Did the USS KIDD have a UFO encounter in 2019? That’s what a Navy Vet has claimed in communication with Dave Beaty, the creator of the Nimitz Encounters. Keep in mind the Navy Vet’s claim is unverified. The goal of this blog and Dave Beaty’s investigation is to kick up dust in the hopes of procuring additional information. Beaty has stressed this is raw information and to “not get too excited.” This is also coming from a single source. Many investigators prefer multiple sources to corroborate a story.
The Nimitz Encounters Film:
Since Beaty released the Nimitz Encounters film, and asked for witnesses to contact him, he has gotten messages from multiple people and heard many stories. Something that makes this story unique, is Beaty was able to FOIA the USS KIDD deck logs and find a corroborating, but possibly circumstantial hint, an intelligence “Snoopie Team” was active. Do these deck logs describe a “Snoopie Team” training exercise? Was the Snoopie Team investigating a UAV controlled by contemporary technology? A Plane? Or is this in fact another example of a Nimitz style Tic Tac event? To make matters more interesting, the USS KIDD was reportedly near the same area the Nimitz events occured.
About the Snoopie Teams, Beaty says:
From what I know, the Snoopie Team is from the ship’s intel section. All CG and DDG ships have them. They are comprised of 1-2 photographers/videographers that film the unidentified or target ship or aircraft with high powered lenses and notate all the details for later analysis. Most likely ship intel shipmates that are tasked with this extra detail. On call 24/7.
Dave Beaty posted this on social media, describing what happened:
Recently I received the USS Kidd (DDG-100) deck logs from the navy for July of 2019. The USS Kidd is a Burke Class Destroyer with the AEGIS combat system. They were operating in the same SoCal OPAREA that USS Princeton and Nimitz were in over 15 years ago when they encountered the Tic Tacs.
This all started a few months back when I was contacted out of the blue by a retired navy vet who was on the USS Chafee as part of the 2004 Nimitz Strike Group. He told me he was part of that “shit show” (the Tic Tac encounters) and that his ship was deeply involved in that incident. You may know about my FOIA’s of USS Chafee and other ships from that workup. They revealed that on Nov 14 2004 the Chafee was en route from Hawaii to San Diego California. So Chafee was not physically present during the events of Nov 10-14. This former Chief Warrant Officer indicated he was a CW03 at the time and the AICS – I think that means Air Intercept Controller – on Chafee. He said that not only did Chafee control an intercept on Dec 04 with the Tic Tac objects, but he also said a former shipmate had contacted him about the similar USS Kidd encounters in 2019.
He does not want to be named at this time. This is what he reported to me:
Dec 2004
“We had already arrived and had been on station for a while when it happened. I’m thinking it was early Dec 04 based solely on my log book. We were doing some COMPTUEX stuff in SOCAL. All of my OSs were talking about it in CIC and I know at least one who will vouch for what I’m telling you. ”
“One of my controllers and I ran an intercept on one of these early on because we had a 1 vs 1 go up (F/A-18 BFM) and one of the jets went down for maintenance before launch so it was up as a single ship. We got permission from “Whickey” and they ran out on it. At intercept, the pilot was radio silent but once he came back on the radio he was freaked out and said he had never seen anything perform like that as it descended vertically right in from of him.”
“I’ve been freaked out about this for 15+ years, always waiting for the “men in black” to show up. 😬 We were told to box up the audiotapes and send them over to the carrier. After that, I told my controller to not speak of it anymore because something was up. Another buddy of mine that was on Chafee with me retired as an OSCS said they had the same kind of stuff happen last year in SOCAL!”
I asked about it. His reply,
“It was in July of 2019 on USS Kidd During the USS Theodore Roosevelt SWATT in SOCAL.”
So back to the USS Kidd I started off this post with. In the deck logs I am examining I found an interesting entry. This is after 2AM towards the end of July. A “Snoopie Team” is called up and away to check out the UAV’s. After doing some research I determined the “Snoopie Team” aboard a Destroyer is tasked as an intelligence detail to try and identify unknown ships and aircraft that come within the visual range of the ship. They use the various optics and sensors available to track and photograph and videotape the intruder in order to ID it. At this time the CO is also on deck. This could mean the captain was awake at 2am and also aware of this event. I don’t have clarification on any of this yet. But sharing it since it’s very interesting and our members love this kind of raw info!
UAV could mean Unmanned Aerial Vehicle or Unidentified Aerial Vehicle. I’ve seen the navy use both terms.
“Here is another Snoopie Team for UAV and CO visit from the logs about 5 days before the one I posted above. 1:23 AM Local.” – Dave Beaty
This log describes “red flares.”
Beaty continued with additional quotes from the unnamed Navy Vet, unedited:
My contact knows his (stuff). So when he tells me something, this guy is legit as they come people. He said his friend on USS KIDD said about the 2019 Tic Tac:
“I know he said he could see them with the naked eye and they were almost eye level with the bridge hovering. They were the same tic-tac shaped objects.”
He added, “I am not sure what exercise they were involved in and if that was exercise Snoopie Team call outs or if that was for an exercise or actual. Calling away the Snoopie Team in US waters is definitely not something normally done and doing so at night is really unusual. The team’s main purpose is to help ID a vessel of interest or document something unusual about a vessel or aircraft. If they were involved in a massive group exercise at the time with OPFOR ships in the exercise then it could be exercise.”
BTW Nothing in the logs indicate a training exercise or general quarters…
Is this all circumstantial? Is it a coincidence the Snoopie Team was active? Was the team collecting evidence from a foreign adversary’s UAV? Or is this evidence of a recent UFO event?
If you have more information about this event you can contact Dave Beaty here.
UPDATE:
I was on my ships Snoopie team . I was a photographer on the Nimitz and the Blue Ridge . Usually photographed ships at a distance or planes checking us out never any UFOs . That’s pretty crazy . I don’t doubt those guys one second
So interesting and worthy of followup.
Very interesting. Nice work. Much appreciated. Taking photos and videos at night is difficult for civilians, but I’d imagine there are pretty good UV/night vision photos and videos they snagged. I’m interested in updates to this story.
This is excellent work, thank you. I came straight here while listening to you talk to George Knapp on the Mystery Wire podcast. We now have a new term to look out for: ‘Snoopie Team’.
Thanks for posting this Danny Silva. We don’t know what happened on USS Kidd. It’s pretty interesting. I have a FOIA out to ONI for any report from this ship on these dates. Even if it’s classified, perhaps there is some confirmation this is a UAP and not a training mission. Fingers crossed that this is another current example of the very real engagements by US military personnel with anomalous aerial objects.
Snoopy teams are comprised of shipboard OS personnel aboard USGC cutters. Before the establishment of the OS/IS rates in (2003 approx) RDs and TCs staffed the snoopy teams. Logs would reflect all activity. Just like on the navy ship sites here.
This is what I call real UFO investigation.
Full credit to Dave Beaty for digging so deep and for Danny Silva for documenting it all.
Extremely interesting, Danny. Never knew SNOOPIE Teams existed. Wouldn’t doubt they have had a good number of UAP sightings and related events happen. Really causes one to wonder what else they may have seen or been tasked to observe? Keep us informed and always keep up the excellent work!
I love the “not get too excited” of Dave Beaty! Let’s be real excited when we see something real and let’s be prudent when we might face someone in need of attention.