Massive V-Formation Passes Over Phoenix and the Valley

My name is Tim Ley, and I live in the Scottsdale area of metropolitan Phoenix. On the evening of March 13, 1997, my son Hal called me outside at approximately 8:17 PM. What I saw is extremely difficult to describe adequately. A formation of lights was moving slowly from the northwest toward the south. It was not merely large — it was incomprehensibly large. The formation was in a V-shape and as it came overhead I could determine that the individual lights were positioned at intervals along two long arms of a solid structure. I could see that it was a solid object because it blocked the stars behind it as it moved. The leading edge of the object passed over us and the trailing edge was still beyond the horizon in the northwest. My estimate of the scale, based on angular measurement from known landmarks, is that the craft was somewhere between a half mile and a mile across. It made no sound. None whatsoever. It moved at a walking pace, roughly 30 miles per hour I would estimate. My wife and son and his friend all watched it together. We stood there watching for probably five to ten minutes as it passed overhead and continued south. I subsequently checked with the FAA and was told there was no record of any aircraft in that corridor at that time. I have followed this event closely since that night. I am certain of what I saw. The flares explanation the Air Force later offered could not account for a solid object that occluded the stars.