News show episode · Reality Check · 8 October 2026
Reality Check Rewind: Tim Gallaudet on the wiped GOFAST email, AARO and submarine contacts
A Reality Check Rewind, reposted 8 October 2026, of Ross Coulthart's interview with retired Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet before the November 2024 House hearing (originally aired late October or early November 2024). He explains why he thinks the GOFAST email was wiped, describes AARO's attempt to win him over, and passes on two naval accounts: a 1980s submarine contact in a North Atlantic storm and a craft seen over a cruiser in the Eisenhower strike group.
Overview
- Named, firsthand: AARO's 'influence operation' on him and the 'Title 50' remark; sightings brought to him by submariners, carrier crew and NOAA crews.
- Secondhand (leads): a 1980s submarine contact that slowed and circled; the Eisenhower chief's craft over a cruiser; an Australian submariner's near-sonic contact (via Coulthart).
- Anonymous: his sources on why the GOFAST email was wiped; a former ONI commander: 'we still don't know what these are.'
Leads to follow
- The Eisenhower chief petty officer Coulthart is trying to corroborate.
- The 1980s submariner, if he will speak for himself.
- Richard Dolan's USO compendium (about 600 cases).
- Gallaudet's briefing to the National Academies' Ocean Studies Board.
Notes
- Rewind repost of 8 Oct 2026; original air date late Oct / early Nov 2024 from internal evidence (to confirm).
Timeline
On the recordWitness testimonyAlleged / one person's word
People across the timeline · click a name or a dot
Click a person to follow their thread.
1980s
Submarine contact in a North Atlantic stormTorpedo-like contact slows, circles, follows; Gallaudet via the submariner
About 2004
Craft over a cruiser in the Eisenhower groupA chief and about seven others on the fly bridge
The claims, checked
Witness testimony (3)
AARO's prior leadership invited him in, defended the Historical Record Report 'tooth and nail', called Chris Mellon's critique 'off the mark' and tried to persuade him the Nimitz Tic Tac might be US technology or a submarine; he calls it an 'influence operation' on him. The acting director told him: 'I'm a Title 50 guy.'firsthandAAROChristopher MellonThe Nimitz 'Tic Tac'
Submarine officers, aircraft-carrier personnel and NOAA ship crew have brought him their own sightings.firsthand
He briefed the National Academies' Ocean Studies Board on USOs; Richard Dolan's USO compendium holds about 600 cases; his family's Gallaudet Aircraft was a forerunner of General Dynamics, and he jokes he 'could have been one of the gatekeepers'.firsthand
Alleged / one person's word (5)
The GOFAST email was wiped because nobody knew whether the objects were adversary technology or of unknown origin; if adversary, the material belonged on a top secret compartmented system, not SIPRNet. He assumed it fell under a special access program.His explanation of why the email he testified about was pulled.anonymoushis unnamed sources → Tim Gallaudet (Reality Check, late Oct / early Nov 2024) → told it'Exposing the Truth' hearingGIMBAL and GOFAST
In the 1980s a US submarine at depth in the North Atlantic, during a major storm, detected a fast contact with a Russian torpedo signature and went to crush depth; the contact then slowed, which torpedoes don't do, circled to the stern, followed them and accelerated away. The storm's noise rules out confusion with an aircraft.Lone secondhand account, no named witness: a lead, not a case.secondhandthe submariner (unnamed) → Tim Gallaudet → told it
About 20 years ago, on an earlier USS Eisenhower deployment, a chief petty officer and about seven others on the fly bridge saw a gigantic craft hovering over a cruiser in the strike group. Coulthart knows the man and is trying to corroborate it.Lone secondhand account, witness not named: a lead.secondhandchief petty officer (unnamed) → Tim Gallaudet / Ross Coulthart → told it
A former commander of the Office of Naval Intelligence told him off the record: 'we still don't know what these are.'anonymousformer ONI commander (unnamed) → Tim Gallaudet → told it
An Australian Oberon-class submariner told Coulthart of a sonar contact moving at close to the speed of sound underwater.anonymousAustralian submariner (unnamed) → Ross Coulthart → told it