>>"faded from the radar screen"<< usually means it just disappeared from the scope. This is not unusual, as anomalies happen all the time, I would be particularly interested to know how many radars were painting the "anomaly", whether the F-16s were painting it, and how many times in recent history anyone's been scrambled for a radar anomaly (yes I'll admit that may be a little more likely now than before). But we may never know. Incidentally, my c.v. should make me a fairly credible and sophisticated witness, and because of two "sightings" of my own (the first one 40 years ago), you can classify me in the "believer" category.
May the force be with you!
Now, to muddle the waters a bit:
1. The “government” (whoever that is supposed to be) don’t scoff at reports of UFO’s, they merely look first towards what would be the most logical explanation. . .as this usually accounts for over 95% of reports. The remaining reports may be classified as “unresolved.” But, no matter, the USG is not in the business of taking UFO reports anymore. NIDS (National Institute of Discovery Science (
http://www.nidsci.org/) has that mission, as described in FAA manuals.
2. As a Forward Air Controller with the 101st Airborne Division, in Saudi back in August of ’90, I was in a OH-58 helicopter, playing radio relay during an exercise we were conducting. It was almost noon and a clear day. I saw a rapidly approaching (800-1,000kts) shadow approaching from the southeast, moving northwest. That was all I saw---a shadow---and it was elliptical in shape (parallax error?). Anyway, the shadow was dark and sharp, indicating the object must be close to the ground. However, neither the pilot nor I could actually see the object casting the shadow as it passed our location within a half-mile or so. Strange, and we talked about it and forgot about it.
Then, about 15 minutes later it came back on reverse course. Now, this time we saw it early enough to react, and we did what any fighter-type guys would do (the helo pilot was also an Apache pilot and I was, at that time, an A-10 pilot). We put ourselves on an intercept course to get in front of this shadow. As we approach the intercept point the shadow stopped---instantaneously---and the helo pilot instinctively banked the helo to the left to fly towards it, and as we rolled out, the shadow was instantly at full speed and went by us, disappearing to the southeast.
We looked at each other and wondered, “What the h*ll was THAT?!” Now, I don’t know what it was that caused that shadow, but I am not going to call it “alien” or anything like that. It is simply something I can’t explain. That is all.
When we landed about 45 minutes later we went to the TOC to de-brief the training mission, and let me tell you, all that B.S. about pilots swearing never to talk abvout such things as we saw, no way did that happen. . .We told EVERYBODY we could find. This, my friend, led to some other stuff. . .but that is for another time and place. . .
When it comes to UFO sightings and such, Occam’s razor usually works best. Basically the simplest explanation is best, and stories of super-secret double-inverted conspiracies and shadow governments are nothing but nonsense, as the US government can’t keep secrets worth a darn, especially something as complicated and involved as “the alien conspiracy.”