Jake Barber tells Ross Coulthart about non-human technology - The "Egg"

**Read the first page of this thread and wrote this, somehow overlooking there's another 3 pages already- anyway; this was put together in the belief that the video was of a substantial object suspended from a helo: **

When the "egg" appears to land on the ground, judging by its shadow, it rolls slowly. It gives the impression of being quite a lightweight structure.

(Approx. 28 seconds to 35 seconds into the video):

Source: https://x.com/mikecolangelo/status/1880787291091742853?s=46&t=hgWw0H6Mb5785gCKaP5_rQ&mx=2


I'm wondering if it's something like one of the inflatable gunnery targets known as "killer tomatoes"
(admittedly normally used at sea):

J B Roche target.JPG

Lots of variants of different shapes and sizes.
On the Indiamart website I found Indian Surface Inflatable Targets advertised as being for "For Kids Play",

Capture5.JPG

https://www.indiamart.com/proddetail/surface-inflatable-target-sit-for-navy-2850760320330.html,
at least one other Indian website advertises "killer tomatoes" as suitable for "commercial use".

Functionally unrelated but of similar appearance, there are inflatable gas storage bags (mainly for biogas it seems),

g1.JPG



Of course, the evidence might suggest other possibilities...

Capture4.JPG
 
Sometimes you just have to go with logic/common-sense and logic is telling us that you wouldn't dangle a priceless 'off-world vehicle' 100 ft off the ground with something insecure that would most likely fall given any kind of substantial movement from the helicopter. Logic also says you would have boots on the ground at the drop off location considering this is potentially the most important drop off in human history. The proportions look off and the ground texture seems too close and symmetrical to be some kind of woodland.

I'm surprised even a station like Newsnation ran with this video. Looks like a mock-up on so many levels.
Fully agree nothing otherworldly. I suspect it was a military craft, perhaps a drone like this, that crashed. They removed the hardware, then Jake was simply retrieving the balloon part. His imagination went a bit wild and we got the story

Source: https://youtu.be/yfXljWrKUW4?feature=shared
 
This part would seem fragile at that scale..

View attachment 76118

Agreed. The first thing I thought of when I saw the video was "fail" videos of yachts falling out of the slings while being craned. The shape seems very susceptible to sliding out of a sling contraption like this.

1737320543722.png


Some screen grabs:

1737319548941.png
1737319596261.png
1737319637820.png
1737319687886.png
1737319737455.png

1737319769116.png
1737319814218.png
1737319846834.png


It just seems a poor way to haul something important through the air. And I still can't figure out what the "ground" is.


Crappy video link:


Source: https://youtu.be/bYJ-BVxEuWo?si=qobxEJMDQU4kgC5b&t=36
 
The more i watch the video the more i think somone is yoking

Possibly servicing there own radar domes and observatories ? and when removed from the tower its become feeble and out of shape


egg.png
 
I finally remembered what this surface most reminds me of. It was tickling my brain. The textured concrete you see around swimming pools.

Mmc3JjPWh0dHBzJTNBJTJGJTJGd3d3Lm9yYW5nZWNvdW50eWRlY29yYXRpdmVjb25jcmV0ZS5jb20lMkZ3cC1jb250ZW50...jpg
 
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One thing that no-one's mentioned yet that really stood out to me and caused question marks to float above my head was the difference in diameter between the two sets of ropes. You would expect that, assuming there are 4, the lower ones would be half the diameter of the top part (slightly more would be understandable too). However, in these stills, they're sub-pixel width, and look a tenthfifth of diameter - a hundredth twenty-fifth of the load-bearing capacity (times 4=a sixth, of course) - that just makes no sense.
c.f.:
us-army-soldiers-with-the-351st-aviation-support-battalion-sc-army-KD4RCE.jpg


As an aside, load bearing parts being surprisingly thin and delicate is, because of the square/cube rule, normally an indicator that what you are looking at is small.

EDIT: moderated my exageration, added some explanation.
 
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I'm aware that some people still suffer from GDS (GPT derangement syndrome) [that's ironic humor] but for whatever it's worth....

I uploaded a frame capture of the video to GPT.

My prompt: What do you think this is?

Answer
From this image, it appears to show a night-vision or green-filtered scene, with a textured surface that might be grass or carpet. There is an object resembling a ball casting a shadow, and a long, slender object in the foreground that could be a pole or rod. The overlay mentions "NewsNation Exclusive," suggesting it's part of a broadcast or investigative report.

If you'd like me to analyze the context further or provide clarification on specific elements, let me know!

Next prompt: It's claimed that this is a cable hanging from a helicopter moving a large object. Do you recognize the ground as any kind of known, natural terrain?

Answer
The ground in the image doesn't immediately resemble any obvious or common natural terrain types. Its uniform texture looks more like a manufactured surface, possibly artificial grass, a carpet, or some kind of industrial or fabricated material. Natural terrain such as dirt, grass, or sand would typically have more variation in texture, color, or pattern, even under night-vision lighting.

If this is claimed to be natural terrain viewed from above, it might be worth investigating further, as the texture and appearance seem unusual for most landscapes. If you have additional details or angles to analyze, I'd be happy to look further!

Sorry, my AI friend. There's nothing more. For some odd reason, we only got this short video clip to work with.
 
boots on the ground at the drop off location considering this is potentially the most important drop off in human history.

If it is a real helicopter the given camera angle would be unlikely to show anyone. the ground crew for a sling load has to be far enough away from the release point the they don't get hit with the pedant. the only reason they would approach while the helicopter is still attached is if there was an issue with the hook. TM 4-48.09 has an overview of where people should be on page 5-4 (~ page 60). I'm not going to share it directly since I can't figure out if its ITAR status. it's "Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited"
 
My take: I don't have any reason to believe this is anything other than a vaguely egg shaped object, but I do think it's 'real' in the sense that it's something reasonably heavy being moved by a real helicopter using real 'basket' style cargo lift slings of this nature:

1737322988750.png


At least one manufacturer I found includes contrasting edging (probably re-enforced sections where the stitching locks the internal straps that run through the body of the sling into the material):

1737323096631.png


You can see the ends of slings in the shadow in this picture:

sling shadow 1.png


It looks to me like two or more lifting straps are being used, wrapped one over the other at an angle so that the object (which does appear to me to be egg shaped) doesn't slip out:

overlap - Copy.png


As @Mick West has pointed out, when the tension is taken off the slings, their ends separate and the space between them increases.

Having said that, a whole bunch of stuff doesn't make any sense:

1. The object landing and rolling seems to be to be consistent with something reasonably heavy that's been dropped on the ground with some lateral motion rather than being carefully placed directly on the ground vertically. (EDIT: Looks like because the thing is swinging significantly).

Why would someone do that with a thing of staggering importance like an alien spacecraft? (Note: 'consistent with' doesn't mean 'that's what it is'. I'm sure I don't need to point out to people on this forum the problem of interpreting two dimensional representations of three dimensional scenes, with no reference for scale).

2. If this thing is 20 feet long, the crosshatch/weave pattern of the sling material would be *ridiculously* course. The pic below shows the sort of woven material these slings are generally made of, lit in a way that makes the pattern obvious. This particular sling is 3 feet in length

pattern - Copy.png


3. Whatever surface this thing is landing on is, in reference to the scale of the object itself, pretty flat. Note how sharp the edges of the shadows are.

edges - Copy.png


4. I'm way less certain about this because it's difficult to align everything properly, but it appears to me that the 'egg' changes shape after it's landed. In the GIF below you can see a frame from just before touchdown compared to one where it's landed and rolled a bit. I've tried to match the top edge as well as possible. The camera seems pretty locked down in terms of orientation and zoom, so either the egg is soft boiled ( :) ) or is irregularly shaped. I admit this is pretty rough and needs some more work. I'm sure in no time Metabunk will go brrrrt and extract and measure every frame :)

shape - Copy.gif


5. As others have said, where are the people on hand to make sure that this thing of galactic importance doesn't just roll away?
 
the camera is mounted to the line it seems.

Yes... if you look at the very start of the video, it's lying in the grass, and then raises up with the line when the copter ascends... likely a GoPro or similar. But that's a very basic civilian copter with a homebrew camera system... nothing like the avionics in a military copter... those have substantial frame-mounted FLIR systems on 360-degree pivots. They aren't using a camera attached to the actual line that will drop down onto terrain when the cable does, as in this video. So you wouldn't expect that erratic rotation of the camera.
 
If it is a real helicopter the given camera angle would be unlikely to show anyone. the ground crew for a sling load has to be far enough away from the release point the they don't get hit with the pedant. the only reason they would approach while the helicopter is still attached is if there was an issue with the hook. TM 4-48.09 has an overview of where people should be on page 5-4 (~ page 60). I'm not going to share it directly since I can't figure out if its ITAR status. it's "Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited"

Even if this is the case then it would be the smoking gun needed to prove the authenticity of the video. Why would the anonymous source not include that when they sent it to Coulthart, and if they did include it why wouldn't Coulthart release that portion of the video. It just seems to good to be true.
 
Yes... if you look at the very start of the video, it's lying in the grass, and then raises up with the line when the copter ascends... likely a GoPro or similar. But that's a very basic civilian copter with a homebrew camera system... nothing like the avionics in a military copter... those have substantial frame-mounted FLIR systems on 360-degree pivots. They aren't using a camera attached to the actual line that will drop down onto terrain when the cable does, as in this video. So you wouldn't expect that erratic rotation of the camera.
Can you link to any descriptions, reference footage etc of specific military line lift camera systems?
 
Didn't Steven Greer say Barber was his source before NewsNation broadcast that interview.

Isn't Greeer known for CE5 . Is that summoning UAP using thought ?

And then we see Barber say they summoned/controlled UAP using thought or some psychic connection.

Coincidence?
 
I'm sure I watched something about a pilot claiming that as part of his training he had to do the "egg drop" challenge. Might come to me tomorrow.
 
They removed the hardware, then Jake was simply retrieving the balloon part.

Let's remember though, this video is NOT of one of (Jake) Barber's supposed retrievals. According to Coulthart, this is from a "trusted" but anonymous source. As some have speculated, it's possible Barber gave Coulthart the video, either anonymously or with Coulthart hiding his identity, but that gets a bit convoluted.

Just to get a handle on the story from @Nemon 's transcript, Barber started as a mechanic in the USAF in the '90s and maybe traveled with Air Force 1 and its support team:

External Quote:

We checked Baba's records, and we've confirmed that he was an airman in the US Air Force working as an aerospace mechanic in the late 90s. But as these documents show, he was also recruited into Air Force special operations known as combat control. He says he ended up working in a non-official capacity for the Department of Defense and the intelligence community. What were you? What was I. Ross I was a highly talented airplane mechanic who got to deploy on a number of presidential support missions.
04:02

Then he joins the special Forces and become the main character in a bad action thriller novel a pilot:

External Quote:

But Jake was no ordinary mechanic. Being recruited into the Air Force's elite combat control unit meant he had a resumé that reads like something out of an action thriller. Helicopter pilot, freefall parachutist, expert marksman, and the recipient of a NATO top secret security clearance. A legacy of his service in Bosnia, where he won an award for an act of heroism.
04:43

It's a bit unclear if he was a mechanic or in the Special Ops group when in Bosnia. Most of the NATO air support seemed to have been between 1992-1994, with the war ending in 1995:

External Quote:

the belligerents in the Bosnian War met in Dayton, Ohio in November 1995, and signed the Dayton Accords, a peace treaty. As part of the accords, NATO agreed to provide 60,000 troops to deploy to the region, as part of the Implementation Force (IFOR), U.S. designation Operation Joint Endeavor. These forces remained deployed until December 1996, when those remaining in the region were transferred to the Stabilization Force (SFOR). SFOR peacekeepers remained in Bosnia until 2004.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_intervention_in_Bosnia_and_Herzegovina

Probably not important and not the kind of detail Coulthart would be interested in.

Next he leaves the Air Force to become a contractor or to work in the intelligence field.

External Quote:

You say you were an enlisted man, and then you ended up working for the intelligence community as a contractor? Tell me that story. How did that happen? Everything changed for me right around 911, and, I left the Air Force and was sent out to California at that time to begin stablish. And my cover basis for an independent as an independent contractor, so that I could serve what was coming down the line next for me.
06:31

It's a bit confusing, and I'm reaching out to @Duke and other for a bit of clarification. He started as an enlisted airman, then became a helicopter pilot. Does that make him a warrant officer? Just some quick Googling says Air Force pilots have to be officers, but I'm not sure I trust what I found.

Anyway, Barber ends up as a contract pilot for somebody, but he doesn't make it clear who:

External Quote:

Barber says he was contracted as a helicopter pilot and was part of a team assigned to retrieve crashed aircraft
07:09
at an undisclosed testing facility in the desert.
Now this is where it gets interesting. He claims he's working as pilot for this retrieval program at a place he calls "the range":

External Quote:

A lot of the work we did on was on what I call the range, where, the U.S. government and its private partners used to test all kinds of things, weapon systems, and resilience to weapon systems of certain craft. And so you see a lot of exciting things.
07:15

Of course, he doesn't really say where it is, just out in the "desert". Combined with him claiming to be in California when this started, is it safe to say he was at places like Edwards Air Force Base, the Marine's 29 Palms facility and/or places in nearby Nevada locations like the Nellis Range and Groom Lake/Area 51? That sound reasonable?

Without going through the whole thing what struck me is there is NO mention of Barber being deployed to various parts of the country, let alone the world, to go retrieve crashed UFOs. Everything he describes seems to just happen at "the range". When he has an emotional experience transporting "something", he only goes 20 miles:

External Quote:

And I got the load hooked up and I began flying away and once it was just me and that object in between the pick and the drop site was about 20 miles in between. I felt like something was inside of me. I felt like I was possessed by the most. Beautiful spirit I had ever been possessed by and. Was it loving? It was loving. But there was a sense of sadness at the same time. And, had you ever had an experience like this before? No, no, it was a very feminine energy, I'll tell you that. It felt like felt like the Spirit of God,
17:31

Just a side note on the above quote, he says "it was just me and that object". Would an operation like this occur without a loadmaster? And if he is flying something like a UH-60, or a heavy lift helicopter like a CH-47, or CH-53, aren't these all considered "crewed aircraft", in that they always need 2 pilots? Just asking.

Again, this is NOT the classic crashed UFO retrieval story that it's made to sound like. As far as I can tell from reading though this, Barber does NOT talk about running round the world grabbing crashed UFOs. He ONLY retrieves these crafts at "the range". One's first thought is "why do the aliens only crash at a secured secret base?"

The answer seems to be that they are being summoned, like a Steven Greer CE5 event:

External Quote:

And so how did the object come to land? I think it was invited to land by the Psyonix team. Jake says his mission that night came from no accidental crash. The UAP was summoned by a separate team. A special team with special abilities. They're called psionics. What is a psionic? A psionic, person is someone with the predisposition for, astral. Temporal. You could say abilities and sensitivities. Extra temporal abilities. Also known as psychic powers.
19:46

I guess that explains why Barber only makes UFO retrievals at "the range", but then creates the obvious question, why is he retrieving UFOs that are being summoned and controlled? Why are the crashing? If he retrieved and moved one 20 miles, why not just have the aliens land the UFO where it's supposed to be instead of 20 miles away? It makes no sense at all.

The rest of it just sounds like a bad Netflix spy thriller, with illness, threats of murder, computers with their hard drives mysteriously removed. Honestly it just sounds silly. Read on:

External Quote:

Well, we were deployed on a particular task to recover what we call treaties or high value targets. Those high value targets were Panasonic tough books, the sensitive material that is on these Panasonic tough books, has to do with sensor data. Jake and his team suspect those Panasonic tough books contained data from the top secret UAP retrieval operations worth millions to the right buyer. Jake says the private company contracting him was determined to recover them. We recovered our first two, tough books. They were, they were in the High Sierras.


30:30
We got back to our our base location and then went through them and took photographs, discovered that the hard drives were missing. Jake says his team arrived too late. The hard drives containing the data had already been taken, and it became clear to Jake that not all was what it seemed. As his team set out to recover the missing data. The next piece of intelligence that came through led us to, a lake and high altitude lake. And we found, the hard drives in a sealed steel container 25ft underwater.
The computers were somewhere in the mountains? But the hard drives had been removed? But then they got a tip that the hard drives were in a lake? WTF? It really sounds like Barber tried his hand at screen writing and when that didn't work out, he phoned Coulthart.
 
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Can you link to any descriptions, reference footage etc of specific military line lift camera systems?

My reply was based on the assumption that the video (if genuine) would be sourced from the main FLIR camera system, not a redundant one dedicated just to line lifts... do those exist?
 
The textured concrete you see around swimming pools.

Kool Deck.

Didn't Steven Greer say Barber was his source before NewsNation broadcast that interview.

Isn't Greeer known for CE5 . Is that summoning UAP using thought ?

And then we see Barber say they summoned/controlled UAP using thought or some psychic connection.

I noted the same thing, but didn't know Greer and Barber had a connection.
 
This is how I interpret the video

View attachment 76098
I'm willing to take another look. If I can see a movement in the end of the "fishing rod" which is inconsistent with the movement the flexible end of a fishing pole would naturally make, then that would support your interpretation.

I've been playing the video backwards and forwards dozens of times. There may be a brief moment where the "rod" would be bending in an unnatural way. An S-curve that may be more consistent with the end of a cable, suddenly released from tension.

In this scenario the cable now has slack, the object rolls along the ground - in the opposite direction you'd expect. It seems to be rolling back down a slight incline, rather than rolling with its own momentum or sinking into the ground. Which supports the idea that it's a light but rigid shell structure of some kind.

The four slender cables attached to the sling - or two overlapping slings - are revealed when previously they were hidden.

I wish I could present a loop of the video from 0:14 to 0:31 with the loop moving back and forth between those two points. But I can't even download it.

So how do we explain the unnatural appearance of the terrain? As someone said, there may be abundant video artifacts - making it appear stranger than it actually is. Could this be a mowed green grass field... with video artifacts?

The idea that this is an inflated balloon doesn't make much sense. The idea that it's a light, but rigid structure might make sense if they were moving it a very short distance. Such as down off a tower. Otherwise the insecure sling arrangement wouldn't make sense. Over a very short distance on a calm day, it might make sense.

It might make even more sense if this were a relatively cheap thing that was going to be thrown away and replaced by a new unit.
 
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My take: I don't have any reason to believe this is anything other than a vaguely egg shaped object, but I do think it's 'real' in the sense that it's something reasonably heavy being moved by a real helicopter using real 'basket' style cargo lift slings of this nature:

View attachment 76144

At least one manufacturer I found includes contrasting edging (probably re-enforced sections where the stitching locks the internal straps that run through the body of the sling into the material):

View attachment 76145

You can see the ends of slings in the shadow in this picture:

View attachment 76146

It looks to me like two or more lifting straps are being used, wrapped one over the other at an angle so that the object (which does appear to me to be egg shaped) doesn't slip out:

View attachment 76147

As @Mick West has pointed out, when the tension is taken off the slings, their ends separate and the space between them increases.

Having said that, a whole bunch of stuff doesn't make any sense:

1. The object landing and rolling seems to be to be consistent with something reasonably heavy that's been dropped on the ground with some lateral motion rather than being carefully placed directly on the ground vertically. (EDIT: Looks like because the thing is swinging significantly).

Why would someone do that with a thing of staggering importance like an alien spacecraft? (Note: 'consistent with' doesn't mean 'that's what it is'. I'm sure I don't need to point out to people on this forum the problem of interpreting two dimensional representations of three dimensional scenes, with no reference for scale).

2. If this thing is 20 feet long, the crosshatch/weave pattern of the sling material would be *ridiculously* course. The pic below shows the sort of woven material these slings are generally made of, lit in a way that makes the pattern obvious. This particular sling is 3 feet in length

View attachment 76148

3. Whatever surface this thing is landing on is, in reference to the scale of the object itself, pretty flat. Note how sharp the edges of the shadows are.

View attachment 76149

4. I'm way less certain about this because it's difficult to align everything properly, but it appears to me that the 'egg' changes shape after it's landed. In the GIF below you can see a frame from just before touchdown compared to one where it's landed and rolled a bit. I've tried to match the top edge as well as possible. The camera seems pretty locked down in terms of orientation and zoom, so either the egg is soft boiled ( :) ) or is irregularly shaped. I admit this is pretty rough and needs some more work. I'm sure in no time Metabunk will go brrrrt and extract and measure every frame :)

View attachment 76150

5. As others have said, where are the people on hand to make sure that this thing of galactic importance doesn't just roll away?

There's room for another scenario. This might be an outright hoax using something like a 10 to 20 foot cable instead of the reported 150 cable. Then many problems, such as problems with scale, may make sense.

The object could be a silicone egg, in a mocked up miniature sling supported by 4 strands of non-scale fishing line, and laid to rest on an artificial surface during daylight.

If this is the case, I'd think that there were three sections of cable:

-The cable nearest the camera is a small gage steel cable.

- Lower down is an attached thinner, cable. Simulating the cable's angular size decreasing with distance. Once the tension was released this slightly elastic cable rebounded, causing the odd motions.

-Last is 4 strands of fishing line supporting a miniature, mocked up sling. The material of the sling is visibly out of scale, as are the strands of fishing line.

-The silicone egg doesn't have the mass you'd expect of a spaceship, due both to materials and the square-cube law. So it rolls in a way that looks unnatural. When the cable goes slack the egg rolls back due to being slightly out of balance rather than rolling forward due to momentum or digging into the ground due to momentum and weight. It also distorts where the fishing line digs into it.

Still sheer speculation, of course.

Silicone eggs are sold to adults as a novelty/joke item, and to kids, as a toy.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1433637283/childs-non-toxic-silicone-easter-egg

il_1588xN.4699949796_39gw.webp
 
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Sometimes you just have to go with logic/common-sense and logic is telling us that you wouldn't dangle a priceless 'off-world vehicle' 100 ft off the ground with something insecure that would most likely fall given any kind of substantial movement from the helicopter. Logic also says you would have boots on the ground at the drop off location considering this is potentially the most important drop off in human history. The proportions look off and the ground texture seems too close and symmetrical to be some kind of woodland.

I'm surprised even a station like Newsnation ran with this video. Looks like a mock-up on so many levels.

Not saying it's a real space egg, but transferring it this way would be totally normal.

This test aircraft cost 1 billion dollars:

External Quote:

A test version of a spacecraft resembling a mini space shuttle was carried aloft over the Mojave Desert by a helicopter Wednesday in a precursor to a free flight in which it will be released to autonomously land on a runway as it would in a return from orbit.
https://indianexpress.com/article/t...ft-in-captive-carry-test-over-desert-4822469/
 
Let's remember though, this video is NOT of one of (Jake) Barber's supposed retrievals. According to Coulthart, this is from a "trusted" but anonymous source.
Puts me in mind of Elizondo's mothership/ceiling-lamp. (https://www.metabunk.org/threads/el...lection-of-a-light-fixture.13726/#post-326205)

That sort of language makes me more suspicious, with the implication of provenance without having to actually provide any. Of course it is possible that his is literally true, but the claim has been asserted enough times now to make silly fakes seem more convincing, they've used up my willingness to be trusting.
 
The computers were somewhere in the mountains? But the hard drives had been removed? But then they got a tip that the hard drives were in a lake? WTF?

Does sound a bit like what you might find in Dan Brown's wastepaper basket on a Sunday morning.
Can't help but think, if you're "retrieving" laptops, and it's safe to do so, you might want to turn them on and check you've got what you're looking for- or at least that it contains data- before you bug out.
Or if we're in full-on thriller mode, check that none contained a sheet of plastique or a GPS transmitter before turning it on or taking it on board your helo.

It's a bit unclear if he was a mechanic or in the Special Ops group when in Bosnia. Most of the NATO air support seemed to have been between 1992-1994, with the war ending in 1995
That might be important; I've been trying to find confirmation of Jake Barber's age.
I don't know how long it takes to train a combat helicopter pilot, but I'm guessing at least a year?
So if Barber joined up at 18, and saw service in Bosnia in 1995 (the latest plausible date) he must be a minimum of 49 years old now. Surely he's not much older than early 50's at most?

Incidentally, found he's an instructor for some jiu-jitsu franchise,
a.JPG
c.JPG
https://gjjelkgrove.com/about-us/, where he's listed as "Owner/Program Director Jacob Barber".

It's a bit confusing, and I'm reaching out to @Duke and other for a bit of clarification. He started as an enlisted airman, then became a helicopter pilot. Does that make him a warrant officer? Just some quick Googling says Air Force pilots have to be officers, but I'm not sure I trust what I found.
Would defer to the Duke on this, but as far as I can tell, many US Army pilots are warrant officers,
External Quote:

Go from high school to flight school.
Qualify to become a pilot with a high school diploma or GED. Not only can you get flight school paid for, but you'll also receive an Army salary and benefits at the same time.
* Flight School is paid for by the Army, and in turn you'll commit to 10 years of service after you graduate as an Aviation Warrant Officer
https://www.goarmy.com/careers-and-jobs/specialty-careers/aviation, "Take Flight With Army Aviation", US Army website.

The US Navy and USMC appear to have Officer and WO pilots,
External Quote:
A naval aviator is a commissioned officer or warrant officer qualified as a crewed aircraft pilot in the United States Navy or United States Marine Corps.
Wikipedia, Naval aviator (United States), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_aviator_(United_States)

-But all (as of 2025) USAF pilots are all commissioned officers:
"Warrant Officers Are Coming Back to the Air Force, But They Won't Be Pilots", Thomas Novelly, 14 Feb 2024, Military.com website:

External Quote:
AURORA, Colorado -- The Air Force announced this week that it is bringing back warrant officer ranks, but officials clarified Tuesday it is not looking at developing aviators through that training -- despite an ongoing pilot shortage and other service branches using warrant officers for those types of missions.

...The Air Force has previously shot down the idea of using warrant officers as a way to fill the ongoing pilot shortage with aviators.
...Warrant officers can currently fly in the Army, and the Navy had a flying chief warrant officer program from 2006 to 2014.
Also, "Air Force Again Shoots Down Proposal to Make Warrant Officer Pilots", Oriana Pawlyk, 17 September 2018:
External Quote:
"The Air Force went out to the Rand Corporation, and it specifically was in regard to our pilot retention crisis and our pilot shortage," Kelly said during his personnel update speech. "They said, 'Would the advent of warrant officers help the United States Air Force in terms of building and retaining pilots?' And the Rand study came back and said no."

...["]We have no intention to expand enlisted pilot positions beyond the Global Hawk" community, she said May 4, preceding the Rand study's debut.
(Global Hawk is a UAS; uncrewed aerial, or aircraft, system.)
Military.com, https://www.military.com/daily-news...own-proposal-make-warrant-officer-pilots.html

External Quote:
The last active-duty Air Force chief warrant officer, CWO4 James H. Long, retired in 1980...
...The last Air Force Reserve chief warrant officer, CWO4 Bob Barrow, retired in 1992...
...On February 17, 2024, the Air Force announced that they will bring back warrant officers after over 30 years of hiatus.
Wikipedia, "Warrant officer (United States)", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrant_officer_(United_States), my emphasis.

External Quote:
...all pilots in the US Air Force are officers, this means you'll need a college degree and you'll need to complete Officer Training School...
"How hard is it to become an Air Force pilot?", Jack Irwin, 8 July 2021, Military Times website, https://www.militarytimes.com/off-d.../how-hard-is-it-to-become-an-air-force-pilot/,
quoting pilot Michael Wells.

I don't find Jake Barber's account of his retrieval ops at all convincing. However, we should be confident about our facts before implying or alleging that someone didn't have the service role/ speciality that they claim.
If we can find any examples of NCOs (but not Warrant Officers, see above) serving as USAF pilots- not navigators, weapons officers, loadmasters or other aircrew- since around 1992 (the year of CWO4 Barrow's retirement, and the start of the Bosnian War) this would help support Barrow's claim that he served, while an enlisted man, as a USAF pilot.
 
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Look at the wrap here. See how close two halves are in the air, and then on the ground:

View attachment 76116

So it does not look like adhesive tape. Maybe cohesive. Maybe it's an actual helicopter net of some sort.

I wonder if the sling is some kind of braided material that's designed to cinch up when a load is applied to it, therefore creating the apparent ridges. Whatever it is, it definitely seems to be a non-standard sling used in helicopter towing (or I guess it could be classified). It would really go a long way if these "whistleblowers" gave us basic information about the videos that we could verify.
 
If it is a real helicopter the given camera angle would be unlikely to show anyone. the ground crew for a sling load has to be far enough away from the release point the they don't get hit with the pedant. the only reason they would approach while the helicopter is still attached is if there was an issue with the hook. TM 4-48.09 has an overview of where people should be on page 5-4 (~ page 60). I'm not going to share it directly since I can't figure out if its ITAR status. it's "Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited"
Thanks for the reference, I was trying to find information about that! If I am reading the document correctly (PDF pp. 62, 63) there should be a signalman around 60-80ft ahead of the landing point and ground crew around 50ft to the side in case they need to manually unhook the load. Am I getting that right?

https://media.defense.gov/2017/Mar/29/2001723706/-1/-1/0/CIM_13482_2B.PDF

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The object is claimed to be approximately 20ft long so it looks like we can see about 90ft (~4.5 object lengths) ahead of where the object lands, and at least that far down below the landing site. I suppose the ground crew could be out of frame on the top side of the object if the scene is real and was actually carried out by the military, but seems like we would be able to see the signalman?

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Aside from other things like the bizarre "terrain", the out of focus foreground object seems to totally betray any sense of scale. It looks exactly like what you'd expect if a smaller rod was very close to the camera, not a larger line hanging from a helicopter - and none of the other video examples listed here show anything similar.
 
@John J. --As you found, there are no enlisted pilots in the USAF, and haven't been since the Korean War era. Active duty USAF Warrant Officers were all gone by 1980 as you mentioned, but I think a few remained for while in the Air Guard and Reserves.

As for Barber's claim, I wondered if maybe he is saying he enlisted, and earned his degree while serving. With that degree, he could have then gone to Officers Candidate School to earn his commission, and ultimately his wings? A stretch I know, but you never know how these things are edited. (I wouldn't trust Coulthart any further than I can throw him.)
 
I don't find Jake Barber's account of his retrieval ops at all convincing. However, we should be confident about our facts before implying or alleging that someone didn't have the service role/ speciality that they claim.
If we can find any examples of NCOs (but not Warrant Officers, see above) serving as USAF pilots- not navigators, weapons officers, loadmasters or other aircrew- since around 1992 (the year of CWO4 Barrow's retirement, and the start of the Bosnian War) this would help support Barrow's claim that he served, while an enlisted man, as a USAF pilot.

Agreed. But the whole story reminds me of the 2nd Rambo movie. Stallone's character is a former Army Special Operations, Green Berets, guy AND it turns out a bad ass helicopter pilot. I checked with my buddy who was an Army Green Beret, a Ranger and airborne and HALO (High Altitude Low Opening) airborne. At least in the Army, in the '80s-'90s, he says no Green Beret was a helicopter pilot. Special Ops was Special Ops and Special Air Ops was different.

Maybe the Air Force was different, but the story about nefarious people hiding ToughBooks out in the mountains for he and his team to find only to have the hard drive for said ToughBooks be hidden away in an alpine lake strains credulity.
 
My reply was based on the assumption that the video (if genuine) would be sourced from the main FLIR camera system, not a redundant one dedicated just to line lifts... do those exist?
That's what I am asking you?

What do you mean by main FLIR camera?
 
Let's remember though, this video is NOT of one of (Jake) Barber's supposed retrievals. According to Coulthart, this is from a "trusted" but anonymous source.

Please help me: Where exactly does Coulthart say that if it's not here in the video?

Edit: It's here in the transcript posted by me. Doesn't say "trusted" though ;)

13:00
But, again, my my roll stops once I deliver it. Yes. It sounds like the stuff of madness. Tall tales, delusions. And anyway, where was the proof for any of this news nation has independently obtained previously unseen video obtained from a secret UAP craft retrieval program. This extraordinary footage clearly shows an egg shaped object dangling in a sling below the belly of a helicopter. Let's slow this down to take a closer look. That's an egg shaped UAP suspended from a 150ft long line. We're told the craft is about 20ft long.
 
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Please help me: Where exactly does Coulthart say that if it's not here in the video?

Edit: It's here. Doesn't say "trusted" though ;)
I think this is quite important. There is Barber's story of an egg and there is "independently obtained" footage showing an egg, two different things. Without knowing the source of the video, it's worth nothing, just a reenactment of the story.
 
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