Our commentary
The UAP hearings explained
Our own look at a common question, by David Dell. The background on this page is ours, not a summary of the book.
On July 26, 2023, the House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs held a hearing titled “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency.” Three witnesses testified under oath. Every quote below comes from the official transcript.
The witnesses
- David Fravor, a retired Navy commander, described the 2004 “Tic Tac” encounter off San Diego: his crew “looked down and saw a white Tic Tac object.” He added: “There were no rotors, no rotor wash, or any sign of visible control surfaces like wings.”
- Ryan Graves, a former Navy F-18 pilot, described sightings off Virginia Beach from 2014, including an object “described as a dark gray or a black cube inside of a clear sphere,” which “came within 50 feet of the lead aircraft.”
- David Grusch, a former intelligence officer, said he had been informed in the course of his official duties of “a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse engineering program” to which he was denied access.
The biggest claims
Asked by Rep. Robert Garcia whether he believed the government possesses UAPs, Grusch answered: “Absolutely, based on interviewing over 40 witnesses over 4 years.” Asked by Rep. Nancy Mace whether biologics recovered with craft were human or nonhuman, he said: “Nonhuman, and that was the assessment of people with direct knowledge on the program I talked to that are currently still on the program.” He said he couldn't give specifics in an open hearing, offered more detail in a closed session, and said he had given locations to the Inspector General.
The skeptic in the room
Rep. Eric Burlison opened his questions this way: “Look, I have been here for 6 months and I am pretty skeptical.” And: “You have got to show me, right.” When he asked Grusch whether he had seen any of the bodies, Grusch replied: “That is something I have not witnessed myself.”
What the hearing did and didn't do
The hearing put serious allegations on the public record, under oath. It didn't prove them. The pilots described what they saw. Grusch said his biggest claims rested on interviews with people who had direct knowledge, and he reserved the details for closed settings. Both things can be true at once: the testimony was striking, and testimony isn't the same as evidence the public can examine. If you want history's best-known precedent for a story that changed over time, see Roswell 1947.
A Christian take
Burlison's “show me” is close to the Bible's own instinct:
“Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” 1 Thessalonians 5:21 (KJV)
For a Christian there's a second question beyond “is it real?”: if something is out there, what is it? The hearings were about hardware and secrecy, and they didn't ask that question. We take it up in The interdimensional theory of UFOs and Is UFO disclosure a deception?
Sources: Hearing transcript, July 26, 2023 (PDF) · House Oversight hearing page · Congress.gov event 116282 · 1 Thessalonians 5:21 (KJV)