Lieutenant Commander Alex Anne Dietrich is a former U.S. Navy F/A-18F strike fighter pilot. One of the few female fighter pilots in the United States military, she is best known for her involvement in a 2004 UAP incident that occurred off the Southern California coast, assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 41, attached to Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 11 aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68).
Education and U.S. Navy
Dietrich was born in 1979. She attended high school at the Illinois Math and Science Academy STEM boarding school. She thereafter studied Civil Engineering under an NROTC scholarship at the George Washington University. Dietrich graduated and was commissioned into the United States Navy in May 2001.
After graduating, Dietrich attended ground school and Aviation Preflight Indoctrination (API) in Pensacola, Florida, and then underwent primary T-34C flight training at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas. While training, Dietrich flew the propeller-driven, single-engine Beechcraft T-34 Mentor, a military trainer aircraft based on the Beechcraft Model 35 Bonanza used by the U.S. Navy.
Dietrich was still undergoing initial flight training when the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, took place, which she has described as having been a “paradigm shift” for her and her fellow service members. Around that same time, Dietrich also recalls attending a Flight Rules & Regulations course, during which there was an extra credit question that asked pilots what they should do if they observed a UFO. The question prompted her to search within the FAA’s Aeronautical Information Manual (FAR/AIM) detailing flight rules and regulations, which contained a section listing the office to contact if UAP observations were made.¹
Between 2001 and 2007, Dietrich flew a Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet with the VFA-41 “Black Aces” out of Lemoore, California.
2004 Nimitz UAP Incident
In November 2004, radar operators with the U.S. Navy’s Carrier Strike Group 11 began to detect unidentified aerial targets off the Southern California coast during training operations. ²
On November 14, Dietrich and her Weapon Systems Operator (WSO) were engaged in a routine training flight along with her superior officer, pilot Dave Fravor, the commander of Strike Fighter Squadron 41, when they were notified by radar operators aboard the USS Princeton that were being vectored to intercept a real-world contact.
Once they merged with the radar target, Dietrich recalled seeing “something weird in the water, some disturbance” below them on the ocean surface, above which had been “this weird flying Tic Tac shaped object.” Fravor attempted to descend toward the object to obtain a visual at close range, at which time the object abruptly ascended and disappeared from view.
Once they returned from the intercept attempt, Dietrich considered referring to the FAA FAR/AIM Manual entry on how to report UFO sightings, but instead chose to defer to Fravor as her senior officer “in terms of reporting the incident up the chain of command, and taking any follow-up that would be appropriate.” Dietrich has said that following the events of 2004, she was contacted by Pentagon officials who investigated the incident as a part of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP).³
Unidentified, and 60 Minutes
The Nimitz incident was not classified, but it did not come to the public's attention until it was covered in a December 2017, New York Times article. The case was picked up by news outlets and television programs worldwide. In her first on-camera appearance where she spoke publicly about the Nimitz incident, Dietrich appeared in silhouette as an unnamed Navy pilot in Season 1, Episode 1 of History’s Unidentified: Inside America’s UFO Investigation, in 2019.⁴
In May 2021, Dietrich’s first fully public on-camera appearance occurred during a 60 Minutes segment that covered Navy UAP encounters, where she appeared alongside her former boss, Commander Dave Fravor.
“I never wanted to be on national TV,” Dietrich told interviewer Bill Whittaker during the segment. When asked why she finally chose to appear on camera, Dietrich said it was “because I was in a government aircraft, because I was on the clock. And so I feel a responsibility to share what I can, and it is unclassified.” ⁵
In a June 2021 interview with Chitra Ragavan, Dietrich expressed that she had “never not been speaking openly about this, it’s just that 60 Minutes had never called me before, and when they did, I agreed to talk on this larger platform.” Dietrich also told Ragavan that “just because I saw something weird in 2004 does not mean I have insight into all of these other incidents that may or may not be happening,” adding that amidst the range of possible explanations for what she and her fellow pilots experienced, she feels such UAP incidents are “being taken seriously and investigated thoroughly.” ⁶
Post-Military Career and Personal Life
Dietrich retired from the military after serving for two decades in the U.S. Navy. During her time in service, she logged more than 1,250 hours and performed 375 carrier-arrested landings, serving combat deployments in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, and Operation Iraqi Freedom. ⁷ Dietrich also served with the civil-military stability operations team in the Ghazni province in southeastern Afghanistan, following a period of enrollment at the Defense Language Institute (DLI). ⁸
Dietrich is also involved in advocacy for a number of causes, which include Legacy Flight Academy, a foundation that promotes diversity in aviation, and Wings for Val, which promotes women in aviation.9 She is also a founding member of eMentor, a mentoring program that focuses on military personnel and their families, veterans, and helping minorities “succeed in nontraditional fields.” Dietrich has received a number of awards, including both Bronze Star and Air Combat medals. She was also recognized for her leadership role overseeing the Ghazni Female Engagement Team by Department of State Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry.¹⁰
Dietrich has served as an Assistant Professor of Naval Science at her alma mater, George Washington University, in Washington D.C., where she obtained her B.S. in Civil Engineering.11 She also holds an MBA obtained from the George Washington University School of Business in 2014.12 She taught Leadership & Ethics at the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis MD, for 7 years as a Permanent Military Instructor (Associate Professor). Dietrich retired from active duty in 2021 and currently supports the National Center for Atmospheric Research and teaches a course in leadership at the University of Colorado College of Engineering. 13
Dietrich is the great-granddaughter of American writer Roman Starzl and niece of the scientist Thomas Starzl.14 She has three children and lives in Boulder, Colorado. 15
