A former US Homeland Security officer has revealed the strange thing he saw while working at the Mexican-American border - including what he's certain were UFOs.
Newly released video and testimony from a former Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agent revealed multiple encounters with "aerial objects" appearing to manoeuvre "well beyond the capabilities of a conventional aircraft", the Debrief reports.
The footage has left some veteran pilots scratching their heads and questioning nature of these objects.
One former CBP agent has broken his silence to offer his own explanation on the puzzling events.
“It’s not just the Department of Defence encountering this stuff,” former Homeland Security agent Robert “Bob” Thompson explained.
Mr Thompson recalled how one of the roles he took on as a federal agent involved establishing the reporting requirements for "Unexplained Aerial Phenomena" within the Tucson Sector.
According to Mr Thompson, just like the military, a number of these bizarre incidents have been captured the government's systems, which are normally tasked with catching drug smugglers or staving off the flow of illegal immigration.
He said: “We have guys out there 24/7 with their eyes to the sky looking for smuggling, but they see other stuff.
“I talked to dozens and dozens of agents that all had similar stories of seeing bizarre stuff, of having encounters with UAP.”
After serving for 11 years with the U.S. military and a stint with a Tucson area Fire Department as a Paramedic and Hazmat Technician, Thompson began his career with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency in January 2008.
As a federal law enforcement agent, Thompson spent 14 years guarding America’s southern borders working on the "special operations side".
“I got on to what they call our mobile Response Team, which is one of the three tiers that make up the Border Patrol Special Operations Detachment.
“Flying was kind of my forte. My responsibility was mainly helicopters, and some of the other aerial platforms that we work with and other partner agencies that we work with."
Alongside his official duties with the DHS, Thompson began investigating UFO sightings he learned about from within the agency, even collecting videos and images of bizarre encounters captured by sophisticated government systems.
He explained: “There’s other people that have concerns about [these objects] as well. You know, like it may be a foreign adversary.
“Whether or not some of these objects pose a threat to American interests is not clearly understood and by establishing reporting requirements, it may serve as an early warning system for emerging threats when combined with technology assets already in place by DHS.”
A document from the Tucson police department's air support unit described an incident in February last year involving a craft described as a "highly modified drone", which outmanoeuvred helicopters from the force.
“This thing went on for 45 minutes over the city of Tucson,” Bob said.
“It was doing circles around (the police helicopters) then went up to 14,000 (ft). Could [it] be something Raytheon related? Absolutely. Could it be, you know, a Chinese drone doing some scouting? Absolutely.”
While trying to convince senior leadership to take the issue seriously, he put the word out to the DHS aviation community that he was interested in any UAP encounters they might have had.
One video made public shows three fast-moving unidentified aircraft captured by the sophisticated targeting/imaging system of an Army AH-64 attack helicopter.
Captured by one of the U.S. military’s flagship attack helicopters close to midnight on November 6, 2018, roughly 40 miles northwest of Tucson, Arizona, the video appears to show several unidentifiable objects manoeuvring unlike any known aircraft.
“Wow! Are those three really fast moving jets up there?” exclaims the Apache helicopter’s co-pilot and gunner as three objects suddenly appear, dashing across the sky as the aircraft prepares to take-off.
“Probably. Probably some A10’s or some F-16s,” the Apache’s pilot replies, before admitting, “but, I’m not looking up there.”
After several rotations, the objects then resume an obtuse triangular formation before speeding out of sight as the Apache begins to take off.
Although the encounter only lasted a few seconds, the unusual manoeuvres in the video suggests it could be a UFO.
“I’ve seen things,” Mr Thompson said.
"I’ve seen things myself, but unfortunately, I’ve never been able to hit the record button, or have something that was just going to be mind blowing for people.
“But this one, the ‘rubber duck video’ I thought displayed some really unique characteristics that I couldn’t explain. To me, it didn’t resemble a balloon [and] it didn’t resemble a drone.”
Rich Hoffman, who has worked professionally as a defence contractor for more than two decades, says the characteristics of the object weren’t easily explained.
He said: “It doesn’t have any kind of thermal signature that you would expect.
“We got its flight path nailed down, deduced that the speed varied… from about 80 to 85 miles per hour. It was a relatively small object. I’ve always helped out the little guy, that’s always been something that’s been instilled in me from an early age,” said Mr Thompson.
“Our guys are out there every day for, you know, 12 hour shifts, staring at that screen, trying to scrutinise a cow from a jackrabbit to a person walking to a bird flying in the sky, to a ultralight, to a helicopter, to the A-10s.
“I personally have 1000s of hours behind the screens. So, if I see something and I don’t know what it is? I’m telling you, it’s got me stumped.”
