Ft. Bliss Official ‘Fairly Certain’ Mysterious Lights Many Saw Tuesday Night Was Military Exercise

A grouping of mysterious lights hovering in the Far East El Paso sky Tuesday evening caused a flood of videos, photos, and inquires on local media Facebook pages. We looked into it and, sorry UFO believers, but there is no alien invasion to report.

We contacted the Fort Bliss Public Affairs Office and spoke with Lieutenant Colonel Greg Chiles, and although he could not say with certainty that units from Ft. Bliss were conducting a training exercise Tuesday night, he stated that he was “fairly certain" the strange string of lights were "associated with military training.”

The Colonel speculated that what people saw was most likely ‘illumination flares’ that troops use as signaling devices to mark targets and/or light the area beneath and around them, adding that units from the base and the 1st Armored Division “routinely conduct training at night in the range complexes surrounding Ft. Bliss.”

The video below of illumination rounds lighting the night sky in much the same fashion makes a pretty good case for that being exactly what those mysterious lights were.

Then again, maybe it was aliens. Or magic.