UFO Sightings Surge Across US | Unidentified (Season 2) | History

Video: "UFO Sightings Surge Across US | Unidentified (Season 2) | History" (History Channel)

Full auto-transcript: WOMAN: Authorities say they don't know what they are, but there appears to be a growing problem of unidentified objects flying through the sky. NARRATOR: All across America in 2019, civilians and military personnel were witnessing bizarre craft. In Texas, 13 reported sightings of flying disks; in Florida, 27 fireballs; 40 sightings of floating triangles over California. MAN: What the [BLEEP] is that, homie? NARRATOR: But in North Carolina, there were over 50 sightings of something else-- glowing orbs. Howdy there, Shaun. Good to see you. Oh, yeah. You, too, man. What a gorgeous day. Yeah, this is beautiful, man. NARRATOR: Lue Elizondo is meeting with a former marine who wants to be known simply as Shaun. In his over 10 years of military service, he never saw anything like what he witnessed one night off the Carolina coast. So Shaun, I know a little bit about your background. But do you mind giving me just a brief picture of your life in the military? Yeah. joined the marines in '91. I became a reconnaissance marine in '96. It's a marine that's forward observer, behind enemy lines, surveillance, information collection. NARRATOR: In September 2019, Shaun was heading home after a fishing trip. SHAUN: Coming in, and instead of going to the boat ramp, I just went on into Carolina beach. I kind of tooled around. It was a beautiful evening. I noticed an orb over my head. Like, not directly over, but maybe 150 feet in the air, kind of following me. I was traveling about 5 knots. Like, oh, OK, somebody's got a drone. And the first thought was, like, oh, I couldn't hear it. I mean, obviously my motor is super quiet. So if a drone was buzzing, you know, 150 feet, I'd be able to hear. It was a round, circular orb, reddish orange. And it had a haze glow around it. Wasn't sharp edges at all. Man, maybe 5 feet in diameter? LUE ELIZONDO: So it had color to it? SHAUN: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Orange-ish red. So I took note of it, because, you know, I'm a reconnaissance marine as well. So I stop, look, listen, smell-- you know, the basic instinct, where it's-- follow me forever. I felt it was following me. I was traveling about 5 knots 20, 30 seconds. Yeah, that's deliberate. I mean, usually if it's going to go in front of you or behind you, then-- but you said it matched your speed. Yeah. That thing took off faster than anything I've ever seen. Like, it traveled as fast as, you know, a tracer round. LUE ELIZONDO: That's fast. SHAUN: Yeah. LUE ELIZONDO: Thousands of feet per second. Even bullets, when they break the sound barrier, they have that crack, that miniature sonic boom. There was no sound, yeah. That's what I want to ask you. Absolutely no sound at all. Or, thrust-- like power thrust, or-- or something. LUE ELIZONDO: Shaun is a trained observer. He's just wired differently. He sees this really weird, strange light. And the way he described this object really fell neatly within several of those observable. NARRATOR: Elizondo immediately recognizes two of the five observables-- instantaneous acceleration and hypersonic velocity. LUE ELIZONDO: Instantaneous acceleration, because he said within a blink of an eye it went from a hover directly over his boat to disappearing over-- over the horizon. And of course, hypersonic velocity. He actually used the term "a tracer bullet" just taking off, but without any type of trail. SHAUN: I didn't think anything of it until it left. You know, the whole question is, what did I see? Is it possible that these things have a very rational explanation, i.e., flares? SHAUN: Every flare I've launched has a trail. And it left. Flares come. They don't go. You don't expect a flare to simply hover. It falls with gravity, because it abides by the laws of physics. And flares don't just take off at breakneck speeds in one direction and disappear. NARRATOR: To Elizondo, Shaun's sighting is eerily familiar. MAN (ON RADIO): Hey, got one. [LAUGHS, WHOOPS] NARRATOR: Previously, US Navy Lieutenant Ryan Graves told Elizondo he and other fighter pilots repeatedly witnessed orb-like UFOs off the east coast in 2015. This was more like I was looking at a flashlight. So it was just like a singular point of [INAUDIBLE] energy. I'm literally just seeing a flash, a constant flash, a flashlight shining out there. NARRATOR: The biggest connection-- the orb-like objects were spotted near the same waters where Shaun was fishing. LUE ELIZONDO: Here we are right off the coast of the Atlantic. And in 2015, the US aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, there were several pilots who encountered something very, very interesting. They described these orbs, these little round things that they couldn't explain. NARRATOR: This area is also home to some of the largest military installations in the US. Could these mysterious orbs be targeting nearby military assets? I do think it could be, you know, maybe some type of foreign government surveillance. NARRATOR: One troubling theory is that these objects could be advanced Russian drones. If it's some red threat, that would be enormous. If it was someone operating drones out there, that'd be enormous, too. NARRATOR: A Russian spy ship known as the Viktor Leonov was patrolling international waters off the east coast of the US both in 2015 and near the time of Shaun's sighting. Could the Leonov have launched such drones or be coordinating with them to spy on the US? Is that something we need to be cognizant of? If the Russians, let's say, developed this new secret technology that they could launch a probe over our US cities and at the drop of a hat take off at supersonic speeds, without any signature, would that be something you would want to know that this technology exists? Oh, yeah, for sure. Everybody should understand what possible threats are out there from foreign governments. NARRATOR: Elizondo's teammate Chris Mellon is concerned with the ability of a foreign power to penetrate American airspace. CHRIS MELLON: We're already, you know, on thin ice in terms of having any clear idea of what these things are, where they're from, who's operating, what their intent is. Have we been technologically leapfrogged? Could it be the Russians or someone else-- in either case, they don't seem to be ours. And that's the alarming and concerning issue.