Nightstalkers and Black Helicopters

The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) aka Night Stalkers or Task Force 160 and have been mentioned in a couple recent episodes of UFO Hunters on The History Channel. Besides some possible UFO connections these guys may also be responsible for many of the "black helicopter" reports out there.

Started back in 1980 after the hostage rescue failure in Iran, these guys specialize in night flying (explains the black paint jobs on their helicopters) at low altitudes. They are also trained to move in and get out quickly and were involved in some recent historical military missions, including the incident Blackhawk Down was about.

According to the Wikipedia page on these boys (the only women are staff) they fly three different helicopters and their variants, including the CH/MH-47 Chinook, MH-60 Blackhawk, and AH/MH-6 Little Bird. However besides looking good in black paint jobs, these guys may, as already mentioned, have connections to a couple UFO incidents that were covered on UFO Hunters.

The first incident is a famous and mysterious case involving 3 eye witnesses who saw a mysterious diamond shaped craft in the middle of a Texas highway. As they were watching the craft a group of large helicopters (possibly CH-47 Chinooks) surrounded the object and apparently escorted it from the area. All witnesses later began to experience what doctors could only diagnose as radiation sickness. The case is now known as the Cash-Landrum (Wikipedia and Tinwiki) incident (named after the witnesses) and is one of the most mysterious in UFO history. It's also worthy to note that this incident occured in 1980, when the Night Stalkers were first formed. Whether or not the helicopters seen where from the Night Stalkers is not known for sure.

The other incident involves a crash of a mysterious object in Needles California on March 14th, 2008. Initially it appeared it was a meteorite, but shortly after the crash not only were black military helicopters seen (retrieving the object none the less) in the area, but planes that fly people to Area 51 were present at a nearby airport in Laughlin. So not only do we have the Area 51 connection, but also black helicopters which are possibly part of Task Force 160 (as mentioned in UFO Hunters) which has a battalion based north of California in Fort Lewis Washington. Interesting if I do say so myself...wonder what they recovered...

Anyways, for those who haven't checked it out, I highly recommend catching UFO Hunters on The History Channel which is quite possibly the best UFO show out there. Also here is some reading material I dug up on the Needles Crash:
UFO Crash and Retrieval at Needles California - About.com
Did a UFO Crash in Needles California Earlier this Summer? - Alien Seeker News

New Post at UFO Mag Blog

Some Thoughts and Facts About the UFO Phenomenon

The Tyrant Lizard King of the Dinosaurs Lives?

Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex) , the Tyrant Lizard King has long been thought of as the most terrifying dinosaur to ever roam the planet. Bipedal, 13ft tall (at the hips), 42ft in length, possessing a mouth full of teeth as long as 12 inches, and built like a classic theropod, it's no wonder his discoverers thought him a king.

T. rex Skull

T. rex's reputation has wavered little even with the discovery of fellow theropods larger then the King, such as Giganotosaurus and Spinosaurus, although the latter's size is still up for debate. Even with larger rivals old Rexy is still regarded as the King of the dinosaurs amongst many, and it's a reputation well played out in movies such as Jurassic Park.

Oddly despite being seemingly designed for to be a dinosaur hunting machine, some paleontologists believe T. rex may have been nothing more then a scavenger, much like todays vultures, only on the ground with big...really big...um...teeth...Ok let's admit it, there is no way he was just strictly a scavenger. Odds are that like most predatory animals T. rex was an opportunistic hunter. That means that pretty much he would hunt for food, but if he found a fresh corpse or a weaker predators kill (even fellow Rexes probably) he wouldn't pass up the opportunity for an easy meal.

Now Tyrannosaurus had other family members running around the world before and during his reign. These family members have been given the convenient name of Tyrannosauridae and they ranged over both North America and Asia. However in the last century an interesting report came out of Africa. It seems that in 1932 a man named John Johnson had a strange encounter in the Kasai Valley of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo while hunting.

Mr. Johnson claimed that as he was about to shoot a rhinoceros when a 42ft long reptile burst out of the trees and killed John Johnson's would be trophy. His servant ran for his life while Mr. Johnson promptly fainted (If you believe that T. rex's vision is based on movement like in Jurassic Park, it might work. However that bit of the movie was fictional...sorry to disappoint) only to come to later and see the creature chowing down on the rhino. John described the beast as looking like a Tyrannosaurus, as you probably already knew by now, which has since been labeled Kasai rex.

The problem however is this; Tyrannosaurs (or Tyrannosauridae) did not roam Africa, or at least there is no fossil evidence that they did. Adding to this is the fact that there is absolutely no evidence of the creatures existence other then this account and a newspaper article describing a virtually similar incident without a name for the witness. There are also apparently two photos of said beast floating around out there, however one shows nothing more then a picture of a monitor lizard pasted onto a jungle scene and the other that supposedly shows a T. rex eating a rhino doesn't seem to exist other then in a fake and copyrighted form.

The one in the second photo looks much like this one from an old movie.
It's posture is incorrect though. In fact T. rex stood much like the one in Jurassic Park.

If you don't want to dismiss Kasai rex as nothing more then some hunters telling tall tales, you can assume that perhaps it was indeed an African dwelling theropod not related to Tyrannosaurus, such as Cacharodontosaurus who was native at least to North Africa, and as large, if not larger then the King. Like all rumored surviving dinosaurs (excluding birds of course) it is doubtful that it exists at all, but as many like to say Africa would be one of the best places for one to survive if one did.

Sources and Further Reading:
Kasai Rex - Wikipedia
Kasai Rex - Some geocities site about why it's a hoax
Kasai Rex - True Authority (seems them creationists try and tote it around as evidence that they are right.)
Tyrannosaurus - Wikipedia

My thoughts on the "Wichita UFO"

Well the latest UFO photo to create a buzz (ok a small one so far) on the web is this guy:


The person who captured the image says that it was it came out of the clouds and moved faster then any aircraft (including F-16s, etc...) he has ever seen and left a pinkish glow for a short time. After sending it to UFO Digest (which helped earn it national attention), people are beginning to say that it is undoubtedly a secret military aircraft, or a B-2 Spirit bomber carrying a secret drone craft piggyback style, much like the SR-71 decades ago.

Sr-71 with drone

Now one of the things I hate the most is debunking a UFO photo, especially one that so many people are convinced is a secret aircraft. The other thing I hate about it is that it makes me feel like I don't believe in UFOs, when I sincerely do and know that some of the things I've have seen are not man made, or at least not normal. However I really, really have to call this one out. Why? Well what I see here is almost clearly and I mean clearly......................................a bird....

What makes me say that? Well first off, it's almost a perfect profile of a bird in flight. Secondly, notice the background is quite decently in focus leaving any objects in the foreground, out of focus, not to mention providing us with some sense of perspective. Now that object that is claimed to be a secret aircraft is quite clearly in the foreground. So if that is indeed a B-2 Spirit carrying a drone, it is a rather small B-2 Spirit carrying a drone. That to me leaves only one possibility and that is that this is a photo of a bird, banking slightly in the foreground.

Here is a close up of the object in the photo:


Here is a close up with my attempt at trying to highlight the obvious bird features (which I think are pretty obvious highlighted or not):


And now, for comparison, here is a smaller section of the Wichita photo and a small pic showing a bird in flight from a similar (not banking) angle:










By no means am I a professional photographer, nor do I have much experience in analyzing photos, but I have had some photography classes in the past and based on my knowledge from those classes, I am confident that that is indeed a bird...and if you read farther on the UFO Digest link, I'm not the only one who sees it.

Oh, and if this object was moving at a fast rate of speed like it is claimed, and if the photographer did indeed have a slow lens like he claims in the news article I've linked to below, then there is a slight lack of motion blur...

Ok...I'm spent...and tired of feeling like one of them debunkers...eww...I feel dirty for even feeling like one of them...

Sources and Further Reading:
Weird Object in Wichita - UFO Digest
Wichita UFO report draws wide attention - Kansas City Star

Lockheed's Secret Airship

Today I picked up the most recent issue of Popular Mechanics due to the three big letters on the cover that said "UFO". Not only did I find one of the worst attempts at debunking the Stephenville UFO ever, but in the same article they had a picture of one of Lockheed's most recent Skunk Works projects: The P-791 Airship.

This is one weird looking bugger, and huge! It's a hybrid airship, or simply a blimp that combines both traits of lighter then air craft and fixed wing aircraft or helicopters. From the side, it appears to be a normal blimp, but it's when you see it head on that it gets funky, and you see how large it is. Heck, I could even see people looking at this thing from the bottom mistaking it for an extra-terrestrial spaceship, however that does not mean that it accounts for all UFO sightings by the way, just that it would be one to anyone unaware of it's existence.



Speaking of being unaware of the existence of aircraft, there are rumors floating around the UFO and conspiracy communities that the military has some black projects using similar airships. These airships are a possible explanation for some of the commonly seen black triangle UFOs which have been reported over the last couple of decades.

As for the debunking of the Stephenville UFO, well the article tried to convince the reader that despite the fact that FAA radar data showed a large unknown object (capable of accelerating from about 49-60 miles per hour to 500 plus mph in under 30 seconds. I doubt even that fancy airship above can do that.), the sighting was nothing, but people mistaking military aircraft lights for a large unknown object. And the whole large object on radar? Radar error, or so the article tried claiming (no back up other then what the was read in a radar study down in 1997)...yeah and my name is Buddy Holly...

Sources and Further Reading:
P-791 - Wikipedia
Lockheed Martin's Secretly Build Airship Makes First Flight - Aviation Week

Magazine Info:
Patton, Phil. "Something in the Sky." Popular Mechanics March 2009: 54-66.

They Return: More Phoenix Lights?

It seems that the Phoenix Lights have made yet another appearance. This time they aren't nearly as dramatic as they were back in March of 1997 nor has anyone come forward admitting to hoaxing these lights (flares attached to balloons...looks like someone read up on the old glow stick and balloon trick used by some on Halloween to make ghosts) as with the last Phoenix Lights report made last year.In my humble amateur opinion I must say that indeed these lights are interesting, but if I were to make a guess just by looking at them, I'd go with either normal aircraft or military flares (yeah I know, but these look a lot more like flares then the original 1997 incident, which I believe was not flares by the way: real flares don't hover like that in one spot, nor in a steady curved line...well more on that farther down...) which I saw numerous times in Colorado when I was growing up. Happens when you're sandwiched between both a US Army base and Air Force base. Anyways the point is that this time around they do to me at least, resemble flares. However if the military doesn't launch or drop flares near that particular area...well umm...I'm stumped.

As for the original incident, I think it is one of the most pivotal moments in UFO history, and unfortunately I think to many people have accepted the military's rather lousy cover up story.

I said earlier, flares do not behave that way or last that long...and if you don't believe me, I suggest you check out the UFO Hunters episode on it, which does an excellent job of proving that point.

Also if it was indeed military exercises, then why were the flares visible where they shouldn't have been? From what I understand the practice range they were supposedly at was not close enough for their flares to even be seen. If it was close enough to see there it would be a frequent occurrence and something Phoenicians (residents or former residents of Phoenix, like myself. Makes us sound ancient doesn't it?) would have been used to.

Interestingly after the original occurrence in March 1997, the then Governor of Arizona, Fife Symington III, and his comrades in the Arizona government at this time made a mockery of the event. He went as far claiming that they caught the culprit and proceeded to bring out one of his aides dressed as an alien, during a press conference. Now jump forward 10 years to 2007 and suddenly Mr. Symington claims that he actually witnessed the lights, but didn't want to come forward at the original time of the incident. I wonder if those within the government have to fear the men in black?

Anyways as of this moment the whole orignal incident is still surrounded in controversy and with all things of this matter, it will probably remain that way. Excepting the possibility that the government may finally come clean on the subject...yeah I think that's doubtful...I was putting some hope into President Obama possibly being the one to intiate this, but then I saw this bit of info, with a link that included this video:



Honestly I hope that video is not real, because if it is, it's rather depressing...