House Oversight Committee’s UFO Hearing July 26, 2023

On July 26, 2023, the House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs convened a historic public hearing titled Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency. Held in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C., the session featured testimony from three witnesses with strong military and intelligence backgrounds. While all three contributed valuable perspectives, the hearing centered on the explosive whistleblower claims made by former Air Force intelligence officer David Grusch.

Ryan Graves, a retired Navy F/A-18 pilot and executive director of Americans for Safe Aerospace, opened the witness testimony by highlighting serious aviation safety concerns. He described how UAP encounters were routine rather than exceptional during his time flying off the East Coast between 2014 and 2015. His squadron repeatedly observed dark gray or black objects appearing as cubes inside clear spheres measuring five to fifteen feet in diameter. Graves recounted one incident in which such an object came within fifty feet of an F-18, forcing an immediate abort. He emphasized that stigma and inadequate reporting systems prevent pilots from documenting these events properly, and he noted that many UAP videos since 2021 have been classified at the Secret level or higher, limiting transparency and safety improvements.

David Fravor, a retired U.S. Navy commander, followed with his firsthand account of the now-famous 2004 USS Nimitz Tic Tac encounter. He and his wingman observed a smooth, white, oblong object with no wings, rotors, or visible propulsion hovering above the ocean surface. As they descended to investigate, the object mirrored their movements before accelerating rapidly from near sea level to over eighty thousand feet in a matter of seconds, demonstrating performance far beyond any known human technology. Fravor described the object as extraordinary and stated there is nothing in the U.S. inventory that comes close to matching what he witnessed. His testimony reinforced the technological superiority of the phenomena and the need for better oversight and data collection.

The main focus of the hearing, however, was the testimony of David Grusch, a former Air Force major who served as the National Reconnaissance Office representative to the UAP Task Force and later as co-lead for unidentified anomalous phenomena and transmedium object analysis at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Under oath, Grusch delivered a detailed opening statement and answered numerous questions from members of Congress. He began by outlining his fourteen years of service as an intelligence officer, including active duty, Air National Guard, and Reserve roles at the rank of major, as well as his GS-15 civilian position at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which is equivalent to a full-bird colonel.

He explained that he had been a member of the UAP Task Force from 2019 to 2021 in his NRO reservist capacity and had held extremely high clearances that allowed him access to virtually all relevant compartments. Grusch stated that in 2019 the UAP Task Force director had tasked him with identifying all special access programs and controlled access programs needed to fulfill their congressionally mandated mission. It was during these official duties that he was informed of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse-engineering program. When he requested access to these additional programs, he was denied read-ons. He described becoming a whistleblower through a PPD-19 urgent concern filing with the Intelligence Community Inspector General in May 2022 after receiving concerning reports from multiple esteemed and credentialed current and former military and intelligence community individuals. These individuals alleged that the U.S. government was operating with secrecy above congressional oversight regarding UAPs.

His testimony, he emphasized, was based on information provided by more than forty credible sources with direct knowledge and long-standing records of legitimate service to the country. Many of these sources had shared compelling evidence including photography, official documentation, and classified oral testimony. Grusch said he had spent four years corroborating this information while with the UAP Task Force, conducting due diligence on every individual who came forward. He repeatedly clarified that he was speaking under oath to the facts as they had been told to him and preferred the term non-human over extraterrestrial to keep the origin aperture open.

Grusch alleged that the United States has recovered non-human craft, which he referred to as non-human spacecraft or vehicles of exotic origin that had either landed or crashed. He further claimed that biologics, meaning non-human biological material, had been recovered from some of these crash sites. When directly asked whether these biologics were human or non-human, he replied that they were non-human according to the assessment of people with direct knowledge who were still involved in the program. He indicated that the U.S. government had been aware of non-human intelligence activity since at least the 1930s, referencing recoveries such as the 1933 Magenta, Italy crash that was later shared with the United States. He added that he knows the exact locations of some of the recovered UAPs currently in U.S. possession.

He asserted that these programs are concealed from Congress through excessive classification, special access programs, and the misappropriation of funds, including internal research and development money funneled through defense contractors. Grusch described suffering retaliation in the form of administrative terrorism after coming forward. He also stated that he had specific knowledge of people who had been harmed or injured in efforts to conceal this information, including colleagues who were brutally administratively attacked, and that he had referred related claims, including potential murders, to appropriate authorities. However, he could not discuss those details in an open setting and offered to provide them in a classified SCIF session. He further noted that both he and others had faced very disturbing incidents related to these concealment efforts.

Throughout the hearing, Grusch maintained a measured tone while stressing his commitment to truth and transparency, rooted in his duty to uphold the Constitution and protect the American people. In his closing vision, he expressed hope that the revelations from investigating these non-human reverse-engineering programs would act as an ontological, earth-shattering shock and serve as a catalyst for a global reassessment of priorities. He envisioned extraordinary technological progress in propulsion, material science, energy production, and storage, leading to a more enlightened and sustainable future marked by collective curiosity and international cooperation rather than secrecy.

The Department of Defense and the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office have consistently maintained that they have found no verifiable evidence supporting claims of extraterrestrial materials, reverse-engineering programs, or government cover-ups. Despite this official position, Grusch’s sworn testimony placed significant allegations of a long-term cover-up directly on the congressional record. The July 26, 2023 hearing stood out for combining credible pilot accounts of advanced technology with unprecedented whistleblower assertions about recovered non-human craft and biologics. It underscored aviation safety risks, technological unknowns, and the push for greater government transparency. The session contributed to ongoing legislative efforts to improve UAP reporting and oversight in subsequent defense authorization bills.