. It was towards Greenfield and Hillsboro. Being on the fire department, I could monitor the radio traffic and that's when I heard it was Wright Patterson Air Force Base, but we could never find the area."

The fire official further described the event as follows: "It just kept travelling real fast and went straight down. We thought it was a shooting star at first, but it just dropped and hit the ground, and went straight back up in the same way it came down. There was no sound or flash or anything that we could see."

When asked if there were planes in the area, the fire official replied that there were.

"There were jets in the area, and we would see something shoot out, which followed out for a little bit, and it popped and exploded and more would come off of it, one would shoot out for maybe 30 or 40 feet, and then two or three more would come off of that."

"The one that dropped didn't come out of any plane," the witness cautioned, "that was really weird. The three lights in the triangle shape were travelling east, with the blinking light behind them, but that wasn't seen again."

A Hillsboro policeman greeted the witnesses, and was noted as behaving oddly. "He didn't want to give out any information whatsoever. I talked to a guy who works at Airborne, and he was monitoring the traffic on their high-band radio, and he said there were many calls. The cop was very tight lipped, though. The cop told us at first that it was flight simulating during night practice that they do once in awhile, and then he left, and came back a few minutes later and said "we're not sure what it is yet" and he left again, he didn't really want to give any information out whatsoever.

When asked for more specific details of the falling object, the witness added, "this was a potential fire hazard, no doubt about it. There was three separate lights, with a red blinking light in the back. It seemed like it was four separate aircraft, possibly, but it could have been one. One of the lights did come from the formation and dropped to the ground, after I noticed it for 30 to 40 seconds. The other lights kept going toward Rocky Fork Lake after the one dropped. These lights were visible for about 1 1/2 minutes."

"There were three lights in a close triangular formation with a blinking light in the rear. They were moving at average speed across the sky, from west to east at a steady pace. Then the one on the right side dropped, hit the ground and came back up straight into the air into the same part of the sky where it came from, then it started heading north in an arcing motion real quick. We heard alot about it all night long from people who were calling the department saying they saw these lights."

COMMENT:

The testimony of New Vienna fire official is a pivotal element which forces a re-evaluation of the flare theory which had been previously advanced.

However, to his observational credit, The fire and E.M.S. worker did acknowledge that flares were seen being shot from overflying airplanes. What complicates the matter would be the testimony of an object hitting the ground and launching back into the air, only to then make a rapid course change to the north.

The A.N.G. Sergeant specified: "These exercizes are no big problem because the flares don't hit the ground."

However, as noted above, the words of the A.N.G. Sergeant are obviously in question due to the testimony of the E.M.S. worker.

The first-hand comments from the E.M.S. worker bolsters some second-hand comments from a resident of Maysville, Kentucky, who videotaped the flare-like objects from his home. This individual, interviewed at length by yours truly, is a personal acquaintance with another witness, who doesn't have a phone, but lives about 5 miles away. This witness observed 3 flare-like objects that were hovering stationary near his home, and the objects were sighted in front of a mountain range. Strangely, a fourth flare-like object 'emerged from the ground' and 'lifted upward' to hover near the other three, then they all went out at once. The area the object appeared from was an open field located in PLUMVILLE, Kentucky, which is five miles east of Maysville. The field was vacant, and the witness owns the property, and added that nobody could have been there shooting off fireworks.

This unverified account seems to have been given more weight by the testimony of the E.M.S. worker from New Vienna, Ohio, even if soft detail that is not firmly established.

The comments made by the Mayor's wife were intruiging, and the nature of the helicopter activity is unclear. She stated that the helicopters were 'circling' over Route 28. Here are a few observations regarding this:

1. Could the helicopters have been searching for the object which hit the ground? Could they have been looking for any markings on the ground where the object hit?

2. Where did the helicopters originate? The Sergeant at Springfield A.N.G. advised that all aircraft operating in the BUCKEYE M.O.A. were catalogued, and furthermore provided a list of all aircraft used. None were helicopters. Consider also that the helicopters were present around 2 hours after the sightings.

3. It was learned that a CINCINNATI ENQUIRER reporter contacted WRIGHT- PATTERSON Air Force Base after receiving phone calls about the aerial disruption. Wright Pat reportedly denied having any knowledge of the events. Could it be that Wright-Pat, unaware of the training maneuvers from Springfield, sent out helicopters looking for the cause of the sightings? Could the helicopters be in the area looking for UFOs? If so, what agency other than Wright Pat could be responsible for their operations?

4. Would the helicopters have been used in conjunction with any drones or remote equipment in association with the earlier flare testing? If so, we have no witnesses who stated that there were helicopters in the air while the jets were flying overhead.

5. The Clinton County Sheriff's Department advised (telephone conversation with dispatcher, March 27) that the incident from the previous night had been explainable as 'a couple of helicopters.' This explanation was perceived... at the time... to be a ruse by the dispatcher so as not to handle a UFO inquiry. Did they also have knowledge of the helicopters which were present later that evening, and did they also associated these helicopters with the activity sited earlier by so many?

Although it was previously held that the MARCH 26th UFO event witnessed by thousands over Southern Ohio was explainable, we cannot now maintain such a stand without complete review of witness statements that contradict the attempted explanation.

The March 26th event over Southern Ohio is under serious investigative inquiry, and our findings will be advanced when sufficient research has been conducted.

Prepared by:
KENNY YOUNG