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[Music]

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the year is 1954 and 25 year old

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Lieutenant Seamus O'Farrell is preparing

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for a lone flight a flight that will

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haunt him for the rest of his life it's

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the evening of August 31st and

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Lieutenant O'Farrell has been briefed

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from navigational Patrol and exercise

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that will take him from a narrow Naval

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Air Station in Southern New South Wales

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West to Young Tamora and yes and then

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back to base

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his aircraft the Sea Fury is the fastest

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piston-engined plane in the air top

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speed 400 knots

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[Music]

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cool customer Seamus O'Farrell is

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destined for high military honors he's

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also destined for an encounter that is

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so inexplicable it remained in the top

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secret files of the defense department

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I didn't think there was anything in

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there that was a likely affect National

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Security but uh other people obviously

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39 years after the event Sheamus

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O'Farrell can talk openly about his

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mysterious experience

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back then in 1954 he was terrified it

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would wreck his career

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[Music]

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I was a bit ashamed about it all people

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thought that uh

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uh

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I'd flip my lid or lost control or done

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something silly

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and

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It generally was regarded as a bit of a

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joke by the rest of the air crew you

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know people would

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have a few drinks and they'd say dear

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come on let's have another drink out of

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Farrell and tell us a bit more about

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for the pilot everything appeared normal

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as the Sea Fury took off from now and

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[Music]

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the actual tapes of the radio

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Transmissions between the Sea Fury and

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narrow base have been erased by the

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defense department

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but the conversations you will hear in

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this story are as close as we can get to

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the real thing

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they are the Recollections of the pilot

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Sheamus o'faron and his link with

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narrow-based radar operator petty

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officer Keith Jessup

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the first two legs of the flight were

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uneventful but as Lieutenant O'Farrell

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turned into the last League petty

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officer Jessup noticed something unusual

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happening on his radar screen

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two strange Echoes Echoes that were

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closing in fast on the Sea Fury

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what these two objects were I I didn't

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have any idea and

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I was concerned with the safety cell

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reported to the relevant officer in

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charge of that area at the time

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a full minutes later Sheamus O'Farrell

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in Sea Fury 921 realized he was not

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confirm

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they were formatting with me they were

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moving along with me and holding their

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station with me and they were about the

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same distance out on either side

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two one can you identify uh aircraft for

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us please

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try to picture Sheamus o'faron's

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predicament

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when he left Nara he had been briefed

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that there would be no other aircraft on

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his flight path suddenly he was

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confronted with the impossible two

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unidentified craft two brilliant white

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lights flying in formation with the Sea

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Fury one was about 30 meters on his port

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at the time I just knew that there

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shouldn't have been anything else there

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and uh

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we were I brought the attention to the

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night loss or I sit in charge and to our

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staff and our staff in there were

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equally as surprised we did plot on our

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radar screen all three

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write our objects and it had to be

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something because we wouldn't have got a

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a radar Echo as we call them back to the

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to the radar room had it not been a

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by this time there was a minor panic in

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the radar room at Nara they started

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checking and double checking

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the Air Force confirmed they had no

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planes in the air that night

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Sydney airport tower reported there were

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no civilian aircraft flying in the area

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and up above the two objects were

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maintaining formation with the Sea Fury

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then after several minutes they

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confounded everyone they sped away Into

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the Night

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I don't know

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unconfirmed aircraft of lift formation

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there on track uh to the Northeast

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then I saw the rate at which they were

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able to open up from me fly ahead of me

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cross directly in front of me and take

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station on the other side

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almost in the flash of an eye leaving me

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apparently standing still relative to

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their motion

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and that's what made me think I I then

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stopped and thought about it and said

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this is incredible what sort of aircraft

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have I got out here

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and I knew then in my own mind that

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there were no aircraft in Australia that

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could do that

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what sort of aircraft indeed

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remember the Sea Fury was one of the

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most powerful aircraft in the sky

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back then in 1954 it could do an amazing

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400 knots

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after those two unidentified objects

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shot past Sea Fury 921 the radar

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operators have narrow base did some

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calculations

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they estimated that the UFOs had to be

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traveling really traveling at over 1 000

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knots

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when Lieutenant O'Farrell arrived back

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at Nara base there was a welcoming

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committee waiting for him he was

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immediately ordered to Sick Bay for an

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exhaustive series of tests

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the medicos questioned his drinking

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habits his State of Mind his Fitness

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just about everything

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but Sheamus O'Farrell was given a clean

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bill of health

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so clean in fact that he went on to

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become one of the Navy's top pilots and

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eventually Naval attache in Washington

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as the years went by I became more

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embarrassed and I just wiped it out of

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memory and never worried about it again

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it was a

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always intrigued me it's always worried

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me

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um I saw no explanation but I didn't see

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any need to tell anybody else about it

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or talk about it

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despite his distinguished career Sheamus

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o'farrell's file remained secret for

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more than 30 years

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when it was finally Declassified the

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file revealed there were two more

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independent witnesses to the incident

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an engineer working on a radio tower at

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maroon in Western New South Wales and

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cited the objects as they flew overhead

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and an air traffic controller at Sydney

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airport logged unusual lights passing to

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the south of the city

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the first civilian to study the file was

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UFO researcher and investigator Bill

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Chalker no one has to bear in mind the

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credentials that come with the with the

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sighting you know you have a highly

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qualified and experienced pilot you have

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confirmation from the ground from the

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radar operator you have two separate

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ground Witnesses all confirming the

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presence of

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an unidentified or two unidentified

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aircraft of some description and doing

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things that were

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apparently expectable or beyond the

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capabilities

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Apparent at that time

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Sheamus O'Farrell has no doubt what he

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saw that evening in 1954 and because of

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the evidence especially the documented

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radar sightings a United States

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government report rated this close

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encounter as one of the 13 most

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significant in the world

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[Music]

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to this day I'm as certain as I was then

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that I saw two objects flying in close

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formation with me

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and I'm convinced they weren't airplanes

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that come from

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the Navy the army or the Air Force or

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civil aviation whatever they were they