Look, Up In The Sky.....

For those who don't remember, the title for tonight's theme is the opening line from the "Superman" tv series of the 1950's. I would write the entire opening announcer voice over if I had time and there wasn't some copyright infringement probably lurking.
What brings that to mind is several phone calls and emails to KTAB. "What were those lights in the sky?" I have checked on unusual lights in the sky for years. Usually, its the sun reflecting off a weather balloon launched from Marfa and climbing to 100,000 feet plus. Or a B-1 or C-130 doing patterns at Dyess or tracking the VOR. Or a jetliner cruising at FL350. But calling the police, sheriff, DPS and feds as I have just done, usually gets you the "Huh? and stifled laughter" treatment. Same this 1/29 when lights displaying an unusual, intermittent pattern were reported generally to the southeast of Abilene.
The last time the lights were called in from roughly this area, a blimp with unusual anti-collision lights was making a nighttime landing at Abilene Regional Airport. The tower reported no blimp or any other unusual aircraft tonight. No calls from panicked citizens to local law enforcement. But calls and emails to us.
A callback from one of those folks had the answer. The military was doing some training near Brownwood. There is special military air space near Brownwood where lots of military training from helicopters to jets is done. This night, they were dropping flares from aircraft. As the caller told me, he had seen flares at night in Iraq, and they are brilliant. And that's what folks saw, as we reported on KTAB News at 10. Flares from military aircraft as part of an exercise. No UFO..... Sorry.....
"....it's a bird, it's a plane.. No it's Superman... Superman, strange visitor from another planet with powers and..."