Twitter was abuzz with news on unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, on Tuesday.
In a newly released interview for his "Weaponized" podcast with George Knapp, two Marines told the filmmaker Jeremy Corbell that they saw an extraordinary object over the California skies on April 20, 2021. Corbell has released videos that Marines recorded of what they describe as the object. The filmmaker has previously released U.S. military recorded videos of what the government calls "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena" or UAPs. Whether drones, balloons or something more extraordinary, some of the objects in the videos Corbell has previously released remain unexplained.
But back to this newly reported April 20, 2021 incident. It was evening on or near the 29 Palms Marine Corps base. Two Marines told Corbell they saw lights resembling a stationary and triangular object at a distance. They say the lights suddenly dissipated when illumination flares were fired in the lights' direction. The Marines also described a large vehicle convoy heading out in the direction of the lights. The report sounds compelling. What to make of it?
Well, perhaps the Marines did see an example of what the government refers to as "unidentified aerial phenomena," or UAP. Discussing the report with Corbell, Knapp observed that "The U.S. Marine Corps should produce a report on this."
One problem.
The BlackVault's John Greenwald noted something that Corbell and Knapp did not. Namely, that other Marines were carrying out a major exercise in the same area at the exact same time. Specifically, a Weapons and Tactics Instructor event. WTI exercises provide advanced training to select Marines on integrated air-ground operations. Publicly available Marine Corps footage of the April 20, 2021 exercise (watch the last few seconds) shows what appear to be illumination flares in a five light formation. The five light lights bear striking conformity with the lights in Corbell's video.
Top line: maybe the two Marines and others that Corbell spoke to did see something unexplained that night? But perhaps they actually saw fellow Marines conducting high-intensity ground-air combat training? The Marines train harder and smarter than most to win the next war. The problem is that when we jump to the conclusion that this April 20, 2021 incident truly shows an unexplained UFO, even when publicly available evidence offers a more conventional explanation, no one benefits.
No one except, that is, those who would wish this subject left to people like Steven Greer. And Mr. Greer likes to charge people thousands of dollars to watch him summon flares out of aircraft and then claim said flares are UFOs flown by aliens. The additional problem here is that too many UFO researchers respond to skeptical inquiry by blocking the questioner on social media or, as in Knapp's case, by sending phallic-shaped iceberg photos.
This is already a topic that most in the media are averse to engaging with seriously. That's primarily for reasons of stigma. I can testify first hand that asking policymakers serious questions about this subject will lead to nervous laughter from other journalists in the room. Indeed, jumping to conclusions of the extraordinary when assessments of the conventional better suffice is, well, why the White House can respond to legitimate UFO questions by making jokes about ET and then have journalists laugh rather than challenge them.
Opinion on these videos will be divided. That includes Marines. 98 years old, my grandfather, a Marine veteran of the Battles of Guam and Okinawa, thinks the UFO subject is only for "loons." Ask for his definition of a UFO and he'd probably describe waking up on Guam to see "a rat the size of a cat" sitting on him. The top line, however, should be clear. If we're serious about finding out why so many military personnel and patterned data sets have testified to extraordinary UFOs over at least seven decades, we must be prudent investigators.
In part, at least, that means being wary of ignoring evidence which suggests that some UFOs are flares.