Simulcast on YouTube, Facebook & Twitter | Tuesday, September 08, 2026 @ 8:00 PM EDT (GMT-4)
One of the most important interviews ever presented on Podcast UFO, host Martin Willis sits down with former U.S. Navy F/A-18 pilot Alex Dietrich for a candid discussion of the November 14, 2004 Tic Tac UFO encounter involving the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group. Dietrich describes how an otherwise routine training mission suddenly changed when her flight was redirected by the USS Princeton to investigate an unidentified contact. She recalls the disturbance in the ocean, the moment the white Tic Tac-shaped object entered her field of view and the confusion of watching it react to Commander David Fravor’s aircraft. “We weren’t supposed to be there,” Dietrich explains. “What the hell is this thing? Where did it come from? What is it doing? How is it doing that? Is it a threat?” Flying high cover during the encounter, Dietrich found herself fascinated and unnerved. The aircrew were unarmed, the object could not be identified and no one knew what it was capable of doing. Years later, after questioning whether they might have been unknowingly sent into a secret American test, she says she was repeatedly reassured that the object was not a U.S. system, that no submarine was operating in the area and that there was no evidence of American or allied activity responsible for what they witnessed. Dietrich also discusses the troubling absence of an immediate formal investigation. No specialized reporting system, debriefing procedure or UAP investigative infrastructure existed for the aircrews at the time. When she was eventually questioned at the Pentagon years later, details had already begun to fade. The conversation goes far beyond the mechanics of the encounter. Dietrich explains why she does not consider herself a whistleblower, how her identity became public after information from the case appeared online, why she resisted media attention and what finally persuaded her to appear on 60 Minutes. She speaks about the ridicule experienced by military witnesses, the need to examine extraordinary reports without automatically embracing or dismissing them and the importance of treating experiencers with dignity. Her position remains neutral: she does not claim to know what the Tic Tac was, but she believes unexplained objects in controlled military and civilian airspace deserve serious, scientifically responsible investigation. This is the story of the Tic Tac encounter from one of its principal eyewitnesses, told with honesty, humor and extraordinary clarity. ***VIDEO CLIPS PROVIDED BY DAVE BEATY
BIO: Alex Dietrich is a retired U.S. Navy lieutenant commander who served for 20 years as a naval officer and F/A-18F Super Hornet strike fighter pilot. She completed two combat deployments supporting Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom and later served on the ground in Afghanistan as an infrastructure reconstruction engineer. Her military honors include the Bronze Star and Air Medal.
Dietrich is best known publicly as one of the four naval aviators who witnessed the now-famous Tic Tac UFO during a training mission with the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group on November 14, 2004. Flying as Commander David Fravor’s wingwoman, Dietrich maintained high cover while observing the smooth, white, wingless object maneuver above a disturbance in the Pacific Ocean before rapidly departing. She has since briefed officials at the Pentagon and Congress and appeared on 60 Minutes and other major news programs to discuss the encounter.
Following her operational career, Dietrich taught Naval Science at a consortium of Washington, D.C., universities and served as a military professor in Leadership, Ethics and Law at the U.S. Naval Academy. Her academic work has included critical thinking, leadership, ethics, resilience and change management. Despite the attention surrounding the Nimitz encounter, Dietrich remains deliberately neutral about the object’s origin and advocates for careful, evidence-based investigation without stigma or sensationalism.