The U.S. government has declassified and released more than 160 UFO files dating back to the 1947 Roswell incident, including military and NASA documentation. A separate Pentagon report covering 144 Navy and Air Force sightings from 2004 to 2021 explained exactly one — a deflating balloon. The rest remain unexplained. Navy Commander David Fravor’s Tic Tac footage from off San Diego in 2004 was confirmed authentic by the Pentagon in 2017. The Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program ran from 2007 to 2012. Its former director, Luis Elizondo, says colleagues tried to revoke his clearance when he pushed for transparency.
UFOs: Are They Real?
Since the Roswell, NM incident in the late 1940s, the world has seen an increasing number of UFO (unidentified flying object) reports, and here in the United States, many of those sightings have occurred in restricted airspace.
For years, the military and government have officially denied the existence of aliens or extraterrestrials, and many who have espoused the theory that these sightings were aliens were deemed crackpot conspiracy theorists and relegated to late-night television and newspapers of dubious reputation.
However, to increase transparency, the U.S. government declassified and released over 160 files dating back to the 1940s, including military and NASA documentation. These files have arguably raised more questions than they have answered.
The Roswell Incident
On July 8, 1947, a ranch foreman named William “Mac” Brazel noticed debris spread over the Foster ranch about 30 miles from Roswell. He called the local sheriff, who then passed on the information to Roswell Army Air Field.
The military arrived, picked up the debris, and shortly after the incident, released a statement that the debris recovered was a “flying disc” from the ranch.
Shortly afterward, the military changed the story to that of a weather balloon crash. In 1994, the Air Force revealed that the “balloon” was part of the top-secret Project Mogul, which sought to detect Soviet nuclear bomb tests.
A U.S. Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet aircraft assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 14 participates in an air power demonstration near the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) April 24, 2013, in the Pacific Ocean. The John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Group was returning from an eight-month deployment to the U.S. 5th Fleet and U.S. 7th Fleet areas of responsibility. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Apprentice Ignacio D. Perez/Released)
Major Jesse Marcel’s Version
US Air Force (prior to the Air Force becoming its own branch) Major Jesse Marcel was the initial officer assigned from Roswell to investigate and made the initial report of a crashed flying disc.
He was the officer who was shown holding pieces of a weather balloon several days later. In 1978, Marcel said that it was strictly a cover story.
In a television interview with Leonard Nimoy, Marcel said, “They wanted some comments from me, but I wasn’t at liberty to do that. So, all I could do was keep my mouth shut. And General Ramey is the one who discussed – told the newspapers, I mean the newsman, what it was, and to forget about it. It is nothing more than a weather balloon observation. Of course, we both knew differently.
What To Make Of Navy And Air Force Pilots’ Recordings?
Military pilot recordings of UFO incidents—now officially classified as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP)—consist of both declassified targeting pod footage and cockpit audio.
These encounters feature highly trained Navy and Air Force pilots tracking objects that maneuver and accelerate in ways that defy conventional physics.
The Pentagon has officially declassified and released several key UAP footage clips captured by U.S. Navy fighter jets. These recordings primarily come from targeting cameras aboard the USS Nimitz and USS Theodore Roosevelt.
An F/A-18F Super Hornet attached to Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 9, the “Vampires,” takes off from Naval Air Station Point Mugu, California, September 11, 2025. Gray Flag 2025 is the naval aviation test community’s premier large force test event, providing unique venues for large scale integration of new capabilities across services and platform. Working with the Joint Force, industry, and our nation’s allies to ensure seamless integration and interoperability is key to ensuring warfighters have a decisive advantage in the field. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class John T. Jarrett)
“Tic Tac” (2004): Recorded off the coast of San Diego by Commander David Fravor, this video captures a glowing, smooth, “Tic Tac”-shaped craft. The footage features the object actively rotating and darting out of the camera’s frame in the blink of an eye.
“Gimbal” (2015): Captured off the East Coast, this video shows an object rotating mid-flight against the wind, with the pilots expressing visible astonishment over their comms.
“GoFast” (2015): This infrared video tracks an object moving at incredible speeds just above the ocean’s surface, causing it to appear as though it is speeding rapidly over the water. The Pentagon said it was a trick of the eye or a parallax.
Infrared and standard camera recordings of fast-moving objects, including a 2013 video of an eight-pointed star in the Middle East and a 2023 video showing three concentric circles flying together.
None of the UAPs in these videos resembles a weather balloon in any way or moves like one. And with multiple Navy pilots viewing the UAPs at the same time, it certainly is hard to sell the idea of a “diffraction artifact.”
Unexplained Phenomena
A report cited 144 reports from 2004 through 2021, with the majority of sightings attributed to United States Government (USG) sources. Only 1 could be explained, a large deflating balloon. The remaining sightings are unexplained.
“UAP clearly pose a safety of flight issue and may pose a challenge to U.S. national security. Safety concerns primarily center on aviators’ struggle to contend with an increasingly cluttered air domain. UAP would also represent a national security challenge if they are a foreign adversary collection platforms or provide evidence that a potential adversary has developed either a breakthrough or disruptive technology.”
The report doubts that the craft visible in the videos is anything emanating from either Russia or China, as neither has that type of technology and displays extraordinary flight characteristics.
Some UAP appeared to remain stationary in winds aloft, move against the wind, maneuver abruptly, or move at considerable speed, without discernible means of propulsion. In a small number of cases, military aircraft systems processed radio frequency (RF) energy associated with UAP sightings.”
Back in 2017, the Navy confirmed the authenticity of a video showing two F/A-18 jets in 2004 encountering an unidentified aircraft off the coast of San Diego. In the video, the two fighter pilots chase down a white oval aircraft the size of a commercial aircraft without success.
U.S. Navy Aviation Boatswain’s Mate Aircraft Handling 2nd Class Kyle Darmanin, from Mooresville, North Carolina, assigned to air department’s flight deck crash and salvage division, signals an F/A-18E Super Hornet, attached to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 27, on the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) while underway in the Timor Sea in support of Talisman Sabre 2025, July 14, 2025. Talisman Sabre is the largest bilateral military exercise between Australia and the United States advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific by strengthening relationships and interoperability among key allies and partners, while enhancing our collective capabilities to respond to a wide array of potential security concerns. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Tyler Crowley)
In 2007, the Defense Department began running an investigation known as the “Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program.” But it was shut down in 2012, and the former head of that program, Luis Elizondo, resigned in frustration that senior Pentagon officials weren’t taking the issue seriously enough, which damaged his career when he tried to bring it to the forefront.
He told CNN that Pentagon officials were trying to pull his security clearance by saying that he was “crazy”, according to a report issued by them.
While the files document authenticated sightings that defy conventional flight capabilities, the Department of War and the Pentagon have clarified that there is no confirmed evidence of alien beings or spacecraft in government possession.
We are all free to believe whatever we wish (or, in some cases, helps you sleep at night), but in this vast universe, believing that the only planet with life is Earth seems a bit far-fetched.
About the Author: Steve Balestrieri
Steve Balestrieri is a National Security Columnist. He served as a US Army Special Forces NCO and Warrant Officer. In addition to writing on defense, he covers the NFL for PatsFans.com and is a member of the Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA). His work was regularly featured in many military publications.
