Nimitz — Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich Second Intercept

On November 14, 2004, Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich was flying as the wingman in the second F/A-18F two-ship element vectored toward the anomalous radar contact that Commander David Fravor had already engaged. Dietrich's aircraft arrived in the area around San Clemente Island, approximately 100 miles southwest of San Diego, as Fravor was concluding his encounter with the Tic-Tac UAP. Dietrich observed the same object Fravor described: a white, oblong craft approximately 40 feet in length, with no visible wings, no visible propulsion, no exhaust, and no markings. It was moving erratically just above the ocean surface, hovering and darting. Dietrich confirmed every aspect of Fravor's account independently — the object's shape, size, behavior, and its rapid departure when approached. Her account is significant precisely because she was not in radio contact with Fravor during his engagement and formed her own independent observation. For over a decade, Dietrich did not speak publicly about the encounter. In May 2021, she broke her silence on 60 Minutes in a landmark segment on UAP — the first time CBS's flagship newsmagazine had treated the subject as a serious national security matter. Dietrich described the object calmly and precisely, noting that its behavior was 'unsettling' because it violated her understanding of the physical laws governing flight. She stated she had reported the encounter through the chain of command and was told simply 'it wasn't ours.' In April 2023, Dietrich testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities — the first female military pilot to testify on the record about a UAP encounter before the US Senate. Her testimony reiterated the details of the 2004 encounter and addressed the national security implications of unidentified objects operating freely in restricted military airspace without being detected, intercepted, or identified. Dietrich's dual role — as an independent corroborating witness to the most significant UAP encounter in modern military history, and as a credentialed, distinguished officer willing to speak under oath — makes her account one of the most important in the Congressional UAP record.