Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs

Elizondo discusses the Tic Tac UAP encounter, which is considered the “gold standard” of UAP encounters due to the fidelity and quantity of information that was gathered. The Tic Tac encounter refers to an event in November 2004. The USS Nimitz (a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier) and several other Navy ships were gathered off the coast of San Diego. For two weeks, the radar operators logged UAP activity near the vessels. These UAP performed aerial acrobatics beyond the capabilities of any human-made aircraft. Their propulsion suggested a need for power far beyond anything human machines could offer, they made no sonic boom when breaking the sound barrier, and they were difficult to spot with the naked eye. Four Navy pilots in two jets managed to finally track the UAP, reporting that it was “shaped like an elongated oval or cigar” and that it measured roughly 46 feet (74). The pilots tried to chase the UAP, but it sped away and was soon tracked at the combat air patrol point, a secret rendezvous location that is known only to the pilots and select others. Video footage of the Tic Tac UAP was captured, as well as many data points that confounded the researchers.

Elizondo thought about this astonishing report while watching his daughter’s lacrosse practice. He wondered what the other parents would think about him if they knew the nature of his work. He obsessed over Tic Tac and mentally drew comparisons with historic cases. The Tic Tac shape that gave this case its name was not new; many witnesses had reported cylindrical, elongated objects in the sky. Elizondo was shocked that the Tic Tac incident was so quickly dismissed by the high command of the USS Nimitz. Quickly, however, the videos of the UAP were shared by crewmen using the government’s classified email system. Stratton investigated the Tic Tac incident and found that many people were unwilling to talk about what they had seen. They were concerned about breaking rank, as the topic was considered “a definitive career killer” (79). Nevertheless, the Tic Tac incident is remarkable for the volume of high-quality information that was captured by the crew.

While working in the AAWSAP, Elizondo believed that a collision with powerful government figures was inevitable. In particular, rumors of a circle of religious fundamentalists were a persistent threat to UAP investigations, which ran contrary to the teachings of some religions. Elizondo suggests that this religious society—whom he refers to as the Collins Elite—is real. He likens their existence to the Illuminati: an elusive, anonymous society of religious devotees. Elizondo considers himself spiritual but believes that UAP investigations should be led by science. He feared interference from the Legacy Program and the Collins Elite.

Staffing changes in the Pentagon meant that old allies and advocates of AAWSAP were replaced by less interested parties. According to Elizondo, the UAP research merited additional resources from the DoD, but the new bosses struggled to understand why this research was taking place. Fearing the reprisal of the religious fundamentalists, he urged Lacatski to alter the tone of their messaging. Speaking to one higher up, he was told that the UAP were actually “demonic” and that further research was not needed because everything they need to know about UAP can be found in the Bible. Elizondo was shocked. He describes some issues interfacing with the civilian Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies, run by Bob Bigelow. Though these issues were eventually resolved, the AAWSAP was becoming an administrative and legal headache for the government—though Elizondo believes that these issues were deliberately exaggerated to shut the program down. Nevertheless, AAWSAP agreed to focus only on military witnesses, rather than incorporating civilian witnesses.

During this time, Elizondo moved into a new position in his main job. The AAWSAP work remained a smaller part of his portfolio, but he was largely concerned with “the US government’s efforts at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba” (87). He used the classified status of the military black site to provide cover to his UAP research, using the same budget to analyze witness accounts in a seemingly mundane fashion. Furthermore, the AAWSAP was restructured and renamed to provide further cover, becoming the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). Elizondo called in favors to protect scientists like Lacatski from persecution by the bureaucrats and administrators. By treading carefully, and with the help of powerful allies like Senator Harry Reid, Elizondo and his department were able to continue their UAP research under the guise of more mundane intelligence operations. Elizondo conducted research into “alleged alien implants found in humans” and tried to track down the biological samples that had supposedly been collected over the years (91). Though the topic was interesting, Elizondo and Stratton agreed that they should focus on the “nuts and bolts of UAP military encounters in order to effectively navigate future battles” (93).

This new era of the AATIP needed to be “lean, mean, and dedicated” (95). Elizondo and his colleagues carefully handpicked a team. They wanted the most intelligent and insightful people; anyone drawn to UAP research via personal obsession would not be considered. Now, Elizondo was inducting people into the program just as he was once inducted himself. He realized that there was a strong, entrenched stigma against working on such a program. They developed special routines to speak to potential witnesses, providing plausible deniability so that the witnesses need not worry about risking their careers.

When he received a video regarding an incident similar to the Tic Tac incident, Elizondo shared it with specialists without mentioning UAP. In a roundabout way, the specialists admitted to him that no human-made vehicle could perform in such a fashion. He thought about the way in which the electromagnetic pulse from a nuclear detonation (such as the test of an atomic bomb) may have disabled the aircraft that crashed at Roswell. He worried whether this could be seen as an act of aggression by whatever was piloting the UAP.

During this time, however, Elizondo also had to care for his dying mother. She was suffering from inoperable stomach cancer, and he was with her as much as he could be. He describes the harrowing experience of watching her die. Just a few months after her death, he was interrupted during a meeting in the Pentagon and told that his wife, Jennifer, had been involved in a car accident. She sustained a traumatic brain injury but was released from the hospital relatively quickly. Though she physically recovered, the accident changed Jennifer’s view of the world.

Elizondo added to his collection of tattoos. He couldn’t reveal the significance of his latest tattoo to his tattoo artist, but he is proud of the Shadow Hunters emblem that honors his team at AATIP. Elizondo does not particularly like tattoos, but he appreciates their ability to honor someone special. He thinks about the people he has lost during his military career and the injuries that he has suffered. Many people, he knows, have suffered from mental and physical health issues caused by UAP, but the details of these issues are kept confidential. He lists incidents in 1980 and 2007 in which people were seriously harmed by UAP encounters. The AATIP consulted with many medical professionals to learn more about the biological effects of UAP encounters. They also investigated the phenomena of time distortion, in which those involved in UAP encounters experience time differently from those around them. Minutes can feel like hours to these people, and vice versa. Elizondo recalls his experiences working with famous scientists such as Garry P. Nolan, Colm Kelleher, and Jacques Vallée. They noticed that many of the patients involved in UAP encounters are “high-functioning and [have] high IQs” (112). Elizondo relates this to his experience with remote viewing and the possible existence of a “sixth sense” that grants people greater preceptive abilities. The connection to remote viewing also makes the investigation all the more personal for Elizondo.