The first public UFO hearing on Capitol Hill in more than 50 years was held this past week — here’s what we learned and what was left out…

A historic public hearing this week on Capitol Hill, as the Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation Subcommittee held the first open UFO hearing since 1966. This hearing came after some lawmakers were reportedly not impressed by the classified briefings they had received as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). 

In his opening statement, Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray, said, “We have seen an increasing number of unauthorized and/or unidentified aircraft or objects in military-controlled training areas, training ranges, and other designated airspace. Reports of sightings are frequent and continuing.”

He went on to say that one of the reasons they have more reports is their work to destigmatize the idea of reporting UFOs and putting into place a system to report them. Despite there being no major revelations, there were several moments to note in the hearing. 

Cheryl Costa served as a U.S. Navy Senior Electronic Warfare Specialist, and is the author of the “UFO Sightings Desk Reference.”

“Destigmatizing in the military would be great given the fact that somebody could report this data,” Costa said. “I worked as an electronics signals analyst in the Navy and our job was to report as much information as we could gather on everybody. So, from the viewpoint of the fact that for 50 years there was a stigma not to report this stuff, that could get you grounded. It wasn’t a brilliant idea because at this point in the game if we have not been collecting that information — and it seems to be that we haven’t been — we’re 50 years behind the eightball.” 

Chairman Adam Schiff brought up reports of aircraft showing abnormal flight characteristics, asking, “[A]re we aware of any foreign adversary capable of moving objects without any discernible means of propulsion?”

Which begs the question if it’s not an adversary then what is it?

“If they have, and I’m going to quote Lue Elizondo on this, ‘they’ve made a generation leap in technology,’ yeah we better be paying attention,” Costa said. “But, see this is the stupid thing about the fact that they put the stigma on us back 50 years and said, ‘Oh, there’s nothing to see here.’ These things have been flying circles around our aircraft since WWII.”

There was this exchange when Congressman Mike Gallagher asked about UFO interference around US nuclear missile sites:

“It’s also been reported that there have been UAP observed and interacting with, and flying over sensitive military facilities — and not just ranges, but some facilities housing our strategic nuclear forces — one such incident allegedly occurred at Malmstrom AFB, in which 10 of our nuclear ICBMs were rendered inoperable at the same time a glowing red orb was observed overhead. I’m not commenting on the accuracy of this, I’m simply asking you whether you’re aware of it and whether you have any comment on the accuracy of it.”

To which the panel replied, “that data is not within the holdings of the UAP Task Force.”

“That’s a big deal because they’ve been shutting down our missiles since the ‘50s ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s,” Costa said. “While the articles have run out in the news circuit nobody seems to be upset by that?” 

Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi brought up something many wanted to hear but was quickly dismissed, asking, “How about wreckage? Have we come across any wreckage of any kind of object that has now been examined by you?”

To which the panel responded, saying, “the UAP Task Force doesn’t have any wreckage that isn’t explainable; that isn’t consistent with being of terrestrial origin.”

“They were doing the public side of that thing, then they went into a closed session,” Costa said. “There are security issues here. If they’ve got this thing classified a certain way, the congressmen are only going to see it if they get into this private, closed session. Somebody, another reporter told me, the people who came out of that closed session looked like they had seen a ghost. There’s the soft story they’re doing out in public, the soft-peddling and then there are the people in Congress getting a stronger briefing.”

As required by the NDAA we should expect more public hearings. What does Costa hope to see?

“I’m just excited to see where this goes,” Costa said. “I hope this isn’t just wrapped up at the end of the week ‘ok, we talked to all the pilots and all the spooks.’ I hope it doesn’t end up like that, I really do hope that they expand this and look at it carefully. I think this is what people are looking at now for them to be square with us.”