My writing, especially my novels, revolve around unexplained phenomena because I am largely interested in studying it and hearing theories. So, of course with all that has been in the news lately, I wanted to gather some information and the below article is the result.
What is the Meaning of North America’s UAP/UFO Sightings?
© 2023 Carolyn Fenzl
In the last week, the U.S. military has shot down four skyborne objects and only one of them has been identified with any certainty as manmade. An unnamed official claimed that radar capabilities have improved and, because of the spy balloon there is enhanced scrutiny, and that is why we are aware of more flying objects. But does that explain what is going on right now?
Recent History
U.S. officials have said that the objects, which were not all flying at the same height or following the same path, did not necessarily resemble one another.
February 4: An object positively identified as a Chinese reconnaissance vessel was recovered off the coast of South Carolina after the U.S. Military shot it down with a missile.
February 9: The Pentagon sees a small object described as cylindrical, silver-ish gray, and that, unlike a balloon, seemed to be floating or flying without any propulsion, over Alaska. They send fighter jets up to identify it, and the next day they shoot it down. Our officials claim to have no information about where it came from or what it was. The White House states it was shot down to protect the safety of flights at the same altitude.
February 10: Another object over Alaska is detected and monitored by fighter jets, but then crosses into Canadian airspace, so Canadian aircraft join the surveillance. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calls President Biden to authorize U.S. aircraft take down of the new object the next day with a missile “out of an abundance of caution.” It is shot down in the central Yukon. The White House says they still have no intel on the object’s purpose or origin, but Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand told reporters that it was a “small, cylindrical object” flying at about 40,000 feet, that it was much smaller than the Chinese balloon, did not resemble the Chinese balloon, and that it cannot yet be definitively characterized.
February 11: The U.S. military gets a radar blip over Montana but it disappears and is chalked up to an anomaly.
February 12: A fourth flying object is shot down over Lake Huron in Michigan. It was initially detected on February 11 over Montana, and then today over Wisconsin and Michigan. This one is described differently and flying at a much lower altitude than the previous two. It was described as octagonal with no apparent surveillance capabilities. An article published by the NY Times a couple hours ago calls out the Pentagon for having more theories than answers, and states that they 1) don’t know what the objects are, 2) don’t know the purpose of the objects, and 3) don’t know who sent the objects. Interestingly, the article also states: “Asked during a news conference on Sunday whether he had ruled out extraterrestrial origins, Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, the commander of the Air Force’s Northern Command, said, “I haven’t ruled out anything at this point.”” But the reporter goes on to note that national security officials discounted this in interviews the following day.
Scrutiny
Peter Bergen, CNN’s national security analyst, offered some interesting facts to consider about UFO (or UAP) sightings. For instance, he says that there were only 144 military observed UFO sightings in the seventeen-year period between 2004-2021, but that in under a year and a half between 2021-2022, military personnel reported 247 new sightings. Some of them can be explained, but “[t]here were 171 unidentified object sightings, however, for which no explanation was found, and some of those objects “demonstrated unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities.”” Bergen does not mention the possibility of extraterrestrials.
In June 2021, Pew Research found that 65% of Americans believe there is intelligent life on other planets and that people do not see UFOs as a major security threat. A Gallop poll taken around the same time found that 41% of adults believe some UFOs involve alien spacecraft from other planets.
There is the possibility that other countries here on Earth simply have advanced spy drones with new technology. But if there is intelligent life beyond Earth, couldn’t they also have advanced their technology to be able to travel more frequently and in greater numbers?
Ancient History
Some ufologists claim flashes in ancient drawings show aliens have been visiting Earth since the dawn of mankind. A Wikipedia article lists UFO sightings back as far as a papyrus from Egypt that claims fiery disks were seen floating over the skies in 1440 BC. A History Channel article says that the first well-known UFO sighting in the U.S. was in Washington state in 1947 by a business man who saw nine high-speed “crescent-shaped objects” near Mount Rainier. This kicked off decades of research by the government and military and theories on government coverups.
But you must go back much further for the first recorded UFO sighting in the U.S., written down by Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor Winthrop in 1639. The Puritan men involved in the sighting claimed to be mesmerized by a light in the sky and had no memory as to how their boat ended upstream from where they had been. Alien abduction or simply earthly weather or environmental phenomena not yet known to science? In June 1801, Hull, England was visited by “a huge moon-like orb” with a black bar across it that bathed the streets in blue light for an hour starting at midnight until it broke up into five smaller balls of fire and then disappeared. The incident had many eyewitnesses and was written about in newspapers all over England and Scottland.
There are many more, and you can find information about them online. Just make sure you are viewing reputable and well-researched news and historical sites and not just conspiracy theory blogs.
So, what is going on over North America right now? Do you think it’s new technology from foreign governments, aircraft from our own government that they are not releasing information about, a cover up, or extraterrestrial visitors?
Go.
Sources
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/4-flying-objects-shot-north-america-timeline-key/story?id=97068603
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/12/us/politics/us-shoots-down-object-michigan.html
https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/12/opinions/china-military-ufo-shoot-down-spy-balloon-bergen/index.html
https://news.gallup.com/poll/353420/larger-minority-says-ufos-alien-spacecraft.aspx
https://www.history.com/topics/paranormal/history-of-ufos
https://www.history.com/news/americas-first-ufo-sighting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_reported_UFO_sightings