Project "Nightscape", eh?

Well, I am immensely weirded out.

So there I was, sitting in my home out in the country (which just happens to be right on a flight path for some of the folks moving out of Tinker AFB in Oklahoma City,) letting my scanners run, as I normally do, when the radio I have set monitoring airspace frequencies catches on 121.8000 (Tinker Tower.)

Though I didn't catch the initial transmission [from the pilot,] Tower did respond with this: "Affirmative, [static..]. Commence NIGHTSCAPE." Then, nothing.

I did a "whaa...?" when I heard this, only because of Robert Doherty's fictional "AREA 51" series, in which the "black" choppers are a part of a project called "Nightscape" out and about around the base itself.

Coincidentally, perhaps ten minutes after picking up this transmission, two C-130s and four Chins flew by, along the flight pattern over my house.

Obviously, this opened a little door in my head that said "what the...?", but what about you all? Coincidence?

I wouldn't get too excited about it.

I'm not an AF guy, I'm an Army Guard guy, but the word could simply be a randomly-chosen name for an operation that could be as simple as a 5-minute drill of some sort. For example, Operation Snowball was something we did here in MA in 2005 to simulate response in the event of a blizzard, it was no secret and the media was there, but it was so mundane and boring that there was very little mention in the news. I think it was 36 hours long. Just because someone may have heard a voice on the statewide VHF repeater saying, "commence Snowball," does not mean anything exciting or secret was about to happen.

Other named operations we have done have, indeed, been not much more than a 5-minute drill to test communications response between two sites.