On November 16, 2017 a call came into the KREM 2 newsroom.
A woman on the other end of the phone said there were phallic shapes drawn in the sky in the Okanogan area and she was sure the Navy was responsible. She even sent us photos.
As this tip was being explained to the entire newsroom we couldn’t believe what we were hearing. In the end, KREM called the Federal Aviation Administration and the Naval Station at Whidbey Island.
The FAA couldn’t speak to who was responsible, but when we talked to the Navy they asked that we send them the photos and said they would get back to us.
So, we did. Maybe 30 minutes later, the Navy replied.
The email said, “We have determined that the aircraft involved in this incident was homebased at NAS Whidbey Island. The Navy holds its aircrew to the highest standards and we find this absolutely unacceptable, of zero training value and we are holding the crew accountable.”
WHAT?! The Navy just admitted to drawing male genitalia in the sky!
“U.S. Navy air crew, flying an F/A-18 Growler (Electronic Attack Aircraft) assigned to Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 130 based at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Wash., flew an air pattern over Okanogan County, Wash., on Thursday, Nov. 16, that left a condensed air trail resembling an obscene image to observers on the ground,” U.S. Navy officials said in a statement the day after the incident.
“The U.S. Navy owes you, your parents, and your students an apology for the unacceptable, obscene contrails that were created by one of my aircraft on November 16,” the letter said.
And that was the last we heard about this.
Now almost a year later, The. Same. Thing. Has. Happened.
This time, USA Today reports that the U.S. Marine Corps launched an investigation after social media users said a California-based Marine flight appeared to trace out a phallic shape in the sky.
WHY?!
Aircraft Spots, a Twitter account that documents military flights, noted the airplane's unusual path over California's Salton Sea, an isolated location southeast of Palm Springs. The account tweeted photos appearing to show a flight path that deviated from a straight line into an intricate, obscene shape.
Initially identified as a Navy flight, the account later corrected the record to say the airplane belonged to the Marine Corps.
Some saw multiple offending shapes in the flight path, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The paper also notes that the shapes would not have been visible to those on the ground and could likely only have been revealed by flight-tracking programs.
Listen up pilots: It’s 2018 and if you draw male genitalia in the sky, people are going to find out.
Joel Shannon with USA Today contributed to this report.
