CEO, OCEAN STL CONSULTING, LLC AND FORMER ACTING UNDERSECRETARY AND ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF COMMERCE FOR OCEANS AND ATMOSPHERE AND ACTING ADMINISTRATOR AND DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR OF NOAA
HEARING ON
UNIDENTIFIED ANOMALOUS PHENOMENA: EXPOSING THE TRUTH
COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT & ACCOUNTABILITY
SUBCOMMITTEE ON CYBERSECURITY, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, AND GOVERNMENT
INNOVATION AND
SUBCOMMITTEE ON NATIONAL SECURITY, THE BORDER, AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
NOVEMBER 13, 2024
Chairwoman Mace, Chairman Grothman, Ranking Members Connolly and Garcia, and
Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify before you regarding
unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP.
Confirmation that UAPs are interacting with humanity came for me in January 2015 when I
was serving as the Commander of the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command.1 At the
time, my personnel were participating in a pre-deployment naval exercise2 off the U.S. East
Coast that included the USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group. This exercise was
overseen by the United States Fleet Forces Command3
, led by a four-star admiral who also
served as my superior officer.
During this exercise, I received an email on the Navy’s secure network from the operations
officer of Fleet Forces Command. The email was addressed to all subordinate commanders, and
the subject line read in all capital letters: URGENT SAFETY OF FLIGHT ISSUE. The text of the
1 https://www.cnmoc.usff.navy.mil/About-Us/Mission-Vision/
2 https://news.usni.org/2015/01/12/upgraded-carrier-roosevelt-starts-pre-deployment-exercises
3 https://www.usff.navy.mil/
email was brief but alarming, with words to the effect: “If any of you know what these are, tell
me ASAP. We are having multiple near-midair collisions, and if we do not resolve it soon, we will
have to shut down the exercise.”
Attached to the email was what is now known as the “Go Fast” video4
, captured on the
forward-looking infrared sensor5 onboard one of the Navy F/A-18 aircraft participating in the
exercise. The now declassified video6
showed an unidentified object exhibiting flight and
structural characteristics unlike anything in our arsenal. The implication of the email was clear:
the author was asking whether any of the recipients were aware of classified technology
demonstrations that could explain these objects. Because DoD policy7
is to rigorously deconflict
such demonstrations with live exercises, I was confident this was not the case.
The very next day, the email disappeared from my account and those of the other recipients
without explanation. Moreover, the Commander of Fleet Forces and his operations officer never
discussed the incident again, even during weekly meetings specifically designed to address
issues affecting exercises like the one in which the Theodore Roosevelt Strike Group was
participating.
This lack of follow-up was concerning. As the Navy’s Chief Meteorologist8 at the time, my
primary duty was to reduce safety-of-flight risks. Yet, it was evident that no one at the Flag
Officer level was addressing the safety risks posed by UAPs. Instead, pilots were left to mitigate
these threats on their own, without guidance or support.
I concluded that the UAP information must have been classified within a special access
program managed by an intelligence agency — a compartmented program that even senior
officials, including myself, were not read into. Last year’s UAP hearing9 before this oversight
committee confirmed that UAP-related information is not only being withheld10 from senior
officials and members of Congress, but elements of the government are engaging in a
disinformation campaign to include personal attacks11 designed to discredit UAP
whistleblowers.
4 https://www.history.com/videos/uss-roosevelt-gofast-ufo-declassified-video
5 https://www.navair.navy.mil/node/4906
6 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/navy-confirms-videos-did-capture-ufo-sightings-it-calls-themn1056201
7https://www.dote.osd.mil/Portals/97/pub/policies/2020/DoDI%205000.89%20Test%20and%20Evaluation.pdf?ver
=F335S087I4h7hUaH78JDLw%3D%3D
8 My official title was Oceanographer of the Navy, but functionally I performed the duties of the Chief
Meteorologist of the Navy
9 https://oversight.house.gov/hearing/unidentified-anomalous-phenomena-implications-on-national-securitypublic-safety-and-government-transparency/
10 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ufo-hearing-congress-uap-takeaways-whistleblower-conference-david-grusch2023/
11 https://www.newsnationnow.com/cuomo-show/ufo-whistleblower-david-gruschs-health-records-leakedcoulthart/
For the remainder of my government service, including my time as an Under Secretary of
Commerce and NOAA Administrator, this incident disturbed me. It highlighted a dangerous
culture of over-classification12, where even pressing safety-of-flight issues could be swept aside
under the pretense of secrecy.
Having never signed a non-disclosure agreement regarding UAPs, and now, as a private
citizen, I have become an advocate for greater transparency from the U.S. government and
continue to speak out to validate the credibility of witnesses13 and other former government
and military UAP whistleblowers.14
I do this for several reasons. First, there is a moral imperative.15 We know from last year’s
UAP hearing and recent statements and publications by credible whistleblowers that UAP, NHI,
and their technology of unknown origin (TUO) represent a new realization that we are not the
only advanced intelligence in the universe. Unelected officials in the U.S. government do not
have an exclusive right to this knowledge about the nature of reality. The American people have
a right to that knowledge.
There is a public safety requirement for more government UAP transparency. The safety of
flight concerns regarding UAP are not limited to the military, and that is why I support Ryan
Graves’
16 organization Americans for Safe Aerospace17
, which is calling for legislation18 requiring
the FAA establish UAP reporting procedures.
There is a national security need for more UAP transparency as well.
19 In 2025, the U.S. will
spend over $900 billion on national defense20, yet we still have an incomplete understanding of
what is in our airspace21 and water space. I add the term “water space” because UAP have been
observed in the ocean and are known to exhibit transmedium travel through the air-sea
interface.
22 These are often referred to as unidentified submerged objects (USOs). Whether
aerial or undersea, UAP are operating unhindered in our seas and skies23, and American
12 https://www.govexec.com/management/2024/07/senators-take-another-crack-solving-overclassification/398413/
13 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ufo-military-intelligence-60-minutes-2021-08-29/
14 https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/ufo-whistleblower-david-grusch-whats-happened/
15 https://youtu.be/w9cIcWWsH0c?si=h1H72L3NrCo9cXPp
16 https://www.uncertainvector.com/
17 https://www.safeaerospace.org/
18 https://thehill.com/regulation/transportation/4402400-bipartisan-legislation-ufo-reporting/
19 https://thedebrief.org/disclosure-and-national-security-should-the-u-s-government-reveal-what-it-knows-aboutuap/
20 https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/fy25_ndaa_executive_summary.pdf
21 https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/02/28/ufo-uap-navy-intelligence-00084537
22 https://thesolfoundation.org/publication/beneath-the-surface-we-may-learn-more-about-uap-by-looking-in-theocean/
23 https://thesolfoundation.org/publication/uap-in-crowded-skies-atmospheric-and-orbital-threat-reduction-in-anage-of-geopolitical-uncertainty/
taxpayers have a right to know why our military’s massive budget is inadequately addressing
this national defense deficiency.24
Additionally, more government UAP transparency has the potential to yield socioeconomic
benefits25 through increased open research.26 Our present understanding of physics is not
capable of explaining many observations of UAP, and more research might lead to unimaginable
advances in energy, transportation, medicine, agriculture, not to mention the paradigm shift
that NHI represent in areas such as astrobiology, psychology, sociology, and international
relations. Such research is the mission of Harvard University’s Galileo Project27, which I support
as a research affiliate.
Finally, and perhaps the most important reason, the failure of the Executive Branch to share
UAP information with Congress is an infringement28 on the legislative branch that undermines
separation powers and may be creating a constitutional crisis. Even the most sensitive Special
Access Programs must be reported the Gang of Eight, and all compartmented programs must be
reported to the Senate Intelligence Committee. Any and all past failures by DoD and IC
components to report UAP programs and activities are not only illegal but would have
undermined Congress by preventing it from exercising its legislative and oversight
responsibilities over one of the most vital issues of our time. Those responsibilities cover a wide
range, from defense and intelligence, foreign affairs, appropriations, to science and technology.
Moreover, Congress may noy have known for decades to ask nominees to cabinet-level and
other Executive Branch positions about UAP during their confirmation hearings, despite the
DoD’s and IC’s knowledge and efforts related to UAP. Were Congress to have been left out of the
loop on any other issue in this fashion, it would be considered an absolute outrage. We have
barely begun to consider the harm done to the Legislative Branch and thus, too, the American
people by apparent UAP secrecy. I hope that not only this committee, but Congress considers
the grave damage done to our system of government and contemplates action to halting it once
and for all.
For example, while I was preparing for this hearing, former DoD official Chris Mellon
contacted me to seek my assistance in sharing with Congress the details of a case involving
satellite imagery of UAP from 2017 that has still not been shared with Congress. He has also
brought the specifics to the attention of AARO and says he is confident the new Director of
AARO will honor requests for access by the oversight committees.29 I would be happy in a closed
24 https://www.christophermellon.net/post/what-s-up-with-america-s-multi-billion-dollar-air-defense-systems
25 https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/06/03/ufo-crash-materials-intelligence-00100077
26https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=uap+may+unlock+new+world+changing+discovery&mid
=71F845225F9BCFEC1A8171F845225F9BCFEC1A81&FORM=VIRE
27 https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/research/galileoproject#:~:text=Given%20the%20recently%20discovered%20abundance%20of%20EarthSun%20systems%2C,to%20the%20scientific%20method%20of%20unbiased%2C%20empirical%20inquiry.
28 https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-oversight-committee-hold-hearing-ufos-rcna96154
29 Personal communication on November 11, 2024.
setting to provide the dates involved if that would help the committee to formulate a specific
request for access.
The foundational issue is one of governance and public accountability. The continued
excessive secrecy surrounding UAPs has not only hindered our ability to effectively address
these phenomena but has also eroded trust in our institutions and compromised the safety of
both military and civilian aviators. While recent initiatives, such as the establishment of the Alldomain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), NASA’s UAP study team, and research efforts by
institutions like Harvard and Stanford, are positive steps forward, they are only the beginning. A
more comprehensive approach is urgently needed—one that acknowledges the broader
implications of UAP transparency across public safety, national security, and the socioeconomic
opportunities that open research could unlock.
30 Therefore, I recommend Congress take the
following action which I believe would receive bipartisan support:
(1) Establish proper oversight of the Executive Branch’s management of UAP programs,
information, and materials.
The first step should be to invite the director of DoD’s All Domain Anomaly Resolution Office
(AARO) to provide various committees a briefing on U.S. government UAP reporting to date.
Additionally, AARO needs to explain the inaccuracies and incompleteness31 of AARO’s first
historical records report32 so that the Congress can understand: (a) if AARO is failing to meet its
Congressional mandate, and (b) under what authority AARO has conducted this and other
examples of disinformation.
I say this as a first-hand witness to such disinformation. During a meeting with the then
acting AARO director and his senior staff earlier this year, I was the object of an hours-long
influence operation which attempted to convince me of the validity of the severely flawed
historical records report, question well known UAP reports such as the U.S.S. Nimitz “tic tac”
encounter, and disparage several former government authorities who have published and
spoken publicly about their knowledge of U.S. government UAP programs. If AARO is attempting
to repeat the illegal and unethical DoD disinformation efforts33 involving UAP in the past,
Congress should be gravely concerned.
The next step should be to invite the Director of National Intelligence and the National
Security Advisor to discuss their predecessors prior statements overtly acknowledging the
existence of UAP. Does the government’s current reluctance to disclose information about UAP
30 https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/06/03/ufo-crash-materials-intelligence-00100077
31 https://thedebrief.org/the-pentagons-new-uap-report-is-seriously-flawed/
32 https://media.defense.gov/2024/Mar/08/2003409233/-1/-1/0/DOPSR-CLEARED-508-COMPLIANT-HRRV1-08-
MAR-2024-FINAL.PDF
33 https://www.amazon.com/Project-Beta-Bennewitz-National-Security/dp/0743470923
originate at the top with the Commander in Chief, or are agency directors, deputy directors, and
lower-level bureaucrats driving ODNI and NSC direction in this matter?
Congress should also demand the DOD leverage the issue of UAP incursions in our seas and
skies as a catalyst to mitigate our vulnerability to aerial drones, which are increasingly observed
to be operating in restricted airspace with impunity.34
Lastly, Congress should vigorously seek answers from other executive branch departments
and agencies known to have some involvement with UAP information, such as the IC, NASA,
DOE, DHS, and NSF. Through briefings, hearings, review of nominations, and all other
appropriate means, effective oversight can be established and maintained.
(2) Pass the provisions of the UAP Disclosure Act involving the UAP Records Review Board into
law.
Congress has demonstrated leadership on this topic by enacting requirements in recent
years for military and intelligence community personnel to report UAP observations and by
directing a joint program office within the Department of Defense (AARO) to gather, analyze,
and report UAP data.35 Despite this progress, proper oversight remains elusive. Although the
UAP Disclosure Act, a landmark transparency bill36, passed the Senate in 2023, key provisions
were deleted in conference.37 Proposed again this year, the Act was unfortunately omitted from
the pending defense authorization bill despite strong bipartisan support from the Senate
Majority Leader and key members of the Senate intelligence and defense committees. The
eliminated provisions would have empowered an independent UAP Records Review Board (UAP
RRB) composed of subject matter experts to examine all relevant governmental UAP data
regardless of security classification and provide the President with a thorough, truthful, and
independent assessment of the UAP issue. Robust and accountable mechanisms for making
such information available to researchers and the public were also left unenacted.
These provisions in the UAP Disclosure Act offer the best possible path for meaningful
oversight. Enacting them would address serious concerns—increasingly voiced by Congress and
the American people—regarding major shortcomings in the government’s UAP policy. The Act’s
UAP RRB is vital to ensuring that a comprehensive archive will be subjected to open and
skeptical inquiry by scientists, scholars, the media, and Congress, and that the executive and
legislative branches receive a full accounting of the government’s activities relating to UAP.
Independent review of UAP records, activities, and material will serve to restore faith in our
34 https://christopherkmellon.substack.com/p/who-is-operating-the-mystery-drones
35 https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3100053/dod-announces-the-establishment-of-theall-domain-anomaly-resolution-office/
36 https://www.democrats.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/uap_amendment.pdf
37 https://thedebrief.org/uap-disclosure-act-receives-pushback-from-lawmakers-on-capitol-hill-as-bipartisan-fightfor-transparency-continues/
democratic institutions and ensure the nation’s security. Congress should pass these provisions
of the UAP Disclosure Act as well as other UAP legislation awaiting action by Congress. These
recommendations are endorsed by the UAP Disclosure Fund38 which I support as a strategic
advisor.
(3) After the UAP Disclosure Act is passed, consider strengthening it in a future reauthorization
with additional provisions to establish a whole of government approach to UAP.
Currently, activity regarding U.S. government UAP information is occurring within a handful
of departments and agencies (DOD, IC, NASA, DOE). Other elements of national power are
needed, and future provisions of the UAP Disclosure Act should identifying a department whose
cabinet secretary will serve as the lead for U.S. UAP issues and coordinate a whole of
government approach to UAP policy, research, and disclosure. The need for a whole of
government approach is endorsed by the Stanford University associated Sol Foundation39
,
which I support as a senior strategic advisor.
In closing, I would like to share my personal reasons for speaking out on the topic of UAP. As
a former science agency leader, I have always sought the truth in human knowledge and
thought. Now that we know UAP are interacting with humanity, and these include unidentified
submerged objects (USOs) in the ocean40, we should not keep our heads stuck in the sand, but
boldly face this new reality and learn from it.
Secondly, I have dedicated my entire career to the national security and economic prosperity
of our country. Failure to share with the American people what is known about UAP leaves
them in the dark on the biggest issue to confront human civilization to date. When has
ignorance ever advanced society?
Lastly, at a time when leaders on the nation’s biggest stage leave much to be desired, I feel it
is my obligation to show moral leadership on the issue of UAP disclosure. And by that, I mean
providing top cover for the courageous men and women who have come out as witnesses and
whistleblowers to expose the truth. My speaking out has encouraged others to do the same,
and it is my hope that over time, the number of your constituents who want to know the truth
about UAP will increase to such an extent that the Congressional action I have just
recommended will become inevitable.
38 https://uapdisclosurefund.org/
39 https://thesolfoundation.org/
40https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=17&v=2NVDCtSxIac&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2
Fwww.bing.com%2F&embeds_referring_origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com&source_ve_path=MjM4NTE