Tensions are rising among Coast Guardsmen stationed in Barnegat Light as the Biden administration continues to dismiss accounts of a mysterious swarm of drones tailing a U.S. Coast Guard rescue vessel earlier this month.
What began as a routine patrol quickly turned into an unsettling encounter, leaving many sailors demanding answers—and respect.
A member of the Coast Guard, speaking anonymously to The New York Post, expressed outrage over the administration’s flippant dismissal of their firsthand experiences.
“It’s the implication that’s insulting,” the Guardsman said. “It’s implying we’re making sh-t up, when the ones making up sh-t are down in Washington, D.C.”
The alleged incident involved a fleet of 12 to 30 drones shadowing a 47-foot Coast Guard rescue vessel during a patrol of the Atlantic Ocean.
According to the sailor, the drones appeared suddenly around 9 p.m., maintained a steady pace with the vessel cruising at 20 knots, and maneuvered in a way no commercial aircraft could.
“I’m terrible with measurements, but [the swarm] was about 80 to 100 feet above us. They had four propellers. Seven feet across. The flashing lights, like you’ve seen. The festive green, red, and white lights.”
“Commercial airplanes don’t move like that,” he said. “I’ve been out there [on the water] when planes were coming in for landings in New York, and trust me, you can tell the difference. We’re not idiots, we know what drones look and sound like.”
Despite these detailed accounts, federal officials, including White House spokesman John Kirby, dismissed the reports.
Kirby suggested that the sightings were likely misidentifications of manned aircraft, such as incoming airliners, helicopters, or even stars, asserting that forensic analysis did not indicate the presence of drones.
“Having closely examined the technical data and tips from concerned citizens, we assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones. We have not identified anything anomalous and do not assess the activity to date to present a national security or public safety risk over the civilian airspace in New Jersey or other states in the northeast, according to the joint statement from DHS, FBI, FAA & DoD.
However, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) raised alarms over unidentified drones observed near U.S. military installations, suggesting they may be adversarial and likely of Chinese origin.
McCaul wrote, “Probably not. I think they’re going to say they don’t know. And that’s a concern in and of itself, that if we have drones flying around military bases and we can’t identify where they came from or who’s responsible for them. I know there are a lot of commercial drones out there, and Secretary Mayorkas has talked about this.”
He continued, “That’s fine. But the ones flying over our military bases. By definition, I would say, are adversarial. We need to know who is behind that because I believe they’re spy drones. The PRC, Chinese Chinese China is very good at this stuff. We know they bought land around military bases. This would be very consistent with their policy over the last couple of years.”
Meanwhile, Belleville Mayor Michael Melham (R) claimed the drones may be connected to missing radioactive material.
“There was—and there is—an alert that’s out right now that radioactive material in New Jersey has gone missing. On December second, it was a shipment. It arrived at its destination, the container was damaged, and it was empty. So potentially we’re looking for that,” Melham said.
2 comments:
How many people on board the coast guard boat and nobody would consider filming the event.
I saw video of a Russian shoot a drone down with an army rifle while travelling at speed, on a dirt track, from the back of an army ute thing, one shot, and the coast guard could not get one????
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