Drone Patterns Over New Jersey Similar To Those In Wyoming’s Niobrara County

Mystery drone sightings from this autumn in Wyoming bear eerie similarities to machines flying over New Jersey and other areas, that are now overwhelming the nation with theories and concerns.

In late October and through November, people started spotting devices that looked like drones flying over the tiny community of Lance Creek, the Niobrara County Sheriff told Cowboy State Daily on Friday.

“Just random, multiple drones flying around, roughly 45 minutes to an hour every night,” recalled Sheriff Randy Starkey, who watched some of the flights himself.

The objects flew at about 400 feet altitude, he said, adding, “Not really sure where they’re from, what they were doing or why they were doing it.”

Watchers didn’t get close enough to see how big the drones were. They showed red, green and clear flashing lights. Groups of them moved together in orchestrated patterns.

“We watched them go straight up and do some maneuvers and disappear,” said Starkey.

Then, a separate group would arrive and form its own gridlock patterns, he added.

This always happened just after dusk, and some residents could hear them, though Starkey said he didn’t hear them himself.

When the sheriff’s office contacted the Federal Aviation Administration about them, the FAA noted that the area isn’t restricted air space and told the office just to keep the agency informed.

The FAA said it was “doing some checking to see if they knew anything,” Starkey added.

The sheriff advised residents not to shoot the drones, and the sightings have stopped now.  

“I’m hoping the cold and wind scared them off,” said Starkey.

Sounds Familiar

Starkey’s account bears eerie similarities to the observations of multiple New Jersey residents who spoke Friday with Cowboy State Daily. The drones over New Jersey have been spotted since Nov. 18, and range from seeing four to 180 per night. 

Ryan Herd, mayor of Pequannock Township, New Jersey, said the drones fly after dusk in clear weather in a grid pattern, and “low” — sometimes over the mayor’s own house.

They seem to fly the same pattern every night and sound somewhat like a jet, but the sound is “smaller” and fades the moment the drone leaves an area, said Herd.

“It has wings; it has blinking lights — but it’s like you’re looking at something that shouldn’t be there, if you know what I mean,” said Herd.

Herd voiced frustration over state and federal officials not divulging much about what people are seeing. He attended a Wednesday meeting with law enforcement groups and 180 New Jersey town mayors. That figure represents roughly a third of the state’s mayors.

Herd asked difficult questions, like whether the drones are from the U.S. government or a private company, like SpaceX. The officials said no. They didn’t have any real answers, said the mayor.

“Which led me to blow my top,” said Herd, adding that after about 40 minutes, he left.

For now, the mayor is just urging people to be careful about telling the difference between drones and airplanes, and about what they post online so that speculation and misinformation don’t lead to unfounded theories.

His townspeople aren’t in full panic mode and they’re not staging a mass exodus.

“Listen, I’ve been a Jersey boy my whole life, we got a chip on our shoulder,” said Herd. “We’re not gonna let a drone scare us. We’re like you guys (in Wyoming). Not gonna happen.”

If The Government Says It …

Scott Mechkowski, retired command sergeant major of the U.S. Army, told Cowboy State Daily on Friday that the drones are so conspicuous and so numerous, he doubts they’re a foreign adversary or terrorist.

But he said it’s too early to rule that out.

A resident of central New Jersey, Mechkowski has been observing the machines himself. His description of their patterns aligned with Herd's. He’s also seen a lot of misinformation, such as someone posting a supposed “drone” video online, depicting what is actually a U.S. Marines aircraft, an Osprey.

Every time governmental agencies deflect, deny understanding of the drones or refuse to identify their origin, they only drive people deeper into distrust, Mechkowski said.

“When the state, like the governor of New Jersey, says these things don’t appear to be a threat (my thinking is), ‘How do you know? How are you saying something isn’t a threat without knowing what it is?’” he said.

Mechkowski said he’s certain someone, in some government bureau, knows what the machines are and where they came from.

“The American people — we’ve been lied to for so long, and I think people are starting to wake up (to the notion that) anything the government says is a lie,” he said.

He cited early understatements about the Chinese spy balloon that flew over the U.S. last year, overblown claims about the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines, and the revelation this week that the FBI sent undercover informants to events at the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

The drones’ maneuvers suggest that the U.S. government is either behind them or allowing them, said Mechkowski.

“Look, if they were trying to be secretive about it, you’re definitely not trying to fly these things at the busiest time of day in New Jersey. It’s traffic time. Everybody’s out,” he said. “And there’s a reason for them doing it at the same time every day.”

He later qualified that it’s too early to rule out a national security threat or foreign nexus without definitive evidence.

Don’t Recognize Them

Col. Dave Melendez of the New Jersey Army National Guard knows a lot about drones. He said he managed drones for the military as a battalion commander and ran a schoolhouse branch that trained people in drone usage. He also operates a drone response team for the fire department of the city of New York.

He was a little puzzled that no governmental strategists have reached out to him for advice, which he said indicates that the top tiers of American government already know key details about the devices.

Melendez also couldn’t recognize some of the drones, of which he’s reviewed video.

One had the similar shape of a known American drone type, “but the other ones weren’t really recognizable to me,” he said. In many of the videos, “none of these look familiar.”

A resident of Long Island, New York, Melendez said he hasn’t seen any in his area in person.

He floated several theories for what their purpose that were less than nefarious. They could be mapping, which is easier to do at night, or studying seismographic hot spots. The area they’re flying was the epicenter of an earthquake earlier this year, he said.

But if that’s the case, it would have been better for authorities to just say that rather than spawning thousands of theories, drone-hunting and worry, he said.

“Probably would have been simpler to say, ‘Hey we’re doing some testing,’ or, ‘We’re testing the movement of payloads’ — delivering blood or that kind of nonsense,” said Melendez.

At this point, if top federal agencies truly don’t know what’s going on, “I’d be pretty upset,” he added.

Well, How Thoughtful

Retired Air Force Col. Stephen Luxion, who now serves as executive director of research program Alliance for System Safety of UAS through Research Excellence (ASSURE), was less keen on the idea that the drones are a pet project of the U.S. government.

He said some of the nation’s own privacy laws surrounding flights, and its generally permissive airspace, are probably hindering agencies from fully analyzing the drones. Differing, highly complex duties of various agencies add to the misunderstandings as well, he said.

Luxion brushed off theories about aliens with a chuckle.

“I’m very thankful for the aliens actually using lighting systems that are in compliance with our laws for the most part,” he said. “Same (concept goes) for any kind of nefarious criminal activity.”

He harkened to his own days of flying aircraft in combat: “One of the first things you do is you turn off all your lights.”

The proper lighting on the devices suggests against an imminent threat. But some people have reported that when other flying objects draw close to the drones, their lights flick off, which suggests not everything is above-board, Luxion added.

This situation represents one of those junctures in history where society’s laws and governmental coordination haven’t caught up with advanced technology, he said.

Gonna Stay On It

U.S. Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis, both Wyoming Republicans, said they’re concerned and alarmed, respectively, about the reported drone flights in U.S. air space.

“Congress will be prepared to assist military and law enforcement should it be needed,” wrote Barrasso in a Friday email to Cowboy State Daily.

Both senators vowed to monitor the situation closely.

“This is a good time to make sure the FAA, law enforcement and the military have the authorities needed to respond to this concerning situation,” added Lummis.

Wyoming’s lone U.S. House Rep. Harriet Hageman, a Republican, also called the situation alarming, and pointed to a delay by President Joe Biden’s administration in responding to the Chinese spy balloon.

“And they are failing to act now,” Hageman said. “We continue to get reports of such drones across the country, and even some reports in Wyoming. There must be information provided on where these drones are coming from and action should be taken if it is, in fact, the workings of an adversary.”

Hageman said she’d work with her colleagues to demand answers.

In a follow-up email, Hageman said her office has received reports of drone sightings out of Sheridan and Niobrara counties.

Unlike the Niobrara County sheriff, Sheridan County Sheriff Levi Dominguez said his office hasn’t investigated any drone sightings from November to the present date.

Missile Base

In Cheyenne sits the F.E. Warren Air Force Base, one of three strategic missile bases in the U.S. — and a critical infrastructure piece.

Glenn Robertson, chief of media relations for base’s 90th Missile Wing, was vague about the drone situation in a Friday email, citing security concerns.

“Due to operational and physical security concerns, we do not disclose specific instances and numbers of unmanned aerial system incursions over the 90th Missile Wing’s area of operations,” Robertson wrote. “However, we are aware of and have investigated several drone flyovers this year.”

The 90th Missile Wing takes all suspected incursions over military assets seriously, investigates each one thoroughly and considers their origins, the email adds.

“Due to operational and physical security concerns, we aren’t able to discuss those suspected origins or motives,” he said.

‘Playing Dumb’

Retired Air Force Col. Tucker Fagan, former commander of the F.E. Warren Air Force Base, said he doesn’t have a strong theory about the drones. Like every other credentialed source who spoke to Cowboy State Daily, he discouraged people from shooting the devices down.

Fagan furnished a theory for why top governmental agencies have been so tight-lipped.

“In the military as, I’m sure, the FBI and all the other agencies, you will never divulge what your source was,” said Fagan.

If whatever the agencies know about these drones could give away a source who told it to them, they won’t go public with it, Fagan added.

Also, top agencies aren’t going to say anything that will give away whether, and how, they can counter the drones if they’re not friendly; so they don’t give a prospective enemy the chance to prepare for that.

“Man(kind) made clubs; then arrows; then bullets. Measure: countermeasure, throughout history,” said Fagan. “I think they’re protecting source and methods. Do I know that? No.”

Mechkowski echoed that theory in part, saying it’s a possible explanation for authorities’ frustrating silence.

“They don’t want to blow a source, maybe,” he said, “or they’re playing dumb, you know?”

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.