2014-01-08 - Fond du Lac, WI - Formation

I was taking the dog out to the backyard. I was standing on the deck which faces due North while waiting for the dog to do his thing.

As I waited, I heard a loud dull roar. I assumed it was a truck going down the street at first. I walked around to the other side of the deck to peak around the house. I didn’t see any trucks. I stopped and listened more closely and thought maybe it was a train, we have them frequently going through town. It was clearly not a train, then I looked up and thought that it must be a jet that’s really low, because a commercial jet doesn’t sound like that.

I walked around the corner facing due North again, and looking up I saw a flashing light, and said to myself oh, ok, it’s a jet. Then my peripheral vision caught movement. I saw a cluster of five steady, non blinking white lights moving directly North. Then three jets which I presumed were F-16s as the closest fighter base in Wisconsin is the 115th Fighter Wing National Guard based out of Truax Field, Madison, WI.

The jets were clearly trying to catch up to this cluster of five lights, and they were making pretty good time. The jets had the usual red and white lights for navigation and strobing.

I saw them chase the cluster of 5 lights for about 1min 30 seconds approximately. Total time of the event lasted about 5 minutes as I heard the jets approaching well before I saw them. And for those who like geography or don’t know, the nearest towns to Fond du Lac, WI that are due North of us are first, Oshkosh, and Appleton.

This is my first official report of a sighting. I would also like to point out that I am very familiar with aircraft of all type shapes and sizes as I have a number of years in the military with the specific duty of identifying enemy a/c and vehicles.

I'm absolutely certain that these fighter jets were chasing an object or objects and trying to gain on them as the object(s) clearly pulled away from them. I would estimate their altitude at about 1 km or so. I checked the current operational ceiling online and it showed 5600 ft. They may have been lower. Relative brightness of the cluster of lights would be about -1 magnitude. Close to the brightness of Jupiter on a clear night. Each light was this bright, and they were tightly packed together. No discernible pattern of flight or shape, they may have been independent of each other or one object. I'm inclined to say they were 5 separate objects however.