A pilot’s view of UFOs

Oh, for the big hubbub and uproar of President Trump releasing the classified documents of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs). People with long-term access to those files are now reported as mysteriously disappearing. We see all sorts of “experts” getting on TV to relate what they know but can’t explain to the viewers.

Your old columnist has been flying as a pilot for 73 years now and has accumulated some 14,000 hours logged flying time. I’ve flown many different light aircraft and larger ones up to the KC-135 with a takeoff weight of 300,000 pounds. That includes some 1500 hours flying the KC-97, a follow-on version of the B-29.

The flight has been from ground level to 48,000 feet. In all that time, I personally have never experienced sighting anything that could not be explained as an unnatural phenomenon. Yes, I’ve seen fast-moving shapes on the clouds below and above me, but those were shadows of my or an accompanying aircraft. Many times at night, I’ve enjoyed watching patterns of electrostatic discharges flashing across my windowpanes. Beautiful! One time in the predawn darkness, after takeoff from Okinawa, we were struck by lightning on our nosecone, which caused a ball of lightning to enter the cockpit, between us two pilots, and travel down the entire fuselage before exiting through the aft bulkhead and out the rear of our fuselage. There is a fuel tank located there, containing over a ton of jet fuel, but due to altitude and cold temperatures, it wasn’t explosive. Still nothing like reported by other pilots as a UFO.

Personally, I think that those who report sighting a UFO are just making something up to draw attention to themselves. There are all too many positions in the Pentagon that are occupied by personnel who have no real job, so they just make up all sorts of phenomena that can’t be explained, so that they get paid for producing nothing meaningful. They then mark their made-up dreams as classified, so not many others (their bosses) can argue with them. Now that President Trump has declassified those fictitious reports and released them to the public, we see those impostors leaving and making it look like they are being persecuted mysteriously. It is kind of like all those experts before the Wright Brothers who objected strongly to prove that heavier-than-air flight by man was impossible.

Sadly, our community has lost Jerry Gohl. Jerry started with making what he called a GoLight, which was mounted on top of a rancher’s pickup and aimed with a remote control. The light helped the user to attend to a cow giving birth. A natural entrepreneur, Jerry expanded his company, employing a number of locals, and somehow got into manufacturing devices used by our military. Most are classified, but I have used night vision goggles that may have been manufactured right here near Culbertson. That is a guess on my part. The contracts must have been lucrative because Jerry was able to purchase a new, large version of a King Air, turboprop aircraft and hire a capable pilot to be used in the business. A success in my view, and may he rest in peace.

This old guy has been blessed to watch great-grandsons participate in local baseball games. The three eldest are currently playing T-ball, mechanical pitch and in regular little league. I’ve been impressed by all the young adults who help coach and mentor each of the young players and make the games fun for our youth. No pay, just helping where they can. Our little league fields are kept immaculate, and the crowds that gather to watch are in large numbers and supportive in every way. Moms, grandmoms, dads, grandpas cheering in the stands and sitting in the shade in folding chairs that they carry in.

Our new youth fields will be interesting to watch with the variety of sports that can be played and cheered on by fans. Being of artificial turf, things might be a little hotter in the Nebraska sun for the players and for awhile no shade for the fans, well, things will be a bit different. I am sure we all will be able to adjust. Hopefully, our current little league fields will continue to be kept up and used. Just my thoughts.

Touring out a bit, I drove by our current Cornhusker Clink and noted that the parking lot was filled with what are the cars of those employed there. Those large numbers have to have a good impact on our community. Thankfully, we are not having the large numbers of demonstrators displaying their nastiness in New Jersey that we are seeing on television.

That is how I saw it.