On a clear, sunny day in April 2014, two F/A-18s took off for an air combat training mission off the coast of Virginia. The jets, part of my Navy fighter squadron, climbed to an altitude of 12,000 and steered towards Warning Area W-72, an exclusive block of airspace ten miles east of Virginia Beach. All traffic into the training area goes through a single GPS point at a set altitude — almost like a doorway into a massive room where military jets can operate without running into other aircraft. Just at the moment the two jets crossed the threshold, one of the pilots saw a dark gray cube inside of a clear sphere — motionless against the wind, fixed directly at the entry point. The jets, only 100 feet apart, zipped past the object on either side. The pilots had come so dangerously close to something they couldn’t identify that they terminated the training mission immediately and returned to base.
Continue Reading Article (Politico)…
Editor’s Note: Such articles are appearing with increasing frequency. Information is leaking, intentionally or unintentionally. Following the normal patterns of crisis communications, a little is released, then allowed to normalize. Then a little bit more and allowed it to normalize. Then a little bit more and allowed it to normalize. Then the big drop. Often the big drop will come in the midst of another crisis. Watch for boiler plate crisis communication jargon such as ‘at this time’ and ‘currently nothing credible.’