Article content continued

Fravor, who retired from the Navy in 2006 later shared the story with his wife and children, and some others who’d ask. But nothing really came of it until 2009 when a government official he declined to name contacted him while doing “an unofficial investigation.” Fravor declined to give more details about the official, but said he was later contacted by Luis Elizondo, an intelligence officer who ran the secretive program at the Department of Defense that was just disclosed.

Elizondo, who has since left the government to work for a private company that is hoping to promote UFO research for both scientific and entertainment purposes, is a large part of why the story about UFOs and the government’s program are in the news; he quietly arranged to secure the release of three videos of UFOs from the Pentagon, including the one shot the same day and place as Fravor’s.

Fravor, who has been talking about his experience to the To the Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences, the company where Elizondo is a consultant, said he knows that sharing his story has opened him up to ridicule — most but not all of it good-natured — but believes the incident should be more closely studied.

I don't think I was a nutjob as an officer in the Navy. I wasn't drunk, I don't do drugs. I got a good night's rest, it was a clear day. David Fravor

“I don’t think I was a nutjob as an officer in the Navy. I wasn’t drunk, I don’t do drugs. I got a good night’s rest, it was a clear day,” he said. “I think someone should have looked into it. Having talked to some of the other folks, it’s a big frustration that it’s coming out now and wasn’t discussed back in 2004.”

He believes that there could be some benefits from studying it.

“This is revolutionary technology to be able to accelerate, go up and down. Think about the advances that would bring to mankind,” he said. “What if it actually starts to get people to think outside the box.”

He said he’s been inundated with phone calls since his story was first told on Saturday. Still, the X-Men jokes continue.

“There is no mercy in my family or my friends,” he said.