Navy veterans who experienced a close-call with a UFO in 2004 claimed they were forced by unknown individuals to surrender all off their evidence regarding the strange encounter. Up to this day, the Navy officials are still unsure of the individuals’ identities or which agency they worked for.

In November 2004, the Navy missile cruiser U.S.S. Princeton was sailing about 100 miles off the coast of southern California when the ship’s radar detected signals from a mysterious object in the sky. After confirming that the signals didn’t match any known aircraft, the Navy scrambled fighter jets to get a closer look at the strange object.

Radar data, as well as reports from the pilots, revealed that the object moved erratically in the sky. According to a couple of Navy veterans, the object was capable of quickly changing altitudes. They noted that it would sometimes hover at 80,000 feet then drop to an altitude of 30,000 feet.

The incident became known as the Nimitz UFO encounter. In 2017, a video recording captured by one of the fighter jets that approached the object was released to the public.

However, before the incident was widely publicized, sailors aboard the U.S.S. Princeton said they received a visit from unknown individuals shortly after the UFO showed up on their radars. One of the Navy veterans, Gary Voorhis said that after securing the data regarding the object, two unknown men aboard a helicopter suddenly showed up on the ship.

After arriving on the ship, the two individuals began securing all data files related to the mysterious object. Voorhis noted that he was told by his superiors to surrender all data recordings captured by the ship’s AEGIS weapon system to the two men.

“These two guys show up on a helicopter, which wasn’t uncommon, but shortly after they arrived, maybe 20 minutes, I was told by my chain of command to turn over all the data recordings for the AEGIS system,” he told Popular Mechanics.

Shortly after gathering everything they needed, the two individuals immediately left the ship. Voorhis and the other Navy veterans said that they were never told about the identities of the two men.

ufo
A photograph of a screen shows infra-red video of taken from a Mexican Air Force patrol aircraft of 7 bright objects flying over the eastern coastal state of Campeche on March 25, 2004. REUTERS
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