(New Picture Coming Soon)
SURF'S UP (May 1997)
by Jerry Washington
The ongoing saga of the Ovnis over Phoenix, AZ., is again, this month's Surf's Up cover story. At the risk of becoming redundant, the story continues to evolve and mutate, involving the Phoenix city council this time around.
According to reports posted to updates@globalserve.net, a local (Phoenix) city official asked Air Force officials for an explanation about the so-called "Phoenix lights" seen over the Valley of the Sun and other parts of Arizona recently. Meanwhile, a computer lab wizard had a team of guys working on a computer model of the sightings. The information gathered from at least six different video cameras was used to triangulate the size and movements of the objects. This analysis was then released to the press, including the TV shows Hard Copy, Special Edition, and to several television networks around the Western Hemisphere and South America.
On Wednesday, May 14, several officers from Luke Air Force Base, officials from the FAA and members of the city council all gathered at the offices of the scientist. The officials cleared the room and seemed very upset about the computer animation being released to the media and hinted (more than hinted, really) at national security issues. They also demanded to know how the computer model was made.
There was also a meeting that day at the Village Labs in Tempe, AZ. Present at this meeting was only one city council member, Frances Barwood, who asked the city investigate the Phoenix sightings. Also present was her husband and a man named Mike Johnson, an electro-optical engineer. Earlier that day, two Air Traffic controllers were interviewed by the people from EXTRA (TV), but no officers from Luke or other city council members were present. This according to Bill Hamilton, Executive Director of SKYWATCH INTERNATIONAL (http://www.wic.net/colonel/ufopage.htm) who was present along with his wife, and Tom King (AZ. SKYWATCH S.D.),the guy most responsible for investigating this story.
Richard Motzer, who was also present at the Village Labs meeting, presented his findings that the lights on the night of 3-13-97 were actually flares over and behind the nearby Estrella Mountains and not over the City of Phoenix. A finding eliciting the following response from Bill Hamilton:
"I was present at Village Labs…and was an eyewitness to the lights seen near the Estrella Mountains. Since we could see the lights in front of the mountains and below the peaks (around 4,500 ft.) and you could prove this from the video, and since the lights were not suspended from any parachutes, emitted no sparks or smoke as usual with flares, and were in a stationary position for more than 4 minutes, and did not illuminate the terrain, the conclusion of experts is that those were NOT FLARES, I concur with the experts. I have seen flares on many occasions over military operation areas (MOAs) and they always drifted or emitted smoke and sparks…All sightings from 3-13-97 over the Valley of the Sun in Arizona to this date remain in the "unknown" category."
This inspired UFO researcher, John Velez (jvif@spacelab.net) to write, as well: "I have copies of video taken from several, different vantage points that clearly show this 'open V formation' of objects hovering at low altitude directly over downtown Phoenix. Many are still waiting for and explanation for that one. I'm also curious why there has been practically no mention of these events anywhere in the national media. According to military sources at Luke AFB (contacted by several news operations), no flights, maneuvers or tests of any kind (including 'flares') had taken place over Phoenix on the night in question. During the event (the mass sightings of the 'open V formation' over Phoenix) a pilot radioed the tower at Phoenix airport reporting that one of the objects was passing directly over him and in fairly close proximity. The tower personnel (according to two local Phoenix newscasts) reported back to the pilot that nothing except for the reporting aircraft showed on their radar in the pilots' immediate vicinity! Has anyone from MUFON spoken to either the pilot or the tower personnel on duty that night?
This is important testimony because they are competent professional witnesses and the lack of a blip on radar is significant. Is any work being formally done by MUFON AZ to investigate these reports on behalf of the rest of us who can't be there to do it ourselves?"
I'm surprised that you didn't mention all the other material that's available, and a lot harder to explain. The numerous close-up daylight sightings that have been recorded in Phoenix have yet to be properly studied or explained. 'Flares' may account for the nighttime sighting of the 13th, but the formidable and compelling daylight-video material has yet to be addressed [italics mine]. And all of that cannot be dismissed because one night's footage may have been 'flares'. This has to be stated clearly in order not to mislead people that all of the Phoenix sightings are so easily explainable.
Some of those things are 'somebody else' aircraft. Whether that somebody else is our own military (which I doubt because it doesn't make sense for them to test secret aircraft right over the heart of downtown Phoenix) or, these things are from someplace else. Either way, it's a can't ignore situation. I'm sure we agree on that point..."
Yessir John, we do. Objectivity be damned. I've seen the videos and common sense demands that 6 lights as bright as spotlights, hovering motionlessly and silently in the sky for up to an hour ain't military flares, Blue Angel aircraft, horny badgers, seed pods, swamp gas, bolides, Superman, the Heavenly Host or any of the other bullshit explanations advanced by spineless and unimaginative fools who can't deal with the untidy reality that we ain't really numero uno on the galactic foodchain, after all; folks like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, charter members of the modern day Inquisition, and the anal-retentive Bozos in the Pentagon. One of these days we'll all be dancing on their graves along with our uninvited guests. You know the ones…the creepy little gray ones with the big black eyes…
