Folks in the office of the Daily Dunklin Democrat, and perhaps others who may have been watching the sky Wednesday of last week, observed a most unusual sight. The sight prompted me to call the Department of Homeland Security, and pointed out to me at least how significant fighting terrorists overseas is.

John Emerson, the press room manager, said to me, "Jack, look at the sky." I did and we observed what appeared to be nine commercial jets flying from the west toward the east.

Obviously, that alone would not be suspicious. These jets, however, were converging in the sky in what appeared to be over Kennett. They moved closer and closer and closer, until all nine were flying parallel to each other, very close together, and going east.

I have lived near a couple of Air Force bases, and I have lived here a long time, but I have never seen anything like that, ever.

The sight was so interesting to me I decided to make some phone calls to attempt to find out what was going on. My first call was to the Department of Homeland Security.

I described what I saw and asked if anyone could tell me what was happening. I was put on hold.

Several minutes later, I was told to call the Federal Aviation Administration in Washington, DC. I did. I was put on hold.

Several minutes later, I was transferred again. Long story short, I was transferred five times and it took me 45 minutes to eventually reach a person who said he would check it out and call me back.

I talked to Richard Carlson with the Flight Standards office out of Kansas City. He did not tell me where the various aircraft were coming from, but he did tell me they were converging in a military flight training route. 

The aircraft were KC-135's, which would be the equivalent of Boeing 707's. He also did not tell me where they were flying to, only that they were flying east, which was rather obvious! He was very nice and thanked me for calling and assured me I was not seeing things.

The disturbing thing about the experience to me was how long it took me to get to someone who could check it out. I hope, if it had been terrorist activity, someone would have known something sooner. I also hope someone is working on improving call-in procedures!

Jack Rollins is the managing editor of the Daily Dunklin Democrat.