I have seen some strange things in the sky at night while camping out.

Has anybody else observed things that they couldn't identify, while camping, hiking, etc? Day or nighttime?

Looking around for the weird, strange, & unusual; as well as listening to Coast to Coast AM are parts of my camping evening entertainment.

Define strange.

I've seen some odd stuff, probably the oddest was what could only have been the exhaust of an F-117 (only thing shaped like that around the back of the engine). Not super odd, except this was over VERMONT! Nothing up here for them though.

Add into that a couple really cool coloured meteors (green, red), a meteor that bounced off something (had a nearly 90 degree turn in it's trail), amazingly bright auroras, general oddities that are probably (HOPEFULLY) just optical illusions. In flight refueling- thought I was watching a mid air at first, watching the lights. And bats courting under a full moon, that was amazing.

Stangest and scariest thing I've ever heard- racoon love. Wow, sounded like someone being murdered with a sausage grinder or something. I think I spend the next hour clinging to a cloud, refusing to come down and play with the psycho killer, the first time I heard it.

Why, what have you seen Wildman? I'm a big believer in UFOs, particularly the Unidentified part. I know what I don't want them to be, I don't think we're ready for that yet as a society. But I also accept that there is a small number of sightings that can't be given a logical explanation. *shudders*

I've seen the "phantom tidal wave" 3 times on RADAR, in the Bahamas; (2 of us)

A "flying pipe" w/multiple decks flying sideways, like a wing, that I and others estimated to be approx 500 feet long, in the Bahamas, (7 of us)

Strange lights (many versions) in night skies that don't conform to standard aircraft requirements; This started in 1965 (7 of us) and goes in 3 year cycles,

Auroras up north (1987-1990) and in Texas (last year);

Heard some strange cries in the dark night (maybe raccoon love),

Watched fighter aircaft try to engage "some things" offshore from Jacksonville, Fl, with air to air missies, (2 of us)

A mothership (similar to the Phoenix lights) and smaller craft (strobe lights) get chased off by a fighter in Arkansas, to name a few, (3 of us)

A few dead relatives and old friends come to visit every once in a while, mostly before a serious "problem" arises.

3 Subsurface-surface missiles launched at us in the Bahamas one morning. (6 of us),

A Russian satellite breaking up and burning upon reentry, at night (6 of us)

There was a shuttle launch last night - maybe you saw it in orbit.

I listen to coast to coast too.It's a great show,kept me up many of nights. I've never seen anything strange in the outdoors, but i have indoors...

Being from CA, I have seen a lot of light shows caused by missle launches from Vandenburg AFB. One, a huge green cloud in the skies, was shaped just like Mickey Mouse's head.

I also saw stars once when a guy sucker punched me, but I don't think that is what you are talking about...

I guess I've seen a few things in the sky at night that were "unidentifiable". I can;t articulate them though.

I saw lightening strike an object within 150 yards of me....twice. Once I watched, heard, and felt it strike a large rock just off the side of the highway in Capitan, NM. I mean: I saw the bolt strike the rock! If I had to describe the sound I might be tempted to say it sounded like a 30-06 going off within a few feet of someone, yet without the extended or lingering crack of a rifle as the bullet travels away. It scared the hell out of my friend and I.

Once I saw lightening strike the headlight of a car on I-20 west of Midland, Texas. I was eastbound and the "victim" was westbound....probably less than 100 feet away. It was a late summer afternoon...no evening, but still light. I swear to this day that the car stopped for a millisecond, then continued. Yes, yes I know. The car is grounded by its tires. I saw and heard this happen. This one I didn;t "feel" though. My window was down and there were no obstructions in the way. It was eerie.

Ok. I find all of the others believeable. This, however, just denies the others.

Ok ... maybe not believeable, but plausible considering what i have seen.

Pine trees "attacking" a fence-line of a property I was watching. Sleep deprivation really DOES cause hallucinations.

Lightening hitting the water 200 yards off the stbd bow while I was holding onto metal windshield supports,,I felt electricity go through every joint in my body,

Swimming in the Yucatan Passage and hearing an M-16 (automatic) followed by the shout, "SHARK"!!!

I'm curious how you knew it was a Russian satellite?

This is a little off topic, but what the heck. Does a United Airlines 727 almost landing at a little bitty Army Airfield, with only a 5000 ft runway, by mistake one night count???

Standing on the dam of lake Buchanan in Texas looking to the south west and saw a large globe of light that looked like it exploded with a lot of light but no sound. I think it was ball lighting.

I'm going to hazard a guess or three:
- by the markings on the exterior, well lighted enough by the flames to read
- by the late-night reporting by Pravda
- by the counter-clockwise rotation after entering the atmosphere (indicative of eastern-bloc technology)
- by guessing

(Sorry Wildman...I couldn;t resist)

Depending on when that was Ray, could it have been the re-entering of the space shuttle? Several years ago, two different friends in Texas hill country said they saw the shuttle re-enter the atmosphere. I suppose maybe people could see it from most of the continent, but I only heard those two reports. They both said it was the most incredible "night sky" sighting they'd ever seen.

Or it could be that Wildman800 and his buddies had a similar experience to this man parking his car at the local supermarket

Oh yeah, it counts. An Identified Grounded Object!

Not really a ground object, at least not for long. He just made a touch and go when he realized that this little airfield, with only one person on duty (me), was about ten air miles from the large airport he was supposed to land at. Kinda made me think twice about flying United...

If I PM my phone number, could you let me know when you relatives visit?

-phil

It was identified as such in the newspaper a couple of days later.

It actually looked to me like 3 ICBM's on their way to the South Atlantic.

That was in the summer of 1980 and we don't even want to talk about what I was up to in the Keys then, but it was completely legal.

Firing up the way back machine....

Wasn't thier work being done back then to use the Hawkeye to guide a sub-launched SAM to put better defense of for a carrier group? It's fuzzy, I read about it once a while back, but as I recall it was an encapsulated Standard or Sea Sparrow and it was supposed to use the E-2's radar for guidance. Problem was that even if you have a sub attached to your CVG, it's got other things to worry about and you've got a BarCap up for that purpose, but the Soviets supposedly played with something similar where it would be launched and engage ASW aircraft but their missiles weren't smart enough to find a target by themselves IIRC.

The Standard is a pretty good sized missile.

I don't know about the Navy's attempts to use Hawkeyes to provide guidance for SM2's but SM2's can be used in an anti-surface role as well as the anti-air defense role that they were designed for.

All USCG Cutters attached to US Navy Battle Groups will always be located closely astern of the Carriers, fulfilling their dedicated role as the primary Torpedo Interceptor Vehicle.

Now do you understand why us Coasties and Marines say to never trust the Navy.

SEMPER PARATUS and SEMPER FI!!!!!!!!!!

Isn't it amazing how the Navy needs the Coasties for all kinds of stuff (I spent three months recently watching subs going into and out of Bangor Sub base with USCG escort), yet they always talk down to/about the "puddle pirates"...

I don't think the Coasties get much peacetime...

From personal experience let me assure you that many of the personnel at the US Fish & Wildlife Service wear uniforms and are convinced they are at war.

1) The USCG has had the highest casualty percentage rate of all services in all of the wars up to Vietnam.

2) It was Coasties that invented the VD Innoculation Badge.

3) Popeye was a Coastie.

4)The USCG has always been highly successful in wartime because we never bothered to read and learn all of those Navy Tactical Manuals, so we always do what the enemy is not expecting.

5) The USCG is the 9th largest fleet in the world with the 3rd largest seagoing Air Force.

Well done. I have never seen or heard it put better...