Several high-ranking former US military officers swore under oath in Congress on Wednesday that the United States government has not been transparent enough regarding the phenomena of foreign flying objects, and there have been a plethora of UFO sightings covered up entirely.
Former Navy pilot Ryan Graves, who now runs Americans for Safe Aerospace – a group he founded to encourage pilots to report incidents of UFOs – was joined by retired US Navy commander David Fravor and former Air Force intelligence officer David Grusch, who all testified regarding the US government’s knowledge of the mysterious flying objects.
Fravor and Graves claimed to have seen UFOs first-hand during their service, while Grusch took his allegations a step further and accused the government of covering up its research into unidentified sightings.
“The technology that we faced was far superior to anything that we had,” Fravor said of an alleged sighting he made in 2004. Grusch added that “non-human” pilots had been recovered by the US government throughout their UFO research, though he said he did not have a first-hand account of any non-human or alien sightings and that his claims are based on “extensive interviews with high-level intelligence officials.”
UFO whistleblower and former Air Force officer David Grusch say "nonhuman biologics" came from the recovery of some crashed spacecrafts. https://t.co/P5L9eLM4wI pic.twitter.com/FfjEfSsgxc
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 26, 2023
Grusch also accused the government of a cover-up, claiming he had been denied access to secret government UFO programs and faced “very brutal” retaliation as a result of his allegations. He further described his knowledge of “people who have been harmed or injured” in the course of US government efforts to conceal information on UFOs.
“This is an issue of government transparency,” said Rep. Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican who urged Congress to hold Wednesday’s hearing. “We’re not bringing little green men or flying saucers into the hearing. … We’re just going to get to the facts. We’re going to uncover the cover-up, and I hope this is just the beginning of many more hearings.”
“We’re not bringing little green men or flying saucers into the hearing. … We’re just going to get to the facts. We’re going to uncover the cover-up, and I hope this is just the beginning of many more hearings.”
Tim Burchett
How common are UFOs?
The Pentagon released a report on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) – the term some experts prefer for UFOs – in 2021. Their report outlined more than 140 instances of UAP encounters that could not be explained. While some sightings have since been attributed to “balloon or balloon-entities,” drones, birds, weather events, or airborne debris like plastic bags, others have yet to be explained.
"If UAPs are foreign drones, it is an urgent national security problem. If it's something else, it is an issue for science," said Graves.
Graves said that a stigma remains for both commercial and military pilots when it comes to reporting UAP incidents. "Right now we need a system where pilots can report without fear of losing their jobs,” Graves described. “There is a fear that the stigma related to this topic is going to lead to professional repercussions.”
House Republican Matt Gaetz also commented at the hearing, describing a personal experience at Elgin Air Force Base in Florida. Gaetz said that while he was initially denied access to the base, he was eventually shown an image of the episode – declaring that he was “not able to attach to any human capability, either from the United States or from any of our adversaries.”