U.S. Navy F/A-18 pilot. Launched from the USS Nimitz shortly after Fravor and captured the now-famous FLIR1 'Tic Tac' video of the unidentified object via the jet's forward-looking infrared pod.
Cmdr. Chad Underwood is a former United States Navy aviator who served in the Nimitz carrier strike group during the 2004 UAP encounters. He is the weapon systems officer responsible for capturing the now-famous infrared video of the object, successfully acquiring a sensor lock on the anomaly. Underwood's key contribution was the acquisition of empirical sensor data documenting the object's characteristics, famously coining the term 'Tic Tac' to describe its physical shape. He has confirmed that the object actively jammed his aircraft's radar, a significant indicator of advanced electronic warfare capabilities. His video remains a foundational piece of hard evidence in the contemporary UAP disclosure effort.