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Remarks |
I'm in the USCG and we had received three separate calls about what might be flares but didn't appear to be flares between 0604T and 0613T. We were pretty confident since all three were seen by various USCG active duty members they were not flares. The first was from somewhere in the vicinity of Rockaway Beach and headed northeast. The second came in across the Columbia River Bar, and a third was seen up near Willapa Bay coming in. On my way home at 0634T (this is the one I plotted since it was closest to me) I observed what I believe are the same three objects. One was south of my position and behind me, one was coming in fairly parallel to the river, and the third was over the mountains to the north side of the river. The one north and south were in and out of my view while the one parallel to the river was clearly in my line of sight. I followed them for quite a ways (about 5 miles) before turning around to go home. Two had disappeared from sight by then (0642T) and the last was losing intensity at that point and heading for the horizon. The closest one I could see what appeared to be a burning center at the front of a redish/pinkish trail that turned white behind it. It was hard to tell though if some of the colour was caused by the sunrise or if it was all natural. All three maintained a steady course with no deviation, all three were at different altitudes, the angle of decent was very slow and slight, and no military exercises or plane exercises were reported for that area by anyone we called. At home, I stayed out and walked the dog. Between approximately 0700 to 0720T I observed three more short burns but nothing near as intense and more like what I was used to seeing during a normal meteor shower. I could of course be wrong but if they were planes I haven't seen anything like those before. |
