John Warner and AUTEC

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Contents 6
John Warner and AUTEC
Personal photo taken from the AUTEC FH-227 aircraft in 1974 of the AUTEC complex on Andros Island.
Personal photo taken from the AUTEC FH-227 aircraft in 1974 of the AUTEC complex on Andros Island. Photo: Wikited ( talk ) ( Uploads ) · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons
Date14 October 2022
TopicsCrashes & retrievals (topic), Secrecy & cover-up (topic), Congress & law (topic)
PeopleJohn Warner IV
TestimonyShellenberger testimony, p. 211
Year2022 in UFO history
Timeline2022 on the UAP Timeline
Sources4

John Warner IV, son of the late Senator John Warner, who was Secretary of the Navy from 1972 to 1974, has said in interviews that his family had connections to UFO-related secrets. The testimony cites a 2022 interview in which he linked his father to unusual events at the Navy's Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC) in the Bahamas.[1][2]

AUTEC

Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC) with border.
Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC) with border. Photo: U.S. Navy · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

AUTEC is a Navy test range on Andros Island in the Bahamas, set beside the Tongue of the Ocean, a deep trench about 100 nautical miles long and up to about 6,000 feet deep. The Navy ordered its creation in 1959, and it was dedicated in 1966 and commissioned in 1967 to test submarines, sonar and underwater weapons; contractors run much of its operation. Its secrecy has long fed rumours about unusual underwater objects.[3]

Warner's accounts

Christopher Mellon
Christopher Mellon Photo: Max Moszkowicz · CC BY 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Warner IV is also a cousin of former Pentagon official Christopher Mellon, a prominent advocate of UAP transparency. In a 2021 interview he said his grandfather, Paul Mellon, had told him of seeing a large disc-shaped aircraft in a warehouse in Pilsen, Czechoslovakia, at the end of the Second World War, and that his father once described U.S. bases in Antarctica as being for "space operations". In a 2022 interview titled around a "secret Navy UFO file timeline", he discussed AUTEC.[1][2]

Assessment

Illustration of official papers and files
Illustration: official papers and files. An artist's impression drawn for this site, not a photograph of the event.

The claims are second-hand, from a son recounting his father's and grandfather's remarks. The elder Warner, who died in 2021, did not speak publicly about UFOs, and no records support the AUTEC account.[1][2]

People and topics

Illustration of a jet meeting an unknown object
Illustration: a jet meeting an unknown object. An artist's impression drawn for this site, not a photograph of the event.
  • U.S. Navy — The U.S. naval service, whose pilots reported the UAP encounters revealed in 2017.
  • John Warner IV — Son of former Navy Secretary John Warner.

On the Timeline

Illustration of a government hearing
Illustration: a government hearing. An artist's impression drawn for this site, not a photograph of the event.

See every 2022 event on the UAP Timeline →

References

This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.

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