Military pilots take unexplained anomalous phenomena (UAP) seriously. Intelligence officers take UAP seriously. Congressional leaders on both sides of the isle take them seriously. Don’t cede this world shaking phenomenon to military and religious leaders alone. Treat it seriously.
On July 26, 2023, the United States House Committee on Oversight and Accountability held a hearing entitled “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency”. This hearing as been discussed in several diaries and an AP report on Daily Kos. Those are excellent sources to review. This diary is meant to complement those with a less speculative review of the entire hearing, not just the more salacious and tenuous alien body claims.
Here is a link to the hearing. Readers are strongly encouraged to watch the entire proceeding.
Witnesses
Ryan Graves, current Executive Director of Americans for Safe Aerospace, and former pilot in the Navy’s VFA-11 Red Rippers squadron operating out of Virginia, which has encountered numerous UAP off of the Virginia coast since 2014 and 2015.
Commander David Fravor, former Commander of the U.S. Navy’s Black Aces Squadron, piloted an aircraft through the most thoroughly documented UAP encounter in history, the tic tac encounter off of the coast of California in 2004.
David Grusch, former National Reconnaissance Office Representative for the Department of Defense’s Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Task Force, who came forward as a whistleblower to inform the public about the existence of these programs, and to inform Congress and the Intelligence Community Inspector General of potential illegal secrecy.
Testimony
Rather than give a chronological account of statements and examination, I am summarizing points made by each witness throughout the session. Here is some of what each of the three witnesses said during this hearing.
Graves
In 2014-2015, radar upgrades led to more UAP being spotted. They weren’t sure initially if these hits were real, noise or faults. Correlation with other sensors and visual contact confirmed accuracy that they were real. At closest range, F18s flying in formation were split by an approximately 15 foot dark cube in a clear sphere. In one instance, one of these objects was stationary at 20,000 feet in an East Coast flight corridor, where it was passed at about 50 feet by a military pilot in a fighter jet.
Contact with these objects became so common that encounters were covered in daily briefings.
UAP are not limited to their area of operation, and these are not the only type of object encountered. There have been UAP reports from all naval operations areas worldwide.
UAP commonly jam radar, disable Lidar and otherwise interfere with systems. Locking cameras and instruments on UAP can be difficult.
UAP are risks to aviation. We need consolidated data for air traffic safety, as well as, to better understand what UAP are, where they go, and what they are capable of. Lack of an acceptable repository led to forming Americans for Safe Aerospace to receive UAP reports.
One from 2003 told of a of red square, 100 yards per side, approaching Vandenberg Air Force Base (Now Vandenberg Space Force Base) in California from the ocean. It hovered over launch facilities for about 45 seconds before darting over coastal mountains. In this instance, sightings escalated for days to the point that personnel felt threatened by quickly approaching objects.
The publicly released gimbal sighting was also accompanied by radar spotting of a nearby fleet.
We have learned enough to know that UAP regularly outperform our aircraft. There are often no apparent means of propulsion, no wings and no thermal emissions. They outmaneuver our aircraft through acceleration, deceleration and turns that we are not close to matching. They move with such extremes that UAP movements defy our understanding of physics, aeronautics and G force effects on occupants.
We need to remove stigmas from reporting, so that we can centralize and analyze data. Along with reporting, we need transparency for accessibility and usefulness to the public and military.
Grusch
Throughout his testimony, Grusch made many general points, but deferred specifics to a secure hearing. Committee members promised to follow through to schedule a secure, compartmentalized room in order to obtain information that might verify Grusch’s testimony.
As an NRO UAP investigator, Grusch spoke of reviewing reports of decades long efforts to recover crashed UAP material. He tried to pursue these reports, but did not have access to be read into specifics.
Grusch has personally reviewed overhead/satellite data that he could not explain. He also reports knowledge of those with direct knowledge of nonhuman craft.
UAP are investigated through unsanctioned programs that waive congressional oversight. Those that waive oversight are required to notify the gang of 8 of that waiver, but notification does not appear to be a formal process, and notifications can be buried in files of reports.
Agencies have methods for funding programs without congressional oversight. One is misappropriation of funds. Another tactic is to have corporate contractors overcharge for some tech to apply towards projects through Independent Research and Development (IRAD).
There is evidence for active government disinformation on UAP related topics, but he couldn’t reveal more in open session than he said in News Nation piece.
Dr Sean Kirkpatrick, as director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), testified before congress that no knowledge of off-world technology has been reported to AARO. Grusch has reviewed information others have submitted to AARO, and testified that Kirkpatrick’s testimony was false.
Fravor
This witness had no prior interest in UAP before his only encounter with the UAP that was publicly acknowledged in the tic tac event, in which a radar jamming 40 foot tic tac/propane tank moved through the air like a ping pong ball, jumped between 20 to 80 thousand feet, and covered tens of miles in under a minute. Fravor also reported seeing a disturbance in the otherwise calm ocean at the same time. He was unable to keep watching the water to determine how it might be connected to the UAP.
The tic tac sighting is the most documented UAP encounter in history. Four people on jets saw it. Their instruments did not pick it up through apparent UAP interference. However, radar and other instruments in the nearby aircraft carrier group were able to obtain signals.
The tic tac UAP was beyond current human material and physical capabilities. We won’t have anything comparable for the next decade, at least.
All witnesses agree that UAP are real and threaten air traffic safety, at the least. From a defense perspective, the witnesses also agreed that UAP might be reconnaissance craft, probing our defenses and identifying weaknesses to exploit.
That concludes my summary of the July 26 congressional testimony. I will finish with a couple of my own thoughts.
I can also argue that UAP have been making themselves known since appearing in numbers over DC in 1952. Activity over the last two decades might be increasing, but we don’t know until we have sympathetic, reliable and transparent data repositories. If encounters are escalating in recent years, then it could also be related to our own ecosystem destruction, and any last chances or observations UAP occupants are conducting.
FYI, I am a long time subscriber to Whitley Strieber’s Unknown Country. There may be more than UAP encounters to consider here. Many eyewitnesses have reported visitations and abductions, sometimes with physical evidence, such as bruises. Still, evidence of in person encounters is often questionable. It is too murky to incorporate with this congressional testimony at this time, but I mention it to consider connections and possible explanations for UAP motivations. Defense minded folks are rightly considering the possibility of UAP reconnaissance missions. We need to also think about possibilities of far deeper and long standing interactions.