Slowly, gradually, reluctantly, the government is being forced to draw back the curtain on its 76-year obfuscation of aircraft we can neither identify nor explain.

Whether you call them Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO) or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) these things have been with us for centuries. The first recorded sighting in America happened in 1639 in Boston.

UAP Sightings and reports grew in frequency after we deployed atomic bombs to end World War II.  But for seven decades, the United States government has denied their existence. Employing a campaign of denial, ridicule, threats, and confusion, they have turned attention away from any organized investigation.

The 701 Reports of Project Blue Book

Wait, you say, there is a long list of government organizations to look into these sightings, Project Blue Book being the best known. When, however, those agencies turned up data that could not be explained, the government ignored the findings and shut them down. Worse, they showed no inclination to investigate further. Worse still, they intimidated and mocked anyone with the temerity to report a sighting.

Case in Point: Project Blue Book (1952-1969) investigated 12,600 UAP reports. They explained most of them (sometimes spuriously) as misidentifications of aircraft or natural phenomena.

Some of the explanations, like weather balloons and swamp gas were risible. Even then, however, 701 of the reports they investigated were classified as unexplained, “even after stringent analysis.” Seven hundred is a lot of UAP sightings to sweep under the rug.

The Congressional Hearings

Now the government is being dragged, kicking and gnashing its teeth, into admitting what many of us have accepted for a long time: these things are real. I understood that when I saw one as a teenager. One of my brothers has known it since he was nine and saw several UAPs flying by.

Congressional Hearings began into UAPs began yesterday If you have doubts about the reality of strange aircraft in our skies, listen to the opening statement of Ryan Graves, Executive Director of Americans for Safe Aerospace, at the hearing on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena.

Courtesy of Associated Press

This man, a former Air Force F-18 pilot who has served our country in and out of war zones, has experienced UAPs “firsthand” and raises three issues:

• Sightings are not rare, but frequent.
• The stigma attached to reporting them is real, powerful, and dangerous.
• Parts of the government are more aware of UAPs than they let on but hide the information by classifying it.

Now watch the video again and think about what Mr. Graves is saying. Many highly qualified people are testifying at these hearings. The media may not cover what they say but pay attention.

My Five UAP Questions

Given all this, I have some questions of my own about how the government has responded — or not — to reported sightings of UAPs.

1. Why is the government so determined to keep this information under wraps?
2. Why are they willing to endanger the lives of military and civilian pilots and civilian passengers to protect what they know?
3. What do they know and won’t tell us?
4. If they don’t know anything, why do discourage reports and ignore the ones that are made?
5. What are they hiding?

I could speculate; there are plenty of ideas and opinions. Instead, I will just wait and listen and see what, if anything, results from the information that comes out. Despite Congress’s best efforts, the truth may not emerge willingly or completely. And, oh yes, the major news media pay no attention to these hearings at all. You won’t see them on the six o’clock news or read a column inch in the news sites.

I’m hoping, however, that we will learn something new. Fasten your seatbelts: this could be very interesting.