"UFOs" seen near Gaylord
GAYLORD, MI
Gaylord Herald Times
By Jil Schult, Staff Writer Posted Saturday, May 5, 2007 12:20 AM EDT
LEWISTON — Claims of UFOs flying over Lewiston Wednesday night were quickly discredited by officials who said they were conducting military training.
Area resident Jeff Nickert, who called the Herald Times at approximately 5:30 a.m. Thursday, is not convinced.
“It kinda freaked me out,” said the Lewiston man in a telephone interview Thursday. “I never saw anything like this in my life.”
Nickert explained seeing “electricity floating through the air” or “a mass of energy floating through the air” when he returned home from work at approximately 10:30 p.m. Wednesday.
“There were four or five diamond-shaped UFOs,” Nickert said. “Then fighter jets — out of nowhere — there were 20 jets in the air.”
Predawn and through the day Thursday, Nickert contacted police, Camp Grayling, television news and newspapers to report his observations.
“There were a lot of (smart) remarks,” said Nickert, not convinced anyone was taking him too seriously.
Nickert contacted the National UFO Association, who he claims told him to fill out some forms on the Internet and not to talk to anyone.
“I’d like to find what was in sky,” he said.
Mike Boguth, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service (NWS) south of Gaylord, said there was nothing at all unusual weather-wise Wednesday night.
“I don’t know what people are seeing,” said Col. Tom Lamie of Camp Grayling who noted his personnel were doing nothing to produce any strange lights or anything else Wednesday or Thursday.
Maj. Andrew Roberts of the Grayling Aerial Gunnery Range, an extension of the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center, which is off Marlette Road near Waters, said fighter jets were in the sky Wednesday night from 8:40-11.
“Our area does extend within 10 miles of Lewiston,” said Roberts.
Nickert claims the action he witnessed in the sky lasted much longer. “Those jets were flying way after 11. It lasted ’til about 7:30 this morning,” he insisted.
His mother agrees.
According to Denise Nickert, who went outside several times Wednesday night, a lot of jets were swarming around these “masses of light with a kind of electricity floating through them and changing colors.
“They moved pretty swiftly, effortlessly,” said Denise Nickert.
Roberts said approximately seven aircraft were in and around the area from the Waters location to Alpena.
The practicing pilots use flares that have a heat signature to train for being shot at overseas, he explained. One of the primary weapons the enemy uses is shoulder-launched missiles, which seek the heat of the aircraft’s engines. Flare decoys are used so the missile doesn’t hit the aircraft.
“They were not flares,” said Denise Nickert. “I don’t know what they were, but they were not flares.”
She described how the masses would split in half several times and never dissipate. She said they were not northern lights and not stars.
“There was some real bizarre stuff going on,” she said, adding, “they were incredibly beautiful.”
Jeff Nickert said during his research on Thursday, the same things he described had been spotted in five other states during the last week. He did his research on mufon.com and nationalufocenter.com.
“Our jets were not fighting UFOs,” said Master Sgt. Alan VanPate of the Grayling Aerial Gunnery Range.
VanPate added the jets were flying at an altitude of anywhere between 23,000 feet to 500 feet at any given time.
