Former military pilots and a Department of Defense (DoD) civilian employee, all turned whistle-blowers, testified before a congressional subcommittee to request government transparency regarding firsthand accounts of physical encounters with UAPs (unidentified aerial/anomalous phenomena) or UFOs, citing safety and national security concerns over American airspace, U.S. military installations, and classified naval training areas at sea.
“Curiosity and speculation from all walks of life have generated interest in studying what UAPs are and what threats they may pose,” said Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wisc.), chair of the House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, at the opening of the highly anticipated hearing on Capitol Hill.
“The lack of transparency regarding UAPs has fueled wild speculation and debate for decades eroding public trust in the very institutions that are meant to serve and protect them.” The hearing was held July 26.
Pointing to claims from former U.S. presidents, Gerald R. Ford, and Jimmy Carter, who both said they saw UFOs in the 1960s, and the increase of sightings today, Grothman stated that the federal government has taken the subject seriously, leading them to devote resources for their study and investigation.
›“This has led Congress to establish entities to examine UAPs, (and) the National Defense Authorization Act of 2022 established the All Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), to conduct or to coordinate efforts across the Department of Defense and other federal agencies to detect, identify, and investigate UAPs,” the congressman said in part.
“In addition to AARO’s efforts, NASA is leading an independent study on UAPs to identify how UAP data is gathered from both civilian and government entities that can be analyzed to shed light on the topic. However, despite these offices being established, there lies a pressing demand for government transparency and accountability that cannot be overlooked, and that’s been a problem that’s been around for 50 years,” Grothman said.
The bipartisan hearing also opened with remarks from subcommittee ranking member Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), who said the national security implications of UAPs, and what they represent to America and the world, require collaboration above and beyond party affiliation. “We will succeed getting facts out to the public faster if there is a broad public support as part of the process,” he insisted.
“I understand fully that the Department of Defense is hesitant to share information that could also undermine our national security by revealing information on the capabilities of our own aircraft, our sensors, and other sensitive material,” Garcia explained to the subcommittee. “At the same time, many people believe that we’re withholding from them and that is dangerous also.
I believe in openness and transparency, that is also the role of Congress, and I want to trust that the American people will be able to weigh the evidence and make up their own minds,” he said. “UAPs, whatever they may be, may pose a serious threat to our military or civilian aircraft.”
Rep. Jarad Moskowitz (D-Fla.) added that since the establishment of the AARO, multiple UAP reports by military and civilian sources remain hidden from the public and that it is now time to disclose what the government knows of them.
“It is time for Congress to reinsert ourselves, I call on our military leaders and intelligence officials to release more information to the American people about UAPs, and to our military leaders, if there is nothing to conceal, let Congress go to Wright-Patterson Airforce Base, to Dugway Proving Ground, or even Groom Lake in Nevada. We should have disclosure today, we should have disclosure tomorrow, the time has come,” he stated plainly.
Whistle blowers speak out
Ryan Graves, executive director of Americans for Safe Aerospace, and a former fighter pilot with combat deployments over Iraq and Afghanistan, told the subcommittee that UAP activity in American airspace is grossly underreported and that sightings are neither rare nor isolated. Stating that both he and fellow veterans have had firsthand experience with UAPs and that their presence are routine among pilots and aircrews, he added that the stigma associated with reporting what they have seen often leads to professional repercussions or public ridicule.
“Parts of our government are aware of more about UAP than they let on, (and) the excessive classification practices keep crucial information hidden, since 2021, all UAP videos are classified as secret or above,” Mr. Graves said. “This level of secrecy not only impedes our understanding, but fuels speculation and mistrust.
In 2014, I was an F-18F pilot in the Navy Fighter Attack Squadron 11, The Red Rippers, and I was stationed at NAS (Naval Air Station) Oceana, in Virginia Beach. After upgrades were made to our jet’s radar systems, we began detecting unknown objects operating in our airspace.
“At first, we assumed they were radar errors, but soon, we began to correlate radar tracks with multiple onboard sensors, including infrared systems, and eventually through visual ID,” Mr. Graves said to the subcommittee.
“During a training mission in Warning Area Wiskey-72, 10 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, two F-18 Super Hornets were split (flew between) by a UAP. The object, described as a dark grey or a black cube inside of a clear sphere, came within 50 feet of the lead aircraft and was estimated to be five to 15 feet in diameter,” he said under sworn testimony.
“The mission commander terminated the flight immediately and returned to base. Our squadron submitted a safety report, but there was no official acknowledgement of the incident, and no further mechanism to report the sightings,” Mr. Graves said. “Pilots are reporting UAP at altitudes that appear above them at 40,000 feet, potentially in low-earth orbit or in the grey zone, below the Carmen Line (the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space), making unexplainable maneuvers like right-hand turns in retrograde orbits or J-hooks.”
Also testifying was former Airforce Major, David Grusch, a former intelligence officer, who served 14 years both on active duty and in the Air National Guard and Reserves, and from 2021 to 2023, he served as a high-ranking civilian employee with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) reporting to the UAP Task Force, and once it was established, to AARO.
He told the subcommittee that he became a whistle-blower in May 2022 and told subcommittee member Rep. Anna Luna (R-Fla.) that he feared for his life after going public with the information. He also called for more government transparency.
Retired Navy pilot David Fravor, a former commanding officer of Strike Fighter Squadron 41, The Black Aces, said that while conducting air-to-air exercises off the coast of California in 2004, they encountered what has become known as the famous “tic-tac” UFO which maneuvered at speeds beyond the capabilities of their F-18Fs and that they had no visible control surfaces, no exhaust plumes, nor any other sign of propulsion used in modern military aircraft.
“When we launched off (USS Nimitz), my wingman was joining up (and) we were told the training was going to be suspended and we’re going to proceed with ‘real world’ tasking,” he explained to the subcommittee. “The controller told us that these objects had been observed for over two weeks, coming down from over 80,000 feet, rapidly descending to 20,000 feet, hanging out for hours, and then going straight back up.
For those not realizing it, 80,000 feet is space,” he said, explaining how the air controller told them the object had merged with their location according to radar, but well below their altitude and moving at very high speeds.
“As we pulled nose-on to the object, within about a half-mile of it, it rapidly accelerated in front of us and disappeared, our wingman, roughly 8,000 feet above us lost contact also,” Mr. Fravor said. “So, as we just started to turn back towards the East, the controller came up and said:
“Sir, you’re not going to believe this, but that thing is at your cap point, roughly 60 miles away in less than a minute,” stating how another flight crew launched shortly after his return to the Nimitz, capturing the now famous 90-second video of the tic-tac UAP.
“What you don’t see is the radar tape that was never released, and we don’t know where it’s at,” Mr. Fravor continued. “What is shocking to us is that the incident was never investigated, none of my crew were ever questioned, tapes were never taken,” stating that it wasn’t until 2009 that the Pentagon’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) led by Luis Elizando reached out to him, who reportedly resigned from DoD years later over the secrecy surrounding UAPs.
When asked by Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) how long the government has been aware of UAP technology, and possibly of those who produced it, subcommittee witness David Grusch said that knowledge of such craft has been known for several decades. “Certainly, like I’ve discussed publicly, (and) previously, (the) 1930s,” he said of when the military became knowledgeable of their existence and started classifying information related to them.
According to an interview on News Nation, since being elected to Congress in 2018, Rep. Burchett has been an advocate for transparency and opening the files on UAPs. He also referred to scripture regarding their origin. “The first chapter of Ezekiel is pretty clear of a UFO sighting,” Burchett said, referring to descriptions of “wheels” floating in the sky as written in the King James Bible. But the Tennessee Republican is not the first person to refer to “wheels,” and their connection to the UFO phenomenon.
The Teachings and the wheels
The Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, has been teaching on the wheels and the reality of the Mother Plane since the early 1930s, first described to him by his Teacher, Master W. Fard Muhammad, the Great Mahdi, God in Person, Who made Himself known in North America to the descendants of enslaved Black people and to those who would take heed. Messenger Muhammad described the purpose of the wheels in his book, “Message to the Blackman in America,” first published in 1965.
“All this was known in the days of Ezekiel, and God revealed it to him, that through Ezekiel we might know what to expect at the end of this world,” Mr. Muhammad wrote on page 290, describing the knowledge of the Judgment as given to him by His Teacher between 1930 to 1934. “Ezekiel saw wheels in the middle of a wheel. This is true (the universe in a universe; it is made up of revolving spheres). There are wheels in the wheel,” He wrote on page 291.
“The present wheel-shaped plane known as the Mother of Planes, is one-half mile by a half-mile and is the largest mechanical man-made object in the sky,” the Messenger continued. “It is a small human built planet made for the purpose of destroying the present world of the enemies of Allah. The very same method is to be used in the destruction of this world,” Mr. Muhammad wrote.
“The small circular-made planes called flying saucers, which are so much talked of being seen, could be from this Mother Plane. This is only one of the things in store for the White man’s evil world. Believe it or not! This is to warn you and me to fly to our own God and people,” he boldly proclaimed to America and the world.
Student Minister Ilia Rashad Muhammad, a documentarian and UFO researcher appointed to the Nation of Islam Research Group by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, told The Final Call it is not by happenstance that the United States Space Force (USSF) was established as the sixth branch of the U.S. military with the signing of the National Defense Authorization Act, December 20, 2019.
“It is the reality of the Wheel and the baby planes that is the cause for such concern in the Pentagon and in the highest echelons of government and the military,” Student Minister Ilia Rashad Muhammad said. “They are taken aback by the presence of these phenomenal crafts, these wheels that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam introduced to the world. But they are concerned because they, for the most part, don’t know what they are.
They don’t know who controls them (and) they can’t pinpoint the intent or the purpose behind these craft. All they know is that they exhibit far superior skills and capabilities, which to them is a matter of national security,” Student Minister Muhammad said. “They are concerned over what the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam have already introduced and answered, all they have to do is come to us.”
For more information on the reality of the Mother Plane and the wheels, visit media.noi.org and watch the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s lecture series: “The Time and What Must be Done” parts 51 – 58.
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