They're great for scary stories, but flashing lights at AFA have several purposes

I live in Monument and have a view of the Air Force Academy. Many times in the evenings I see random flashes of white light on the side of the mountain in the trees, just west of the chapel. The flashes of light are not in one spot, they are spread out in a relatively small area. What is going on there?
- Annette Hagopian

Sometime if there’s a full moon and coyotes are howling — or maybe if it’s close to Halloween — the tongue-in-cheek answer from the Air Force Academy is “alien ships.”

Otherwise, Staff Sgt. Monte Volk of AFA Public Affairs has the real scoop: “The lights are on three radio towers, and the lights are anti-collision lights installed on commercial cellular towers (AT&T/Nextel) on the Air Force Academy. During the day, the lights are strobes and at night, the lights flash red. The lights are controlled by a sensor so the times vary as to when they actually change from flashing red to white strobes.

“The lights are required because of helicopter traffic along a high voltage power line and the Pike Forest Department of Wildlife traffic.”