medium.com/on-the-trail-of-the-saucers/navy-serviceman-reports-five-separate-triangle-ufo-incidents-over-naval-air-station-e382285b388fby Ryan Sprague /
medium.com/@ryan-sprague51Jun 13, 2022
Navy Serviceman Reports Five Separate Triangle UFO Incidents over Naval Air StationDecades of mysterious triangular UFO sightings continue to haunt our skies and defy official explanationOn June 25th, 2021, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), under the work done by the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF) released a nine-page preliminary assessment of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena to the public, as previously requested by the Senate Intelligence Committee. In turn, the possibility of a permanent UAP office has officially become a reality. The shedding of stigma and ridicule in reporting UFOs is fading, enabling more military personnel to actually report UFO incidents instead of ignoring them altogether. But for many military personnel who didn’t have this newfound luxury of acceptance and destigmatization, simply reporting such things wasn’t even an option. And one of those individuals who suffered the stigma was former Navy Serviceman, Angelo Accetta. He contacted the author (Ryan Sprague) in 2021 and shared for the very first time, five separate sightings of a triangular-shaped UFO over a Naval Air Base in California between 2011 and 2012.
A Handful of Black Triangles
Accetta joined the U.S. Navy in 2009 as an Aviation Maintenance Administrator, working logistics for the F-18 Super Hornet fighter jets. He was stationed for shore duty at FRC West at Lemoore Naval Air Station, in Lemoore, California. While on watch duty on November 15th, 2011 at approximately 11:30pm, something caught his attention. “I noticed an object in the night sky,” Accetta recalled in an email. “It was too slow to be an F-18 SuperHornet. I’m very familiar with these planes because of my job.” What struck Accetta most was both the shape of the object and the light emitting from it.
“It was triangular. It had lights glowing below it. They were on each point of the triangle. They were extremely bright and gave off a white glow.” He couldn’t make out much more as the object was about 500 yards away. But Accetta believed it to be rather large from that distance, and approximately 4,000 or so feet in altitude.“Its speed was moderate and it moved so smoothly, almost like gliding on water.”
Exclusive artist rendering by Olof Röckner
Accetta remembered just standing there, frozen in place. “I was mesmerized but what I was seeing.” After about three minutes of watching the triangle travel west, it suddenly shot off at immeasurable speed and disappeared out of sight. Accetta told a superior later that morning what he had witnessed. “My superior immediately laughed and jokingly asked if I had been drinking on the job.” This response was all he needed to remain quiet. “I was a fresh out of basic at my first command and I did not want my superior officers and other shipmates to look at me differently. Word travels fast on military bases and I didn’t want to be labeled a weirdo or crackpot.”
While one UFO event would pique anyone’s curiosity, Accetta would encounter the mysterious triangle on four more separate occasions between February and October of 2012. Each time the black triangle would glide around certain areas of the air station, astonishingly in areas where Accetta knew squadrons would often conduct practice operations at night. “I couldn’t believe there was not one F-18 in the sky during the time this object was in our air space,” he recalled.
On one occasion, while on a smoke break, Accetta would witness the triangle with another serviceman. According to Accetta, he and his shipmate were walking towards the Barracks when the shipmate noticed the black triangle above them, moving very slow across the night sky. It was approximately 2,000 feet or so above them, much too low to be any aircraft they were used to seeing at the station. “I was waiting for him to say something, but it was like he was mesmerized. I was thrilled that somebody else was actually here to witness this with me,” Accetta recalled. As they watched, the black triangle made a quick motion to the right and instantaneously shot off out of sight. Accetta was hoping that by having someone else there, that the two of them could report what had happened.
Dejected both by the ambiguous nature of this black triangle and the fact that nobody else ever seemed to report it, these sightings left Accetta both perplexed and concerned that something truly mysterious was happening at Lemoore Naval Air Station.
Triangulating the Mystery
David Marler is a UFO researcher and author. He’s lectured across the United States and has consulted for various television shows concerning UFOs. Perhaps his best known work, however, is his 2013 book, Triangular UFOs: An Estimate of the Situation. In the book, Marler brings forth countless reports of triangular UFO sightings and has personally reviewed over 17,000 case files involving these craft. “These are very large, low level, highly detailed accounts,” Marler stressed in an email. “This makes this category of UFOs most compelling.”
David Marler, Triangular UFO Researcher
Top-secret tests of both the B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber and the F-117 Nighthawk were arguably the cause of some of these black triangle reports throughout the late 80s and early 90s. But what happens when these triangles pre-date experimental stealth aircraft both in the U.S. and across the world? Marler’s reports spanned continents and decades. In the 1960s, triangles had been reported in numerous states throughout the U.S, including Georgia, Texas, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Puerto Rico. Most notable was a wave of triangular-shaped craft sightings from 1983 through 1986, in the Hudson Valley, about fifty miles north of New York City. But even more intriguing were similar reports out of London, Madrid, Czechoslovakia, and another wave of sightings in Belgium in 1990, in which the Belgian Air Force attempted to intercept one of the triangles. Astonishingly, the triangle was able to outmaneuver the fighter jets reaching speeds estimated around 1,100 mph, and then disappearing out of sight with no signs of propulsion or sonic booms.
Even more compelling is the fact that many of these reports and files Marler has come across pre-date modern stealth technology, which is often attributed to these sightings. Remarkably, he tracked down black triangle reports dating back to 1888 in the Dutch East Indies and even a wave of triangle sightings occurring in 1895 in both England and Scotland. But the most curious aspect to these reports were their striking similarities between then and now. Marler would state:
“The reports clearly describe the objects as one hundred feet wide at the base and two hundred feet in overall length. This correlates with the reports from Belgium and Southern Illinois in the years 1989–1991 and 2000 respectively. Is it possible we are dealing with the same objects despite the geographical differences and temporal difference of roughly 100 years.”
With capabilities that baffle even the most seasoned fighter pilots, the question remains; who or what is in control of these triangles? Marler suggests that, “some of the triangles being reported do seem to be military in origin. These are the reports involving contrails being seen in conjunction with the craft and those exhibiting conventional flight dynamics and associated engine noise. Aerospace experts have admitted to me as much that we do have triangular military aircraft. But it’s the ones that do not display these common flight characteristics that truly interest me.” Even more interesting to Marler are the lights on these triangles. They display no blinking patterns that most collision or landing lights would. They simply cast light downward towards the ground. Marler would explain that he believes that these lights “are an inherent part of the propulsion technology.” No matter what the lights may represent, the bigger question would have to be; what is the overall agenda of the triangles?
From an Intelligence Perspective
Christopher Mellon is the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and former staff director of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who played an integral role in the development of the legislation included in the recent UAP preliminary assessment by the Office of the Director of National Security. With a keen interest in UFOs since he was a child, Mellon used his government access and relationships with high-level officials to attempt finding any information he could on the UFO issue. This would include the specific subject of the black triangles.
Christopher Mellon, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence
In an email, Mellon would explain that:
“There is a surprising signal to noise ratio regarding persistent reports of these triangular objects. Uncannily consistent reports have been coming in for many decades from reliable military and civilian sources around the world.”
The descriptions of the black triangle by Accetta would be strikingly similar to many of the reports and observations both Marler and Mellon had come across in their own research, particularly the low flying, slow moving aspect. Mellon asks:
“One has to wonder: Why fly so low and slow in the dark, when modern technology let’s you see everything clearly from space? The answer that springs to mind is that someone has a requirement for exquisite detail, perhaps details not only of the surface but sub-surface structures and infrastructure, to include power and communications. The other value of low, slow and black, is undetectability. The low altitudes generally observed would carry these large craft under most radars. So, to me, it looks and acts a lot like a clandestine reconnaissance platform.”
If the triangles are a reconnaissance craft of some sort, what exactly are they doing at Lemoore Naval Air Station and who is flying them? Mellon added, “I’d love to know who is operating these and for what purpose, especially since triangle UAPs are often seen above or near military facilities. Are some of these reports actually secret U.S. aircraft? Of course. Are they all? Absolutely not.”
Contacting Lemoore Naval Air Station
In full transparency, the author reached out to the public affairs office at Lemoore Naval Air Station for comment on what Accetta may have seen on five separate occasions directly over the installation. After several lengthy phone conversations in which each of Accetta’s sightings were discussed in detail, they declined comment. The author also received a Freedom of Information Act response from the Department of the Navy, stating that, “NASL conducted a diligent search, and no responsive records were found. Per policy, these records are retained for two years and then destroyed.”
Lemoore Naval Air Station. Credit:
www.miltary.comIn turn, Lemoore public affairs sent our request over to Pentagon spokesperson, Susan Gough, who stated to the author:
“To maintain operations security and to avoid disclosing information that may be useful to our adversaries, DOD does not discuss publicly the details of either the observations or the examination of reported incursions into our training ranges or designated airspace, including those incursions initially designated as UAP.”
So without an explanation by either Lemoore Naval Air Station, the Department of the Navy, or the Pentagon, Accetta, like many others, are left to truly wonder what these black triangles are, and who is in control of them.
A Need to Know
Alex Hollings served as an active duty Marine for six and a half years. He is currently editor-in-chief for Sandboxx, a website dedicated to military affairs , foreign policy, and defense technology analysis. “As a kid, I saw what I guess I’d say was a triangular UFO,” Hollings told the author in an email. “I saw a large, triangular aircraft fly low over my neighborhood in Connecticut and it made no appreciable sound.” Hollings admitted that he had been interested in UFOs at a young age. And although the event left an impression on him, his eventual military service and understanding of “Need to Know” classified operations brought that flying triangle he saw as a kid into much sharper focus.
Alex Hollings, Sandboxx
In relation to what these triangles might actually be, Hollings attributes many sightings to advanced aircraft technology.
“They are most likely demonstrators (prototyping) and classified aircraft testing (to include drones). The B-2 Spirit and forthcoming B-21 Raider are both large triangular aircraft, as is the highly secretive RQ-180 drone. A number of other advanced drone programs have utilized the flying wing/triangular shape, including the MQ-25 Stingray and the X-47B which, if I’m honest, looks like a UFO.”
But Hollings wasn’t quick to explain away all triangle sightings as misidentified military aircraft. “While there are obviously plenty of things that could be mistaken for a triangular UFO, I still think some may not be so easily explained. But 99% of the time, a triangle is only a mystery to those without a sufficient security clearance.”
Deepest and Darkest
Nick Cook is an aerospace and defense journalist, having been the former aviation editor of Jane’s Defence Weekly. With unprecedented access to the latest developments in aerospace and defense, both in Europe, the United States, and across the globe, Cook saw an opportunity to use this access to also pursue a personal curiosity and mission. In an interview with the author, he explained this mission:
“What is the deepest, darkest secret, that I can conceive of, that the U.S. Government could be hiding? It would have to be a new form of propulsion.”
Nick Cook, Defense Journalist and author
This very question would gradually lead Cook on a ten-year long investigation that culminated in a best-selling book, The Hunt for Zero Point. “I wasn’t considering UFOs at all. I was looking at it purely from a black program and stealth database.” This ultimately led to Cook interviewing personnel at various companies that made up the Defense Industrial base, a global complex that enabled research and development, design, and production of weapons systems, subsystems, components and parts that would meet U.S. Military requirements. As Cook navigated his way through the black-budget world, he attempted to uncover the possibility that scientists and aerospace companies may be developing craft with positive lift applications or anti-gravitic properties.
Could the black triangles possibly represent both an example of stealth technology and anti-gravity all in one craft? Cook’s honest response to this was that, “Given the radar returns and reports for the black triangle wave in Belgium, these things were not only moving extremely quickly, but were moving so slowly, that anomaly didn’t stack up against any conventional aerospace explanations, even a very secret one.”
Lighter Than Air
The National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS) was a research organization financed by real-estate developer, Robert Bigelow, in 1995. Within the institute, various scientists were hired to carry out a serious study in to unexplained phenomena, which included UFOs. A hotline had been created to take reports of UFOs throughout the United States, and during 2000, there was an explosion of reports coming in of black triangles, most notably a wave of sightings in Shiloh, Illinois on July 5th, where several law enforcement officers attempted to chase these objects but were unable to do so. NIDS worked diligently, trying to unravel the black triangle mystery, coming to an arguable conclusion in 2002. After studying over 150 cases of black triangles, using the details of the craft itself and its behaviors, their data was then correlated in to a graphical map that showed a large number of cases taking place in proximity to military installations. But not only that, they consulted with several individuals with a history in aerospace development, who found that the dimensions of the these craft and the behaviors were extremely similar to “lighter than air” blimps that could possibly run on highly advanced propulsion systems that would render the aircraft both silent and undetectable to most radar systems.
The National Institute for Discovery Science
While this 2002 NIDS study could explain some of the black triangles, it certainly doesn’t explain all of them. According to the study, these “blimps” were estimated to be about 600 feet long, 300 feet wide, and weighing at least 100 tons, capable of carrying huge payloads across vast distances without being detected on radar. However, many reports of black triangles describe the craft as moving very slowly but then taking off at instantaneous acceleration with no visible signs of propulsion. Cook stressed that:
“This is the teasing, beguiling nature of the phenomenon. It reflects certain portions of what is happening in the ‘real world’. So there were certain aerospace developments that could explain a fraction of black triangle sightings data, but they couldn’t explain the whole data set. So that is where you’re left scratching your head.”
But perhaps even more beguiling and mysterious is that there may be such a craft that can carry out lighter-than-air functions while also traveling at hypersonic speeds. All that’s needed is the shape of a triangle to bring this possibility together. And we need look no further than at the ambitions of one man and the U.S. Navy.
The Pais Papers
Brett Tingley is a freelance writer and journalist focussing on technology and and aerospace for the news media site, The Warzone. He came across an usual, but intriguing patent filed by Salvatore Cezar Pais, a Mechanical and Aerospace Engineer who worked at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland, the Navy’s top aircraft research and testing base. In an email, Tingley would explain that: “These patents were the impetus for a research project that was funded through the Naval Innovative Science and Engineering (NISE) — Basic and Applied Research (BAR) program.” But what did this have to do with the triangles? One of the patents that Tingley came across was for a craft that, according to Pais, could achieve, “high electromagnetic field-intensity (EM energy flux) values. These high energy electromagnetic field fluxes could be used to build a craft that moves the propulsion and power arena beyond gas dynamic systems and enables the design of a field propulsion-based hybrid aerospace-undersea craft, capable of multi-domain missions.”
Drawing from the Pais patents
One of the patents included drawings of one of the proposed craft, depicting a triangular cross section, Pais noting that this design, “can be, but without limitation, a cone or lenticular triangle/delta wing configuration.” However, Tingley points out that:
“Nowhere does it say the craft has to be triangular, nor black. The inventor claims this concept could enable the design of very large craft. The patents are certainly legitimate for what they are: proposed, and very much hypothetical, applications of the inventor’s own theoretical physics concept for which we still haven’t seen any experimental verification.”
The Pais patents caught the attention of several other journalists as well. Ross Coulthart is an Award-Winning investigative journalist for Australian news, including the Australian version of the current affairs program, 60 Minutes. His personal interest in the UFO topic led him to interview many former government, intelligence, and military officials on the topic. This would eventually lead to the strange, yet compelling Navy patents.
In a video interview conducted by the author with Coulthart, he would state that it’s possible that:
“America may be worried that their strategic rivals may be on the point of some sort of technological breakthrough, particularly with anti-gravitic energy systems. America could lose an advantage. The speculation is that what these patents represent is an attempt by the Americans to pre-empt harnessing this technology already, therefore when rivals start showing it and claiming rights to it, the Americans will be able to assert that they already have it and don’t have to pay them for it. The fact that the U.S. Navy are asserting that this technology is operable, for the life of me, I don’t know why this isn’t front-page news.”
Watch the full interview with Ross Coulthart below.
So while these patents may possibly only exist in the mind of its ambitious engineer, the fact that such a craft is even being considered by the Navy is interesting, only adding more layers of mystery to the triangles and what Accetta may have seen over Lemoore Naval Air Station. That mystery, however, was about to go mainstream like never before.
Flying Pyramids
On April 8th, 2021, documentary filmmaker Jeremy Corbell, and investigative reporter, George Knapp, published several slides and a video that was confirmed to have been used as part of the UAP Task Force’s briefing materials. The video, about forty seconds in length, shows in night vision, what appears to be a triangular, or pyramidal- shaped craft moving moving through clouds slowly across the sky. The video was taken off the coast of San Diego in July of 2019. It was filmed by Naval officers off the USS Russell, a U.S. Navy Destroyer. In an interview with Knapp, Corbell stated:
“It shows what they described as vehicles. They made sure in this classified briefing, they made a great distinction that this is not something that we own and this is not something of a foreign military.”
The video was confirmed to be authentic by Pentagon spokesperson, Susan Gough. In an email to the author, she stated:
“I can confirm that the referenced photos and videos were taken by Navy personnel. The UAPTF has included these incidents in their ongoing examinations.”
Even more intriguing was that this event coincided with several others in the training range off the Southern California coast. Originally reported on in July of 2019, documentary filmmaker, Dave Beaty, discovered that swarms of mysterious unmanned aerial vehicles were being witnessed around and above the USS Paul Hamilton, USS Kidd, USS John Finn, USS Rafael Peralta, and USS Russell. The US Navy had conducted a thorough investigation in to these events to determine if the fleet area control had been flying any drones in this vicinity and time period of these events. Beaty filed a Freedom of Information Act Request to the Department of the Navy, inquiring if any drone exercises were on record during these mysterious events.
In summation, Beaty explained in an email that:
“The U.S. Navy was not flying the drones or vehicles that were seen. Not only do they not know whose drones these are, but there is over ninety pages of information on these events, that are being withheld.”
So while these flying pyramids may not be U.S. Navy drones, there is apparently a massive amount of data and information about these events that remains exempt from disclosure and remains in the omnipresent purgatory of classification and transparency.
Looking Forward While Looking Up
On November 23rd, 2021, the United States Department of Defense announced the establishment of the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG). This would act as a successor to the U.S. Navy’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force. The goal of the AOIMSG will be to:
“Synchronize efforts across the Department and the broader U.S. government to detect, identify and attribute objects of interests in Special Use Airspace (SUA), and to assess and mitigate any associated threats to safety of flight and national security. To provide oversight of the AOIMSG, the Deputy Secretary also directed the USD(I&S) to lead an Airborne Object Identification and Management Executive Council (AOIMEXEC) to be comprised of DoD and Intelligence Community membership, and to offer a venue for U.S. government interagency representation.”
In response to this newly established group, many members of the United States Congress worked together on the bi-partisan issue of government transparency when it comes to the UFO/UAP issue. On May 17th, 2022, a House panel held the first public congressional hearing on UFOs unidentified in more than half a century. Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, Ronald Moultrie, and Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence, Scott Bray, testified before a House subcommittee about how the Defense Department would be organizing reports for the AOISMG.
Watch the full Congressional Hearing below.
The hearing saw many Congress members questioning Moultrie and Bray on specific UFO incidents that occurred over military installations and training areas. This hearing, which will most likely not be the last of its kind, gives many individuals hope that perhaps the U.S. Government will find some answers to reported UFOs. But certainly not all. Christopher Mellon would add:
“I expect the USG will still insist that they don’t have proof of ET, but I fail to see how our government can any longer deny we are confronting exotic new technologies of unknown origin that have potentially serious national security ramifications. Once the implications sink in that should prompt a serious and enduring effort to investigate this incredible enigma.”
Even more importantly is the shedding of stigma in reporting such UFOs as the Black Triangles. In the UAP Task Force preliminary assessment, it states:
“Narratives from aviators in the operational community and analysts from the military and IC describe disparagement associated with observing UAP, reporting it, or attempting to discuss it with colleagues. Although the effects of these stigmas have lessened as senior members of the scientific, policy, military, and intelligence communities engage on the topic seriously in public, reputational risk may keep many observers silent, complicating scientific pursuit of the topic.”
Angelo Accetta’s sightings of the black triangle over Lemoore Naval Air Station are cautionary tales of what once happened when military personnel kept silent. But, after hearing the recent accounts of Navy pilots, that changed. “I finally felt comfortable enough telling my story.” And while other military witnesses coming forward bolstered Accetta’s decision to do the same, it was much more personal than just that. “I just had the birth of my first child. As her father, I want her to grow up realizing that we are not alone in this universe, and one day, whoever they are, they’ll present themselves to us. I don’t want her to have any negative thoughts towards UFOs or extraterrestrials.”
While the question of whether or not we are alone continues to be asked in a world where our scientific landscape is constantly changing, the extraterrestrial hypothesis continues to intertwine itself in the fabric of UFO discourse. But for researchers like David Marler, he chooses to focus on the hundreds of documented cases, relying on the data, the facts, and the evidence. He suggests that individuals: “maintain cautious optimism and feel that insights can be gathered that may, in time, lead to definitive answers. If I didn’t feel this was a remote possibility, I wouldn’t waste my time researching the subject.”
Accetta also stressed the importance of witnesses, particularly those from the military, coming forward with their personal UFO accounts. “Don’t be afraid of telling your story. Nobody will persecute you or think you’re crazy anymore. Hundreds of people witness what I witnessed, all around the world.”
Angelo Accetta — present day
Though almost a decade has passed since Accetta’s subsequent encounters with the black triangle, he remembers each incident keenly.
“It’s like images branded into my head. I will never forget those sightings. Everyday when I wake up, I always look into the sky to see if they visit again.”
Despite these extraordinary events, life went on for Accetta. He is currently a manager at an indoor/outdoor sports facility in New Jersey, married, and a new father. And though he will always wonder what the black triangle was that hung effortlessly over Lemoore Naval Air station, one thing was certain: “I know for a fact that we are not alone.”
As for if we are alone or not, the U.S. Government isn’t as convinced. As they continue their own search for answers through detailed reports, of which Accetta’s should most definitely be taken in to account, Accetta himself, like so many other military and civilian witnesses, will continue to search for those answers somewhere in the skies.
If you are a former or current military service member and have a UFO encounter you’d like to share with Ryan Sprague, please contact him at: ryan.sprague51@gmail.com. For more information, visit:
www.somewhereintheskies.comTrail of the Saucers is published by Stellar Productions and edited by
Bryce Zabel
, the co-host of the new UAP/UFO podcast, “Need to Know with Coulthart and Zabel.”
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