Strange sighting in 1986

I had a strange sighting a few years back, about 1986 ot 1987. It was about 11 ot 12 PM and I was facing east. I saw what I at first thought was a plane rising from the northeast at an angle of about 30 to 40 degrees. It was moving very slow, that is was caught my attention. Like a ship sink slowly into the sky. As it climbed higher and leveled off I noticed it had hundreds of red dots or lights on it.
My friends and I thought at first that we were under a missle attack. But as it came closer we could see that the red dots were falling off what ever the object was. It reminded me of a smoldering log be hurled slowly through the air, with embers falling off.
Now my friends and I were convinced that we were under an alien invasion. It was traveling from the North to the South, appearing to be heading directly toward a major city some fifty miles away. As it traveled farther to the South I could see what must have been the tail-end of the object. There were three lights that were white/blue and white/green in color, with one of them shifting between the two colors.

Does anyone have any idea what this could have been? Has any heard of or seen an object like this before? Where could I look for more information?

Thanks for your time...

A flying poka dot jumbo jet? Nah i'm just kidding, i'm not sure what that was but it was probably some military test or something. Maybe they were dropping flares or testing anti missile defense systems.

possibly?

Sounds like flares from a plane.

It could have been something similar to that picture, xu, but there was no trail following behind it. It was dark and I couldn't make out the shape of the object.
There is an air guard base in the general direction I saw it rising up from, so it is possible that it was something they were up to. It was just so bizarre, I have never seen anything like it before.

were the white/blue white/green lightes away from eachother??? it could be the tail of the plane that was dropping flares

yes, the flares do sound likely in this case.. but how bright where the red dots and were they very small or significantly big?