By KEN KORCZAK
A selection of commentary on the recent “drone swarm” phenomenon and what leading UFO experts are saying about it
As a freshly minted new year rolls out, it’s time to pause and take stock of what turned out to be arguably the biggest UFO story of 2024— even though it may or may not be a UFO story.
That would be the massive number of mysterious drone sightings that proliferated mostly over the skies of New Jersey, but also across several East Coast locations and some other key areas, such as Wright Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio. It was closed for about four hours due to a “drone swarm.”
Wright Patterson spokesman Robert Purtiman told the Dayton Daily News that it was the first time this key and critical Air Force facility was shut down in a situation called “unprecedented.” Drones have all caused concern appearing over at least three British RAF military bases “from Oxfordshire to Norfolk and Suffolk” in recent weeks.
What’s getting less attention is that the U.S. Navy reported drone swarms over their vessels while at sea and that drones have shown up over other incredibly provocative locations, including the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, and Donald Trump’s Bedminster golf course.
So, I dived in to conduct a kind of “listening tour” to gather an informal survey of opinions offered by some of the top people in the UFO field. They made it easy for me as they fanned out across various UFO media platforms to forward their theories, thoughts and speculations about the drone wave.
This is not an exhaustive survey. Actually, it’s more of a “selection.” Whatever the case, here is my short-list of what a few of our “UFO Thought Leaders” had to say:
STEPHEN BASSETT — “It’s Aliens”
Mr. Bassett is well-known as the only professional lobbyist who works exclusively on the UFO issue with the U.S. Congress. He is executive director of the Paradigm Research Group (PRG), a nonprofit UFO disclosure advocacy group established in 1996. Bassett and PRG have worked tirelessly for decades to “end the government truth embargo” about UFOs. Bassett holds a B.S. degree in physics.
In a recent interview with UFO Secrecy, Bassett proclaimed in no uncertain terms that he believes the drones are of alien or extraterrestrial origin. He bolsters his view by placing the current drone flap within the context of the modern UFO era which began in the 1940s. He sees an undeniable pattern of the many “UFO waves that have occurred — especially the incredible 1952 event of UFOs buzzing Washington D.C. — an event uncannily and remarkably similar to the drone “invasion” of recent weeks.
Bassett notes that “nuclear war is closer than ever.” He said:
“The drone swarm era really goes all the way back to 2022 and it has been escalating ever since, and so here is my conclusion. The extraterrestrials have lost their patience and the risk to us as a civilization has only increased. So, they are going to end this nonsense, and so they are doing this incursion using their devices, whatever they are, not just in one place … and the U.S. government knows it … they can’t shoot them down, they know they’re extraterrestrial.”
Bassett adds that the U.S. military is sending up its own drones to monitor these “alien crafts.” Thus, what we’re seeing is a “mixture of military drones and nonhuman crafts, entities.” He said this incursion is a “pressure tactic” on behalf of the ETs to “embarrass our government” into eventually telling everyone the truth about what it knows about the alien presence on Earth.
NOTE: See Stephen Bassett’s full remarks here: BOLD CLAIM!
RICHARD DOLAN — “Still Unexplained, but …”
Dolan is arguably today’s №1 authority in ufology. Not surprisingly, he has chimed in with his view. His analysis is similar to that of Stephen Bassett in terms of placing the drone flap in context with what has been observed about UFOs since the 1940s.
Dolan stops short of pegging the drone as “of alien origin,” however. He heaps scorn on the “usual suspects” that have become Dolan’s favorite whipping boys for years now:
–>The media.
–> The government.
–> The tangled web of the military-industrial complex & its legacy defense contractors that have probably been reverse engineering alien technology for decades while enjoying complete secrecy and zero public accountability.
Dolan derides all of the above for being unable or willfully obtuse in providing truthful information to the public about the drone flap.
Dolan concludes:
“These drones, these UFOs, whatever they are over our cities, they’re over our farms, they’re over our military bases, but these so-called drones are not the first. We’ve had this phenomenon for decades and generations in which strange objects will haunt our skies … they have defied explanation and outflown our fastest jets, including years ago when there were no drones. They were just unknown … but among those drones, it looks like something else also flying. The government says it’s nothing, all explained, but those words ring hollow.”
NOTE: See Richard Dolan’s full remarks here: Mystery Drones are Still Here!
WHITLEY STRIEBER — He sees a connection to Trump
Strieber, of course, is arguably the most famous alien abductee (or experiencer) in history. His mega-bestselling book, 1987’s Communion, put him on the UFO map for good. Communion sold a gazillion copies and was made into a movie starring Christopher Walken. The book graced the New York Times bestseller list for weeks.
Respected by intellectuals, such as philosopher Jeffrey Kripal Ph.D. & psychologist Jeffrey Mishlove Ph.D. — but loathed by skeptics — Strieber has since maintained an iconic UFO profile, perhaps becoming the UFO community’s “Patron Saint.” (It was Kripal who recently described Strieber as “a modern saint.”) Strieber continues to publish new UFO & paranormal books and maintains a popular webcast and radio show that is a touchstone for thousands in ufology.
Like Stephen Bassett and Richard Dolan, Strieber reminds us that “our world is more dangerous than ever” and that we’ve never been this close to a nuclear confrontation since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Strieber said the №2 concern for extraterrestrials is the environmental degradation of our planet.
Both these situations are nearing a crisis point, and so Strieber believes the ETs are beginning to step up. This mysterious drone flap is part of that new effort, he said.
Strieber believes one of the reasons drones have been proliferating in New Jersey is that it’s the location of Donald Trump’s Bedminster golf course which also sometimes serves as the President-Elect’s base when he is not at Mara Lago in Florida. Indeed, Strieber correctly points out that Trump recently stated he would skip a scheduled stay at Bedminster due to the drone flap.
While vigorously exclaiming his own steadfast non-political posture, Strieber said of Trump:
“President Trump has said that he does not believe in climate change. He’s not willing to do anything about it. In fact, he is going to undo a lot of things that have been done, the exact opposite of what they (the extraterrestrials) want. So … we’re just slapping their faces right now (in terms of) nuclear proliferation and climate change. And so, yeah, they have shown up in both those places to make a point. And the point is, we better be careful.”
Strieber concludes:
“I don’t know what will happen next, but I know this. We will continue to make up stories until they (the ETs) are finally sitting on the seat by the President with their arms folded saying, you better listen guy because you are in a lot of trouble.”
NOTE: See Whitley Stieber’s full remarks here: Visitors, Drones and Secrets.
LUIS ELIZONDO— “An unmitigated catastrophe”
A bona fide ex-Pentagon insider, Luis Elizondo has operated in some of the deepest levels of highly classified military defense programs. He has also worked on top UFO studies formally funded by the Pentagon. If you have read his recent NYT bestselling book, Imminent, it won’t surprise you to learn that the drone flap fits the bill of what Elizondo considers a “catastrophic failure” if the U.S. defense intelligence institutional infrastructure to responsibly address what is happening in our skies. (See my full analysis of Elizondo’s book HERE).
Elizondo has given numerous interviews to both mainstream news outlets and UFO podcasters. Like Richard Dolan and others, he suggests that these new drones might be anything from human technology to objects of nonhuman intelligence origin, but that the public is getting nothing of value from our defense & government authorities.
He suggests the government knows a lot more than it’s willing to share — but also that institutional denial and plain old incompetence among government bureaucrats have hamstringed our ability to formulate a rational response to an event that may be of extreme consequence and importance.
NOTE: See Luid Elizondo’s full remarks here: Government Handling of Drones a “Catastrophe”
SIMEON HEIN Ph.D. — Is this a “Sputnik Moment?” Next Level Cold Fusion Tech? Something more nuanced & complex?
I’ve saved the best for last — the thoughts of a genuinely innovative thinker, sociologist Simeon Hein. Better yet, Hein has been interviewing direct witnesses from New Jersey neighborhoods and getting key data points directly from people on the scene.
Furthermore, Dr. Hein is well ahead of other “UFO folks” in this drone phenomenon because he conducted an extensive, boots-on-the-ground investigation of an earlier manifestation of drone swarm events that flummoxed thousands of people in areas of eastern Colorado and western Nebraska in 2019 and 2020. Those drone flaps bear a remarkable similarity to what’s happening now.
Anyway, Hein has suggested that much could be explained about key observational factors reported about the New Jersey drones if we consider that they are human-made devices that leverage advanced power sources, possible cold fusion processes or at least something similar.
Hein said:
“I think it’s pretty clear we’re having a Sputnik moment right now, that we are dealing with advanced technology, but it doesn’t seem to me to be extraterrestrial. The reason is that these objects don’t display … any of the 5 Observables directly.”
The 5 Observables he references are those developed by the government’s recent UAP task force that was headed by Jay Stratton, and which included the aforementioned Luis Elizondo. Anyway, the 5 Observables are:
- Instantaneous acceleration
- Hypersonic speed
- Tran-medium capability
- Anti-Gravity capability
- Low observability
Hein said the Jersey drones are not showing these capabilities but are technologies advanced beyond what conventional drones, even high-tech military/government drones, are capable of today.
I won’t go into detail here, but Hein speaks at length about something called LENR — Low Energy Nuclear Reactions — what used to be called cold fusion, but which has since evolved into experimentally repeatable and verifiable LENR effects.
Hein continued:
“So, I would place my bet that what we’re seeing in this … drone technology is that someone has successfully turned (LENR technology) into a type of engine or a vehicle like this which is why they can stay aloft for so many hours.”
Not only have the Jersey drones been observed to fly for up to 7 to 8 hours, but Hein said witnesses have told him some of the drones appear to be the size of a car and one may have been “as long as 20 feet.”
Hein acknowledges that some experimental drones have been found to be fitted with hydrogen and/or ammonium-based fuels, but he said that even these innovations — including with the current capability level of the best batteries — cannot deliver six to seven hours of flight, especially craft that are the size of a sedan or larger. LENR could make it possible, however.
Another intriguing observation offered by Dr. Hein is that some witnesses have reported that the Jersey drones have displayed an effect long associated with UFOs — the tendency to drain batteries, disrupt electrical systems and stop automobiles dead.
At least one New Jersey resident said her car stalled out when a drone hovered overhead. In another case, when a citizen sent up his conventional drone to fly near one of the mysterious drones, its electronics (and I presume) battery failed, disabling the off-the-shelf drone.
Thus, though the Jersey drones don’t display one of the 5 Observables, they have been shown to match one of the most frequently reported effects of being near a UFO, stalled cars and suddenly drained batteries. Indeed, Hein has observed the battery-draining effect in the electronic devices he used to study crop circles in England.
Finally, I strongly recommend that readers check Dr. Hein’s commentary (find it here) on the drone phenomenon wherein he leverages what I’ll call epistemological and ontological arguments that influence how we think of baffling incidents like this — and why they cause us so much frustration.
I was delighted that Hein invoked Kurt Gödel’s famous Incompleteness Theorem which he brought out in 1931. Briefly, the Incompleteness Theorem — which Gödel proved mathematically — states that all systems of mathematical logic are inherently incomplete. This from Wikipedia:
“The first incompleteness theorem states that no consistent system of axioms whose theorems can be listed by an effective procedure (i.e. an algorithm) is capable of proving all truths about the arithmetic of natural numbers. For any such consistent formal system, there will always be statements about natural numbers that are true, but that are unprovable within the system.”
Yes, I realize this belongs to the realm of mathematics, but it (in my opinion) spills over to philosophical issues writ large. In my own long contemplation of the UFO issue, what has enabled me to keep my sanity has been to adopt this fundamental rule:
“Learn to live gracefully with uncertainty!”
It has become my “UFO mantra” — or call it a UFO motto — and has its origins in when I first confronted Gödel’s Theorem as a young man decades ago.
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