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From: campbell@ufomind.com (Glenn Campbell, Las Vegas) Date: Tue, 24 Jun 1997 06:18:00 -0800 Subject: Mystery object on mountainside near Vegas [news] |
From the Las Vegas Review-Journal, June 24, 1997. http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/1997/Jun-24-Tue-1997/news/5599885.html
Mystery object baffles viewers in northwest Officials and an Area 51 expert say that a piece of military debris may be behind repeated sightings. By Keith Rogers Review-Journal Some northwest Las Vegas residents say they have been seeing a strange, reflective object during the day on a mountain north of the city. This USO -- unidentified stationary object -- appears to change in shape and intensity, sometimes rising from the surface of a slope beneath the 6,943-foot Gass Peak in the Sheep Range before it vanishes, only to reappear about midmorning the next day. "The first time I saw it, it was like two cylinders. Yesterday, it was like a square shed. Today, it looked more like a Quonset hut," one observer, Tony Petz, said Monday. Petz said the object held its location from his vantage point at West Lake Mead Boulevard and Mariner Drive long enough for him to watch it through binoculars. "My thought is, is there a silo up there? Do they push it out of the ground? Or, could it have something to do with Area 51?" Petz said, referring to the Air Force's classified base on Groom Lake, 90 miles north of Las Vegas. "All I know is, it's a mystery," he said. Another observer, David Schindler, said he saw a large reflecting object in the same area of the Sheep Range last week. He said the object was about 100 yards in diameter and moved up and down. Master Sgt. James Brooks, a Nellis Air Force Range spokesman, said whatever the object is, it has nothing to do with Air Force activities at Groom Lake. He said the Nellis Range Group Squadron thinks the object could be a helicopter or part of a downed aerial dart, a piece of plywood with reflective paint that is towed behind an airplane for target practice. Sometimes aerial darts become disconnected from tow planes, or they are blown apart by bullets. A motor vehicle restriction by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which monitors Gass Peak as part of the Desert National Wildlife Range, precludes the Air Force from using vehicles to retrieve aerial darts. Refuge Manager Ken Voget said the Fish and Wildlife Service fields similar calls about mystery objects "when the sun gets just right." "It's hard to tell what kind of military debris is up there," Voget said. "In all likelihood, it's an old piece of military debris." Glenn Campbell, director of the Area 51 Research Center and master of a website, "ufomind," agreed. "That's often what it turns out to be," Campbell said. "One time a glint like that led me to a downed aircraft." Drawing on his experience in tracking Groom Lake base activities, Campbell said glints are caused by radio equipment, such as signal repeater towers; crashed aircraft; tow targets, such as aerial darts; or 2-foot-diameter hollow aluminum balls that Air Force planes drop as sounding objects to calibrate radar systems. "The object causing the reflection can be relatively small," he said. "Even the glint of a cosmetic mirror can be seen miles away if it is aimed right."
Ufomind Index: Nellis Air Force Base and Range Ufomind Index: Nellis Range UFO
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