Within Tom De Longe
How Three Navy Videos Changed the UFO Debate
TTSA paired military footage, pilot testimony and former officials to make three ambiguous Navy videos impossible for major media to ignore.
On this page
- Packaging footage, witnesses and official biographies
- Why military imagery carried unusual media weight
- What the videos did and did not demonstrate
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Introduction
The publication of three U.S. Navy infrared videos in December 2017 marked a turning point in the modern UFO debate because the footage did not reach the public in isolation. Instead, Tom DeLonge’s newly formed To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science (TTSA) coordinated the release alongside named military witnesses, former senior defence and intelligence officials, and reporting by The New York Times. This combination transformed material that might otherwise have remained a niche internet story into a mainstream news event. The campaign did not prove that the recorded objects were extraterrestrial, nor did it resolve what the objects were. Its significance lay in changing how journalists, policymakers and much of the public approached the subject: from fringe speculation towards questions of military aviation safety, intelligence oversight and unexplained aerial encounters.[WIRED]wired.comWhat Is Up With Those Pentagon UFO Videos?The article included videos of UAPs and featured accounts from Navy pilots. The program, Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program…
Packaging footage, witnesses and official biographies
The three videos—later widely known as FLIR1, Gimbal and GoFast—showed infrared targeting-camera recordings made during separate U.S. Navy encounters in 2004 and 2015. By themselves, the clips were brief, grainy and open to multiple interpretations. Their impact came from how they were presented.
TTSA assembled several elements that reinforced one another:
- Military footage originating from genuine Navy aircraft.
- Named pilots, including Commander David Fravor, who publicly described one of the encounters.
- Former Pentagon and intelligence officials, notably Christopher Mellon and Luis Elizondo, whose government backgrounds signalled that the story deserved attention beyond UFO enthusiast circles.
- Major newspaper reporting, particularly The New York Times investigation published on 16 December 2017, which linked the videos to the previously little-known Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP).[WIRED]wired.comWhat Is Up With Those Pentagon UFO Videos?The article included videos of UAPs and featured accounts from Navy pilots. The program, Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program…
This packaging strategy mattered because mainstream editors could treat the story as an investigation into defence policy rather than a claim about alien spacecraft. The credibility of identifiable witnesses and former officials reduced the reputational risk of covering a topic that had long been associated with sensationalism.
Christopher Mellon played a particularly important role by helping bring military material into the public discussion while arguing that unidentified aerial incidents deserved official attention regardless of their ultimate explanation. That framing aligned with conventional national-security reporting rather than paranormal journalism.
Why military imagery carried unusual media weight
The 2017 campaign succeeded partly because military sensor recordings are viewed differently from ordinary civilian UFO photographs.
Several characteristics made the Navy videos especially newsworthy:
- They originated from aircraft equipped with sophisticated targeting systems rather than consumer cameras.
- The recordings were linked to identifiable military training events.
- Pilot reactions were preserved in cockpit audio, allowing audiences to hear trained aviators expressing uncertainty in real time.
- The footage could be discussed independently of extraordinary claims about its origin.
For journalists, these characteristics shifted the central question from “Did someone claim to see a UFO?” to “Why were experienced military personnel unable to identify what they recorded?” That distinction broadened the audience beyond long-time UFO followers.
Equally important was the broader political context. The disclosure coincided with reporting that the Pentagon had funded AATIP, demonstrating that the U.S. government itself had considered unidentified aerial incidents worthy of investigation. Whether or not AATIP’s conclusions were controversial, its existence made the underlying story easier for mainstream outlets to justify covering.[WIRED]wired.comWhat Is Up With Those Pentagon UFO Videos?The article included videos of UAPs and featured accounts from Navy pilots. The program, Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program…
What the videos did—and did not—demonstrate
One reason the 2017 coverage generated sustained debate is that the videos supported some claims while leaving others unresolved.
They did demonstrate:
- That genuine U.S. Navy aircraft recorded unusual objects or phenomena.
- That military personnel regarded the encounters as sufficiently noteworthy to preserve the footage.
- That senior former officials argued the incidents deserved further investigation.
They did not demonstrate:
- That the objects were extraterrestrial.
- That they represented technology beyond all known human capability.
- That every reported observation matched the behaviour suggested by popular retellings.
- That the short infrared clips alone provided enough information to determine speed, distance or propulsion with certainty.
These distinctions are important because much later public discussion blurred the difference between authenticated military footage and explanations of what the footage showed. The Department of Defense’s later official release of the three videos in 2020 confirmed that they were authentic Navy recordings, but it explicitly stated only that the observed aerial phenomena remained “unidentified”. It did not endorse any specific explanation.[U.S. Department of War]defense.govU.S. Department of WarStatement by the Department of Defense on the Release of Historical Navy Videos > U.S. Department of Defense > Release…(https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2165713/statement-by-the-department-of-defens/statement-by-the-department-of-defense-on-the-release-of-historical-navy-videos/)
From niche disclosure to mainstream news
Before December 2017, military UFO cases circulated largely within specialist books, documentaries and online communities. After the coordinated release, major newspapers, television networks and political reporters treated the subject as a legitimate national-security issue.
The shift resulted less from the visual quality of the footage than from the surrounding institutional context. TTSA’s strategy effectively combined:
- recognisable public figures such as Tom DeLonge;
- former officials with defence credentials;
- identifiable military witnesses;
- documentary evidence in the form of Navy sensor recordings; and
- simultaneous reporting by respected national media.
Each element compensated for the limitations of the others. Grainy videos gained credibility through named witnesses, while eyewitness testimony gained visibility through widely circulated recordings and investigative journalism.
This model also influenced later reporting. Subsequent Navy acknowledgements that the videos were authentic, followed by the Pentagon’s authorised 2020 release, reinforced the idea that unidentified aerial phenomena could be discussed as a matter of defence policy and aviation safety without requiring acceptance of extraordinary explanations.[HISTORY]history.comNavy Confirms UFO Videos Are Real and Show Unidentified Aerial Phenomena | HISTORY…
The lasting significance of the 2017 release
The lasting importance of the three Navy videos lies less in what they proved than in how they reshaped public conversation. TTSA demonstrated that military imagery, credible witnesses and experienced former officials could move the UFO topic into mainstream political and journalistic discussion. The campaign established a template that later congressional hearings, Pentagon reporting and media investigations would continue to follow: begin with authenticated military evidence, distinguish unknown objects from extraordinary conclusions, and frame the issue around national security and flight safety rather than speculation about extraterrestrial visitors.[U.S. Department of War]defense.govU.S. Department of WarStatement by the Department of Defense on the Release of Historical Navy Videos > U.S. Department of Defense > Release…(https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2165713/statement-by-the-department-of-defens/statement-by-the-department-of-defense-on-the-release-of-historical-navy-videos/)
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Endnotes
1.
Source: wired.com
Title: What Is Up With Those Pentagon UFO Videos?
Link:https://www.wired.com/story/what-is-up-with-those-pentagon-ufo-videos
Source snippet
The article included videos of UAPs and featured accounts from Navy pilots. The program, Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program...
2.
Source: defense.gov
Link:https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2165713/statement-by-the-department-of-defens/statement-by-the-department-of-defense-on-the-release-of-historical-navy-videos/
Source snippet
U.S. Department of WarStatement by the Department of Defense on the Release of Historical Navy Videos > U.S. Department of Defense > Release...
3.
Source: history.com
Link:https://www.history.com/articles/navy-confirms-ufo-videos-real
Source snippet
Navy Confirms UFO Videos Are Real and Show Unidentified Aerial Phenomena | HISTORY...
4.
Source: military.com
Title: Navy Declassifies its Notorious ‘UFO Sighting’ Videos | Military.com
Link:https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/04/27/navy-declassifies-its-notorious-ufo-sighting-videos.html
6.
Source: abcnews.go.com
Link:https://abcnews.go.com/International/navy-videos-spark-renewed-interest-ufos-enthusiasts-congress/story?id=71561209
7.
Source: abcnews.go.com
Link:https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/pentagon-declassifies-navy-videos-purportedly-show-ufos/story?id=70364183
8.
Source: abcnews.go.com
Link:https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/newly-released-dod-video-purportedly-shows-navy-pilots/story?id=53671546
Additional References
9.
Source: pbs.org
Link:https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/analysis-whistleblower-testimonies-did-not-change-our-basic-understanding-of-ufos
Source snippet
July 29, 2023 — * * * * * # Analysis: Whistleblower testimonies did not change our basic understanding of UFOs Politics Jul 29, 2023 6:15...
Published: July 29, 2023
10.
Source: theblackvault.com
Title: the black vaults aawsap aatip and post 2017 ufo timeline project
Link:https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/the-black-vaults-aawsap-aatip-and-post-2017-ufo-timeline-project/
Source snippet
The Black Vault’s AAWSAP/AATIP and Post 2017 UAP/UFO Timeline Project - The Black VaultJanuary 21, 2023 — NY TIMES CONTACTS PENTAGON SEEK...
Published: January 21, 2023
11.
Source: declassifiedtoday.com
Title: Gimbal and Go Fast: The Navy Videos the Pentagon Made Official
Link:https://declassifiedtoday.com/2026/06/20/gimbal-and-gofast-the-navy-videos-the-pentagon-made-official/
Source snippet
Gimbal and GoFast: The Navy Videos the Pentagon Made OfficialJune 20, 2026 — GIMBAL AND GOFAST: THE NAVY VIDEOS THE PENTAGON MADE OFFICIA...
Published: June 20, 2026
12.
Source: videoovni.fr
Title: archive vérifiée la vidéo navy qui a relancé la question uap
Link:https://videoovni.fr/en/articles/archive-v%C3%A9rifi%C3%A9e-la-vid%C3%A9o-navy-qui-a-relanc%C3%A9-la-question-uap.html
Source snippet
FLIR, Gimbal, GoFast: the three Navy videos… | UFO VIDEOApril 20, 2026 — Verified archive Published on 2026-04-20 Fact checked Official d...
Published: April 20, 2026
13.
Source: youtube.com
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36Ty_S1qs20
Source snippet
The Beginning of To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science...
14.
Source: youtube.com
Title: Declassified: Pentagon UFO Files Explained
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlURj2WAQf4
Source snippet
New York Times Pentagon UFO 2017 video release AATIP Pentagon officially releases 'UFO' videos...
15.
Source: youtube.com
Title: Navy pilots describe encounters with UFOs
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBtMbBPzqHY
Source snippet
Pentagon Admits Secret Program AATIP Investigated UFOs | The Basement Office | New York Post...
16.
Source: youtube.com
Title: Newly Released Video Offers Look At Secretive Pentagon UFO Program
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAFoLnzUCcM
Source snippet
Navy pilots describe encounters with UFOs...
17.
Source: youtube.com
Title: The Beginning of To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er1jVsxg3sc
Source snippet
Declassified: Pentagon UFO Files Explained...
18.
Source: disclosuremonitor.com
Link:https://disclosuremonitor.com/articles/pentagon-officially-releases-uap-videos-explained