2000-02-24 - O'Brien, FL - Light

Very bright white to yellow lights lasting 5 to 15 seconds at various positions in the sky

At approximatly 20:30 hours I went out to my front lawn to check on my barking dogs, as I stepped off the door step I saw a bright yellow light about half the size of a basket ball at approxtimatly 45 degrees above the horizon, it lasted about 5 seconds and dimmed out only to return in about 3 seconds. This time it had moved down to where I had to look through the tree tops to see it and it lasted for another 4 or 5 seconds and went out. As I stood out side for a while (15 minutes) I noticed 2 military type jet aircraft at high altitude which seemed to be involved in some kind of dog fight training, as I watched these aircraft I saw the light again and several more times through out the next one and one half to two hours. Each time I saw the lights they (some times 1, sometimes 2) appeared a few seconds after the jets passed over and due to the apparent size difference the lights were either a lot closer or a lot larger than the jets, the jets appeared only as a small speck of red light (pea sized) while the white or yellow lights appeared as half the size of a basket ball. The duration of these lights varied from 5 to 15 seconds and 3 times the light went out for 2 or 3 seconds and then came back on for a few more seconds. My impression was that of flares but I can't understand why fighter aircraft would be using flares at least in this area which is extremly dry right now and prone to fire. I have wittnessed similar lights in this general area on 3 other occasions with-in the last 4 weeks but did not notice the jets on the other occasions. I am a 48 yoa disabled Army veteran with 7 years 9 months as a military policeman another witness is a 25 yoa construction worker and his 23 yoa wife, all witnesses are high school grads. Since this seems to be an on going thing I now have a camera and will be taking photos