Do not take this the wrong way, but you have no flipping clue as to what we could or could not do 15 years ago. You didn't even know local newspapers were online ten minutes ago, so don't pretend you have any idea what the state of your military's technology was.
It's also entirely possible that what you saw wasn't an object at all, but a weather phenomenon. Or maybe it was a satellite, or satellites, as the paper for this more recent sighting offered. Remember, the paper concluded that they were, what, party favors?
And there's always the chance you have made more of this sighting in your memory. You know how stories told among friends always seem to grow as the years go on, and each one of you would swear to the story's authenticity? The same could go for the sighting you shared with your parents--or as you said originally, your dad and your grandmother.
You don't know what constitutes an "other-worldly aspect".
Good man.
Can I share something with you, Reiku? I used to be just like you. Every light I saw was a UFO, and the oddest of them were alien. I was sure of it. I was a Believer. For a long time after I got over that, I even held on to the ridiculous position that the best we could say about UFOs is that we "don't know what they are." But this is clearly the wrong position. That's like saying we don't know if leprechauns exist. Until there is some evidence for extra-terrestrial origin, there is absolutely no reason to assume UFOs are anything but terrestrial.