Eglin Air Force Base UAP Encounter

“And when he approached he said that his radar went down. He said that his FLIR system malfunctioned and that he had to manually take this image from one of the lenses and it was not automated in collection as you would typically see in a test mission.”

“On the 19th of April, Dr. Kirkpatrick, head of AARO, had said that he did not find any evidence of UAPs. You also stated that you had—in your interview that you briefed him on information that you were uncovering but that he did not followup with you. Were the items that you divulged to him pertinent to national security?”

“I sought a briefing regarding that episode and brought with me Congressman Burchett and Congresswoman Luna. We asked to see any of the evidence that had been taken by flight crew in this endeavor and to observe any radar signature as long as—as well as to meet with the flight crew.”

“Second, I would suggest that the radar images that were collected of this formation of craft out of Eglin Air Force Base and specifically the actual image taken by the actual flight crew that we can actually validate be provided to the Committee, subpoenaed if necessary, so that we are able to track how to get this type of reporting and analysis done in a more fulsome way.”

“And they saw a sequence of four craft in a clear diamond formation for which there is a radar sequence that I and I alone have observed in the U.S. Congress.”

“They were out on a test mission that day over the Gulf of Mexico and when you are on a test mission you are supposed to have clear airspace. Not supposed to be anything that shows up.”

“We were not afforded access to all of the flight crew and initially we were not afforded access to images and to radar.”

“One poll, in particular, found that 68 percent of Americans believe that the government is hiding information about UAPs and not being honest about what we know about them and from my personal experience I believe the same thing.”

“It was stated explicitly to me by these test pilots that if you have a UAP experience the best thing you can do for your career is forget it and not tell anyone because any type of reporting, either above the surface or below the surface, does have a perceived consequence to these people and that is a culture we must change if we want to get to the truth.”

“Just so that the press knows, and the people know, we were even denied access to a classified briefing in a SCIF prior to this hearing due to the amount of hoops that we had to jump through to grant temporary clearance to witness Grusch, who has knowledge of classified information.”

“And referring to your News Nation interview you had referenced specific treaties between governments. Article Three of the nuclear arms treaty with Russia identifies UAPs. It specifically mentions them.”

“Right. But I draw upon that because we can have access to those programs and so the notion that we are not being given that access sort of defies our typical muscle memory here in Congress.”

“In being an active-duty service member working on an airfield, I have had conversations with many pilots where they were in fear of coming forward for retribution and/or being taken off flight status.”

“One of the pilots goes to check out that diamond formation and sees a large floating, what I can only describe as an orb, again, like I said, not of any human capability that I am—that I am aware of.”

“Today is the first hearing of its kind where we will attempt to get down to the bottom of what is actually happening with UAPs. But we will hear from people who have had personal sightings rather than Pentagon bureaucrats who have always been sent to stonewall our investigations.”

“Mr. Chairman, I would observe that perhaps as we move forward from this hearing there are some obvious next steps. Every person watching this knows that we need to meet with Mr. Grusch in a secure compartmentalized facility so that we can get fulsome answers that do not put him in jeopardy and that give us the information we need.”

“Another poll found that nearly half of Americans believe that the Federal Government is doing a very bad or somewhat bad job of dealing with reports of UFO sightings.”

“This is largely due to the lack of transparency by our own government and the failure of our elected leaders to make good on their promises to release explanations and footage and mountains of over-classified documents that continue to be hidden from the American people.”

“This hearing of the Task Force on Declassification of Federal Secrets will come to order.”

“The circumstances surrounding UAPs has captivated the attention of the American people for decades, ingrained in even the minds of our Nation's leaders from Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump, Marco Rubio to Chuck Schumer, John Ratcliffe to National Security Council officials.”