Did former Navy pilot David Fravor see an alien space craft?
Earlier this month the government admitted it conducted a study on the UFO phenomenon. The $22 million project was started in 2007 and ended in 2012 when funding for the program was cut off. This announcement prompted a former Navy pilot to talk about his encounter with a UFO. Commander David Fravor said that in 2004 he saw a flying object off the coast of California that looked about the size of his F/A-18 Hornet fighter plane. Fravor insisted that what he saw was not from this Earth. He described the object as a white Tic Tac that was hanging close to the water. In talking about his encounter, Fravor said,
"As I get closer, as my nose is starting to pull back up, it accelerates and it's gone. Faster than I'd ever seen anything in my life. We turn around, say let's go see what's in the water and there's nothing. Just blue water."
There is a problem I have with Fravor's statement of what he saw. Read it again and see if you can spot the problem.
"As I get closer, as my nose is starting to pull back up, it accelerates and it's gone. Faster than I'd ever seen anything in my life. We turn around, say let's go see what's in the water and there's nothing. Just blue water."
When describing something that happened in the past, the rules of grammar require us to use past tense language. For most people, this is just common sense but we are abiding by the rules. When a statement is coming from memory, it is very easy to use past tense language as the person recalls what happened. Fravor used present tense language to describe his encounter.
"As I get closer, as my nose is starting to pull back up, it accelerates and it's gone. Faster than I'd ever seen anything in my life. We turn around, say let's go see what's in the water and there's nothing. Just blue water."
If his story was coming from memory, this is what he should have said.
"As I got closer, as my nose was starting to pull back up, it accelerated and it was gone. Faster than I'd ever seen anything in my life. We turned around, said let's go see what's in the water and there was nothing. Just blue water."
The use of present tense language is an indication his story may not be coming from memory. There is one exception to this rule but I rarely see it occur. When people are describing a traumatic event, they may start to relive the event in their mind. This may cause them to use present tense language. Instead of describing what happened to them, they begin to describe what is happening to them. The key in determining if this is what is happening is to look at where the present tense language begins and where it ends within the statement. Also, it has to be a traumatic event. It does not appear that Fravor was traumatized by this event. Therefore, his use of present tense language appears to be unjustified.
Since we are on the subject of UFO's, why is it that for hundreds of years alien space crafts supposedly have been visiting our planet only to fly around for 15 to 30 seconds and then leave? It doesn't make sense.