"John A. Weeks III" wrote in message ...
In article , Betsy
Chiffon wrote:

My parents back in Sioux City say that a few weeks ago their farm was
overflown by some sort of low flying, fast moving object that shook
the property and disturbed the cattle.

Naturally, alarm & curiosity got the better of my dad and he went out
to see what all the trouble was. What he saw scared the living
daylights out of him.

Coming in low and fast were a group of black helicopters. Two of them
continued on following the unseen object that had passed earlier, but
two others circled the farm and shined bright lights down on our
property. Not just ordinary white lights but red and green ones too.
They loitered for several minutes before heading off into the
distance.

More than likely, this was a Army National Guard exercise. The
unseen craft was likely a troop carrier or MC variant of the
C-130. They likely were practicing inserting a small recon team.
The Blackhawks were there to support the perimiter, and the Cobra
for any additional firepower that might be needed. It might have
been that the team jumped from the lead aircraft, and was going
to be picked up by the Blackhawks.

No more Cobras in ARNG service, IIRC.


The colored lights were to give back-ground lighting for the
pick-up zone. They don't use white light because it is too
easy to see, and it ruins the night vision of everyone involved.
Green lights up the area for the night vision equipped people,
while red is good background light for those who do not have
night vision equipment, but still must see in the dark.

Huh? Never saw green/red lights used from a helo during night LZ
operations (usually IR chemlights or strobes are the preferred
method). I believe the only red/green lights on such aircraft would be
collision lights.


My dad was shaken and called the local police but was told that no
reports of unusual activity had been called in.

My dad was furious. Having served in the US Army he said that the
helicopters appeared to be military. Probably 3 unmarked Blackhawks
escorted by one unmarked Cobra.

He called around for 3 days then gave up. He was told there were no
military activities on the night in question.

If this was homeland security related, you likely would not be
able to find out anything about it. Even routine ANG operations
are normally not discussed. It is, however, a bit unusual that
they were operating outside of thier normal range areas. Perhaps
they contacted the landowers in advance to get permission.

Au contaire. When operating in civil territory, the military has
learned the hard way that forewarning is generally advisable (even the
SFOD Delta types now do this, since SOCOM was a bit taken aback when
locals got very upset during the periodic urban assault operations
they were conducting in various cities--plenty of press on it at the
time). Every time we ever conducted operations in civil areas we were
quite careful to try and publicize ahead of time--even such mundane
activity as a dismounted tactical roadmarch through a rather rural
area of my homestate garnered some frenzied activity by certain locals
who were afraid we might be on the search for their "cash crop"...


What unit is this? Why are their helicopters not marked? Are they
based in Iowa?

This was most likely an Army National Guard unit, most likely
based in your home state. As far as I know, every state has
at least a few Blackhawks assigned to their ANG units. Check
around at local airports, and look for a building that has a
sign that says "Aviation Support Facility". That is normally
what the ANG chopper bases are called.

These birds almost certainly had national insignia on them. The
chopper itself is black, and the paint on the insignia is light
grey. It is hard to see even in the daylight, let along at
night and at a distance.

Only the USMC is still operating the Cobra here in the states, IIRC
(though I do recall that one or two might have been handed over to the
USFS for fire observation duties?).

Brooks

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