David Fravor hearing testimony
I first want to thank you for the invitation to speak to this committee on the UAP topic that has been in the news for the past 6 years and seems to be continuing to gain momentum.
My name is David Fravor and I am a retired Commander in the U.S Navy. In Nov 2004, I was the Commanding Officer of Strike Fighter Squadron Forty-One, the World Famous Black Aces! We were attached to Carrier Air Wing Eleven and stationed on board the USS Nimitz (CVN-68). We were at the beginning of our workup cycle that would prepare us for a combat deployment to the Persian Gulf for operations supporting the ground forces in Iraq. The at-sea period was scheduled to go from Early November to Late December. During this period, we train with the other units in the Battle Group while integrating and honing our skills that we will rely on during our deployment.
We had been at sea for roughly 2 weeks, and I was scheduled to lead a 2 V 2 Air to Air training exercise. My flight of 2 F/A-18Fs was the Blue Air, the good guys, and we were being controlled by the USS Princeton, CG-59. Keep in mind the F/A-18F's are 2 seat aircraft with the pilot in the front and the WSO (Weapons System Officer) in the back seat. The Red Air was being flown by our Marine F/A-18 squadron VMFA-232.
As we launched off the USS Nimitz, we checked in with the air controller on the USS Princeton, we were told that training was going to be suspended for real world tasking. My wingman joined up and we proceeded towards a contact to the west of our CAP (Combat Air Patrol) point. The CAP point is where we would hold prior to commencing our training runs, roughly 40 miles South of the ship.
As we proceeded to the west and as the air controller counted down the range, we had nothing on our radars and were unaware of what we were going to see when we arrived. The air controller on the ship also had no idea but had been observing these objects on their Aegis combat system for the previous 2 weeks. They had been descending from above 80,000ft and coming rapidly down to 20,000ft would stay for hours and then go straight back up.
When we arrived at the location at 20,000 ft, the controller called Merge Plot, which means that our radar blip was now in the same radar resolution cell as the contact. As we looked around, we noticed some white water off our right side. The weather on the day of the incident was as close to a perfect day as you could ask, clear skies, light winds, calm seas (no whitecaps from the waves) so the white water stood out in the large blue ocean. As all 4 looked down we saw a small white Tic Tac shaped object with the longitudinal axis pointing N/S and moving very abruptly over the white water. There were no Rotors, No Rotor wash, or any visible flight control surfaces like wings. As we started a clockwise turn to observe the object, My WSO and | decided to go down to get closer and the other Aircraft stayed in High cover to observe both us and the Tic Tac. We proceeded around the circle about 90 degrees from the start of our descent and the object suddenly shifted it longitudinal axis, aligned it with my aircraft and began to climb in a clockwise climbing turn. We continued down for another 270 degrees when we made a nose low move to head to where the Tic Tac would be when we pulled nose onto the object. Our altitude at this point was approximately 15,000ft with the Tic Tac at about 12,000ft. As we pulled nose onto the object at approximately % of a mile with the object just left of our nose, it rapidly accelerated and disappeared right in front of our aircraft. Our wingman, roughly 8,000ft above us, also lost visual. We immediately turned to investigate the white water only to find that it was also gone. As we turned back towards our CAP point, roughly 60 miles east, the air controller let us know that the object had reappeared on the Princeton's Aegis SPY 1 radar at our CAP point. This Tic Tac Object had just traveled 60 miles in a very short period of time (less than a minute), was far superior in performance to my brand-new F/A-18F and did not operate with any of the known aerodynamic principles that we expect for objects that fly in our atmosphere.
We returned to Nimitz and mentioned what we had witnessed to one of my crews who were getting ready to launch. It was that crew that took the now famous approximately 90 second video that was released by the USG in 2017. What is not seen is the Radar tape that showed the jamming of the APG-73 radar in the aircraft, but we do see on the targeting pod video that the object does not emit any IR (infrared) plume from a normal propulsion system that we would expect.
What is shocking is that the incident was never investigated, none of my crew were ever questioned, tapes were never taken, and after a couple of days, it turned into a great story to tell friends. Not until 2009 did Jay Stratton contact me to investigate what we observed. Unbeknownst to all of us, Jay was part of the ATIP (Anomalous Threat Identification Program) program led by Lue Elizondo out of the DOD. | refer to the report as the Unofficial Official Report which is now available on the internet!
Years later I was contacted by Alex Dietrich, the other pilot in my flight asking if | had ever been contacted about the incident after 2009. | had since retired and my answer was no, but I toldher if folks wanted to talk, | was happy to meet with them. Alex stated that she had been
invited to the Pentagon multiple times to discuss the event and view other videos of UAPs.
I was contacted by Mr Elizondo shortly after talking with Alex in 2016. We briefly chatted and I was told that he would be in contact.
In the weeks that passed | was made aware that Lue had left the pentagon in protest and joined forces with Tom Delonge, Chris Mellon, Steve Justice and others to form To The Stars Academy. It was this organization that pressed the issue with leading Industry experts and USG officials, worked with Leslie Keane, Ralph Blumenthal and Helene Cooper to publish the articles in the NYT in Dec 2017 admitting the USG was looking at UAPs and removed the Stigma of the UFO topic which led to us being here today.
Those articles opened a door for the Government and the public that cannot be closed. It has led to an Interest from our elected officials who are not focused on “Little Green men” but on figuring out what these craft are, where are they from, the technology they possess, and ho do they operate. It has also led to the Whistleblower protection act in the recent NDAA which brings us too today.
There are multiple witnesses coming forward that say that they have first-hand knowledge, that l' m sure Mr Grusch will or already has discussed. What concerns me is that there is no “Oversight” from our elected officials on anything associated with our government possessing or working on craft that we believe are not from this world. This issue is not about full public disclosure that could undermine national security, but it is about ensuring that our system of checks and balances works across all work done in our government using taxpayer funds. Relative to government Programs, even Unacknowledged Waived programs have some level of oversight by the appropriate committee members in the House and Senate and this work that is said to be occurring from Whistleblower testimonies should not be exempt.
In closing, I would like to say that the Tic Tac Object that we engaged in Nov 2004 was far superior to anything that we had at the time, have today, or are looking to develop in the next 10+ years. If we in fact have programs that possess this technology, it needs to have oversight from those people that the citizens of this great country elected to office to represent what is best for the United States and in the best interest of its citizens.
I thank you for this time to speak with you today and God Bless America!