Pentagon UFO report: Australian believers welcome Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force

Australians have revealed what they have seen in our night skies as the Pentagon prepares to release its official UFO report.

Back in August, when much of the world was distracted by the relentless march of the pandemic, an announcement by the Pentagon that would in normal times have dominated international headlines caused barely a ripple.

After decades of speculation and thousands of reports of close and inexplicable encounters with the apparently other-worldly, the US was officially and openly investigating evidence that we here on Earth are not alone.

In unveiling the new Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF), deputy Defence Secretary David Norquist gave more official credence to sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) than ever before.

It came several months after the US military declassified three videos in which navy fighters had captured unexplained flying phenomena and built on momentum that had been growing for close to a decade to legitimise the search for extraterrestrial life.

“The aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterised as ‘unidentified,’” the Pentagon said in a statement at the time.

Under the umbrella of national security, the search for answers moved from internet chat rooms, cosplay conventions and conspiracy theories to the highest levels of the US government.

Sightings such as these are being investigated by the Pentagon.

“The Department of Defence established the UAPTF to improve its understanding of, and gain insight into, the nature and origins of UAPs,” the Pentagon announced.

“The mission of the task force is to detect, analyse and catalog UAPs that could potentially pose a threat to US national security.”

Former navy pilot Ryan Graves has described seeing fast and oddly shaped flying objects “every day for a couple of years” off the coast of Florida, and added his voice to calls for a full and public investigation.

“I am worried, frankly,” Lt Graves recently told America’s 60 Minutes.

“If these were tactical jets from another country that were hanging out up there, it would be a massive issue. But because it looks slightly different, we’re not willing to actually look at the problem in the face.

“We’re happy to just ignore the fact that these are out there, watching us every day.”

Given a deadline of next month to produce its first report, exactly what the task force will present to Congress in June is now the subject of fierce conjecture.

Experts doubt this first report will clearly determine if the objects are secret weapons from a foreign adversary or indeed the product of another planet.

But the release of formerly top-secret US navy footage and the upcoming hearing in Congress has added much needed gravitas to the question millions of people have been asking for decades: are we alone?

And it has offered vindication for many whose stories of their encounters have seen them marginalised or ignored, including a band of unwavering believers in Australia.

Among them is Anthony Goodall, who feels like a weight has been lifted from his shoulders.

“It’s well overdue,” Mr Goodall said.

Anthony Goodall, of Queensland, says sightings of UFOs have been happening for decades. Picture: Supplied

The Queenslander had an encounter with the unexplained in January 2016 at Blackwater.

“I saw two orange objects side-by-side but with one flying behind a little like in a formation. They were flying fast and I thought it was two fighter jets flying over, but there were no navigation lights … just two orange orb lights.”

The objects moved quickly and with no sound at all.

“Fighter jets you would soon hear, and these lights disappeared over the horizon very fast,” he said.

Since then he has started a podcast called Encounters Down Under and a Facebook page, Australian UFO Sightings, to share others experiences.

He said many were obvious false alarms, like glare from a camera, that people thought was a UFO. But others were not.

“These sightings have been happening for decades, it’s just technology is better now [so] it can be captured,” he said.

Some of the accounts he had heard from people were vivid and descriptive, despite the events taking place many years earlier.

“It sticks in their minds,” he said.

Mr Goodall thought the US military decision to brand UFO’s as UAPs was a good move, and one that would help lower the stigma attached to the subject.

“It’s not all about aliens from outer space. It’s just trying to make sense of something that so far we haven’t been able to,” he said.

He wasn’t expecting “too much” from next month’s unveiling of the UAP files, but thought a gradual release was more likely.

“It will probably be drip fed over time, that seems to be what they have done with the videos.”

He was happy the subject was being discussed at a more mainstream level and that: “I’ve always had a positive reaction from people I have spoken to about it.”

Sasha Sadouni doesn’t know exactly what the bright lights she saw in the South Australian sky were – and that’s just the point.

“I don’t have all the answers, I don’t think anyone does. I don’t know what I saw, and I think we have to accept there will be a degree of mystery about this, maybe forever,” she said.

The 34-year-old Melbourne woman was only six-years-old when she witnessed strange bright lights hovering over the family car as she, her sister and their mum were driving between Whyalla and Port Augusta.

The lights, which she described as bright white orbs about the size of small cars, appeared to follow their car and then shoot over them so they were in front of them.

Her family watched in amazement as smaller objects appeared out of the larger one and appeared in formation around it.

Ms Sadouni said she didn’t know what it was and couldn’t explain it.

“Some of the things people see could be aircraft, or weather phenomena, or tricks with the light, it doesn’t all have to be aliens or some other life. But not all of it can be easily explained,” she said.

Sasha Sadouni as a child. Picture: Supplied

Sasha Sadouni now. Picture: Supplied

Ms Sadouni said as terrified as she was then, she now considered herself fortunate.

“I think it has really shaped my life in a way. It has made me more questioning and opened my mind to things that I wouldn’t have before,” she said.

She does feel vindicated in a sense by the emergence of the Pentagon files.

“I think it will normalise these sightings in a way; lots of people have seen things, but are too scared to come forward and say it. But if we now have officials in the US government saying ‘we don’t know what these are’ then that at least that is a step in the right direction,” she said.

Sam Smith, also of Melbourne, always had an open mind about UFOs, even before a mystifying experience in 2009.

“It just seemed to me there was most likely something out there beyond Earth because the universe is such a big place,” he said.

The 30-year-old was with friends on clear night just outside Mansfield when they saw two stars glowing different colours racing across the night sky, before they would come to a complete stop.

“At first we thought they were satellites, then they were getting closer and closer to where we could make out their appearance as they were only about 500m away.”

Mr Smith said they looked like futuristic aircraft.

“I have told people about it and just said we couldn’t explain what we saw – there is no sought of plane I’m aware of that can do the things we watched it do.”

He wasn’t worried about what people thought. “I have had some banter with the boys, but I’m not telling people what to think and I don’t care what people think of my experience, I’m just saying what I saw.”

Kade Moir hosts the Believe podcast and has interviewed dozens of Australians about their UFO experiences.

He said there had been a big stigma attached to being a UFO believer, but that was now changing.

“I’ve had lawyers, doctors, police officers and surgeons on the show. It doesn’t discriminate [who sees them]. But people are reluctant … if you were going to have an operation and the surgeon had said ‘I saw this strange sight that could have been a UFO’ then what would you think?”

Mr Moir said for the most part people who saw UFOs “weren’t looking for them”.

“It happens to them and then they can’t explain what they have seen.”