2008-03-06 - Des Moines, IA - Unknown

4 Fighter Jets continuous pattern. 2 F16's elongated N-S oval grid and 2 F16's elongated E-W oval grid. 2 craft leave fast after 3 hrs

03/06/2008 6:30pm approximately heard a set of fighter jets take off in a hurry, a few minutes later another set of fighter jets took off, made a note of this because I love to hear and watch the jets, I always say "go get em boys" and "be safe" and they make a very distinct sound when flying 7:00pm kept hearing them fly over 7:30pm after hearing the jets constantly flying over went outside, watched them for a bit making a large oval patterns 2 fighter jets flying in formation in a large oval North and South direction 700-1000 ft altitude 2 other fighter jets flying in formation in a large oval East and West direction 700-1000 ft altitude both sets of jets flying in a counter-clockwise direction if looking up at them from the ground used binoculars to look at the jets they had a blue lighted cockpit (not a bright light) watched for 30-45 minutes gut feeling was something is out of the ordinary that this just isn't right they do not fly training missions on a Thursday night over a heavily populated area that low 8:00-8:15pm went back inside to help my wife put the boys in bed 8:45-9:00pm got dressed in heavier clothes (cold out that night) and went outside fighter jets are still flying at the same level same direction. nothing else in the sky at that altitude I did see jets at a very high altitude flying what looked to be a grid pattern 2 north to south with the red and blue marker lights and 15 minutes later 2 east to west with red blue marker lights( those could have been commercial jets not sure to high of an altitude to tell) commercial aircraft were still going to the airport but they were staying west of town, had a scanner on to listen to aircraft and I did hear a pilot tell the tower "all we have seen is just a little light show tonight" 9:30-10:00pm in the middle of where the fighter jets were flying I saw bright white light like some one flipped a switch it was stationary for a split second before it shot up and out going out of the atmosphere in a SW direction at about 60 degrees there was a light trail behind it as it left it looked solid,holding your arms out it was about 6-8 inches I guess the best way to explain would be take one of those triangles from school face south hold your arms up and out at a 45 degree angle with the straight part of the triangle on the right side and the 60 degree angle on the left.

I almost fell off my deck when I saw this about 45 seconds later another object exact same thing from almost the exact same position just slightly more to the west and at about 4 inches up the trail of the other object that trail only lasted a split second but to give you an idea of the second object/lights position. the 2nd object/light took off up and out at a 30-40 degree angle in a SW direction also, again same thing face south use a triangle with the straight part on the right and the 30 degree angle on the left, up and out of the atmosphere 10:15-10:30pm Fighter jets landed not sure what I saw gut feeling like I said something was very different, not right, I do not belive that the fighter jets were flying a training mission over a heavily populated area, I do not belive that whatever those lights/objects were anything coming into the atmosphere, they were goin out, I have seen plenty of falling stars that was not it, I do not belive that it was space junk coming into the atmosphere either. the light was bright like melted metal and bright white. That night it was clear and dark. as goofy as it sounds it reminded me of a craft going into warp drive.