Kevin Day - UAP Navy Encounters

We’re joined by Kevin Day to discuss the Nimitz UAP Navy Encounters in Nov 2004, including the initial UAP sightings, radar returns & recalibration, the Ballistic Missile Warning system alerts, Cmdr. Fravor & Slaight F/A-18F Super Hornet intercepts, and performance of the UAPs. Kevin is a retired United States Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer, and we're dis Kevin is a former Operations Specialist and TOPGUN Air Intercept Controller with more than 20 years’ experience in Strike Group air defense including war-time operations. He’s an expert operator of the highly advanced SPY-1 radar system with years of service onboard AEGIS equipped ships including the VINCENNES, CHOSIN, and PRINCETON, and has logged hundreds of air-to-air intercepts of suspect aircraft in both training and war-time operations. In Nov 2004, Kevin was stationed on the USS Princeton as the CIC Operations Specialist Senior as the Nimitz carrier group went underway in early November 2004 for a training exercise. Former Petty Officer 3rd Class Gary Voorhis told Popular Mechanics that “The group was going to be deploying in a few months and there was a bunch of new systems, like the Spy-1 Bravo radar.” The initial incident in Nov started with radar techs getting “ghost tracks” and “clutter” on the radars, led to concerns that the Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) and AEGIS Combat System or the new AN/SPY-1B passive radar system was malfunctioning, so the the air control systems were taken down and recalibrated in an effort to clear out what was thought to be false radar returns – but once the recalibration was done, the tracks were actually sharper and clearer. These initial tracks would sometimes be at an altitude of 60,000 to 80,000 feet, but other times as low as 30,000 feet only traveling at 100 knots. Their radar cross sections didn’t match any known aircraft; had no IFF or transponder signals. On November 10, 2004, roughly 100 miles off the coast of San Diego, Kevin started noticing strange radar tracks yourself near San Clemente Island, in groups of 5 to 10 at a time at around 28,000 feet and traveling at a hundred knots, tracking south. Gary Voorhis used heavily magnified binoculars to spot these objects visually from the bridge – and said there were visible moving erratically during the daytime, and gave off a phosphorus glow as they hovered and then darted about at night. The visual sightings were based on radar returns – so the objects would show up on radar, and then Voorhis would get a bearing and sighted them visually. Additionally, Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) radar systems had detected the UAPs in low Earth orbit before they dropped down to 80,000 feet. This anomalous activity and sightings continued for close to a week. The incident that made headlines involved Commander David Fravor attempting an intercept with these anomalies on November 14. He was flying an F/A-18F Super Hornet with the call sign FastEagle01, and Lt. Cmdr. Jim Slaight was flying another Super Hornet with the call sign FastEagle02, and they were initially headed to a Combat Air Patrol point for training exercises. When Fravor and Slaight did the intercept, they noticed a disturbed patch of water, where it appeared as if there was a large object, possibly a downed aircraft, submerged 10 to 15 feet below the surface. They also spotted a white UAP above that, shaped like a large cylindrical butane tank, or a Tic-Tac candy, which they estimated at around 56 feet in length and 10–15 feet wide. Fravor performed a maneuver to get closer to the UAP, but it accelerated across his nose heading south and was gone within a second. Lt. Cmdr Slaight described the acceleration as if it was “shooting out of a rifle”, and the disturbance in the water disappeared. After the UAP accelerated away at high speed, you spotted it on radar waiting precisely at the Combat Assembly Point, which was predetermined and secret. Links & Resources: Kevin Day: https://www.amazon.com/Sailors-Anthology-Kevin-M-Day/dp/1688423958 UAPx: https://www.uapexpedition.org/