"Operation Snowbird:" (so named because the 104th Fighter Squadron of the Maryland National Guard were winter visitors) was the military's (Air National Guard) explanation for the March 13, 1997 Pheonix Lights. There are those who believe the flare story is a lie, the military's attempt to cover up the truth. Others think flares were indeed dropped but only as a diversion so officials could explain what people saw that night. Witnesses claimed to have seen massive sized Boomerang or V-shape UFOs during the Pheonix Lights sightings.
Unsubstantiated claims that the code name Snowbird has a connection to secret UFO projects:
Project Blue Bolt : Sometimes called Project Bluebolt, this alleged Air Force effort is said to have involved anti-gravity research, but little information beyond the project's name is available. Project Blue Bolt is not to be confused with Project Blue Book, the Air Force study on UFOs. (7)
Project Moon Dust: Collect debris from foreign sources (UFO-related material/investigations) by the Air Force that was classified and carried out by specially trained intelligence team personnel (4602d AISS/1127th USAF Field Activities Group) starting in 1953 or 1957. Its code name was changed after being compromised in 1985. (2)
Project Rainbow: A rumored effort by the U.S. military during World War II to render a ship invisible, Project Rainbow is better known in connection with the "Philadelphia experiment," in which the U.S. Navy allegedly tried to "teleport" a warship from Philadelphia to Norfolk, Virginia. According to other elements of UFO lore, Project Rainbow later became involved with postwar U.S. experiments, in collaboration with German scientist, to study and test-fly extraterrestrial vehicles. Such reports of Project Rainbow must be considered, at best, wild rumor. (7)
Project Saint (Satellite Interceptor or Satellite Inspector): An early space defense system, would have used missle-launched interceptors to investigate and destroy enemy spacecraft. Project Saint was an early plan related to what would become Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). Project Saint and SDI both have been interpreted, though with no persuasive evidence for such a view, as possible responses to a percieved national security threat from UFOs. (7)
Colonel Philip J. Corso describes weapons incorporating alien technology, including advanced paticle-beam weapons. Among the early weapons systems developed for his purpose were 'Saint' and 'Blue Gemini', which were 'outgrowths of USAF 7795, a code number for he USAF's first satellite programme [which was] designed to locate, track, and destroy enemy surveillance satellites or, more importantly, orbiting UFOs...Both of these weapons, under the cover of other missions, of course, were eventually deployed, and today they form one of the lines of defense in an anti-missle and anti-UFO surveillance system. (13/p.424)
Project Second Storey:
The Canadian Government's second official UFO study project - Wilbert Smith confirmed that a number of fragments from UFOs had been recovered and analysed by his research group, including one that had been shot from a disc near Washington in July 1952. (13/p.174)
A Canadian-British-US developmental operation to produce a nonconventional flying-saucer-type aircraft, and Agency officials feared the Soviets were testing similar devices.
Developed by the Canadian affiliate of Britain's A. V. Roe, Ltd., Project Y did produce a small-scale model that hovered a few feet off the ground. See Odarenko, memorandum to Chadwell, "Flying Saucer Type of Planes" 25 May 1954; Frederic C. E. Oder, memorandum to Odarenko, "USAF Project Y," 21 May 1954; and Odarenko, T. M. Nordbeck, Ops/SI, and Sidney Graybeal, ASD/SI, memorandum for the record, "Intelligence Responsibilities for Non-Conventional Types of Air Vehicles," 14 June 1954.
Red Light: Rumored code name for the reconstruction and test flying of crashed UFOs, has operated at Area 51. (7)
"Santa Claus:" American astronauts reportedly have used the code expression "Santa Claus" to refer to sightings of UFOs during manned space missions. (7)
Notes: