WOMAN: Authorities say they
don't know what they are,
but there appears
to be a growing
problem of unidentified
objects flying through the sky.
NARRATOR: All across
America in 2019,
civilians and military personnel
were witnessing bizarre craft.
In Texas, 13 reported
sightings of flying disks;
in Florida, 27 fireballs;
40 sightings of floating
triangles over California.
MAN: What the [BLEEP]
is that, homie?
NARRATOR: But in North
Carolina, there were over 50
sightings of something else--
glowing orbs.
 Howdy there, Shaun.
Good to see you.
 Oh, yeah.
You, too, man.
What a gorgeous day.
 Yeah, this is beautiful, man.
NARRATOR: Lue
Elizondo is meeting
with a former marine who wants
to be known simply as Shaun.
In his over 10 years
of military service,
he never saw anything
like what he witnessed one
night off the Carolina coast.
 So Shaun, I know a little
bit about your background.
But do you mind giving
me just a brief picture
of your life in the military?
 Yeah. joined the
marines in '91.
I became a reconnaissance
marine in '96.
It's a marine that's forward
observer, behind enemy lines,
surveillance,
information collection.
NARRATOR: In September
2019, Shaun was heading
home after a fishing trip.
SHAUN: Coming in, and instead
of going to the boat ramp,
I just went on into
Carolina beach.
I kind of tooled around.
It was a beautiful evening.
I noticed an orb over my head.
Like, not directly
over, but maybe 150 feet
in the air, kind
of following me.
I was traveling about 5 knots.
Like, oh, OK,
somebody's got a drone.
And the first thought was,
like, oh, I couldn't hear it.
I mean, obviously my
motor is super quiet.
So if a drone was buzzing,
you know, 150 feet,
I'd be able to hear.
It was a round, circular
orb, reddish orange.
And it had a haze
glow around it.
Wasn't sharp edges at all.
Man, maybe 5 feet in diameter?
LUE ELIZONDO: So
it had color to it?
SHAUN: Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
 Orange-ish red.
 So I took note of
it, because, you know,
I'm a reconnaissance
marine as well.
So I stop, look, listen, smell--
you know, the basic instinct,
where it's--
follow me forever.
I felt it was following me.
I was traveling about
5 knots 20, 30 seconds.
 Yeah, that's deliberate.
I mean, usually if it's
going to go in front of you
or behind you, then--
but you said it
matched your speed.
 Yeah.
That thing took off faster
than anything I've ever seen.
Like, it traveled as fast
as, you know, a tracer round.
LUE ELIZONDO: That's fast.
SHAUN: Yeah.
LUE ELIZONDO: Thousands
of feet per second.
Even bullets, when they
break the sound barrier,
they have that crack,
that miniature sonic boom.
 There was no sound, yeah.
 That's what I want to ask you.
 Absolutely no sound at all.
Or, thrust-- like
power thrust, or--
or something.
LUE ELIZONDO: Shaun
is a trained observer.
He's just wired differently.
He sees this really
weird, strange light.
And the way he described
this object really
fell neatly within several
of those observable.
NARRATOR: Elizondo
immediately recognizes
two of the five observables--
instantaneous acceleration
and hypersonic velocity.
LUE ELIZONDO:
Instantaneous acceleration,
because he said within a blink
of an eye it went from a hover
directly over his
boat to disappearing
over-- over the horizon.
And of course,
hypersonic velocity.
He actually used the term "a
tracer bullet" just taking off,
but without any type of trail.
SHAUN: I didn't think
anything of it until it left.
You know, the whole
question is, what did I see?
 Is it possible that these
things have a very rational
explanation, i.e., flares?
SHAUN: Every flare I've
launched has a trail.
And it left.
Flares come.
They don't go.
 You don't expect a
flare to simply hover.
It falls with
gravity, because it
abides by the laws of physics.
And flares don't just take
off at breakneck speeds
in one direction and disappear.
NARRATOR: To Elizondo, Shaun's
sighting is eerily familiar.
MAN (ON RADIO): Hey, got one.
[LAUGHS, WHOOPS]
NARRATOR: Previously, US
Navy Lieutenant Ryan Graves
told Elizondo he
and other fighter
pilots repeatedly
witnessed orb-like UFOs
off the east coast in 2015.
 This was more like I was
looking at a flashlight.
So it was just like a singular
point of [INAUDIBLE] energy.
I'm literally just seeing
a flash, a constant flash,
a flashlight shining out there.
NARRATOR: The
biggest connection--
the orb-like objects were
spotted near the same waters
where Shaun was fishing.
LUE ELIZONDO: Here we are right
off the coast of the Atlantic.
And in 2015, the US aircraft
carrier Theodore Roosevelt,
there were several pilots
who encountered something
very, very interesting.
They described these orbs,
these little round things
that they couldn't explain.
NARRATOR: This area
is also home to some
of the largest military
installations in the US.
Could these mysterious
orbs be targeting
nearby military assets?
 I do think it
could be, you know,
maybe some type of foreign
government surveillance.
NARRATOR: One troubling theory
is that these objects could
be advanced Russian drones.
 If it's some red threat,
that would be enormous.
If it was someone
operating drones out there,
that'd be enormous, too.
NARRATOR: A Russian spy ship
known as the Viktor Leonov was
patrolling international waters
off the east coast of the US
both in 2015 and near the
time of Shaun's sighting.
Could the Leonov have
launched such drones
or be coordinating with
them to spy on the US?
 Is that something we
need to be cognizant of?
If the Russians,
let's say, developed
this new secret technology
that they could launch
a probe over our US cities
and at the drop of a hat
take off at supersonic
speeds, without any signature,
would that be something
you would want to know
that this technology exists?
 Oh, yeah, for sure.
Everybody should understand what
possible threats are out there
from foreign governments.
NARRATOR: Elizondo's
teammate Chris Mellon
is concerned with the
ability of a foreign power
to penetrate American airspace.
CHRIS MELLON: We're
already, you know,
on thin ice in terms of
having any clear idea of what
these things are, where
they're from, who's operating,
what their intent is.
Have we been
technologically leapfrogged?
Could it be the Russians or
someone else-- in either case,
they don't seem to be ours.
And that's the alarming
and concerning issue.
