PJ : “No. No one out of the ordinary arrived on the COD that I noticed. I think they arrived via helo”

Dave : “Air Force guys? So, you previously said you worked with the aircraft that transports people onto the carrier also known as COD. Did one of these bring these USAF individuals?”

PJ : “It wasn’t until our Skipper and the Air Force guys arrived at our shop door that I knew anything was different. We had confirmation that something was up when Roger returned to the shop and kinda let it slip something was up. Our division chief then basically said ‘not to talk about it or say anything'”

PJ : “Once the plane shut down, we’d conduct a turn’around, make sure all our stuff was okay, coolant levels were good and then grab our bricks (flight radar and data recorders) and go back below (to the shop).”

Back in PJ’s world, his shop’s work had just begun. After the E-2 had returned from the mission and the flight crew departed below decks, PJ and his crew began to turn around the aircraft. PJ explains what happened next.

PJ : “They stood out like a sore thumb. I don’t think the two guys ever said anything. Just our Skipper. They were wearing Air Force insignia on their flight suits. Honestly, I think they were interested in the CEC data.”

Dave : “How did you know for sure these people were Air Force and not Navy? And did they say anything?”

PJ : “Honestly, it was all pretty ordinary. We caught the plane, they shut down the engines, crew came out and went below decks. I conducted our “turn around” on the airplane, grabbed our gear and went below decks to the shop. Our safe is two-sided so it took two different people to open it. I had two people, so all our hard drives got logged back into the safe. Every hard drive had a serial number that we tracked, so we knew what hard drive was in what plane and when. A few minutes after we locked the bricks in the safe, our CO (Commanding Officer) knocked on our door – we had cypher locks on the door so you had to knock unless you knew the code – he asked us for the bricks (hard drives) that were on the flight. He had to wait a few minutes because we only had one person, one side of the safe to open. With him were two unidentified U.S. Air Force officers. We asked how to log out the bricks and he just said ‘sign them out’ to him, as we weren’t getting them back. It was probably about 25 minutes after the plane had shut down that our CO arrived at our door.”

Dave : “OK, can you describe again what happened step-by-step after you took the hard drive bricks off the E-2?”

PJ told me this was highly unusual. The classified data recorders always stayed in the safe when not in the Hawkeyes and he had never witnessed anything like this in his Navy career.

During this same few hours, over on the USS Princeton, Fire Control-man and Aegis Computer/CEC Technician Gary Voorhis, who had just spent the last week witnessing these strange unknowns on the SPY1 , was just starting to process what had gone down with Fast Eagle fighters. The day had culminated with the intercepts by Dave Fravor and the historic Tic Tac encounters. But the day was not over for Gary.

Dave: “Gary, I recall you mentioned in passing, months ago, that you had to sign out chain of custody of your hard drive bricks. I remember you indicated it was unusual for someone to confiscate hard drives? PJ said Air Force guys came on to Nimitz via helo and retrieved the data bricks from Wallbangers.” Gary: “That is also how our recordings were picked up. A helo came in and then we had to provide the tapes. Same day as the (FLIR) video was made. I had the CEC tapes for the battle group. They were the tapes they wanted the most.” Dave: “Were these USAF guys? Did you recognize them?” Gary: “I was on the crash and smash team for some extra money. I saw them land and then right after, I was called to do chain of custody for the data recordings. They were not wearing uniforms. They had suits on. They could have been anyone.” (Dave’s note – I had to look up “crash and smash team.” They’re the assigned on-deck firefighting watch crew) With that dress code discrepancy between PJ and Gary’s description of the hard drive retrieval team I thought maybe the helo that came to USS Princeton was a different flight from the one that landed on USS Nimitz. Perhaps there was a whole team sent to grab all radar data or there were just more than two in the helo? Gary: “It was a Navy helo. It came over from the Nimitz.” Dave: “PJ, did anyone make you sign anything or tell you not to talk about it?” PJ: “I never signed anything. The only thing I ever got was my Division Chief telling us to keep our mouths shut.” Dave: “Did you talk to any of your squadronmates about this day and did anyone mention anything about this event?” PJ: “Had I talked to our Lead Petty Officer at the time, he would have gone to maintenance to answer any questions about any problems the crew had on the flight. If they discussed anything with him, he never let on. None of the officers let on anything happened, either. Roger is the only other person I knew that talked about it.” And so there it is. What it is, I’m not sure. Air Force dudes on a Navy ship? Within minutes of a UFO encounter? Flight crew asked to sign NDAs and told “it did not happen”? This in direct contrast to Cdr. Dave Fravor’s statement that no one told anyone not to talk or sign anything. Obviously, if you believe the men in this report, there was some type of official government interest in the Tic Tac UFOs from the moment they appeared. We have at least three, maybe four witnesses that saw the efforts to collect up evidence. The question is how someone knew, within hours if not minutes of the event, to send people out on helicopters to remove evidence? Why were the flight crews from Wallbangers the only air crew debriefed and asked to sign NDA’s? Summary I have pondered these questions and come to only a few possibilities. Perhaps the USAF was contacted during the preceding week and told about the SPY1 radar unknown radar hits Kevin Day had been seeing on the USS Princeton. And when the objects appeared that day with jets in the air, these same people were waiting and sent immediately out to Nimitz. Perhaps the guys on Banger had seen something using classified technology on the plane, so they were asked to sign NDAs? And the government does not know what the Tic Tacs are? Or perhaps, they do. Another scenario would be the U.S. government has advanced unconventional and non-aerodynamic flight platforms. These would have to be anti-gravity, based on all information we have from witnesses. If so, these craft would be from special access programs – black budget programs and decades more advanced than any known aircraft. If we suspend disbelief for a moment and contemplate that the U.S. Government or aerospace companies are operating these craft clandestinely, an operation may have been launched to test capabilities. Much like the air defense training going on that day with friendlies playing aggressors. In this case, the supervisors of the advanced platform program would want to come out to the ships immediately after the mission to retrieve the radar data and sensitive info. to see how well their secret craft did in evading detection. I am sure there are other theories. But the facts remain. Solid American heroes reported these incidents of evidence retrieval and attempts to shut people up. I believe them. Dave Beaty – Film Maker researcher and creator of “The Nimitz Encounters,” Short Film. www.thenimitzencounters.com *Dave notes, I have seen PJ’s DD-214 military papers and photos of himself and “Roger” on Nimtiz and cruise book. PJ verifies Rogers’s credentials, as both US Navy vets that were present the day of the Tic Tac event on USS Nimitz. Kevin Day has provided DD-214 and military proof of service and verifies Gary Voorhis Navy service. Both men are in USS Princeton cruise book. ~~~~~ Joe’s Comments Some of my questions, views and theories will be a repeat of what Dave just said. How did somebody know so fast that this event had occurred and were able to get people out to retrieve the hard drives and data within a few hours? If that actually happened, I can’t help but consider the possibility that someone knew this event was going to take place. And if that’s the case, the origins of the Tic Tac may be terrestrial and part of the inventory of a super secret, black project within our government. Maybe an Unacknowledged Special Access Project, also known as a USAP? And as Dave said, maybe they were testing these secret craft to see how our guys would react and see if our most sensitive equipment could detect them. Another possibility is that these UFO events were so common at the time, a protocol was already in place so if any unknown craft were engaged by our members of the military, a call would immediately be made so the secret keepers (various small groups placed in cities all over the country) could be on site asap and do damage control. This specific set of UFO/Tic Tac events had been going on for a few weeks so maybe the secret keepers were on high alert and just waiting for something to happen? And when it did, they pounced. Must not allow the general public to see hard evidence of UFOs! So when it doubt, confiscate. Finally, what if it was all part of a practical joke? Outlandish! Or is it? Cdr. Fravor, who saw the Tic Tac and chased it, shared the details of what happened when he got back to the Nimitz. He has shared this story before but this version is the most thorough I have heard. He told it on “The Fighter Pilot Podcast.” ~~~~~ VA = Host, Vincent Aiello

DF = Cdr. David Fravor

VA: “So when you landed, as we usually do, you’d probably run down to CIVIC, Combat…I don’t even remember what it’s called any more.”

DF: “Carrier Intelligence Center. CVIC.”

VA: “Okay, there ya go. Thank you. And you’re probably talking about it and…I mean I’m just curious. So, the Air Wing Commander or Ship’s Commander, anyone come in and ask you about it?”

DF: “No. This is where it gets…At first we thought…okay this is, this is kind of odd. We’ve got something that we have…we can’t control. We can’t…for the performance of it. You know, anything that hovers like that, doesn’t not accelerate like…you know. And you’ve seen…you know, I’ve seen airplanes doing 1.8 going by me doing the high fast like at Top Gun where guys are, you know, you just see the CONS coming. But to see something that literally accelerates. Cause even if you go to Mach II (approximately 1500 mph ~Joe) Think of a rocket that takes off. You watch it and those things accelerate relatively quick but you can watch them for a significant period of time. This thing literally disappeared in a matter of…you know, less than a second. It was in front of me and it was gone.

“So, we think, ‘Oh yeah, someone’s gonna come and talk to us.’ So, we we had the tapes. My back-seater went down cause he was junior. He did the debrief in CIVIC. And, you know, you gotta tell them what did you do: ‘Oh we chased this thing. We have no idea what it was.’ And then, of course, they’re laughing cause they think it’s funny. And he comes back to the ready room. And there’s some other stuff that went on. So, we’re like, ‘Okay, maybe someone’s gonna come.’ And the next thing you know, the intel guy comes down and says, ‘Hey, we wanna…we need your tapes. They’re gonna start this investigation.’ And they’re making it like it’s a big deal. The problem was is it wasn’t a big deal because we figured out they thought it was a big, funny joke that they would do this. So I remember going down there. I told Del. I said, ‘I’ll be back…I’m gonna go get those tapes.’

VA: “Del was your XO?” (Executive Officer. ~Joe)

DF: “Yeah. And I went into the uhh, (laughs) I went into CIVIC and I said, ‘Hey, I need my tapes’ and they were just looking at me. I said, ‘I’ll tell you what. You got about two minutes to give me those tapes or I’m gonna tear this place apart and there’s not a damn thing you’re gonna do about it.’ And the Lieutenant that was in there…and I said, ‘You can go get your boss if you want cause I’ll have the same talk with him.’ And within about thirty seconds, I had the tapes in my hand and we took those back to the ready room because they’re actually our property.”

VA: “Right. And the classified equipment.”

DF: “So we copied them, believe it or not. Because we use those tapes again. So we copied them and we wrapped them up and stuffed them in the safe. They were wrapped in a piece of yellow paper that said 4CO and they stayed there. We came back from cruise, they were in the ready room safe. And then somehow, they disappeared. No one knows where they went. And I don’t know if it was, you know…there’s been several COs since then. You know, probably about eight different COs. So… No one knows where they went. You know how it is when you go to and from crews. Someone goes, ‘What are these? Hey, they look like black 8mm tapes. We’ll just use them.'”

VA: “Oh, okay. Someone might have taped over them.

DF: “It’s consumable. So no one knows where those tapes actually went.”

~~~