The House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs held hearings on Wednesday afternoon, during which a former military intelligence official testified that U.S. personnel have attempted to reverse engineer recovered unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) crafts, more commonly known as UFOs, and that those efforts have been covered up by the government.
“I was informed, in the course of my official duties, of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse engineering program, to which I was denied access,” David Grusch, a former Air Force intelligence officer who served with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, told the committee. Grusch also functioned as the national reconnaissance officer to the Pentagon’s Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Task Force.
Grusch filed a whistleblower complaint in 2022, alleging that he had “suffered retaliation” after raising concerns about the lack of transparency around UAPs. “I am hopeful that my actions will ultimately lead to a positive outcome of increased transparency,” Grusch added.
The intelligence officer contradicted previous testimony from Sean Kirkpatrick, director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), the agency charged with investigating UAPs, who previously said there was no evidence that “off-world” crafts had been recovered and that most sightings have “mundane” explanations. Grusch told the committee that was “not accurate.”
“My testimony is based on information I have been given by individuals with a longstanding track record of legitimacy and service to this country – many of whom also shared compelling evidence in the form of photography, official documentation, and classified oral testimony,” Grusch said reading from his prepared remarks. Asked to identify his sources, Grusch said he could not do so publicly but insisted that he had named them in a report to the Defense Department inspector general.
Another expert witness, Ryan Graves, an ex-Navy pilot, insisted that he personally saw UAPs “every day for at least a couple years” off the Atlantic coast near where he was stationed. Since leaving the military, Graves created the non-profit, Americans for Safe Aerospace.
“As we convene here, UAPs are in our airspace, but they are grossly underreported,” Graves told the body. “These sightings are not rare or isolated; they are routine. Military aircrews and commercial pilots, trained observers whose lives depend on accurate identification, are frequently witnessing these phenomena.”
“The stigma attached to UAP is real and powerful and challenges national security,” his statement, first obtained by Fox News, reads. “It silences commercial pilots who fear professional repercussions, discourages witnesses, and is only compounded by recent government claims questioning the credibility of eyewitness testimony.”
Representative Tim Burchett (R., Tenn.) began the hearing by stipulating that lawmakers would not claim to have evidence of alien technology which “defies all of our laws of physics” and could “turn us into a charcoal briquette.”
“We’re not bringing little green men or flying saucers into the hearing. Sorry to disappoint about half y’all. We’re just going to get to the facts,” the Tennessee lawmaker said during his opening remarks.
“It’s been so difficult to get here today. In the Baptist church, we say that the devil is in our way, and the devil has been in our way for this thing. We’ve run into roadblocks from members, the intelligence community, [and] the Pentagon.”
Burchett’s solemnity was matched across the political aisle by Representative Robert Garcia (D., Calif.), who underscored that the proceedings were being taken “very seriously.”
“The American people deserve transparency about UAPs, and Congress should work in a bipartisan way to understand any potential national security implications,” he told NBC News earlier in the day.
According to AARO, the office has received 800 UAP reports since 1996, of which 2-5 percent exhibit “anomalous characteristics.”