Now, dogone it!!! If you'd just 'fessed up from the start we could have avoided all these missile-vs.-contrail threads!!! ;^)
And I owe you a bit of apology, I suspect, in my snippy response to your comment on another thread, "Surely then, our west coast fleet is steaming there to 'recover' this 'foreign technology'." It could be that it is. The ocean is a vast place and our view of what's going on there from the shore is very short-range. It isn't as if we can tell or see what's going on just by keeping an eye on the water. Standing on the beach, anything floating on the water beyond seven miles or so would be over the horizon and out of view. Heck, an entire fleet of carriers and battleships could be just 15 miles out, and from the shore, no one would know. The higher altitude you get the further you can see, but still, it's not much. Coming over San Marcos Pass, which has a pretty high elevation, you can see miles out, to San Miguel, Santa Cruz, and Santa Rosa islands, and open sea beyond them. But San Nicolas and Santa Catalina are too far off to spot. Even from that high elevation.
I guess sometimes I kind of assume that everybody would know this; but I grew up in a professional seafaring family and often watching boats carrying my loved ones off into the Pacific horizon, praying for their protection and safe return. I am certain there are many properties of the great midwest geography, skyscape, and landscape, where I have never been, that would perplex me and you would kindly laugh at my ignorance. Reminds me of a coastal California native friend of mine who as a young teen visited back east one time after all the leaves had come off the trees; she gazed around and said, "Wow, you guys must have had a really bad fire season." (and she's not even blonde!) I'd have probably come to the same conclusion! [^ ) They made good fun of her for it, and I admit, I do too, sometimes!
Again, thanks for the giggle from your GREAT photo!!!!!! LOVE IT!