Code Name "DREAMLAND" (complete write thru _ reports of fires in arkansas)
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (UPI) _ A streaking object, probably a Soviet rocket body re-entering the atmosphere, left a fiery trail across the night sky Friday, and falling debris may have caused two fires in Arkansas, authorities said.
The object, which prompted thousands of calls in several states, entered the atmosphere across the central United States shortly after 7p.m. MST, going from southwest to northeast, officials at the North American Aerospace Defense Command said. There were reports from people in Texas, Missouri, Tennessee and Arkansas who had seen the flaming object.
"Our best estimation is that it was the re-entry of a Soviet rocket body associated with a launch that took place last year," said Commander Dugald Gillis, a NORAD spokesman. (Cover Story)
Authorities in rural northwestern Arkansas reported two mysterious fires possibly caused by the space debris, and some Washington County sheriff's deputies reported the object passed over their heads.
"We didn't locate any actual debris," said Sheriff's Sgt. James Cantrell, who did not see the object, but collected reports on it. "We had a couple of fires mysteriously started, but it being dark, we didn't locate anything. We'll probably go out tomorrow morning and look over the area."
Sheriff's officers and volunteer firefighters rushed to the fires to check out reports of a possible small plane crash in the rural area about 4 miles southwest of the town of West Fork, Cantrell said.
"Some of the deputies reported seeing it, so did some of the firemen and ambulance personnel. While they were standing around, this object went over," Cantrell said. Reports of the distance varied with some deputies and firefighters saying the burning object came as close as 200 yards and others saying it appeared to be a couple of miles above the ground.
"Everybody said it looked like a rocket and had a blue-green fire from the tail of it," Cantrell said of the 10 to 15 sightings reported to his department. "They could tell it was a rocket. They knew it wasn't a meteor or something. It had a cone or cigar shape."
The debris apparently started two small fires in the rural area,each about 100 square yards in size, Cantrell said. The nearest house was about a half-mile away.
In Texas, thousands of people telephoned radio and television stations after sighting the object flash across the northeastern sky. A control tower operator at a Dallas airport, Love Field, said a pilot sitting in his plane on the ground informed the tower he had seen the object and that it resembled a meteor fireball.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) is charged with the responsibility for the protection of the North American continent from air attack. This is done through continuous monitoring of the skies with sophisticated radar systems designed to detect any foreign objects in or approaching our airspace. When an unidentified aircraft is sighted by radar, NORAD attempts to communicate with it for
identification purposes. If this is not successful, it becomes
necessary to "scramble" interceptors to identify the craft visually. According to NORAD, this happens about fifteen times per month. Usually the aircraft are identified. Sometimes they are not identified. These reports would be classified as UFOs or, as NORAD terms them, "Uncorrelated Observations." Two types of uncorrelated observations have been noted in NORAD data. One type involves the atmospheric detection of unknown aerial objects, and the other involves the space detection of unknown orbiting objects.
Space observations are recorded by the NORAD Space Detection and Tracking System (SPADATS) and a Navy counterpart, the Naval Space Surveillance System (NAVSPASUR). These systems track and maintain element sets on approximately 5,000 man-made, catalogued objects in space. Approximately 25,000 observations are sent to the NORAD Space Defense Center each day from the sensor systems. Most of these observations are directly correlated to catalogued objects. The ones that are not correlated are not necessarily all genuine UFOs. A great
majority are either satellites too small to track or debris from
satellite break-ups.
Estimates vary, but several hundred catalogued objects are orbiting the earth at present. These objects and the continuous need to update the element sets of catalogued objects due to natural phenomena are the largest contributors of uncorrelated observations. A certain percentage are never correlated with known objects and can literally be called
unidentified flying objects or, in this case, "unidentified orbiting objects."
According to NORAD, between SPADATS and NAVSPASUR approximately ten million uncorrelated observations have been collected over the last twenty years. If we were to take the usual estimates of the percentage of true unknowns from all UFO reports sent to various sources (ninety five percent, give or take a few percent), we are left with roughly five percent being UFOs. This agrees well with the government's figures.
ADDITIONAL VERIFICATION THAT NORAD HAS MONITORED UFOS.
November 7, 1975 at Malmstrom Air Force Base. UFO penetrates missile silo....It began to rise, and at about 1,000 feet, NORAD picked up the UFO on radar. Two F-106 jet interceptors were launched from Great Falls, Montana, and headed toward the K-7 area. The UFO continued to rise. At about 200,000 feet, it disappeared from NORAD's radar.
AND
...An additional bit of information surfaced later. In a National Military Command Center "Memorandum for Record" dated November 8, 1975, 6 a.m. EST, the following statement appeared in reference to Malmstrom: At 405 EST, SAC Site L-5 observed one object accelerate, and climb rapidly to a point in altitude where it became indistinguishable from the stars. NORAD will carry this incident as a FADE remaining UNKNOWN at 320 EST since after that time only visual sightings occurred.
During October and November 1975, several major Air Force bases were easily penetrated by UFOs. Through a leak by a Pentagon source, enough specific data was learned about the incidents to demand and receive edited government documents about them via the Freedom of Information Act. The reader will note the sometime use of the terms unidentified, helicopters, aircraft, and targets by the reporting Air Force bases. It's quite apparent that such terminology was the product of ignorance concerning the objects' identity. In reality, the USAF was dealing with the unknown! The following summaries are directly
from the logs of NORAD which I have on file.
9 October/0630Z: Command Director called by Air Force Operations Center concerning an unknown helicopter landing in the munitions storage area at Loring Air Force Base, Maine. Apparently this was the second night in a row for the occurrence. There was also an indication, but not confirmed, that Canadian bases had been overflown by a helicopter.
31 October/0445Z: Report from Wurtsmith Air Force Base through Ops Center--incident at 0355Z. Helicopter hovered over SAC Weapons storage area, then departed area. Tanker flying at 2,700 feet made both visual sighting and radar skin paint. Tracked object 35 nautical miles southeast over Lake Huron where contact was lost.
01 November/0920Z: Received as info message from Loring Air Force Base, Maine, citing probable helicopter overflight of base.
08 November/0753Z: 24th NORAD Region unknown track J330, heading SSW, 12,000 feet. 1 to 7 objects, 46.46N 109.23W.
Two F-106 scrambled out of Great Falls at 0745Z . SAC reported visual sighting from Sabotage Alert Teams (SAT) K1, K3, L1 and L6 (lights and jet sounds). Weather section states no anomalous propagation or northern lights. 0853Z SAC SAT Teams K3 and L4 report target at 300 feet altitude and L4 reports target at 5 miles. Contact lost at 0820Z.
F-106s returned to base at 0850Z with negative results.
0905Z Great Falls radar search and height had intermittent contact.
0910Z SAC teams again had visual (Site C-1, 10 miles SE Stanford, Montana).
0920Z SAC CP reported that when F-106s were in area, targets would turn out lights, and when F-106s left, targets would turn lights on...This same type of activity has been reported in the Malmstrom area for several days....The track will be carried as a remaining unknown.
All of these Air Force bases belonged to the Strategic Air Command (SAC). The Malmstrom and Grand Forks bases house Minuteman missile sites. K1, K3, L1, etc., are missile locations. These visitations become more intriguing as we now turn to the 24th NORAD Region senior director's log(Malmstrom AFB, Montana).
07 November/1035Z: Received a call from the 341st Strategic Air Command Post (SAC CP) saying that the following missile locations reported seeing a large red to orange to yellow object: M1, L-3, LIMA and L-6. The general object location would be 10 miles south of Moore, Montana, and 20 miles east of Buffalo, Montana. Commander and Deputy for Operations (DO) informed.
07 November/1203Z: SAC advised that the Launch Control Facility at Harlowton, Montana, observed an object which emitted a light which illuminated the site driveway.
07 November/1319Z: SAC advised K-1 says very bright object to their east is now southeast of them and they are looking at it with 10 x 50 binoculars. Object seems to have lights (several) on it, but no distinct pattern. The orange/gold object overhead also has small lights on it. SAC also advises female civilian reports having seen an object bearing south from her position six miles west of Lewistown.
07 November/1327Z: L-1 reports that the object to their northeast seems to be issuing a black object from it, tubular in shape. In all this time, surveillance has not been able to detect any sort of track except for known traffic.
08 November/0635Z: A security camper team at K-4 reported a UFO with white lights, one red light 50 yeards behind white light. Personnel at K-1 seeing same object.
08 November/0645Z: Height personnel picked up objects 10-13,000 feet...Objects as many as seven.
08 November/0753Z: Unknown...Stationary/seven knots/12,000...Two F-106...notified.
08 November/0820Z: Lost radar contact, fighters broken off.
08 November/0905Z: L-sites had fighters and objects (in view); fighters did not get down to objects.
08 November/0915Z: From SAC Command Post: From four different points: Observed objects and fighters; When fighters arrived in the area, the lights went out; when fighters departed, the lights came back on.
09 November/0305Z: SAC Command Post called and advised SAC crews at Sites L-1, L-6 and M-1 observing UFO. Object yellowish bright around light 20 miles north of Harlowton, 2 to 4,000 feet.
10 November/1125Z: UFO sighting reported by Minot Air Force Station ...moving east, about the size of a car...the object passed over the radar station, 1,000 feet to 2,000 feet high, no noise heard. Three people from the site or local area saw the object.
The above excerpts from official Air Force logs. The Air Force also refused to declassify some of the documents requested, saying that the contents of such were "exempt from disclosure" under the FOIA. Under TOP SECRET and encoded is what else happened at these SAC bases on those eventful nights?
Authorized by: Col. [BLACKED OUT], USAF
Lt. Col. H.G. Bennett, USAF
Code clearance "Majic Q"
4 01-20-89 11:42pse