1997 Alien Reproduction Vehicle at Twentynine Palms - Roderick Castle

[Kyle Ferriter]

I have not watched the whole episode yet but USMC Sergeant Roderick Castle describes an incident in 1997 at the Twentynine Palms "29 Palms" Marine Corps air base and training center in California, in which a black triangle with a yellow/white light at each corner was seen. A team of Marines including Castle were performing duties related to a crashed helicopter and they were then sent to investigate what was initially described as 'unidentified flare activity'. When Castle's team got closer to the location in their truck, and saw what Castle describes as a triangular craft with a light at each corner, with a few dozen troops and a half dozen tactical ground vehicles below it, they were intercepted by those troops (who were not identifiable by Castle, indicating a possible black ops operation) and not allowed to get closer, and were detained and told to avert their eyes from the scene under threat of death. Castle says while they were detained he saw the triangular craft fly away rapidly. Castle has also been in contact with David Grusch. The threat of death or concerns about leaking classified information no longer appear salient, since Castle is describing this in public.

The host "UFO Gerb" also spends over half of the video discussing other allegations of advanced inexplicable triangle aircraft and why he believes this sighting is evidence for such technology and for that technology being based on alien technology recovered and reverse engineered in secret by the US government.

Caption:

Exploring the witness testimony of USMC Sgt Roderick Castle and his harrowing experience during the USMC Hunter Warrior Advanced Warfighting Experiment in Southern California from 02-14 March 1997. While Castle and his fellow VMA-513 Marines were performing overnight AV-8B Harrier crash retrieval duties, the men were sent to investigate "unidentified flare activity".

When rounding a hill near Emerson Dry Lake, the marines encountered an enormous, 200-300 foot, equilateral black triangular craft hovering only 150-200 feet off the ground. Below the triangle, solely 150-200 feet from Castle and the VMA-513 marines, stood a retainer of 30 men and 5-6 tactical vehicles.

The men were outfitted in all black gear and heavily armed with no insignia, name tags, identifiable markings, etc. As soon as the USMC Marines encountered the craft and team in their Humvee, half of the retainer of Black Operators quickly swarmed and detained the Marines at gunpoint, barking orders at the soldiers to keep their heads down under threats of death.

While being detained, Castle observed the triangle dart off towards the Northwest at incomprehensible speeds.... The Triangle featured no visible signs of propulsion and gave off no sounds or identifiable thrust or heat signatures.

Castle reached out to David Grusch in early 2025, prepared to swear his testimony in before Congress.

This project seeks to analyze the who, what, when, where, and why of Castle's encounter and analyze why this incredible, logic-defying triangle is indeed an Alien Reproduction Vehicle (ARV).

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShoUyC1aip0


My initial thoughts are around the accuracy of distance and speed estimates, particularly because the allegation that it flew away inexplicably fast is based on Castle's visual impression while he was being detained and ordered to avert his eyes (lack of continuous eye contact on the lights), and because Castle says that the lights did not illuminate the ground, despite his estimate of them being only 150-200ft off the ground (were they actually higher than that?), and did not illuminate the craft. Which also raises thoughts around the claim that it was indeed a single connected object and not 3 individual ones. A cluster of bright lights have been confused as a single solid object before. The brightness may overwhelm the dimmer lights of stars between them and lead the viewer to mistake it as one solid object. The reason Castle went to that area is that there was a report of flares being used over there.

Edit to include UAPGERB X post

Alien Reproduction Vehicle Encounter Near 29 Palms MCAGCC - the Testimony of Sgt Roderick John Castle

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ShoUyC1aip0

This project explores the testimony of Roderick Castle (@CastleBravoFF) and his harrowing experience during the USMC Hunter Warrior Advanced Warfighting Experiment in Southern California from 02-14 Mrch, 1997. While Castle and his fellow VMA-513 Marines were performing overnight AV-8B Harrier crash retrieval duties, the men were sent to investigate "unidentified flare activity".

When rounding a hill near Emerson Dry Lake, the marines encountered an enormous, 200-300 foot, equilateral black triangular craft hovering only 150-200 feet off the ground. Below the triangle, solely 150-200 feet from Castle and the VMA-513 marines, stood a retainer of 30 men and 5-6 tactical vehicles.

The men were outfitted in all black gear and heavily armed with no insignia, name tags, identifiable markings, etc. As soon as the USMC Marines encountered the craft and team in their Humvee, half of the retainer of Black Operators quickly swarmed and detained the Marines at gunpoint, barking orders at the soldiers to keep their heads down under threats of death.

While being detained, Castle observed the triangle dart off towards the Northwest at incomprehensible speeds.... The Triangle featured no visible signs of propulsion and gave off no sounds or identifiable thrust or heat signatures.

Castle reached out to David Grusch in early 2025, prepared to swear his testimony in before Congress.

This project seeks to analyze the who, what, when, where, and why of Castle's encounter and analyze why this incredible, logic-defying triangle is indeed an Alien Reproduction Vehicle (ARV).

This project explores:

- Extensive retracing with Castle and 3D recreations of his encounter
- Analysis of the triangle: similarities to other ARV testimonies and the infamous TR-3B
- Investigation of the Black Ops team and why I wager the team was Wackenhut-trained and staffed DOE Special Response Team
- Implication the triangle and its team operated out of US Navy and USAF UFO legacy program operations to test wargame exercises undetected alongside blue assets in the 1997 Hunter Warrior AWE
- Involvement of Edwards Air Force Base and its R-2508 Airspace in relation to Castle's experience
- Involvement of NAS Lemoore and NAWDC in relation to Castle's testimony
- Ties into much of my previous work, including witness Ed out of the Edwards 412th Test Wing
- Arguments as to why the triangle is indeed ARV
- Arguments why the Marine Corps had no involvement in the triangle and teams' operations
- Similarities to the testimonies of Weygandt and Herrera (Castle's experience occurred just weeks prior to Weygandt's)
- Much more!

#ufoX #ufo #Uap #uapX

 

[NorCal Dave]

When rounding a hill near Emerson Dry Lake, the marines encountered an enormous, 200-300 foot, equilateral black triangular craft hovering only 150-200 feet off the ground. Below the triangle, solely 150-200 feet from Castle and the VMA-513 marines, stood a retainer of 30 men and 5-6 tactical vehicles.

The men were outfitted in all black gear and heavily armed with no insignia, name tags, identifiable markings, etc. As soon as the USMC Marines encountered the craft and team in their Humvee, half of the retainer of Black Operators quickly swarmed and detained the Marines at gunpoint, barking orders at the soldiers to keep their heads down under threats of death.

We have 30 badasses with no identification around this hovering super secret triangle thing, and yet none of them thought to post a few perimeter lookouts to watch for errant Marines, or anybody else, that might "round the hill at Emerson Dry Lake" and get a full on of the show? Instead they resort to the standard UFO trope of "hey you guys, don't look at what your looking at or we'll kill you". Apparently after watching the craft zip off, which none of the Marines were supposed to see, nobody was killed for it.

Got it.

 

[MapperGuy]

What bugs me the most about this is the acronym.

Alien Reproduction Vehicle ?

An alien reproduction vehicle is a vehicle where a Mommy alien and a Daddy alien go to make a Baby alien.

A vehicle that is a reproduction of an alien vehicle would be a AVR

Alien Vehicle Reproduction -> AVR

The acronym is just wrong, which causes me to wonder which came first, the acronym or the words it supposedly represent. There is a pattern to how terms are put together, and ARV is not what a copy/duplicate/reproduction of a alien vehicle would be called.

 

[MapperGuy]

I have not watched the whole episode yet but USMC Sergeant Roderick Castle describes an incident in 1997 at the Twentynine Palms "29 Palms" Marine Corps air base and training center in California, in which a black triangle with a yellow/white light at each corner was seen. A team of Marines including Castle were performing duties related to a crashed helicopter and they were then sent to investigate what was initially described as 'unidentified flare activity'. When Castle's team got closer to the location in their truck, and saw what Castle describes as a triangular craft with a light at each corner, with a few dozen troops and a half dozen tactical ground vehicles below it, they were intercepted by those troops (who were not identifiable by Castle, indicating a possible black ops operation) and not allowed to get closer, and were detained and told to avert their eyes from the scene under threat of death. Castle says while they were detained he saw the triangular craft fly away rapidly. Castle has also been in contact with David Grusch. The threat of death or concerns about leaking classified information no longer appear salient, since Castle is describing this in public.

The host "UFO Gerb" also spends over half of the video discussing other allegations of advanced inexplicable triangle aircraft and why he believes this sighting is evidence for such technology and for that technology being based on alien technology recovered and reverse engineered in secret by the US government.

Caption:

Exploring the witness testimony of USMC Sgt Roderick Castle and his harrowing experience during the USMC Hunter Warrior Advanced Warfighting Experiment in Southern California from 02-14 March 1997. While Castle and his fellow VMA-513 Marines were performing overnight AV-8B Harrier crash retrieval duties, the men were sent to investigate "unidentified flare activity".

When rounding a hill near Emerson Dry Lake, the marines encountered an enormous, 200-300 foot, equilateral black triangular craft hovering only 150-200 feet off the ground. Below the triangle, solely 150-200 feet from Castle and the VMA-513 marines, stood a retainer of 30 men and 5-6 tactical vehicles.

The men were outfitted in all black gear and heavily armed with no insignia, name tags, identifiable markings, etc. As soon as the USMC Marines encountered the craft and team in their Humvee, half of the retainer of Black Operators quickly swarmed and detained the Marines at gunpoint, barking orders at the soldiers to keep their heads down under threats of death.

While being detained, Castle observed the triangle dart off towards the Northwest at incomprehensible speeds.... The Triangle featured no visible signs of propulsion and gave off no sounds or identifiable thrust or heat signatures.

Castle reached out to David Grusch in early 2025, prepared to swear his testimony in before Congress.

This project seeks to analyze the who, what, when, where, and why of Castle's encounter and analyze why this incredible, logic-defying triangle is indeed an Alien Reproduction Vehicle (ARV).

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShoUyC1aip0


My initial thoughts are around the accuracy of distance and speed estimates, particularly because the allegation that it flew away inexplicably fast is based on Castle's visual impression while he was being detained and ordered to avert his eyes (lack of continuous eye contact on the lights), and because Castle says that the lights did not illuminate the ground, despite his estimate of them being only 150-200ft off the ground (were they actually higher than that?), and did not illuminate the craft. Which also raises thoughts around the claim that it was indeed a single connected object and not 3 individual ones. A cluster of bright lights have been confused as a single solid object before. The brightness may overwhelm the dimmer lights of stars between them and lead the viewer to mistake it as one solid object. The reason Castle went to that area is that there was a report of flares being used over there.

Edit to include UAPGERB X post

Alien Reproduction Vehicle Encounter Near 29 Palms MCAGCC - the Testimony of Sgt Roderick John Castle

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ShoUyC1aip0

This project explores the testimony of Roderick Castle (@CastleBravoFF) and his harrowing experience during the USMC Hunter Warrior Advanced Warfighting Experiment in Southern California from 02-14 Mrch, 1997. While Castle and his fellow VMA-513 Marines were performing overnight AV-8B Harrier crash retrieval duties, the men were sent to investigate "unidentified flare activity".

When rounding a hill near Emerson Dry Lake, the marines encountered an enormous, 200-300 foot, equilateral black triangular craft hovering only 150-200 feet off the ground. Below the triangle, solely 150-200 feet from Castle and the VMA-513 marines, stood a retainer of 30 men and 5-6 tactical vehicles.

The men were outfitted in all black gear and heavily armed with no insignia, name tags, identifiable markings, etc. As soon as the USMC Marines encountered the craft and team in their Humvee, half of the retainer of Black Operators quickly swarmed and detained the Marines at gunpoint, barking orders at the soldiers to keep their heads down under threats of death.

While being detained, Castle observed the triangle dart off towards the Northwest at incomprehensible speeds.... The Triangle featured no visible signs of propulsion and gave off no sounds or identifiable thrust or heat signatures.

Castle reached out to David Grusch in early 2025, prepared to swear his testimony in before Congress.

This project seeks to analyze the who, what, when, where, and why of Castle's encounter and analyze why this incredible, logic-defying triangle is indeed an Alien Reproduction Vehicle (ARV).

This project explores:

- Extensive retracing with Castle and 3D recreations of his encounter
- Analysis of the triangle: similarities to other ARV testimonies and the infamous TR-3B
- Investigation of the Black Ops team and why I wager the team was Wackenhut-trained and staffed DOE Special Response Team
- Implication the triangle and its team operated out of US Navy and USAF UFO legacy program operations to test wargame exercises undetected alongside blue assets in the 1997 Hunter Warrior AWE
- Involvement of Edwards Air Force Base and its R-2508 Airspace in relation to Castle's experience
- Involvement of NAS Lemoore and NAWDC in relation to Castle's testimony
- Ties into much of my previous work, including witness Ed out of the Edwards 412th Test Wing
- Arguments as to why the triangle is indeed ARV
- Arguments why the Marine Corps had no involvement in the triangle and teams' operations
- Similarities to the testimonies of Weygandt and Herrera (Castle's experience occurred just weeks prior to Weygandt's)
- Much more!

#ufoX #ufo #Uap #uapX

The description does not work.

The triangle is how big?
It is how far off the ground?
How did the Marines NOT see it before they came around the hill?
Must be some really tall hill, with very steep sides, for them to not have seen the whatever and then after going around it suddenly find themselves that close to the guys on the ground under it?
Line-of-sight is hard to picture here. Going from something that big and high totally blocked to visible in how many feet of travel?

Have they tried to identify the location on a topographic map?

 

[Ann K]

While being detained, Castle observed the triangle dart off towards the Northwest at incomprehensible speeds.... The Triangle featured no visible signs of propulsion and gave off no sounds or identifiable thrust or heat signatures.

What the dickens is an "incomprehensible speed" when it's home? And no sound or identifiable heat signature? If it was indeed a solid object of the estimated size at the estimated distance, then surely Air 1.0 would have provided both sound and heat at any speed that could possibly be described as "incomprehensible". This reads more like the first draft of a novel than actual testimony (right down to the Men in Black who threatened him but, inexplicably, threaten him no more), and the other parts of the description do not inspire confidence either.

As I've said before, there is nothing at all surprising about a government having secrets that are not known to the general public, but the details of this story ask more credulity of the listener than I am willing to give.

 

[owntheissue]

What the dickens is an "incomprehensible speed" when it's home? And no sound or identifiable heat signature? If it was indeed a solid object of the estimated size at the estimated distance, then surely Air 1.0 would have provided both sound and heat at any speed that could possibly be described as "incomprehensible".

Dont know why this question doesn't get asked more as the obvious circumvention of thermodynamics definitely needs more hand waiving.
Accordingly:
The only way this happens IMO- is if the effects alleged in the Sal Pais HAUC patent are actually real.
Namely:

External Quote:

"One must realize that the high energy/high frequency electromagnetic field generator responsible for the inertial mass diminution effect would generate a repulsive EM energy field while in earth's atmosphere, thereby repelling air molecules in its path of ascent/flight"

As no further explanation is given for this "repulsion of air molecules" I can only infer that, given Pais background - he is possibly talking about "Shockwave Attenuation" technology- as mentioned in other aerospace patents as Boeings half assed "force field patent" .

Now if we have a look at "Quiet Boom" technology- it always seems to involve a physical spike in front of the craft.

According to this paper " Shockwave Mitigation by Air Plasma Deflector" - it is feasible to use a dispersive medium (i.e the Atmosphere) to shape the shock wave (instead of using a physical spike).
Specifically -

External Quote:

"The polarity of the applied voltage enables electron plasma to be accelerated in the upstream direction by the applied electric field, it forms a plasma deflector in the upstream region to deflect incoming flow through elastic collisions. Ion plasma also affects the incoming flow, but via a different process. Ions moving through their own gas are subject to charge transfer to the neutral gas, which is a predominant inelastic collision process in the low ion energy regime".

So with a bit of hand waiving it becomes at least feasible (if you had a decent on board power source and computing power) to imagine how it could happen.

Pais incorporation of "Additionally, the craft 10 may include a frustum 25 or cone on its leading portion 21 of its main body 20. In one of the embodiments, the frustum 25 is rotatable about its own axis 26 or has the ability to rotate." - with no further explanation at least makes it a point of interest.

 

[Eburacum]

This event seems to basically be the same as the recent 'Twentynine Palms UAP', and probably has a similar explanation. This 'triangle' was much higher and much further away than the witnesses thought it was; it was, of course, flares.

 

[Mauro]

The only way this happens IMO- is if the effects alleged in the Sal Pais HAUC patent are actually real.

Even if those patents were real, the air through which the vehicle passes must anyway be pushed aside (and will then rush in to fill the void after the vehicle has passed), and at "incomprehensible speeds" that would be noticed, a lot.

 

[JMartJr]

Even if those patents were real, the air through which the vehicle passes must anyway be pushed aside (and will then rush in to fill the void after the vehicle has passed), and at "incomprehensible speeds" that would be noticed, a lot.

This. Whether the air gets shoved around by the physical object or by "fields" it produces, the air nonetheless is still air, and still does what air does -- heats when compressed, produced sonic booms and shock waves when shoved rudely enough. etc.

Must be some really tall hill, with very steep sides, for them to not have seen the whatever and then after going around it suddenly find themselves that close to the guys on the ground under it?

AHA!

 

[NorCal Dave]

Just for background, the Emerson Dry Lake that I could find is closer to, or part of, the Johnson Valley OHV park area:

So, about 23 miles from the USMC base at 29 Palms:

The mountains can be quite steep between flat open areas. Now whether it's enough to hide a 200-300' triangle 200' off the ground is another question:

The above photo is from west of the mountains around Emerson Lake Bed.

This is looking due east and the mountains in the distance are to the west of Emerson Lake Bed:

It's rugged, desert terrain. I attended an off-road race a number of years ago here and we often drive through the area on an annual Baja trip.

As far as I can tell, the Emerson Dry Lake Bed was not in the USMC 29 Palms base in the '90s. This is a map from 2011 when the USMC was trying to take over the Johnson Valley OHV park for their own use. One can see where the dry lake bed is likely in part of the red area the Mariesn wanted:

 

[jdog]

The description does not work.

The triangle is how big?
It is how far off the ground?
How did the Marines NOT see it before they came around the hill?
Must be some really tall hill, with very steep sides, for them to not have seen the whatever and then after going around it suddenly find themselves that close to the guys on the ground under it?
Line-of-sight is hard to picture here. Going from something that big and high totally blocked to visible in how many feet of travel?

Have they tried to identify the location on a topographic map?

Also, not having been a Marine, but having interacted with a few on base, I'm wondering how likely it is a team of jarheads in a Humvee is going to roll up so closely to a group of dozens of black-clad gunmen in the Southern California desert -- who aren't supposed to be there -- that they have no choice but to surrender.

 

[MonkeeSage]

The only way this happens IMO- is if the effects alleged in the Sal Pais HAUC patent are actually real.

FYI, that patent was allowed to expire by the Navy in 2023. Dr. Pais left NAWCAD in 2019 with his experiments having failed to demonstrate the "Pais Effect".

https://www.metabunk.org/threads/us-navy-ufo-patent-by-salvatore-cezar-pais.12080/#post-346050

 

[yoshy]

What bugs me the most about this is the acronym.

Alien Reproduction Vehicle ?

An alien reproduction vehicle is a vehicle where a Mommy alien and a Daddy alien go to make a Baby alien.

A vehicle that is a reproduction of an alien vehicle would be a AVR

Alien Vehicle Reproduction -> AVR

The acronym is just wrong, which causes me to wonder which came first, the acronym or the words it supposedly represent. There is a pattern to how terms are put together, and ARV is not what a copy/duplicate/reproduction of a alien vehicle would be called.

Anybody know if there's research demonstrating a correlation between making up stories and making up acronyms to make things sound more official? It's something I notice with almost every UFO personality: new and/or misuse of acronyms or fancy words (like Grusch and "biologics"). I found some stuff backing this.

Alienating the Audience: How Abbreviations Hamper Scientific Communication

Ingroup Identity. In his book The Upside of Irrationality, Duke University psychological scientist Dan Ariely mentions, almost in passing, that acronyms "confer a kind of secret insider knowledge; they give people a way to talk about an idea in shorthand. They increase the perceived importance of ideas, and at the same time they also help keep other ideas from entering the inner circle." So although abbreviations can block outsiders from understanding a group's communications, they likely provide a sense of cohesiveness to members of an ingroup.

Mischief. Abbreviations can be used as code, to obscure the content of a message, or to create the impression that it is especially complicated or impressive.

Ironically, that second paragraph quotes Dan Ariely, who has been outted as a fraud himself!

 

[MapperGuy]

Anybody know if there's research demonstrating a correlation between making up stories and making up acronyms to make things sound more official? It's something I notice with almost every UFO personality: new and/or misuse of acronyms or fancy words (like Grusch and "biologics"). I found some stuff backing this.

Alienating the Audience: How Abbreviations Hamper Scientific Communication

Ingroup Identity. In his book The Upside of Irrationality, Duke University psychological scientist Dan Ariely mentions, almost in passing, that acronyms "confer a kind of secret insider knowledge; they give people a way to talk about an idea in shorthand. They increase the perceived importance of ideas, and at the same time they also help keep other ideas from entering the inner circle." So although abbreviations can block outsiders from understanding a group's communications, they likely provide a sense of cohesiveness to members of an ingroup.

Mischief. Abbreviations can be used as code, to obscure the content of a message, or to create the impression that it is especially complicated or impressive.

Ironically, that second paragraph quotes Dan Ariely, who has been outted as a fraud himself!

Acronyms can also help to shorten documents. Many fewer letters in most acronyms, and in the old days thus many fewer chances for misspelled words. Long documents with dozens of acronyms used hundreds of time can save a lot of paper (or electrons) compared to writing everything out longhand.
I would also say acronyms are easier to remember, in most cases, than a long jumble of words, and much easier to say when talking, especially when the term must be used frequently in a long conversation.
As to making conversations sort of "secret" when used in front of the unknowing that might be the case but again its often just easier to use the acronym than spelling the whole thing out. If the speaker wanted to enlighten you they would/could, so maybe they just weren't talking to you.

 

[Ann K]

Anybody know if there's research demonstrating a correlation between making up stories and making up acronyms to make things sound more official?

Acronyms make me grit my teeth, so take this with a pinch of salt, but I think it's probable that every working group has its own argot and probably its own acronyms related to the specific job they're doing. We here in Metabunk use the term "LIZ" for "Low Information Zone" frequently but my on-line acronym finder tells me it's, perhaps, the Leather Institute of Zimbabwe. When my boss at work asked why the Y axis of a graph had no units, he was told by a co-worker that it was "arbs", ie "arbitrary units", and that became a common phrase in the lab.

 

[Mendel]

Castle needed to testify to AARO two years ago, why didn't he? Compare https://www.metabunk.org/threads/jason-sands-definitely-saw-something-so-what-was-it.13667/ for a different first-hand testimony investigated by AARO.

---

Abbreviations are a way to reduce redundancy. "This is my brother-in-law, Frank" serves as an introduction, but further references would be by "Frank" and not by "my brother-in-law", because that information has already been conveyed and not part of the statement being made. So we'd use "North Atlantic Treaty Organisation" once when talking about what it is, and "NATO" when talking about what it does.

Note that band names are typically not acronymed, but Credence Clearwater Revival (CCR) often is because it's such a long name that it's not convenient to use.

That said, I too expected the headline mentioning an "alien reproduction vehicle" to go with an "I had sex with aliens" abduction story.

 

[owntheissue]

Even if those patents were real, the air through which the vehicle passes must anyway be pushed aside (and will then rush in to fill the void after the vehicle has passed), and at "incomprehensible speeds" that would be noticed, a lot.

Did you read the Shockwave Mitigation by Air Plasma Deflector paper.
Although there is no "instantaneous acceleration" data - the paper is clear about how the atmosphere is managed to mitigate build up effects.
I too find the "air rushing back in" bit probematic but do you have any citations/links about whether this A: actually happens or B: what effects are observed?

FYI, that patent was allowed to expire by the Navy in 2023. Dr. Pais left NAWCAD in 2019 with his experiments having failed to demonstrate the "Pais Effect".

https://www.metabunk.org/threads/us-navy-ufo-patent-by-salvatore-cezar-pais.12080/#post-346050

The comment was not about validity of the "Pais effect" i.e - "controlled motion of electrically-charged matter going from solid to plasma etc" - but was instead focussing on the fact Pais claims this causes some sort of (unexplained) atmospheric interaction which leads to facilitation of the types of behaviour Ann originally mentioned.

If we completely forget about the Pais effect- there is still a stack of papers and patents that all aspire to utilise Plasma to reduce shock waves in atmosphere.

I'm not saying they have done it- but (given the number of papers linked in my OP) - it would be a hard argue against a demonstrated desire.

 

[Eburacum]

Hmm; a powerful electrical discharge to modify a bow shockwave. Sounds like that is just adding more energy into an already energetic event. Good luck with that.

 

[jdog]

That said, I too expected the headline mentioning an "alien reproduction vehicle" to go with an "I had sex with aliens" abduction story.

Alien-human hybrids have to come from somewhere, don't they?

 

[JMartJr]

Alien-human hybrids have to come from somewhere, don't they?

No?

 

[Tezcatlipoca]

Anybody know if there's research demonstrating a correlation between making up stories and making up acronyms to make things sound more official? It's something I notice with almost every UFO personality: new and/or misuse of acronyms or fancy words (like Grusch and "biologics"). I found some stuff backing this.

Alienating the Audience: How Abbreviations Hamper Scientific Communication

Ingroup Identity. In his book The Upside of Irrationality, Duke University psychological scientist Dan Ariely mentions, almost in passing, that acronyms "confer a kind of secret insider knowledge; they give people a way to talk about an idea in shorthand. They increase the perceived importance of ideas, and at the same time they also help keep other ideas from entering the inner circle." So although abbreviations can block outsiders from understanding a group's communications, they likely provide a sense of cohesiveness to members of an ingroup.

Mischief. Abbreviations can be used as code, to obscure the content of a message, or to create the impression that it is especially complicated or impressive.

Ironically, that second paragraph quotes Dan Ariely, who has been outted as a fraud himself!

Err, not directly in the frame you offered. You seem to have found the right keyword mixes to be on track with searching for the studies though. I've not seen any directly on that but you'll find short-insights like you have here. I would make a huge cautionary note with this sort of psychological research though that a lot of these conclusions are actually due to 3rd level explanations like culture. The "conferring a kind of secret insider knowledge" gets into the more holistic cultural and ingroup dynamic view, not necessarily that Bob (or Grusch) contextually is thinking of it that way. Certain individuals will but their ability to even think about it/think about it that way comes from that higher level of explanation.

As to the specific framing on an individual level, I'd offer it as two distinct points that can circularly impact one another. For example, someone who likes making up stories but isn't very apt to say science or academia may not come up with an acronym or scientific sounding term at all. Someone who is say more apt to science or academia (or whatever external influences) could have a higher baseline of creating those terms if they are also prone to making up stories.

Using Grusch as a specific example. Not only did he work in the military, but he worked in roles dealing with project management and also space operations which gets very technical. That is 4/5 distinct points (college education, mil, PM, Space Ops/IO) at which people are culturally exposed and conditioned to the Buzzword Circus (Space Ops being part of IO... The entirety of IO is also buzzword galore). So, if he has that proneness to making stories, it could be that his experiences in this regard are why he makes up acronyms and terms that sound fancy aligned to his education and career experiences. Whereas if his career or education differed, those points may be different, or not exist at all.

I'd debate there's more distinct points but saving the complexity there. For the larger complexity, it'd get into psychometrics like the below alongside those other factors like cultural and ingroup factors (this is probably the most expansive I've seen but always fair debate for splitting points or making new ones).

 

[owntheissue]

Hmm; a powerful electrical discharge to modify a bow shockwave. Sounds like that is just adding more energy into an already energetic event. Good luck with that.

Fair comment.

The Boeing patent proposes LIPC's (Laser Induced Plasma Channels - now also called LIPFs laser induced plasma filaments) - so no powerful electronic discharge required.

The proposed idea in the Air Plasma Deflector is that the plasma cone diffuses the flow which prevents sharp disturbances.
It does this by reducing effective flow mach number which is the critical factor in shock formation (but also seems to have some sort of side benefit of "randomising" constituent "air" molecules via charge transfer that (also) has something to do with Taylor-Macoll theory).

 

[JMartJr]

I have no idea to what extent Boeing or anybody else has advanced with this -- but will note in passing that patents are applied for and granted regardless of whether an idea eventually pans out. Other than perpetual motion devices, which I understand the US Patent Office now out of hand as they are other-wised swamped with the silly things...

 

[owntheissue]

I have no idea to what extent Boeing or anybody else has advanced with this -- but will note in passing that patents are applied for and granted regardless of whether an idea eventually pans out. Other than perpetual motion devices, which I understand the US Patent Office now out of hand as they are other-wised swamped with the silly things...

I hear you and agree about patents - however the paper on using plasma as a shock wave attenuator/deflector is cited by other authors, has follow ups and is not refuted (that I can find).
As far as I can tell - A: LIPC/LIPF's are real and B: the experimental data and effect demonstrated in the paper (they have stills of the effect) is unchallenged.

There are lots of reasons why this probably isn't a reality but they seem to stem from how you would facilitate the above (i.e required computing power to do real time fluid dynamic sensing and calculations- or mobile power source required to generate a dynamic plasma via laser ) - not the underlying principle.

 

[John J.]

USMC Sergeant Roderick Castle's claims as per the OP must be considered highly dubious at the very best.
His unit, VMA-513, was an AV-8B (Harrier) attack aircraft squadron, see Seaforces-online webpage for VMA-513.

...Southern California from 02-14 March 1997. While Castle and his fellow VMA-513 Marines were performing overnight AV-8B Harrier crash retrieval duties, the men were sent to investigate "unidentified flare activity".

There is a bit of a problem with this: there weren't any crashes or other unplanned losses of any type of Harrier, of any nationality, in the United States between 08 October 1996 and 14 October 1997, nor were there any losses of US- operated AV-8Bs elsewhere during that period;
see "List of Harrier family aircraft losses", Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Harrier_family_losses, from which the following is taken:

7 October 1996 United States Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier II
Pilot was killed during a training mission over California's Chocolate Mountains when three bombs, all with expired fuses, detonated prematurely aboard his AV-8B.

There are no further Harrier losses in the USA (or losses of American Harriers anywhere else) until

15 October 1997 United States Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier II
Assigned to the Marine Corps Air Station at Cherry Point, N.C. crashes on takeoff during a training mission at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. ...Witnesses on the ground and in another fighter said flames shot from the jets' engine moments before it crashed and that the pilot did an amazing job at directing the disabled aircraft into an unpopulated area before safely ejecting.

If personnel are sent to find and/or retrieve a downed aircraft in peacetime, in mainland USA, it's hard to understand why they would be diverted to investigate "flare activity".
Presumably the initial rescue effort would not be conducted by VMA-513, which didn't have helicopters, and who were not a Search And Rescue squadron or a crash investigation team. They had (AFAIK) no organic means of recovering a crashed aircraft. In 1997, they operated AV-8Bs only.
Even if the pilot was accounted for and safe, a crashed combat aircraft would need to be secured and any hazards (remaining fuel, ordnance) dealt with, and evidence gathered.
Maybe Roderick Castle will be able to clear this up by telling us the name of the pilot involved. All Harrier types were notoriously difficult to fly and had a relatively high accident rate; nevertheless the loss of an aircraft is the sort of dramatic event that men from that aircraft's squadron might remember in some detail.

(Edited for clarity and to reduce clutter).