| BIMUP Researches 1994 Michigan
Incident (March 1994) PRESS RELEASE *** For Immediate Release To: News Media From: Virginia M. Tilly, BIMUP President Dave Reinhart, BIMUP Investigator Date: March 1, 1997 On Tuesday, March 8, 1994, an incredible series of UFO events over the state of Michigan and Lake Michigan came to the attention of the international news media. At that time the Ottawa County, Ml., 911 dispatcher talked with a National Weather Service (NWS) radar operator about the UFO sightings which were being reported by citizens. At that time the NWS radar operator acknowledged seeing something incredible on his radar screen. The government has consistently denied that any hardcopy of this even existed. The enclosed newsletter The Outer Connection published by BIMUP contains the entire document that supposedly did not exist. The newsletter also contains articles by Reinhart and Tilly which explain what was going on at the time and how Reinhart was finally able to acquire this document. For more information Tilly can be contacted at P.O. Box 2394, Grand Rapids, Ml 49501-2394; (616)458-7288; or e-mail: Vmtl3psi@aol.com. Reinhart can be contacted at: daver5@juno.com or: daver@tir.com This issue of The Outer Connection is devoted entirely to the release of a National Weather Service (NWS) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) document regarding the March 8, 1994, UFO encounters over the state of Michigan and Lake Michigan. As you will learn there was much more going on that night! In fact, we have probably uncovered only the tip of the iceberg. During that evening 911 in Ottawa county began to receive phone calls from excited witnesses. As they looked to the south they were seeing inexplicable displays of lights. Several police officers also witnessed these lights. Eventually an Ottawa county 911 dispatcher called NWS. (See Transcript of Ottawa County) Michigan 911 Calls: Tuesday By Dave Reinhart BIMUP Investigator In the annals of UFO history, the state of Michigan ranks at or near the top as to the number of reported UFO sightings. Many of these date to the mid-1960s when Dr. J. Allen Hynek was researching the infamous "swamp gas" cases for PROJECT BLUE BOOK. Numerous other unidentified flying objects were reported to various investigative organizations / agencies in the times since then. Some of these sightings have received lots of attention and notoriety, such as the sightings / landings in Oscoda at Wursmith AFB in 1974, while others remain in relative obscurity. One of these rather well known UFO cases occurred nearly 3 years ago on the lower western side of Michigan. On Tuesday, March 8, 1994, an Ottawa County dispatcher was having a routine evening when a call came in. A call that began, "We were just wondering, have you heard anything about these lights that are flickering up here? It looks like a string of Christmas lights that's way up in the sky." Following that call were numerous other calls to other police agencies, the local airport, and one lengthy call with a National Weather Service radar operator at the Muskegon, Michigan office. People were calling family, friends and neighbors to see if they too were watching the strange lights in the night sky. Several witnesses to the event that night recorded what they were watching on videotape and still film. Before long local and national media were reporting on the events of March 8, 1994. UFO investigators were dispatched to the area to interview as many witnesses as possible, and to view the videotapes. Police agencies and media outlets were contacted to ascertain as much information about the event as possible. It was hoped that there might be a radar tape recording of what the NWS operator was seeing on his radar screen. This proved not to be the case. One thing of great interest that did exist was the audio recording of calls to the 911 operator concerning the "strange" objects in the sky. This tape aired on several local and national programs. The excited voice of the NWS employee was heard around the country as he described the strange sights he was viewing on his radar screen. The radar operator described the abrupt altitude changes, the constant changing of the number of "objects"" appearing on his screen. The operator even commented at one point that what he was viewing was "not precipitation or anything. Especially up at that height". For several weeks witnesses were interviewed and videotapes of the sighting viewed and analyzed. The audio recordings from the 911 calls were played back over and over. Information was correlated and forwarded to the various UFO organizations' headquarters. I was not personally involved in the direct investigation or witness interviews of these sightings that occurred March 8, 1994. I was in a position to be kept informed as to the progress of the investigations and what had happened that night. However, several months later I was to receive information very pertinent to the investigations-information that came in the form of 12 separate sheets of paper. I will discuss how I came to receive these papers later in this article and why I believe in their authenticity. First and foremost I will discuss the documents and what is on them. All of these documents have been reproduced in their entirety for this issue of The Outer Connection minus personal information regarding the people involved in getting this information to me. All names and phone numbers have been expunged from the copies of the documents appearing in this Issue. The first page of the documents is a "to-from" address as to who was being routed the information and where to forward them to. Page 2 is a discussion as what happened the night of March 8, 1994, and how the following pages were put together. To be noted on page 2 is the discussion that the drawings or maps are "after- the-fact drawings or maps made by the radar operator." The third page shows the varying altitudes of the objects as they were observed by the NWS operator. The last 9 pages are "after-the-fact" representations of what the NWS operator says he witnessed on his radar screen that night. At the bottom of pages 4 - 12 I have included text from the transcripts of the 9-1-1 calls received by Muskegon authorities. The numbers on the upper left of the map pages are the order of the drawings made by the operator. The shaded kidney-shaped items on the maps are representations of what the operator was witnessing on the screen and where they appeared at various times during the event that night. The final map shows several smaller blips near the outskirts of Chicago over Lake Michigan. At the time of these events the explanation for this was made by a Regional Director of the NWS claiming to the press that this was "chaffing" - small metal particles released by military jets to draw attention away from them when tracking missiles were fired at them. The intent being the tracking missiles would home in on the particles as their intended target, thus falling to the wayside without causing harm to the jets during times of air battle. At the upper left of all 12 pages are what appears to be the date 07/01/94 and time 09:02 AM. I can only assume these are the date and time the copies were faxed to the addressee based on the date written in above the originator. I make no claim as to what the documents say or mean. I feel they are rather self- explanatory, that they are what they purport to be, i.e., reenactments of what occurred on the radar screens of the NWS operator. Together with the videotapes and the transcripts, it becomes quite apparent that something highly unusual took place the night of March 8, 1994, along the western side of Michigan and over the waters of Lake Michigan towards Chicago. Are These Documents Legitimate? In answer to this question I have to say, "yes". An acquaintance of mine is employed by the NWS and knows the weather operator that was on duty the night the sightings took place. He has talked with the operator about what happened that night, and the operator has confirmed he did make the phone call to 911 and made the map representations for his superiors. The operator also told my acquaintance that he was putting together a personal diary entry as to the events that occurred that night "...as I can remember everything that happened that night." I have not had any personal contact with the operator myself, only communication through our mutual acquaintance at the NWS. How Did I Get These Documents? In the Spring of 1994 l first logged onto one of the major on-line computer services. I frequented many of the UFO chat areas on a regular basis. Over time I began running into an individual quite often under various screen names. We established quite a good rapport and chatted or exchanged e-mail on an almost daily basis. This continued until October 1995. (I abhor the use of alias' and unnamed sources, but for the privacy of his remaining family I will use the name Fred when referring to this Air Force employee.) After a couple days of not hearing from Fred, I received notice from a female friend of his that Fred had died suddenly from a massive stroke. This turned out to have been only a couple of hours after one of our many lengthy late Saturday night/early Sunday morning conversations. This individual, [Fred, claimed to be a retired Air Force employee working under contract for the U.S. Government on UFO projects based at Area 51 / Groom Lake, Nevada. Always the skeptic, I often "tested" him during our early chats. Finally one night I told him I was testing him as to who/what he claimed to be. Eventually in my own mind I became convinced of his claim, and that he was involved in the work that he said. Over the next year and a half Fred and I had numerous chats concerning the UFO phenomenon and some of his involvement in the area. He kept me informed as to his travels concerning his responsibilities. We traded birthday and holiday greetings via U S. Mail. On countless occasions, Fred would tell me he felt the entire UFO phenomenon should be open to the American public, and that he was glad that he could talk with me and select others about it. He admitted there were several things that he was involved in that he couldn't talk about. He did tell me to feel free to ask him about anything to do with the phenomenon and he would answer what he could, but asked that I be understanding of those that he couldn't. During one of our many conversations I mentioned to him the reported UFO sightings of March 8, 1994. We had a rather lengthy chat where he alluded to the fact that more may have happened that night than was reported. I asked him for more information, but he said he would have to leave it at that. He did say he would be sending me something in the mail and to let him know when the package arrived. Three days later I received in the mail a large brown envelope. Its contents are the documents included in this issue of The Outer Connection. One thing Fred asked that I do was to make sure the MUFON Director be given a copy of these documents. He knew I had a personal acquaintance with the director from our earlier conversations. I assured him that I would get them to him. In July of 1995 in Seattle, WA, during a private meeting at the 1995 Symposium I hand delivered copies of these documents to the director. Over the following months Fred asked me on several occasions if I had passed the documents on to the director. I assured him that I had. Fred kept wanting to know why nothing about them had become public. I told him I did not know, that I had forwarded the documents as he had asked. What were to become of them was out of my hands. As 1995 progressed, Fred was becoming more vocal about going public with all UFO information he said the US Government was holding back. In October of 1995, Fred decided to "open up," about what he felt was being kept from the American public. He wanted me to share this information with others so that we would all know what was going on. Then, in mid-October 1995, I received the notice that Fred had died suddenly. I do not know whether I was the only person Fred was passing some of his information to. Some of the computer e-mail I was receiving was addressed to several individuals, other pieces of e-mail were addressed to only me. Just what else he passed on to those individuals I do not know. Further information regarding March 8, 1994 In the course of investigating further, after I received the 12 pages, I was introduced to an individual who, when shown these, asked me what I wanted to know further about what they might mean. I asked him what they meant and he told me that the next time I had several hours he'd sit down with me and tell me all he could about them. A couple of weeks later we met for dinner. During the meal he gave me some background on how he came by the information. He explained certain events that had occurred in my personal life that he would have no other way of knowing without first hand information about the events and my involvement. As he continued, it became clear to me that he indeed had very detailed, specific, and apparently official sources for his information. The events, he reported, which are depicted in this document, are only part of what occurred that evening. Several minutes before the "objects" appeared on the exhibit radar printout, other groups of objects were tracked by sophisticated sites across the United States. The first group of 24 objects approached the west coast of California from the southwest over the Pacific Ocean (point of origin unknown) and appeared to be on a course toward the mid-portion of Lake Michigan. Simultaneously, a group of 12 objects appeared approaching from the East Coast of the United States coming from the northeast (again origin unknown) and were observed by the tracking systems at Loring AFB. This group appeared to be on a straight course to a mid-point of Lake Michigan. At about the same time, a group of 14 objects were tracked approaching the southeast coast of Florida and an additional group of 24 objects approaching from over Alaska and the Northwest Territory of Canada, also appearing to be headed toward Lake Michigan. All of the groups were moving in a straight line, at a higher rate of velocity than current technology could explain or account for. While all of these groups were being tracked, they appeared to be headed toward the same point on the map. What the attached document depicts, according to this source, were the objects first sighted over Loring AFB. All of the groups actually converged at a point approximately 52,000 feet above the north central portion of Lake Michigan along a line roughly from Muskegon, MI., to Green Bay, WI. The converging groups appeared to meet, change course going directly upward and disappeared at an extremely high rate of speed. It is the opinion of my source that one of the objects experienced some sort of difficulty, resulting in its sighting by numerous people in the regions indicated in these maps. He had reasoned that this is the only sighting on record, to his knowledge, that had ground observer reports recalling noise to varying degree depending on their vantage point. He contended that there had never been any previous sighting reports that mentioned noise. Always some type of lights, steady or pulsating, object size varying, object flying ability also varied, but never any reports of any type of significant sound other than wind turbulence. This sighting differed in not only that respect but in the way it behaved while being seen from the ground. Important Points Of Interest There are two major points of interest to note concerning the events of March 8 1994. The first of these points has to do with other sightings which were reported that night. Within a short period of time several unusual sightings were reported over many areas of Michigan, from as far north as the southwestern tip of the Upper Peninsula down the western coastal counties of Michigan until they started appearing on the radar of the NWS operator. In recent talks with the former Michigan MUFON State Director who was in charge of the investigations that night, she related to me having received several calls from around the state of unusual objects spotted in the Michigan skies. All of these happened within a couple of minutes, indicating that if these were the same objects that appeared on the weather radar they were moving at extremely high rates of speed. I personally received information concerning other sightings as far west as Montana and Wyoming. These sightings were reported to have been within 20 minutes of the reported sightings in Michigan. These sightings further indicate the high rate of speed. If these were not the same objects that were spotted over Michigan, then there was apparently something taking place in other parts of the United States. The second major point is the size of the readings on the NWS radar. During the sighting, the radar operator comments that the readings are much "larger than precipitation." His comment clearly indicates by that statement, and his markings on the documents, that what was showing up on the radar was quite obviously not a conventional aircraft. To suggest that the large blips on the radar screen were conventional aircraft presents a highly unlikely scenario. The "chaffing" explanation, as mentioned earlier, also seems highly unlikely (see last map). Small metal particles being emitted from conventional fighter jets are highly unlikely to show up on radar as large blips, or as numerous smaller ones as I was shown just east of Chicago. These documents seem to reflect that something major took place over the skies of Michigan and Lake Michigan and may be only part of a bigger event that took place over the skies of the United States that night. The widespread reports of unusual objects / lights over various parts of the U. S. in such a short time span seem to indicate that something unusual happened that night. Fred's comment that "something more may have happened that night than was reported" seems to be supported by these documents and by my news source. It is my personal feeling that something of an extremely unusual nature took place that night of March 8, 1994. By releasing these documents to the public and passing on what information I have obtained, perhaps others with more information regarding that night will come forward. Perhaps the full story of what happened that night will come out, or as Fred had been telling me all along: The public will know the full story as to the UFO phenomenon. Please note that the witnesses "looked to the south" when they saw these lights. Many people have tried to claim that the NWS operator was looking at the northern lights, which of course are to the north. Furthermore, the radar was not rotating, by then he had put it in a stationary position facing south. There have been numerous reports about the speed of these objects. Generally the public was told that the UFOs were going 10,000 mph, when in fact they were reported as traveling at 20,000 mph. However, the best information seems to be that they covered 10 miles in 10 seconds which translates to an incredible 36,000 mph! Hundreds of Reports In the following days, weeks and even months there were literally hundreds of UFO reports pouring in all over this state and elsewhere in the Great Lakes region. I myself was usually fielding phone calls until 2 or 3 a.m. each night. At the time Michigan MUFON was going through internal difficulties, so a few of us attempted to keep professional, high-quality investigations going. This was further complicated when it became apparent that all of the video tapes, still photos, negatives, and possibly even reports were "disappearing" - into the infamous black hole that so many UFO researchers have referred to. In the more than 20 years that I had been a UFO investigator, I had always been able to collect physical evidence from total strangers on my word of honor. Suddenly we were all being placed in an untenable position; my word was no longer my bond. I had no control of evidence that either I, or any of my investigators, collected! In frustration over this and other unpleasant treatment virtually all of my investigators refused to conduct any more investigations. To this date there are still hundreds of cases (many of them very high strangeness ones) which have never been investigated! While the events of that night are considered by many to have been the beginning of a major UFO flap (one that the general public has been almost totally unaware of), it had actually begun in the fall of 1993. It was then that we began to have a dramatic increase of close up UFO sightings. There continued to be significant UFO activity in and around Michigan until well into the summer of 1995. An interesting aside to the events of 3/18/94 was what had happened earlier that night in Grand Rapids, MI. In order to encourage the growth of the keen interest in UFOs in the western part of the state, several individuals had formed the Western Michigan Investigators of Unusual Phenomena (WMIUP) and had just begun having monthly programs. On March 8 our speaker was Dr. Marcia Emery, who talked about learning to use your dreams and intuition. Someone in the audience suggested that we program a group dream about when the next significant UFO incident would occur in Michigan! And, as they say, the rest is history. Some Surprising Discoveries Dave Reinhart has been a no-nonsense UFO investigator for a long time. His credentials and veracity are unimpeachable! It is a direct result of his efforts that the document in this newsletter has been uncovered and finally made public. His article in this issue of TOC explains how all of this came about. Dave Reinhart has been involved in the study and research on the UFO phenomena for more than 25 years. He is currently a MUFON Field Investigator and a BIMUP Researcher - Investigator. Reinhart and I have waited patiently for more than a year for MUFON to make this information public. Since that has not happened and our involvement with Michigan MUFON has been severed and I have been removed from the national board of directors, we have decided that it is time that the public begin to learn about some of what has really been going on. BIMUP Investigates The events of 1994 have a direct influence on why BIMUP even exists. BIMUP is now involved in investigating UFOs and other types of unexplained phenomena. It should be noted also that we go through noted cattle mutilation and UFO investigator Linda Howe with all video/photographic evidence for analysis. This issue of TOC demonstrates one of the major commitments of the Bureau of Investigators of Mysteries & Unusual Phenomena, i.e, to leave no stone unturned in finding and making public all information about UFOs and other unexplained phenomena. For far too long too much valuable information has been kept hidden from the public, or often just swept under the rug, because it doesn't conform with a preconceived belief about what these unexplained phenomena really are. With that in mind we present this information and trust that you will find it informative. Virginia Tilly has been actively involved in UFO research since the early 70s when she first became a field investigator with the Aerial Phenomenon Research Organization (APRO). Later she was involved at several levels with the Mutual UFO Network. More recently she and other frustrated MUFON members founded the Bureau of Investigators of Mysteries & Unusual Phenomena (BIMUP). Tilly can be reached at PO Box 2394. Grand Rapids, MI 149501-2394: (616)458-7288. Virginia M. Tilly is also a certified Hypnotherapist. She holds an M.A., C.Ht. She has spent hundreds of hours since 1986 regressing abductees with over 135+ cases. some involving entire families. BIMUP * THE OUTER CONNECTION MEMORANDUM FOR RECORD 1 JULY 1994 REFERENCE TELECON WITH NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HEADQUARTERS WEATHER RADAR OFFICE, SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND ON THIS DATE 1. I ASKED IF HE HAD ANY REPORTS, PHOTOGRAPHS, ETC. REGARDING THE PURPORTED UFO SIGHTINGS OVER SOUTHWESTERN MICHIGAN IN MARCH OF THIS YEAR. SPECIFICALLY, I ASKED ABOUT WEATHER RADAR INFORMATION FROM THE NWS WSR 74C AT MUSKEGON, MICHIGAN (SOME 911 TAPES OF CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN LOCAL POLICE AND A NWS RADAR OPERATOR THAT INDICATED SOMETHING UNUSUAL WAS SIGHTED WERE AIRED ON FOX TELEVISION ON 24 JUNE, 1994). POLICE WERE PROMPTED BY CALLS FROM CITIZENS WHO SAID THEY SAW WHAT APPEARED LIKE "CHRISTMAS TREE LIGHTS AT HIGH ALTITUDE". THERE APPARENTLY WAS NO PERCEIVABLE SOUND ASSOCIATED WITH THE PHENOMENON. 2. INDICATED HE HAD COPIES OF THE AUDIO TAPES AND SOME AFTER-THE-FACT DRAWINGS OR MAPS MADE BY THE RADAR OPERATOR. NO OFFICIAL WEATHER RADAR REPORTS OR FILMS MADE ON THE SUBJECT, SO THE OPERATOR HAD TO CONSTRUCT THE MAPS FROM MEMORY. THE WEATHER WAS SUPPOSEDLY CLEAR AND HAD NO THERMAL INVERSION (I WOULD HAVE TO CONFIRM THIS WITH USAF ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNICAL APPLICATIONS CENTER AT SCOTT AFB, IL.) HE SAID ONE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO HAD BEEN INVESTIGATING THIS EVENT AND EVEN VISITED THE NWS FACILITY AT MUSKEGON. SAID THE RADAR RETURNS WERE COHERENT, MOVED AROUND RAPIDLY, VARIED IN ALTITUDE FROM 13K TO 50K, AND WERE SEEN INITIALLY OVER VAN BUREN, BERRIEN, AND ONE OTHER COUNTY. THE RETURNS APPARENTLY THEN MOVED OUT OVER LAKE MICHIGAN, FRAGMENTED INTO MANY SMALLER RETURNS CLOSE TO CHICAGO, AND DISAPPEARED. THE RETURNS HAD A VERY PRONOUNCED "KIDNEY" SHAPE. DURATION OF THE RADAR DEPICTIONS WAS ABOUT 1/2 HOUR, BUT VISUAL OBSERVATIONS PRIOR TO THAT MADE THE TOTAL DURATION AROUND 1.5 TO 2 HOURS. APPARENTLY FAA AND OTHER AIRCRAFT SURVEILLANCE RADARS DID NOT PICK UP THE RETURNS (THEY ARE L-BAND, ABOUT 20CM WAVELENGTH, AND THE WSR 74C IS C-BAND, ABOUT 5 CM WAVELENGTH). I HAVE NO INFORMATION AS TO WHETHER ANYTHING WAS SIGHTED EITHER VISUALLY OR BY RADAR FROM AIRCRAFT IN THE VICINITY. 3. I ASKED HIM IF HE HAD ANY OPINIONS AS TO WHAT WAS SEEN. HE SAID HE THOUGHT THEY MIGHT BE RELATED TO AURORA BOREALIS, WHICH WAS SEEN OVER MICHIGAN THAT SAME NIGHT. I TOLD HIM THAT IF THERE WERE ANY SUCH INFLUENCES, THE PHYSICS OF WHICH I COULD NOT SURMISE, THE RETURNS WOULD HAVE HAD TO HAVE BEEN MULTIPLE TRIP ECHOES. HE AGREED. HE ALSO SAID THAT DAVE FORD THOUGHT THERE MIGHT HAVE BEEN SOME MILITARY ELECTRONIC COUNTERMEASURE EXERCISES GOING ON; ALTHOUGH THE PHENOMENON ALSO WAS OBSERVED VISUALLY BY NUMEROUS CITIZENS WHO MADE THE INITIAL REPORTS TO THE POLICE. 4. I ASKED IF HE COULD FAX ME THE MAPS AND DRAWINGS MADE BY THE RADAR OPERATOR. HE SAID HE WOULD DO SO (SEE GRAPHICS INCLUDED IN THIS PAGE). 5. INITIAL CONCLUSION: UNKNOWN, INITIAL SPECULATION: POSSIBLE ANOMALOUS PROPAGATION THOUGH NOT EXPLAINABLE, OR POSSIBLE VALID UFO SIGHTING.
Addendum August 2008:
Shortly after the BIMUP article appeared, Virginia Tilly received a
letter from another Michigan UFO researcher. In the letter, he
ripped into her, not me for some reason, for using the after-the-fact
images that the NWS operator had created. He claimed that he was
there when the images were made. I have no problem him claiming
that, IF he were there. I don't know whether the researcher was
there or not. He may have been. As I said in the article, I
had never talked with any witnesses to the sightings or the NWS
operator. To this day I have not talked to him or others.
My main point to the article, beside releasing information about the
other incidents that were going on around the country, is the last line
of the MEMORANDUM FOR RECORD that was included in the papers I received
from "Fred". Part 5 of the memorandum contains a sentence that is
quite interesting. INITIAL
CONCLUSION: UNKNOWN, INITIAL SPECULATION: POSSIBLE ANAMOLOUS PROPOGATION
THOUGH NOT EXPLAINABLE, OR POSSIBLE VALID UFO SIGHTING.
I felt, and still feel, this was a very strong point that was being made
when I received these documents. Government officials in a
memorandum discussing these events of 1994, and concluding what happened
is Unknown, or a "possible valid UFO sighting."
Considering the fact that the American government and military usually
deny any possibility of UFO's existing, this is a strong statement.
This along with the fact, that on many occasions it is government
agencies that tell people to contact MUFON or other agencies as UFO
Reporting Center, when the happen to see anomalies in the skies.
One other side note. My friend who gave me the information that verified the numerous other sightings around the US that night, passed away from Cancer 5 years ago. Prior to his passing, "Mike" admitted to having met "Fred" on more than one occasion at Area 51. Small world.
Dave Reinhart August 2008 Back to Michigan 911 Case Back to Shadow Research Main Menu |