Whistleblower David Grusch told a congressional committee that there was a “multi-decade” retrieval program and that he had been targeted for trying to uncover the truth.
Grusch’s testimony was significant because he led the analysis of so-called unexplained anomalous phenomena (UAP) within a US Department of Defense agency until 2023.
The claims were made as part of the House oversight subcommittee on national security, the border, and foreign affairs, seen as a landmark moment in destigmatising sightings of UFOs.
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“At the time, due to my extensive executive-level intelligence support duties, I was cleared to literally all relevant compartments and in a position of extreme trust both in my military and civilian capacities,” he told Congress.
“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 to those additional read-on’s when I requested it.”
He added he had experienced a “brutal” backlash as a result of becoming a whistleblower.
“I am driven by a commitment of both the truth and transparency rooted in our inherent duty to uphold the United States constitution and protect the American people,” he said.
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The two-hour hearing heard evidence from Grusch and two other witnesses: David Fravor, a former Navy commander, and Ryan Graves, a former Navy pilot.
Graves told the panel so-called UAP sightings among military pilots were both “routine” and “grossly underreported” and added if the public had viewed the video and sensor data he had seen, the “national conversation would change”.
“I urge us to put aside stigma and address the security and safety issue this topic represents,” Graves said.
“The American people deserve to know what is happening in our skies. It is long overdue.”
However, Sue Gough, a Pentagon spokesperson, rejected Grusch’s claims, arguing investigators had not found “any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently”.
It comes after Grusch said in a media interview with NewsNation in June the US government had obtained a “very large, like a football-field kind-of-size” spaceship and told French newspaper Le Parisien the US was in possession of a “bell-like craft” recovered in 1933 in Italy.
Adam Thorn
Adam is a journalist who has worked for more than 40 prestigious media brands in the UK and Australia. Since 2005, his varied career has included stints as a reporter, copy editor, feature writer and editor for publications as diverse as Fleet Street newspaper The Sunday Times, fashion bible Jones, media and marketing website Mumbrella as well as lifestyle magazines such as GQ, Woman’s Weekly, Men’s Health and Loaded. He joined Momentum Media in early 2020 and currently writes for Australian Aviation and World of Aviation.
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