Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Maxwell Frost (D-FL) during the Congressional hearing on UFOs on July 26, 2023. Getty Images/Tom Williams
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WASHINGTON – A former Air Force intelligence officer turned whistleblower told Congress the federal government is covering up a multi-decade UFO retrieval and reverse engineering program, which has obtained “non-human” spacecraft as well as “dead pilots” composed of non-human “biologics” from UFO crash sites since the 1930s. The Pentagon has since denied his claims.
The whistleblower, Retired Major David Grusch, who was once part of the Pentagon’s Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon (UAP) Task Force, was one of three military veterans who testified before Congress on July 26 during a hearing with the House Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs about UAPs – or unidentified aerial/anomalous phenomena – what the government now calls UFOs. The goal of the hearing was to discuss whether UAPs presented a threat to national security/public safety and to increase transparency around the subject.
“It is my hope that the revelations we unearth through investigations of the non-human reverse engineering programs I have reported will act as an ontological (earth-shattering) shock, a catalyst for a global reassessment of our priorities,” Grusch said during the hearing. “As we move forward on this path, we might be poised to enable extraordinary technological progress in a future where our civilization surpasses the current state-of-the-art in propulsion, material science, energy production and storage.”
The subcommittee also heard testimony from retired Navy Commander David Fravor and former U.S. Navy pilot Ryan Graves, both of whom allegedly had experiences with UAPs over the course of their careers.
Retired Navy Commander Fravor was witness to the now famous “Tic Tac incident,” when a UFO (shaped like a Tic Tac) was captured on camera by the Navy. The video has since been declassified and made available to the public.
The Tic Tac incident took place in November 2004 when Fravor’s squadron’s jets were stationed aboard USS Nimitz, a nuclear aircraft carrier. Fravor’s squadron was training at sea for a combat deployment to the Persian Gulf for operations supporting ground forces in Iraq, when he said he saw a “small white Tic Tac shaped object with the longitudinal axis pointing North/South,” moving “very abruptly” over the sea.
“There were no rotors, no rotor wash, or any visible flight control surfaces like wings,” explained Fravor.
Fravor said that he and one of his weapon system officers decided to go down to get a closer look at the Tic Tac, while another aircraft involved in the training mission stayed above to observe both Fravor’s jet and the Tic Tac.
“As we pulled nose onto the object at approximately ½ of a mile with the object just left of our nose, it rapidly accelerated and disappeared right in front of our aircraft,” Fravor said. “Our wingman, roughly 8,000 ft above us, also lost visual. We immediately turned to investigate the white water only to find that it was also gone. As we turned back towards our CAP point [the starting point of their practice mission], roughly 60 miles east, the air controller let us know that the object had reappeared on the Princeton’s Aegis SPY 1 radar at our CAP point. This Tic Tac object had just traveled 60 miles in a very short period of time (less than a minute), was far superior in performance to my brand-new F/A-18F and did not operate with any of the known aerodynamic principles that we expect for objects that fly in our atmosphere.”
Meanwhile, Graves, who now heads up Americans for Safe Aerospace, a nonprofit organization that provides an avenue for pilots to report UAP sightings without the stigma, told Congress that while piloting a Boeing F-18 Super Hornet jet during a training mission off the coast of Virginia Beach in 2014, he observed a “dark gray or black cube inside of a clear sphere” that got within 50 feet of his squadron lead’s aircraft. According to Graves, the UAP was about 15 feet in diameter and defied the laws of physics by staying motionless against Hurricane-force winds.
After the sighting, Graves’ commander terminated the mission immediately.
Graves said that his squadron filed a safety report about the incident which was never acknowledged by the higherups at the Pentagon.
“Our squadron submitted a safety report, but there was no official acknowledgement of the incident and no further mechanism to report the sightings,” he said.
When asked by Florida Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna (R – 14th Congressional District) to explain in detail an incident involving a football-field sized UFO that took place at Vandenberg Air Force Base two decades ago, Graves said, “In the 2003 timeframe a large group of Boeing contractors were operating near one of the launch facilities at Vandenberg Air Force Base when they observed a very large, 100-yard-sided red square approach the base from the ocean and hover at low altitude over one of the launch facilities. This object remained for about 45 seconds or so before darting off over the mountains. There was a similar event within 24 hours later in the evening, this was a morning event, I believe 8:45 in the morning. Later in the evening, post sunset, there were reports of other sightings on base including some aggressive behaviors. These objects were approaching some of the security officers at rapid speeds before darting off.”
Members of Congress, like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, (D – 14th District NY), are trying to find out who specifically is behind the cover ups, by following the money trail from the federal government to government contractors.
“Mr. Graves, you mentioned specifically during the answers to one of your questions – you named Boeing contractors – being engaged in an incident regarding this red cube about a football field wide,” Rep. Ocasio-Cortez said during the hearing. “I was wondering if you could speak a little bit about the interaction – or Mr. Grusch, either of you – about the interactions between defense contractor companies and any UAP related programs or activities.”
“I’ll just say the information about the contractors themselves were provided by a witness and I have no particular detail on that relationship,” said Graves.
Grusch then responded to the remainder of Ocasio-Cortez’s questions.
“Are they [the government contractors] required to issue any disclosure regarding UAP sightings or do they engage in any reporting around this?” asked Ocasio-Cortez.
“In terms of the contractors? Not that I am aware of,” replied Grusch.
“Now when it comes to notification that you had mentioned about IRAD programs. We have seen defense contractors abuse their contracts before through this committee. I have seen it personally and I have also seen the notification requirements to Congress abused,” said Ocasio-Cortez.
(According to the National Defense Industrial Association, IRAD, which stands for Independent Research and Development, is an allowable cost that permits companies to initiate and conduct research and development projects of potential interest to the Department of Defense, and is reimbursed through overhead cost rates).
Ocasio-Cortez added, “I am wondering, one of the loopholes that we see in the law is that […] there are no actual definitions or requirements for notification. What methods of notification did you observe, like when they say they notified Congress, how did they do that?”
“For certain IRAD activities I can only think of ones conventional in nature. Sometimes they flow through certain SAP programs that have cognizant authority over the Air Force or something and those are Congressionally reported compartments, but IRAD is literally internal to the contractor so as long as it’s money, either profits, private investment, etc., they can do whatever they want,” Grusch explained.
Simplified Acquisition Procedures (SAP) are contracting methods used by the federal government to streamline the procurement process in order to expedite the purchase of goods and services.
Representative Tim Burchett, (R-Tennessee, 2nd District) and Rep. Paulina Luna told a gaggle of reporters following the meeting that they were denied access to the “skiff” to speak with Grusch. (A skiff is a Department of Defense term for a secure room that guards against electronic surveillance and otherwise prevents the leakage of sensitive military information).
“They are going to get a nice letter from Congress and if we are denied we are going to use the Holman rule and defund the position,” said Rep. Paulina Luna.
“We are supposed to be telling them what to do not the other way around,” said Rep. Burchett.
In response to a reporter’s question about what he thinks of reverse engineering and the legislative approach to the situation, Rep. Burchett said the real problem with the program is that “it has been handed off to people within the business community.”
“So where does the line end and where does it begin between the government and big business?” Rep. Burchett said to the reporters. “I think it would be wise for you all to be looking at some financial disclosures of some of those corporations, some of the people who do the stonewalling in this town.”
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