One Tobermory business owner has a unique perspective after the military shot down an unidentified object over Lake Huron on Sunday.
Kent Wilkens, who is the owner of the Golden Gallery, was out walking his dog when he heard something unusual.
Wilkens remembered the sound because he was in the Middle East during the first Gulf War, but not in the military.
He was painting a mural in a chapel in Ramala, on the West Bank.
“It was, for me, a bit perplexing, because I’ve heard the noise before. And it’s fairly unique, and I wouldn’t say it got my hair standing on end, but I didn’t really feel comfortable at all.”
Wilkens says that it was nothing other than a fighter jet on afterburner, “Going hellbent for leather, going as fast as he could go.”
The sound was something that Wilkens experienced a lot during his estimated 16 trips to the Middle East, including military curfews.
After he heard the fighter jet, he then saw it patrolling the area.
He says that he kept watching the sky, and when he spotted the plane, it was quite an experience.
“I tried seeing him, and he was moving fast… He covered the sky in, probably like, under a minute. So I waited around a little bit and saw a flash from when the sunlight caught him… I could hear him coming back, and it was much lower this time, maybe about 10,000 to 20,000 feet, but I could definitely see it was an F-18, so I said ‘oh, that was interesting,’ but I had no idea what was going on, but he was heading somewhere.”
He estimates that the jet came from the direction of CFB Bagotville.