“To The Stars Academy” holds its introductory announcement. Former Blink-182 front man Tom DeLonge discusses his efforts to devote his efforts towards uncovering some of the ongoing questions about unidentified aircraft. George Knapp reports from Seattle, Washington. Aired on Oct. 11, 2017, on KLAS TV in Las Vegas.
SEATTLE, Washington — On a sunny day in 2004 off the coast of San Diego, the USS Nimitz battle group encountered a technology beyond anything known on Earth: A mystery aircraft shaped like a 46-foot-long Tic Tac that hovered and maneuvered for hours and defied the F-18s sent to intercept.
Former Defense Department intelligence official Chris Mellon described what was reported by the pilots:
“In a series of discrete tumbling maneuvers that seemed to defy the laws of physics, the object takes a position directly behind the approaching F-18. The pilots capture gun camera footage and infrared imagery of the object but are outmatched by a technology they’ve never seen. At one point the object soars to 80,000 feet, hovers, then drops at supersonic speeds, coming to a full stop a mere 50 feet above the ocean, where it resumes hovering.”
“Clearly, this is not an experimental U.S. aircraft. But whose is it?” Mellon asked.
Chris Mellon, left, speaks at the event announcing “To The Stars Academy” in 2017. 
The USS Nimitz battle group is shown in this photo provided by the Defense Department. 
An image of the “Tic Tac” UFO. 
Tom DeLonge speaks at the event announcing “To The Stars Academy” in 2017. DeLonge is a co-founder of the band Blink-182. 
Steve Justice, former Lockheed Skunk Works manager, speaks at the event announcing “To The Stars Academy” in 2017. 
Former Defense Department official Luis Elizondo speaks at the event announcing “To The Stars Academy” in 2017. 
Chris Mellon, former Defense Department intelligence official, speaks at the event announcing “To The Stars Academy” in 2017.
An investigation by the Navy was hushed up. The only public mention was in a little-known aviation magazine read by pilots.
Mellon says the incident illustrates the obvious, that higher ups in the Defense Department know the technology is real and that it’s not ours.
Officially, the U.S. government says it stopped studying UFOs in 1969 when Project Blue Book was canceled.
At an event in Seattle, that version of history was challenged by a man who until a week ago worked directly under Secretary of Defense James Mattis.
His name is Luis Elizondo.
“For nearly the last decade, I ran a sensitive aerospace threat identification program focusing on unidentified aerial technologies. It was in this position, I learned that the phenomena is indeed real,” Elizondo said.
Elizondo operated at the highest levels of the DOD and collected UFO data but quit to take a position with rock star Tom Delonge and a team of other former government insiders now on board with “To The Stars Academy,” a public benefit corporation unveiled Wednesday morning.
Some of what was announced was nuanced. Elizondo’s presence confirmed that UFOs are taken seriously within a small circle in government. Former Lockheed Skunk Works manager Steve Justice said he thinks UFO data could be incorporated into technology that could change the world. Chris Mellon mentioned the Tic Tac UFO to prod Congress into asking for a briefing on the hushed-up incident.
Musician DeLonge used his panel of high-powered partners to draw attention to his project, which was also profiled in a film meant to inspire public participation.
In a video played at the introduction, DeLonge described the academy: “The first transparent partnership of its kind between the fields of aerospace engineering, science and cinematic entertainment. A collaboration with global citizens to explore the outer edges of conventional thinking targeting the mysteries of the universe.”
