Not your typical UFO sighting, but
very interesting none-the-less. Missiles sounded
military, so I thought I should give them a call
and see what they had to say.
Looking in the Blue Pages I found
"National Defence – Base Public Affairs Officer
– Chilliwack". This sounded like a good place to
start so I placed a call to (604) 858-1002. A
recorded message answered saying that this
office was now closed and please phone the
"Regional Public Affairs Office" in Vancouver at
666-0266. It also advised not to leave a message
as no-one would be listening to the recordings.
I thought it strange that instead of having the
call electronically re-directed, they had
apparently bought a $30 answering machine. Oh
well, on to the next call.
The call to the "Regional Public
Affairs Office" was answered by a very agreeable
gentleman who listened politely to the details
of the story. Although he strongly doubted any
missiles would be flown that low near occupied
areas, he also could not come up with any other
explanation. I mentioned the cruise missile
testing a few years ago, and he countered by
saying that the testing was much further north
and that "cruise missiles have wings". I
countered back with a brilliant "Yeah, but only
short, stubby wings". He suggested that anything
to do with missiles would be known to NORAD and
that I should call a Major Jamie Robertson in
Colorado. He said that the NORAD
second-in-command is always a Canadian (I hadn’t
known that!). This sounded promising, so I
called (719) 554-5816 in Colorado Springs.
A woman answered the phone and I
asked her if I could speak to Major Jamie
Robertson. She informed me that he was not in
and did I wish to leave a message? I said that
it probably wasn’t necessary as she could
probably help me. I explained about the low
level missile-like objects being sighted and she
asked "Why did you call us?". I told her about
my call to the Department of Defence and she
told me that "NORAD only deals with objects
entering or leaving the upper atmosphere" (I
hadn’t known that either!). She advised calling
the "Strategic Air Command" and gave me their
number. Finally, I was getting somewhere.
My call to Omaha, Nebraska, (402)
294-5964, was answered by a woman also. I told
her the story of the missile sighting and she
asked, "Why did you call us?" I told that NORAD
had suggested I call the Strategic Air Command
if I wanted information about missiles. She
commented about them "always passing the buck"
and then stated "First of all, we are no longer
called the Strategic Air Command, just
"Strategic Command". Second of all, I don’t know
how you expect us down here in Nebraska to know
about missiles way up there." Exasperated, I
said "Well, somebody must know!" She replied,
"Those with a "Need to Know" would know, but I
am not one of them." She left me with "Leave me
your number and I will try and find some
information for you and phone you back later
today or tomorrow."
Exactly four weeks after my call to
the Strategic Command, I arrived home from work
to have my wife tell me, "Some lady called to
say that she could not find out any information
on the missiles and suggested you call the
Department of Defence." I looked at my Call
Display and, sure enough, it was from Nebraska.
I was pleasantly surprised that the lady from
Strategic Command actually called back after all
that time, but also disappointed that there was
no new information.
So, after all that time, and all
those phone calls, it had come back to the
Department of Defence. Full circle.
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