When it comes to the Tic Tac UFOs, the USS Omaha and the USS Nimitz and their pilots and crews have gotten all of the publicity. However, there have been other ships in the same area with pilots and crew members having their own encounters, and one recently came forward with a new story concerning the crafts that have the Navy, the Pentagon and politicians in Washington most concerned – underwater and transmedium ships. Is it time for the rest of us to worry too?
20 feet Tic Tac object
“I was staring into the water from above when a large, fat, white ‘Tic Tac’ object, approximately twenty feet in length, suddenly appeared in my view below me, moving right and darted into the depths as fast as it appeared. I couldn’t really comprehend what I saw. It was definitely a solid object, but when it descended, its forward end rapidly collapsed in on itself and disappeared.”
E-4 Petty Officer John Baughman was station onboard the USS Carl Vinson, a Nimitz-class supercarrier, in 2010 when the ship was in Haiti delivering humanitarian aid after that country’s devastating earthquake. At that time, Baughman was a Gunner’s mate on a break and doing what all sailor’s do on break – looking out across the main reason why they became sailors. He tells UFO researcher Ryan Sprague on the Trail of the Saucers web page that he expected to see the usual – ““Everything from sharks, dolphins and whales to giant squids, sea turtles, and swordfish.” Instead, he saw an unidentified submerged object. Being a well-trained crew member, he reported the sighting to his immediate supervisor, who told Baughman:
“Everyone sees weird shit in the ocean.”
Weird – yes, but this was not ‘shit’. While the 2004 Tic Tac encounters by the USS Nimitz were still a decade away from being exposed to the public, there’s little doubt that they were known among Navy personnel, especially crews and pilots on supercarriers. However, his superior’s response reflected the philosophy of the day – don’t talk about UFOs or you’ll be considered strange, ridiculed … or worse. Still cautious today, even after the Pentagon report confirming there are things about and below the surface that it can’t explain, Baughman told Sprague he’s not sure what it was but that shouldn’t stop anyone from reported unidentified flying or submerged objects and helping the military and private scientists and researchers figure out what they are and how to respond.
“It’s hard to come to grips with something like this, and I still feel somewhat insecure about it because it doesn’t make sense. But at the same time, more data points, even as basic as my story, could help solve the mystery of whether they’re foreign adversaries playing mind games, non-human entities, or the myriad of other possibilities.”
Kudos to Ryan Sprague for getting John Baughman’s story into print. He’s asking others – military, ex-military, private citizens – to report sightings and offers a place on his website to do so. As Baughman found out, “Everyone sees weird shit in the ocean” … but only the few and the brave report it.
By Paul Seaburn
Mysterious Universe
