The night before last at around 9:30 I saw three aircraft in close formation coming across the mountain at relatively low level in a direction not of normal traffic patterns. The lead and tail aircraft showing only white wingtip lights and red and blue navigation lights. The middle craft showed only a single red flashing under the fuselage. After they passed, I went inside and checked https://globe.adsbexchange.com/

I found that two of them appeared on the radar. Two C-17's at 9,00 feet that had originated at Fort Bragg, flown over northern SC, turned NW over NC, turned NE over the Nantahala National Forest, followed the eastern portion of the Appalachians until turning west across to where I saw them, before turning NE until turning on a direct course back to Fort Bragg. While looking this over, I found that there were two other flights of 3 C-130's each ahead of this flight that had taken an identical flight path. As I watched them return to Fort Bragg, I noticed six more C-130's and two more C-17's take off and linger in the area. Everywhere else in the US, military air traffic was light and uneventful. A lot of KC-135's along the east coast but that is normal.

Since Fort Bragg is home to the legendary 82nd Airborne, I began wondering if this is training related to the increasing tensions in Eastern Europe and Ukraine, or possibly our own potential neo Fort Sumter moment. With nearly half of the states declaring support for Texas, the tyrants in DC and their overlords have just cause to be nervous.