Kevin Day is a retired US Navy chief petty officer and radar specialist who served as a TOPGUN air intercept controller.1 He is best known as the senior radar operator aboard the USS Princeton during the 2004 Nimitz UAP Encounter, in which naval personnel observed and tracked a series of anomalous aerial objects off the coast of southern California.2 Day was among a number of military personnel who subsequently came forward publicly to describe their experiences during that encounter, alongside figures including David Fravor, Sean Cahill, Alex Dietrich, Ryan Graves, Jim Slaight.19
Beginning on 2004-11-10, Day tracked numerous unidentified aerial objects on the USS Princeton’s radar that returned no transponder signal, appearing in clusters of five to ten at altitudes far above normal commercial or military aviation traffic.3 He cross-referenced these contacts using the ship’s Cooperative Engagement System, which aggregated radar inputs from multiple sources into a single composite picture.4 The objects were initially observed above approximately 24,000 metres, tracking south from the vicinity of San Clemente Island at an unusually slow speed of approximately 100 knots for that altitude.5 On the morning of 2004-11-14, Day again observed a cluster of 14 unidentified contacts and confirmed that the USS Nimitz’s radar was tracking the same objects.6
The USS Princeton was at that time engaged in a high-fidelity air defence training exercise involving aircraft launched from the USS Nimitz and simulated adversary aircraft from the shore.7 Day testified that a captain informed him the objects had been tracked for several days prior.8 Day subsequently recommended to USS Nimitz Captain James Smith that aircraft be dispatched to investigate the contacts, and the captain agreed.9 A captain then ordered an intercept to visually identify the objects; David Fravor happened to be airborne at the time and was tasked with the intercept.10
During the Tic Tac Sighting, Day observed on his radar screen that the UAP objects plummeted from approximately 24,000 metres altitude to as low as approximately 15 metres above the ocean surface in approximately 0.78 of a second.11 He stated that as Fravor reached the merge plot, one object descended from approximately 8,500 metres to the ocean surface in the same 0.78-second interval.12 Day has expressed his belief that some of the objects entered the water before rapidly ascending back above approximately 24,000 metres — potentially beyond the scan volume of the Princeton’s radar.13 Following Fravor’s encounter, the remaining 14 radar contacts shot back to above approximately 24,000 metres in a fraction of a second.14 Day also stated that standard intercept procedure would have required the order “tapes on” before the intercept began, and he estimated the full Tic Tac UAP Full Video would therefore be at least ten minutes in length.15
On the morning of 2004-11-15, Day went to the USS Princeton’s communications room to retrieve radio recordings for an after-action report, but found that all communications from the encounter had been erased, though date and time stamps remained intact — an event corresponding to what has been described as the Tic Tac Comms Erasure.16 When Day asked the Princeton’s captain for his assessment of the objects, the captain responded that he believed they were “spontaneously forming ice falling from space,” a response Day later described as leaving him with the impression the captain knew more than he was disclosing.17 Day has stated publicly: “I am very sure these things were real; they were solid objects."18 He was interviewed about the encounter by journalist Ross Coulthart on 2021-03-22 and 2021-03-23, and has also spoken at UAP conferences, including one in March 2019. Day is noted as a contributor to the work of the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies.