There is probably no more credible witness to the 2004 USS Nimitz Tic-Tac UFO incident than David Fravor, the retired Commander of Strike Fighter Squadron 41 (VFA-41), more popularly known as the “Black Aces,” who flew the F/A-18F Super Hornets that encountered the so-called Tic-Tac UFOs. After all that time, one would think Fravor would have said everything there is to say and divulged every secret there is to divulge. One would be wrong.

“When you actively jam another platform that’s technically an act of war.”

In a recent interview (watch it here) with podcaster Lex Fridman, a Russian-American research scientist at MIT whose work centers on human-AI interaction, Fravor starts by describing the actions the Tic-Tac UFO took that convinced him as a Navy pilot engaging with it to make the “act of war” assessment.

After its unbelievably rapid exit from his sight, Fravor informed a second pilot, Chad Underwood, who gave chase. Catching up, Underwood was able to aim and fire his radar gun at the UFO. When the signal bounced back to him, that’s when Underwood knew things got serious.

“He’s telling the radar, ‘Stare down the line of sight, whatever is there I want you to grab it and build a trace file on it,’ which will tell you where it is, how fast it is and the direction that it’s going. The radar is smart enough that when the signal comes back if it’s been messed with, it will tell you – it will give you indications that it’s being jammed…. It’s being jammed into about every mode you can see… You can tell it’s being jammed.”

Jamming radar is taught to U.S. pilots to be an act of war. By definition, the U.S. pilots would have been within their rights to engage with the UFO. The problem, as has been described many times since the videos were finally released in 2017, was that the UFO did something seemingly impossible.

“When I got too close to it, it decided I’m out of here and did something we had never seen.”

Unable to reach anywhere near its speed, the pilots let the Tic-Tac leave. In the interview (pertinent quotes have been summarized in The Daily Star, Newshub.com and other sites), Fravor pushes his idea that the Tic-Tac was a solid object, not a decoy hologram as some have proposed. At that point, he begins to build his case for what it might be. He believes that if it was advanced technology developed by the U.S., it would have been impossible to keep it hidden since 2004. The same would be true for other countries as well. Because it was so advanced, it had no need to take offensive actions against the pilots – it merely observed and “mirrored us.”

Then the pilot dropped his bombshell (no pun intended):

“I don’t like to get into little green men but I don’t think we’ve developed it.”

At this point, it’s worth noting that Fravor doesn’t think the military or the government could keep an aircraft with that capability secret for 16 years, but he seems to have no problem accepting that it may have kept the existence of an alien aircraft secret that long. Perhaps it might have been more difficult to keep quiet if the craft had been captured, shot down, crashed or in some other way provided some solid evidence of what it might be. It’s only been in 2020 that former Senator Harry Reid and other UFO insiders have hinted that material evidence of alien crafts exists, although they quickly backtrack under pressure.

Both Fravor and Underwwod have risked their reputations and careers on exposing the Tic-Tac UFO and have not backtracked. If anything, as this interview suggests, they’ve become more open. However, it’s obvious Fravor doesn’t have the solid evidence either – just the fervor to get as much out in the open about the 2004 Nimitz incident and the Tic-Tac UFO and any others there might be.

Let’s hope he can, because:

“When you actively jam another platform that’s technically an act of war.”

By little green men.

That’s a question I’m often asked. And, it’s a question that, today, I’ll try and answer. There’s no doubt that something very unusual happened outside of Roswell, New Mexico in the summer of 1947. The big question is: what was it that came down? What we know for sure is that when a large amount of unusual debris was found on the Foster Ranch, Lincoln County, New Mexico in early July 1947, it provoked a great deal of interest and concern – at least, briefly. It’s a fact that the military did announce they had recovered a “flying disc.” That soon changed. It was – the media and the public were told – nothing but a weather-balloon that had come down. It was a big mistake. That remained the U.S. government’s position for decades. Things changed in 1994. That was when the Air Force stated – contrary to what was said way back in 1947 – that what plummeted to the ground was really a huge “Mogul” balloon array – which were designed to monitor for early Soviet atomic bomb tests. Also, the Air Force said because Mogul balloons didn’t have crews, there was no way that bodies could have been found on the ranch. In 1997, though, the Air Force changed its position and said that yes, there were bodies, after all. They were, however, not dead aliens, but crash-test dummies used in high-altitude parachute experiments. That’s quite a change of stories! To this day, and for the Air Force, the dummies/Mogul explanations remain firmly intact. Now, let’s get to the heart of this article: how can we get the proof for what happened?

Out at the Roswell crash-site

(Nick Redfern, 2010)

The fact is this: there is zero evidence for any of the theories. And when I say that I mean hard, undeniable evidence. For example, the Air Force openly admits that its conclusion – concerning what came down on the ranch was a Mogul array – was just a theory. Granted, the Air Force is pretty sure that Mogul is the answer, but it’s still a theory and nothing else. Indeed, there’s not even a single sheet of official Air Force paper that confirms a Mogul balloon came down on the ranch on that famous day. Similarly, not even one document has ever been uncovered that shows crash-test dummies came down on the ranch. Again, it’s just a theory. Of course, there’s no evidence for the extraterrestrial scenario either. Yes, there are old-timers who swore they saw strange bodies at the site of the incident. Others, such as Philip Corso, claimed that in the wake of the crash, the U.S. secretly began to reverse-engineer the alien technology. I should stress there’s no evidence to back-up what Corso said, either. And no-one has ever presented photos of the mangled bodies at the crash-site. This brings us to another angle, one that many may not have thought of. It’s an angle that might depress some of you. I think, however, it could be the answer to why we have a 100 percent lack of hard proof concerning the legendary incident.

Dummies in the desert? (Nick Redfern, 2007)

If aliens did crash not too far from Roswell, there’s no doubt that truly massive amounts of documentation and photos would have been created. And, it would surely still exist to this very day. Yet, not even a single, solitary page – a definitive smoking-gun – has even surfaced over the last seventy-three years. Not one. Maybe that’s because the paperwork no longer exists. This brings us to my two books on what happened in 1947 – The Roswell UFO Conspiracy and Body Snatchers in the Desert. Collectively, they tell a dark and disturbing story of top secret balloon-based programs using human guinea-pigs in high-altitude flights in the skies of New Mexico. Operation Paperclip, Japanese and German scientists, and controversial flights involving prisoners and handicapped people are just the start of the grim story. One of the issues that most of my sources stressed to me was that in the wake of the experiments in July 1947 the documentation – as in all of it – was destroyed. The reason? Because of the highly controversial nature of the tests, some of which may have crossed over into areas of an illegal nature. Taking into consideration the fact that the tests were complete failures –  and there was that issue of Nazis being involved, too – a hasty decision was made to bury everything. And by “bury” it, I mean everything was destroyed. All that was left by August 1947 was a bunch of memories. And, as time passed by, those memories became less and less. To the point where, today, just about everyone who was there is gone.

Basically, if I’m right, and if my sources were speaking truthfully (I believe they were), then the reason why we cannot find the proof for Roswell is simple: there really is no evidence. It’s gone. All of it. It was burned, shredded (take your pick) when someone made the hasty decision to make sure no one would ever be able to prove the terrible truth of what really happened. If Roswell did involve aliens, then the documentation would definitely have been preserved. But, if we’re looking at failed, top secret experiments of distinctly dubious natures, then it’s easy to see why everything could have been destroyed only a month after the events occurred. The stark reality of the situation might be this: we’re too late. The only thing left today, after seventy-three years, could be a big nothing. And there’s no way to bring back nothing.

Related videos, selected and posted by peter2011

Several drawings, including the only known portrait of the now-extinct giant sloth lemur, have been discovered by an international team of scientists on the walls of a rock shelter located in the western part of Madagascar.

Dr. David Burney from Hawaii’s National Tropical Botanical Garden as well as other experts from the United States, United Kingdom, and Madagascar, found the drawings in Andriamamelo Cave which is close to the small village of Anahidrano. The drawings were created with black pigments that were made from charcoal or iron minerals.

The pictures included natural scenes with human-like figures as well as zoomorphic figures (animal forms or gods in the form of animals), and animal-human hybrids. Numerous living animals were depicted in the pictures, but there were also three drawings found of the elephant bird, tortoise, and giant sloth lemur.

An example of rock art depicting an animal (not the one found in Andriamamelo Cave).

The giant sloth lemur was drawn in a hunting scene where a hunter was pointing his weapon (maybe a bow) towards the upside down animal and two dogs. As for the hunter in the drawing, “There are two distinct legs, and a third appendage pointing backward in the manner of a tail or a sheathed sword. The posture and detail evoke classical images of the conspicuous constellation Orion,” the researchers noted. It is believed that the upside down animal with its legs in the air was in fact the giant sloth lemur. “These large primates are known as abundant subfossils from Anjohingidrobe Cave also in Beanka, such as Babakotia radofilai. They are generally reconstructed with long forelimbs, a short snout, and small rounded ears.”

Additionally, there were several symbols of an M-shaped motif (ሐ) found on the walls which is quite significant. “We have not found this figure in other rock art around the Indian Ocean, except a rare occurrence in Borneo, believed to have been created about 2,000 years ago,” the researchers explained, adding, “It also matches one distinctive character found in the Amharic alphabet of Ethiopia.”

Another example of rock art depicting an animal (not the one found in Andriamamelo Cave).

They went on to say, “Eight instances were noted where images and themes suggest Ptolemaic Egyptian mythological characters and symbols, some possibly of stellar constellations.” “There are no characters from the Latin alphabet. No cattle images, nor any Judaeo-Christian, Muslim, or Hindu symbology.” (A picture of the rock art can be seen here.)

Photograph (top) and artist’s sketch (bottom) of the inferred hunting scene: hunter (background, left) extends weapon toward inverted large animal in foreground; two dog-like zoomorphs are on the right.

Image credit: Burney et al, doi: 10.1080/15564894.2020.1749735.

It is believed that the rock art was made around the start of the Christian Era or perhaps even a few centuries prior to that time. “The local people associate the images with a different ethnic group from themselves (Vazimba or Bosy), from an unknown time, who made them in connection with divination,” claimed the researchers. Their paper was published in the Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology which can be read in full here.

Within the field of Ufology, the term “little green men” turns up now and again – usually in a disparaging, fun-poking, debunking fashion. The fact is, though, that real LGM are not as common as some might think. After all, the most visible and well-known aliens of Ufology (and of pop-culture, too) are the large-headed, black-eyed Grays. And they’re called the Grays for a very good reason: they are gray in color! The real Men in Black (who are clearly not human) have pale skin, sometimes almost milk-white. The Space Brothers and Sisters of the 1950s had a skin color the same as us. And, yet, the LGM words still circulate. Of course, the so-called Reptilians of both Ufology and the world of conspiracy-theorizing are said to be green in color. It has to be said, though, that the Reptilians are certainly not little in stature. In fact, quite the opposite: they tower over even us – if you buy into the tales, it must be said. With that said, just how popular is the LGM phenomenon? Let’s have a look.

Edgar Rice Burroughs

A researcher of folklore named Chris Aubeck has been able to determine that those three, now-famous words – little green men – date back to the final years of the 19^th century. The renowned fantasy novelist Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote of the “green men of Mars” in his 1906 story, A Princess of Mars. On May 22, 1947, just one month before the term “flying saucer”” was coined (following the sighting of a squadron of UFOs seen over Mount Rainier, Washington State by a pilot named Kenneth Arnold) a reference to “little green men” was made in a Harrisburg, Illinois newspaper, the Daily Register. Although the small article was on a medical condition that can cause the skin to turn green, it demonstrates that the terminology was in popular use before UFOs were, themselves, a part of our culture. Four years later, in 1951, a sci-fi novel, Mack Reynolds’ The Case of the Little Green Men was published.

Let’s now take a look into the distant past. So the tale goes, back in the 12^th Century, a young girl and boy, of strangely green-hued skin, appeared in the  village of Woolpit, England, which is situated between the towns of Bury St. Edmunds and Stowmarket. The children claimed to have come from a magical place called St. Martin’s Land, which existed in an atmosphere of permanent twilight, and where the people lived underground, on nothing but green beans. While the story has been relegated by many to the realms of mere myth and folklore, it may not be just that. It might, actually, be much more. According to the old legend, the two children remained in Woolpit and were ultimately baptized by the villagers, who accepted them as their very own. And although the boy ultimately grew sickly and eventually died, the girl did not. She thrived and finally lost her green-tinged skin to normal colored skin of healthy appearance.

Aliens? Not in my opinion (you can find my views on all this at this link). I have, however, heard several UFO researchers say that the children were what we might call “proto” little green ETs. Researcher-writer Melanie Koslovic says: “It has also been suggested that the children may have been aliens, or inhabitants of a world beneath the Earth. In 1996 an article was published in the magazine Analog concerning this mystery; astronomer Duncan Lunan hypothesized that the children were accidentally sent to Woolpit from their home planet due to a malfunction in their ‘matter transmitter.'” Such is the passage of time, we’ll probably never get the full story of those strange kids. What all of this tells us is that yes, the “little green men” terminology is indeed ingrained in the field of Ufology. The extent to which it has a place in reality, however, is quite a different thing. For me, at least.

Related videos, selected and posted by peter2011

“To infinity … and beyond!”

The U.S. Space Force – the first military service branch tasked with operations in the space domain – has deployed its first Space Force airmen (that’s what they’re called, even if they’re female – at least until the Space Force switches over to Navy rankings) on their first mission. Where will they be stationed? Infinity? The International Space Station? Cape Canaveral? Area 51? A secret base testing secret anti-Tic-Tac-UFO aircraft?

I’m hoping its infinity.

“While a sunset would usually have signaled the end of just another day at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, for 20 military members the golden hour glow seemed to symbolize the promise of a new beginning. Enlisted and commissioned Airmen assigned to the 16th Expeditionary Space Control Flight and the 609th Air Operations Center joined the U.S. Space Force during enlistment and oath of office ceremonies at the Silent Sentry compound Sept. 1, 2020.”

That’s right – the first deployment of the Space Force is to Qatar. The twenty officers and Airmen in core space career fields such as space operations and space systems operations were formerly members of Space Operations. Now, as U.S. Air Force Col. Todd Benson, director of Space Forces for U.S. Air Forces Central Command, said in the press release, they are “joining our nation’s newest service.”

They have been deployed to the Middle East will they will conduct space operations from their base

Credit: US Air Force/Staff Sgt. Kayla White

But … Qatar?

We hear you. Let’s see if we can figure out why. Al Udeid Air Base did not exist until Operation Desert Storm, the Gulf War in 1991 between coalition forces and Iraq. Sensing a need for a base in the Gulf, Qatar secretly built Al Udeid Air Base in 1996 at the cost of more than $1 billion. It was first used by the U.S. in 2001 by the U.S. to prepare for operations in Afghanistan and eventually in Iraq and Syria. Al Udeid now serves as logistics, command, and basing hubs for the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) area of operations.

And?

Well, that’s about it. No invasion has been announced. Al Udeid Air Base is probably the most modern based used by the U.S. military and it was once secret, so it could still have some new secret operations for the Space Force. It most likely has had more Air Force operations than any other base, so its pilots have had the most opportunities to encounter UFOs/UAPs. This seems like a good place for Space Force to be … especially since their uniforms are already desert camouflage.

Not blue? Or something stolen from Star Trek?

Nope … camo. The ‘official’ reasons are to save money (not a good sign) and that the Space Force is a ground force supporting ground personnel. That’s disappointing to the Trek-loving public and not really great for recruiting future Space Force members.

The US Space Force has its own flag

Credit: Reuters

What would Buzz Lightyear think?

“Years of academy training wasted.”

On August 15 I wrote an article here at Mysterious Universe titled “My Time Spent in the World of Crop Circles.” It began as follows: “Now and again, people ask me for my views on the Crop Circle phenomenon. Well, I’m sure the vast majority of them are made by people, although calling the creators ‘hoaxers’ is way off the mark. To understand my views on the phenomenon, check out this link which will take you to one of my earlier articles here at Mysterious Universe. Personally, I think that article gets to the heart of the matter – albeit in a very strange and alternative way. With that said, I’ll share with you a few of my many experiences in the weird world of the Crop Circle.” Now, onto today’s article. It is focused on a phenomenon that came long before Crop Circles were on the scene. It is, however, a phenomenon that has some degree of connection to the famous formations that appear in the fields of Wiltshire, U.K. every summer. With that said, read on. On February 10, 2018, journalist Anna Levy wrote an article for Australia’s Brisbane Times titled “UFO Culture: State Library of Queensland collects its own X-Files.”

In part it stated:

“A banana grower [named George Pedley] drove his tractor along a narrow track at the edge of a sugar cane farm in Tully, north Queensland on January 16, 1966. The weather was calm, the morning sun high in the sky. The tractor passed over the track with its usual rumble, but beneath it the banana grower detected a faint hiss. He leant forward to investigate, assuming his tyres had a leak, but his eye caught something else instead. A saucer-shaped object, silver-grey and about 25 feet in diameter, rose before him. The object ascended slowly from the nearby lagoon to the treetops before tilting slightly and speeding away to the south-western horizon. The man ran through the thick reeds and sword grass surrounding the lagoon, forcing his way through the undergrowth until he could see the water. A large whirlpool had formed, devoid of all plant life. Over the next few hours, the dead reeds below the eddy rose to the surface, forming a ‘nest’ within which there lay a perfect imprint of an inverted saucer.”

Pedley himself said: “Suddenly, an object rose out of the swamp. When I glanced at it, it was already 30 feet above the ground, and at about tree-top level. It was a large, grey, saucer-shaped object, convex on the top and bottom and measured some 25 feet across and 9 feet high. While I watched, it rose another 30 feet, spinning very fast, then it made a shallow dive and took off with tremendous speed. Climbing at an angle of 45 degrees it disappeared within seconds in a south-westerly direction.”

Over at the Old Crop Circles website, there is the following: “The ‘saucer nests’ of Tully, 1966 are undoubtedly the most famous circles known before the modern era. Even Doug Bower, who claimed to have started the crop circle phenomenon in 1978, cited Tully as his initial inspiration, remaining virtually mute on what might have caused the nests. (It definitely wasn’t him; he once stated that local farmers had made them, without further explanation.) Although these are universally called the Tully nests, they were in fact much closer to the very small town of Euramo, which lies to the south of Tully. The spot is known informally as Horseshoe Lagoon. These are very widely documented, particularly in the crop circle press, where virtually all publications mention them. Although the body of literature pertaining to this event is sizeable, we will only provide a basic outline below. If readers want more detailed accounts, there is plenty of information available in books and on the internet.”

As is noted at ufo.fandom.com: “During the course of the investigations, as many as five other ‘nests’, all smaller than the original, were discovered. In some of these, the reeds were rotated in a counter-clockwise direction and a couple of them showed signs of burning in the center of the nest. Samples of the original nest were sent to Brisbane for analysis, but nothing unusual was detected. Other than being part of the ‘nest’, the only unusual thing about the reeds was that they turned brown in about 8 hours, whereas reeds uprooted by hand in the lagoon took three days to turn brown. In a 2018 interview with Robbie Graham, Australian UFO researcher Bill Chalker said: “Northern Queensland around Tully has had a rich UFO history particularly since the classic 1966 daylight UFO physical trace in Horseshoe Lagoon. St. George and Boulia Queensland also had a prolonged history. Coonabarrabran in NW NSW has a prolonged UFO focus, as well as the Bourke area. Tyringham on the Dorrigo Plateau and around Mount Butler/Armidale in the New England district has had a recurring focus. The Kempsey area, the Central coast and Blue Mountains regions of NSW also have long UFO focuses. The South coast of NSW, particularly around Kiama has a lot of UFO activity. Leitchville- Echuca, Rosedale- Gippsland and the Mallee district of Victoria seem to host a lot of activity.”

While the “UFO Nests” of Australia did not create as much publicity as the Crop Circle phenomenon certainly has, they are an important part of 1960s-era Ufology.