Documents / FOIA release
On 1 May 1997 the records management office of the 56th Fighter Wing at Luke AFB, Arizona, sent John Greenewald, Jr. a letter answering his Freedom of Information Act request. The letter says no responsive records exist. It says Luke's F-16 training aircraft had no involvement in the lights seen over Phoenix on 13 March 1997, and that base staff never told the Strange Universe program the lights were flares. It also explains how to appeal to the Secretary of the Air Force.
56 CS/SCBR 7023 N Jentad Lane Luke AFB AZ 85309-1661 Dear Mr. Greenewa.ld 1 May 1997 This is in reply to your 3 AprU 1996 Freedom of IDformation Act request, received on 17 April 1997. Our search reviewed no records exist pertaining to your requ..t. The mission of the 56th Flghter Wing at Luke Air Force Base (AYB) is to train F-16 nghter pilots. We are not an air defense baae wblch maintains aircraft on "scramble" status. Instead, our pUots are instructors and trainees I'llarulu&: to fly the F-16 and employ It in the ground attack and aerial combat missions. While we routinely have aircraft airborne at night. tbeir mission is not to invesUpte unusual aerial .ightings, nor would they be _ked. to do so. On the night of 13 Mar 97, our aircraft were involved in normal trainio, missions and had no involvemeot whatsoever with the Ught. observed over Phoenix. On the eveDlog of 13 Jlar 97. our command post and other baM a,encles received telephone calla about the lIgbts that many saw in the sky over Arizona. In the days that followed. our public affairs office also handled calls about the same subject. When queried by the staff of the Strange Unlverae television program, our public affairs people acknowledged tbat callers reported seeing light. ill the sky, but our staff did Dot state that the cause was aerial nare •. III fact, WCI don't know whore the question of aerial flares come from. There have been a number of accou.nU of the 13 Mar 97 incident that alleged Air Force involvement, alld we have mad. every effort to ensure that callera understood that we were not involved in that incident. However, despite our best "fforts to tbe contrary, we have been accu.ed of withholding or covering up
FOIA release, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 3 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.