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"We have a real UFO problem" (Not balloons): Quote from a Navy F/A-18 fighter pilot
Hotair ^ | 03/01/2023 | Jazz Shaw

Posted on 03/01/2023 7:20:07 PM PST by SeekAndFind

The quote in the title comes from a new op-ed published at Politico by Ryan Graves, a Navy F/A-18 fighter pilot who was one of many military officers who encountered anomalous objects in our restricted military airspace off the coast of Virginia in 2014. In the article, he reviews some of the recent activity of balloons (or “objects” or “balloon-like entities” or whatever we’re calling them this week) in American airspace and the Pentagon’s response to them. Graves has plenty of experience with UFOs because “those damn things” had been plaguing his fighter squadron for eight months during the period in question and he’s seen them up close and personal.

While Graves praises the Pentagon for improving our radar systems and other sensor data so we can more readily identify and, if appropriate, engage with unknown objects, he points out that balloons are not the only issue we need to be dealing with. And the things that he and his fellow pilots saw (and sometimes almost collided with) over the Atlantic Ocean were most assuredly not balloons.

Then came the hair-raising near misses that required us to take evasive action.

These were no mere balloons. The unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) accelerated at speeds up to Mach 1, the speed of sound. They could hold their position, appearing motionless, despite Category 4 hurricane-force winds of 120 knots. They did not have any visible means of lift, control surfaces or propulsion — in other words nothing that resembled normal aircraft with wings, flaps or engines. And they outlasted our fighter jets, operating continuously throughout the day. I am a formally trained engineer, but the technology they demonstrated defied my understanding.

After that near-miss, we had no choice but to submit a safety report, hoping that something could be done before it was too late.

Graves’ account was impressive and urgent enough that it caught the attention of Senator Marco Rubio. That makes sense since Rubio has been one of the Senators (along with Kirsten Gillibrand and others) who led the charge to investigate UFOs, writing legislation that created the Pentagon’s new UFO investigatory office, AARO.

Advanced objects demonstrating advanced technology are routinely flying over our restricted or sensitive airspace posing a risk to both flight safety & national security https://t.co/4bXEHuuaq0

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 28, 2023

One area where I’m not entirely sure how Graves views the situation comes with his praise of President Biden for ordering the creation of a new interagency UAP task force. On the one hand, I suppose that the more resources we bring to bear on this effort the better. But at the same time, we’ve just gone through years of debate and congressional wrangling to create the AARO office. Looking into these unidentified phenomena is the whole purpose of its existence. Will the new task force be sharing data so that nothing is missed? Will they be engaging in redundant efforts when we might make more progress if everyone is pulling on the same set of oars?

Ryan Graves is currently launching a new advocacy group called Americans for Safe Aerospace (ASA). This group will support pilots seeking to responsibly report anomalous activity and the skies and help develop more comprehensive reporting and analysis measures. They will also advocate for greater transparency from the government on the subject of UFOs and potentially related phenomena. I applaud this effort and hope he is successful.

In closing, Graves circles back to point out that we can’t simply ignore the balloons, particularly the ones that are conducting surveillance on behalf of our adversaries. (Though we should probably avoid shooting down the ones belonging to the Boy Scouts with sidewinder missiles in the future.) But we cannot afford to switch over to a collective mentality where everything is viewed as an adversarial balloon or drone. There are objects in our skies, in space, and under the water that are doing things we can’t explain. And we need to get to the bottom of it.



TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: balloons; donatefreerepublic; ryangraves; uap; ufo; ufos
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1 posted on 03/01/2023 7:20:07 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Old news—really really old news...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1952_Washington,_D.C.,_UFO_incident

Yawn.

If it was a true national security threat the aliens would have eaten most of us for hors d’oeuvres by now.


2 posted on 03/01/2023 7:25:06 PM PST by cgbg (Claiming that laws and regs that limit “hate speech” stop freedom of speech is “hate speech”.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I see the demons are out cruising again.


3 posted on 03/01/2023 7:30:50 PM PST by Hebrews 11:6 (“And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” Acts 2:47 -- It's still true!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Preparing for an end-times deception

He may have indeed witnessed “something”


4 posted on 03/01/2023 7:31:51 PM PST by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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Will there be another race to
Come along and take over for us?
Maybe Martians could do
Better than we’ve done
We’ll make great pets


5 posted on 03/01/2023 7:37:32 PM PST by rxh4n1
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To: Hebrews 11:6

Yep. Their power is increasing.


6 posted on 03/01/2023 7:38:20 PM PST by BipolarBob (The rumor has not been confirmed until the FBI officially denies it.)
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To: SeekAndFind
Show me on this Revell model of an F/A-18 where the mean old UFO touched your plane.


7 posted on 03/01/2023 7:38:47 PM PST by TigersEye (The Democrat Party is criminal, unAmerican and illegitimate )
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To: TigersEye

Do the leading edges move too? Looks like a decently detailed model heh.


8 posted on 03/01/2023 7:41:03 PM PST by Bulwyf (Why? )
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To: SeekAndFind

Maybe the Navy has had some advances with Super Swarms

https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/10/24/1062039/us-navy-swarms-of-thousands-of-small-drones/


9 posted on 03/01/2023 7:41:40 PM PST by Pelham
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To: rxh4n1
We’ll make great pets.


10 posted on 03/01/2023 7:42:11 PM PST by BipolarBob (The rumor has not been confirmed until the FBI officially denies it.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Teenage Boy Martians borrowing Dad’s Flying Saucer to cruise the western galaxy for Girl Martianettes on their Spring Break.
They were supposed to meet this older girl today on the Dark Side of the Moon, but got a little lost. GPS problems again.


11 posted on 03/01/2023 7:42:31 PM PST by lee martell
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To: cgbg
If it was a true national security threat the aliens would have eaten most of us for hors d’oeuvres by now.

Perhaps they're vegan and only here for the lima beans. I am willing to surrender mine.

12 posted on 03/01/2023 7:47:56 PM PST by usurper (AI was born with a birth defect.)
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To: cgbg
The 1956 incident....

Ray Harryhausen had fun destroying Washington DC in model form anyway.

13 posted on 03/01/2023 7:52:54 PM PST by xp38
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To: Bulwyf
LOL I don't know. I grabbed that pic of a model F/A-18 because it had hands in the pic. That fit my joke. It happened to be a jpeg from a youtube video though so you may find your answer there.

Revell : F/A-18F Super Hornet : 1/48 Scale Model : Final Conclusion 11:15

14 posted on 03/01/2023 7:53:19 PM PST by TigersEye (The Democrat Party is criminal, unAmerican and illegitimate )
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To: TigersEye

It was a good find and well played. Thought that perhaps it was yours.


15 posted on 03/01/2023 7:56:05 PM PST by Bulwyf (Why? )
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To: dfwgator

Insert gif .......... (Can’t with the phone 📱)


16 posted on 03/01/2023 8:01:58 PM PST by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: TigersEye
That is priceless.

And more like what I think of this article.

17 posted on 03/01/2023 8:02:42 PM PST by higgmeister (In the Shadow of The Big Chicken!)
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To: Bulwyf

Thanks!

It’s been almost 60 years since I put any models together but I could actually kind of get into that again. There are some very cool models out there.

Plus the smell of that Tester’s glue wasn’t bad either. /s lol


18 posted on 03/01/2023 8:03:17 PM PST by TigersEye (The Democrat Party is criminal, unAmerican and illegitimate )
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To: xp38

I actually really like that one.


19 posted on 03/01/2023 8:03:38 PM PST by higgmeister (In the Shadow of The Big Chicken!)
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To: higgmeister

Thanks!

AFAIK no planes, ships or people have been damaged by them. They appear to have capabilities far beyond our own. seemingly operating in and transitioning from water to atmosphere to space as if they were all one medium.

And they have no idea whatsoever what they are.

Let’s shoot at them and see what happens! /s

I don’t think they could or should just ignore them but as long as they haven’t done anything tangibly hostile it seems crazy to me to get excited about them. We don’t even know if they are really a “them.” ie if they exist as physical objects.


20 posted on 03/01/2023 8:20:07 PM PST by TigersEye (The Democrat Party is criminal, unAmerican and illegitimate )
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