RVer Recalls UFO Flight

It’s Halloween and I thought my fellow RVers would enjoy a scary tale about a time I was part of a UFO flight. So, gather around the campfire as I take you on a journey at tax payers’ expense. Many moons ago I was a Navigator on a KC-135 Tanker in the 916 th Air Refueling Squadron of the Strategic Air Command. We were on a training mission refueling a flight of FB-111 bombers somewhere over Utah. (This is a photo I took of an F-4 preparing to refuel to give you an idea of what we were doing). It was 4:00 a.m. and after about 20 minutes of routine refueling the aircraft commander turned control over to our female co-pilot. In those days women were just beginning to come onboard tankers as pilots, so when the FB-111 flight heard her voice they asked if she would like to see the “Zippo trick.” She was happy for them to “show off” their trick so one at a time they flew out in front of us to our starboard side and hit their fuel dump switch. Now to appreciate what happens next, I need to tell you that the FB-111 has two jet engines and the fuel dump is between the the engine nacelles. After they had jettisoned fuel for a few seconds it would enter the atmosphere and expand into a contrail of fumes. At the very moment they shut off the fuel dump switch, they would ignite their afterburners for a brief moment. This would torch off the vapor trail and create a fabulous display of burning color in the atmosphere. This burning cloud was “cigar” shaped and would change colors from bright orange to red and green and blue as it burned out in the night sky. They did this about 15 times and I began to imagine some farmer looking out his kitchen window and saying, “Hey Martha, they’re back, those UFO lights in the sky! Come look for yourself, I’m calling the Sheriff.” The scariest part of this story is that it is true. The “Zippo trick” was named after the famous Zippo cigarette lighter. So if you’re RVing in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah or Texas and see strange “cigar shaped” lights in the night sky, don’t panic, just relax knowing your tax dollars are hard at work. Jim Twamley, Professor of RVing