From: Bruce Maccabee <brumac@compuserve.com>
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 12:02:17 -0500
Fwd Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 20:13:56 -0500
Subject: Re: Phoenix Case - Maccabee


 >From: Amy Hebert <yellowrose129@attbi.com>
 >To: UFO UpDates - Toronto <ufoupdates@virtuallystrange.net>
 >Subject: Re: Phoenix Case
 >Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2002 18:59:21 -0600

 >>Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 13:28:00 -0500
 >>From: Bruce Maccabee <brumac@compuserve.com>
 >>Subject: Re: Phoenix Case
 >>To: UFO UpDates - Toronto <ufoupdates@virtuallystrange.net>

 >>>This is not the first time UFO sightings have been paired with
 >>>flare drops. Ask Dr. Maccabee. He has footage of similar events
 >>>he presented at the Midwest Conference On UFO Research on
 >>>September 18-20, 1992. The flare drop initially deceived the
 >>>witnesses (Gulf Breeze) but upon reviewing the footage, the
 >>>actual cause became apparent. Although Bruce indicated the
 >>>flares appeared different from the infamous "Bubba" sightings,
 >>>one cannot help but wonder how many times flares may have been
 >>>dropped to distract from and/or confuse other sightings and
 >>>misidentified as UFO's by excited witnesses.>

 ><snip>

 >>Congratulations to Amy for recalling this event. There are
 >>details of this which have never been reported. What 'saved the
 >>day' was a unique telescope with a low-light level TV camera
 >>that provided a large enough and bright enough image of what was
 >>happening about 20 miles away. A home-videocamera two miles
 >>closer did not 'see' the answer. The telescope was 1600 mm focal
 >>length with f/10 optics... powerful enough to see the rings of
 >>Saturn.

 >When the Phoenix Lights event occurred, I wondered if a UFO
 >sighting had ever been paired with a flare drop before. Then I
 >remembered your footage and dug out the video to take a second,
 >third, and fourth look.

 >Why they would be dropping flares in such patterns in a UFO
 >hotspot (Gulf Breeze) has always puzzled me. Surely the military
 >guys would have known the flares might cause more UFO sightings.
 >If they don't want people having a fit about UFO's, why make
 >matters worse by dropping flares around Gulf Breeze?

The flare event that I witnessed took place in ewarly August.
1992. This was about a month _after_ the last sighting of Bubba
(July 8, 1992). By this time the flap was finished. The real
concentration of Bubba sightings was through 1991 and into the
late spring of 1992. If the military had planned to drop flares
to confuse the issue, they were months too late.

 >It's almost as if they are doing it on purpose.

 >They either don't care if people mistake flare drops for UFO's
 >or they are using flare drops for psychological reasons
 >(psyops). If the UFO's photographed and filmed by Ed and others
 >were actually secret military craft, and Bubba was created using
 >various combinations of unconventional and conventional flare
 >drops,

Not likely that what Ed photographed and over a dozen people saw
during 1987-1988 as a secret military craft. It was suggested in
early 1991 (at the beginning of the Bubba sightings) that Bubba
was a road flare on a gas bag balloon. However, cdata
accumulated in 1991-1992 proved that this was at the very least
a simplistic explanation. Triangulations provided distances and
speed. Several times Bubba was proven to travel at angles to the
local wind and much faster (e.g. 40-50 mph when there was
negligible wind). A spectrum was obtained and compared with the
spectrum of a road flare.... the difference was obvious.

 >then, like the Phoenix affair, the V and delta shaped
 >objects could have been secret military craft paired with flare
 >drops similar to the "exercises" conducted in Gulf Breeze.

There was only one confirmed flare drop event in GB and, as I
stated aboe, it occurred several months after the concentration
of Bubba sightings. Furthermore, it was recognized immediately
(before analysis of the videotape) that it was different from a
normal" Bubba sighting.

 >(The
 >"V" shaped object and the "delta" shaped object could have been
 >one object using CC&D to create the illusion of two separate
 >objects.)

There has been speculation that flares were used as a "cover"
for an actual UFO event.

<snip>

 >The Phoenix Lights and the Gulf Breeze events are quite similar
 >when you compare various sighting reports and events.

Actually there are major differences, Aside from the clear color
variation... Bubba generally started off red and turned
white... Bubba was, as I recall, aways moving. I don't recall
a stationary Bubba event (except perhaps the first sighting in
Nov 1991 when the red light appeared for a short time and then
went out without perceptible motion).

 >The
 >objects sighted and photographed may be different but overall
 >(behavior) patterns are much the same.

The _videotaped_ Phoenix Lights moved very slowly downward and
to the left. The moved so slightly that witnesses thought they
were stationary. Witnesses could see Bubba moving against the
sky background. Also,. Bubba was always within a few miles (less
than 10 miles) from the witnesses, as indicated by
triangulations.


 >The common denominator
 >seems to be...flare drops...and a military involvement which
 >appear in both cases.

As I said above, the only known flare drop event in GB was Aug.
1992

 >In addition, both Phoenix and Gulf Breeze
 >are located near active military bases where various military
 >exercises are conducted. (These and other similarities are also
 >present in other UFO sighting cases.)

This is true. Eglin AFB about with its western boundary near GB.

 >Say, Bruce, ever wonder why they 'just happened' to be out there
 >having a flare BBQ on the same night you came with all that neat
 >equipment? Yet another coincidence? ;>

I thought about that... did they want to give us a thrill? If
so, they blew it!

 >Would you consider allowing Mr. King to put your footage on the
 >internet, if Mr. King would oblige?

 >It's significant footage of IFO's mistaken for UFOs, an
 >excellent reference tool and important for IFO databases.

I wouldn't mind.... there are actually three videos (one with a
home video camera and one with a night vision device and one
through the "Big Bertha" telescope).