Documents / Hearing transcript

Official hearing transcript PDF

U.S. House of Representatives · 54 pages · text from the file's own layer

This is the official transcript of a July 26, 2023 hearing held by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Accountability's Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs. The hearing was titled "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency." Ryan Graves, David Grusch and retired Commander David Fravor testified. Members pressed for transparency and whistleblower protections, and Graves described a near miss involving a dark cube inside a clear sphere.

  • p. 5 …Without objection, the Chair may declare a recess at any time. Additionally, without objection, the following…
  • p. 7 …I would say that is the biggest understatement of the decade. He also goes on to…
  • p. 8 …And I yield back the remainder of my time, I think—is it to Rep- resentative…
  • p. 9 …Even more alarming is the fact that these eyewitnesses are, many times, service members and have…
  • p. 10 …Now, some of the earliest reporting on this issue was a groundbreaking 2017 New York Times…
  • p. 12 …I want to yield the two and a half minutes, the remainder of my time, to…
  • p. 13 …I believe more information is known about the 171 instances. It is time for Congress to…
  • p. 15 11 was no official acknowledgement of the incident and no further mechanism to report the sightings…
  • p. 16 …At the time, due to my extensive executive level intelligence sup- port duties I was cleared…
  • p. 18 …the articles in the 2017 New York Times and it removed the stigma on the topic…
  • p. 19 …for the United States and best for the citizens. I thank you for your time. Thank…
  • p. 21 …Now, that was our personal firsthand experience at the time. Since then, as I have engaged…
  • p. 25 …Like many others in 2017, I saw the New York Times article come out as well…
  • p. 28 …They had official documentation and records from the event that the witness held over the years…
  • p. 29 25 provide precise kinematics on the object as well as the fleet of ob- jects that…
  • p. 31 …I will yield the balance of my time back. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. GROTHMAN. Ms…
  • p. 37 …I just—my time is limited. Mr. Graves, one of your main concerns that the FAA…
  • p. 39 …I know for a fact the video or the pic- tures that came out in the…
  • p. 46 …our speed in no time at all. Mr. LANGWORTHY. Now, if the fastest plane on Earth…
  • p. 48 …Chairman, with that, I will yield the remainder of my time to my fellow colleague from…
  • p. 50 …Chairman, I yield the remain- der of my time. Mr. GROTHMAN. OK. We will go to…
  • p. 51 …credibility to the New York Times article. And so after about six times I said OK…
  • p. 53 49 I also want to note for our witnesses and for the public that I am…
  • p. 54 …I need to compliment the folks in my office that did a lot of the work…
11
was no official acknowledgement of the incident and no further
mechanism to report the sightings.
Soon these encounters became so frequent that aircrew would
discuss the risk of UAP as part of their regular preflight briefs.
Recognizing the need for action and answers, I founded Americans
for Safe Aerospace.
The organization has since become a haven for UAP witnesses
who were previously unspoken due to the absence of a safe intake
process. More than thirty witnesses have come forward and almost
5,000 Americans have joined us in the fight for transparency at
safeaerospace.org.
The majority of witnesses are commercial pilots at major airlines.
Often, they are veterans with decades of flying experience. Pilots
are reporting UAP at altitudes that appear above them at 40,000
feet, potentially in low Earth orbit or in the gray zone below the
common line, making unexplainable maneuvers like right hand
turns and retrograde orbits, or J hooks.
Sometimes these reports are reoccurring with numerous recent
sightings north of Hawaii and in the North Atlantic. Other vet-
erans are also coming forward to us regarding UAP encounters in
our airspace and oceans. The most compelling involve observations
of UAP by multiple witnesses and sensor systems. I believe these
accounts are only scratching the surface and more will share their
experiences once it is safe to do so.
In closing, I recognize the skepticism surrounding this topic. If
everyone could see the sensor and video data I witnessed, our na-
tional conversation would change. I urge us to put aside stigma
and address the security and safety issue this topic represents.
If UAP are foreign drones, is an urgent national security prob-
lem. If it is something else, it is an issue for science. In either case,
unidentified objects are a concern for flight safety. The American
people deserve to know what is happening in our skies. It is long
overdue.
Thank you.
Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Grusch?
STATEMENT OF DAVID GRUSCH
FORMER NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE OFFICER
REPRESENTATIVE
UNIDENTIFIED ANOMALOUS PHENOMENA TASK FORCE
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Mr. GRUSCH. Mr. Chairman, Ranking Members and Congress-
men, thank you. I am happy to be here. This is an important issue,
and I am grateful for your time.
My name is David Charles Grusch. I was an intelligence officer
for 14 years both in the U.S. Air Force, both active-duty Air Na-
tional Guard and Reserve at the rank of Major and most recently
from 2021 to 2025—excuse me, 2023—at the National Geospatial
Intelligence Agency, NGA, at the GS–15 civilian level, which is the
military equivalent of a full bird colonel.
I was my agency’s co-lead in unidentified anomalous phenomena
and trans medium object analysis as well as reporting to the UAP
Task Force—UAPTF—and eventually, once it was established, the
All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office—AARO.

Cases discussed

About this file

Hearing transcript, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 54 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.