By Charles Lear
On December 16, 2017, The New York Times published an article and sidebar that startled a lot of people. The article was about a Pentagon program to investigate UFOs, which was proudly championed by former United States Senator and Minority Leader from Nevada, Harry Reid. The sidebar was about an 2004 encounter with a UFO by two Navy pilots and included an embedded 76 second video purported to have been taken during the encounter. The fact that the Times had published a UFO story was almost stranger than the stories themselves because it was well known, at least among ufologists, that The New York Times NEVER reported on UFOs. The encounter is now referred to as “The Nimitz Encounter.” This should have been The Case that put to rest the question of whether some UFOs are intelligently controlled craft of non-human origin and the claim that the “Government” has hidden evidence in its possession. It should have but it didn’t.
For those who are unfamiliar with the details of the case I present the “Executive Summary” from a confidential report “prepared by and for the military” according to the KLAS I-Team who released it.
Executive Summary
During the period of approximately 10-16 November 2004, the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group was operating off of the Western cost of the United States in preparation for deployment to the Arabian sea. The USS Princeton on several occasions detected multiple anomalous aerial vehicles operating in and around the vicinity of the carrier strike group. The anomalous aerial vehicles would descend very rapidly from approximately 60,000 ft mean sea level altitude down to approximately 50 ft mean sea level altitude in a matter of seconds. They would then hover or stay stationary on the radar for a short time and then depart at high velocities and turn rates.
On 14 November after again detecting the anomalous aerial vehicle, the USS Princeton took the opportunity of having a flight of two F/A-18Fs returning from a training mission to further investigate the anomalous aerial vehicle. The USS Princeton took over control of the F/A-18Fs from the E-2C airborne early warning aircraft and vectored in the F/A-18Fs for intercept leading to visual contact approximately 1 mile away from the anomalous aerial vehicle, which was reported to be an elongated egg, or a “Tic Tac” shape with a discernible midline horizontal axis. It was solid, white, smooth, with no edges. It was uniformly colored with no nacelles, pylons, or wings. It was approximately 46 ft in length and the F/A-18F radar could not obtain a lock on the anomalous aerial vehicle, however, it could be tracked when stationary, and at slower speeds, with the FLIR.
The anomalous aerial vehicle did take evasive actions upon intercept by the F/A-18F, demonstrating an advanced acceleration, aerodynamic, and propulsion capability. The anomalous aerial vehicle did not take any offensive action against the carrier strike group, however, given it’s ability to operate unchallenged in close vicinity to the carrier strike group, it demonstrated the potential to conduct undetected reconnaissance, leaving the carrier strike group with a limited ability to detect, track, and/or engage the anomalous aerial vehicle.
For those who don’t know, George Knapp, the man who broke the Bob Lazar/Area 51 story, is a member of the KLAS I-Team, which is a group of television news reporters with KLAS Channel 8 in Las Vegas Nevada.
So, why didn’t this case turn out to be end of the rainbow for ufologists? The simple answer is that the tiniest bit of doubt was introduced into the discussion and no new information has surfaced that can quell that doubt. That doubt came with the discovery that the released video was found on a server used by a German film company, ”Vision Unlimited” that specializes in special effects and animation. Subsequent investigation revealed that the manager of the company had no idea where it came from or how it got there. This is a strange story in itself and has indications of disinformation but all that matters is that it effectively unleashed skepticism and that skepticism remains.
This leaves the witness testimonies as the most credible sources of information and whether or not you believe the testimonies determines whether or not you believe the case provides evidence that there is a non-human intelligence interacting with us. The two most vocal witnesses are David Fravor and Kevin Day and they offer two different perspectives on the incident specifically and the phenomenon in general. Both were highly regarded military personnel and their testimonies should be highly regarded as well.
David Fravor was a Navy Commander at the time of the incident and was the pilot that was vectored in to intercept the anomalous object. He states that he had no visual contact upon reaching the merge plot (area of object on ship radar) at 28,000 feet. The Princeton reported that the object had dropped to about 50 feet and Fraser descended to investigate. He says that in spite of it being a calm, clear day, the water was churning and covered in whitecaps as if a large object the size of a Boeing 737 was just underneath. He then sighted a white object shaped like a, “Tic Tac” approximately 40 feet long. He describes the object as moving like a ping pong ball making instantaneous changes of direction. While attempting to get closer to it, the object mirrored his movement, ascending as he descended. He then aggressively attempted to get beneath the object at which point the object flew off at an incredible velocity.
Fravor tells the story consistently and eloquently, and you get a good, old- fashioned “nuts and bolts” feeling about his encounter. Kevin Day leaves you with a different feeling and one that’s not so comfortable.
Kevin Day was a Top Gun Navy Air Controller aboard the USS Princeton at the time. He was the leader of the ship’s radar operations and responsible for air defense, however, this was a training mission so the ship was mostly unarmed. He and his team had been tracking anomalous aerial objects over a period of four days. He reports that they would appear intermittently in groups of eight to ten flying south from Catalina Island at 28,000 feet going 100 knots. He was intrigued by their speed because it was too slow to slay aloft at that altitude for a normal aircraft. On day four he became concerned about air safety as there were to be flight exercises that day and he asked the captain for permission to intercept. He was given the go ahead and he and his group were the ones who vectored Fravor and another pilot to the object.
Day continues his story, relating the personal alteration caused by his involvement in the incident and the effect it has had on his life. Strange things began happening to him and some have been negative, putting a test to his sanity and marriage which both managed to survive. He wrote and published a fictionalized account of his encounter in 2008 in an effort to deal with it and preserve it. In an interview on Skeptico, Day mentions a particular moment when he went up on the bridge for a visual confirmation and observed an object through binoculars. It was then that he claims he was emotionally affected and at that point, things began to change. He reports being smarter, more prescient and able to manifest things by thinking of them and having them appear through circumstance, for example, mentioning ice cream to a friend while up on a mountain and the next day having another friend show up with some. He says he was not a “UFO guy” before the incident and had to educate himself on the subject. He brings up a paper written by Jaques Vallée and Eric Davis titled, “Incommensurability, Orthodoxy and the Physics of High Strangeness: A 6-layer Model for Anomalous Phenomena.” Basically the paper attempts to bring the “ultraterrestrial” view of the phenomenon into the realm of scientific study by offering means and methods. In their view the UFO phenomenon is both physical and psychic and Day seems to believe this as well. As regards disclosure he is concerned. He imagines what would happen if billions of people were changed like himself because of it. Not all of it, he feels, would be good
To date more witnesses have come forward and more testimonies presented. The case has a lot of twists and turns with major figures in politics, industry, science, entertainment and ufology involved. It’s the Rendlesham case on steroids and worth looking into.