Tic Tac Navy Pilot Alex Dietrich Wants to ‘Normalize’ UFOs
Article from Reuters June 25, 2021 (nypost.com)
• In November 2004, during a routine training mission with the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier off the Southern California coast, Navy pilots David Fravor and Alex Dietrich were asked by another warship to investigate radar contacts in the area moving in an inexplicable fashion. The two pilots first noticed a “churning” of the ocean surface before seeing a smooth, white oblong object resembling a large ‘Tic Tac’ breath mint flying at high speed over the water. When Fravor turned to “engage with” the object, “it appeared to respond in a way that we didn’t recognize” because it seemed to lack “any visible flight control surfaces or means of propulsion,” Dietrich recalled.
• Now, with the release of the Senate UAP Task Force “Intelligence Assessment” Report and a CBS “60 minutes” interview, Dietrich has found herself at the center of a storm of UFO disclosure. “I don’t consider myself a whistle blower … I don’t identify as a UFO person,” the retired Navy Lieutenant Commander told Reuters. Since agreeing to enter the public spotlight, Dietrich has addressed dozens of video calls from journalists asking about what she saw in 2004. Her answer remains the same, as it has for the past 17 years. “We don’t know what it was, but it could have been a natural phenomenon in human activity. But the point was that it was weird and we couldn’t recognize it.”
• Dietrich said she wants to reduce the stigma attached to reporting UFO sightings and hopes more people can speak up without fear of ridicule. “Folks might be concerned about their careers or their church or something like that. They don’t want to be the kooky UFO person, so I guess I’m trying to normalize it by talking about it,” she said.
• While the UAP Task Force report covers more than 120 documented cases of enigmatic objects exhibiting speed and maneuverability exceeding known aviation technologies, Dietrich said she has no opinion on the report and was not privy to its contents. She would like to hear more from pilots who have had similar UFO sightings, however. “There’s a common humanity, I guess, of being a little bit shocked, a little bit delighted, a little bit nervous, confused, all of that. And so, recognizing that in another human, that can be comforting in a way,” she said. “I hope I’m not the UFO, Tic Tac person for the rest of my life. This is not what I envisioned for myself.”
WASHINGTON, June 24 – Retired US Navy Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich
has found herself in the glare of media attention ahead of a highly anticipated government report on UFOs, a subject she says she has little interest in, despite actually encountering one on the job.
“I don’t consider myself a whistle blower … I don’t identify as a UFO person,” the former fighter pilot told Reuters in a Zoom interview, days before the report, expected to feature her own experience and dozens of others like it, was due for presentation to Congress.
During a routine training mission with the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz off the Southern California coast in November 2004, Dietrich and her then-commanding officer, fellow pilot David Fravor,
were asked by another warship to investigate radar contacts in the area moving in an inexplicable fashion.
She recounted they first noticed an unusual “churning” of the ocean surface before seeing what she and Fravor have described as a smooth, white oblong object resembling a large Tic Tac breath mint flying at high speed over the water.
When Fravor in his jet turned to “engage with” the object, “it appeared to respond in a way that we didn’t recognize” because it seemed to lack “any visible flight control surfaces or means of propulsion,” Dietrich recalled.
Footage of what Dietrich and Fravor witnessed that day, now popularly known as the Tic Tac incident, will likely be included in the upcoming report to Congress, along with two other declassified videos taken by US Navy fighter jets in 2015 in similar encounters with what the government calls unidentified aerial phenomena or UAP.
The US Navy has previously confirmed the videos as authentic.
Dietrich, now a mother of three, has discussed her experience in a recent joint appearance with Fravor on the CBS News program “60 Minutes,” and has since addressed dozens of video calls from other journalists asking to know more about what she saw in 2004.
Her answer remains the same, as it has for the past 17 years.
“We don’t know what it was, but it could have been a natural phenomenon in human activity. But the point was that it was weird and we couldn’t recognize it,” Dietrich said, speaking from a Colorado hotel room she was sharing with her children and two dogs.
Juggling media queries amid a cross-country family move is exhausting, but Dietrich said she wants to reduce the stigma attached to reporting UFO sightings and hopes more people can speak up without fear of ridicule.
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