Alien aircraft and their dead pilots have been retrieved by governments for decades, according to a former U.S. Department of Defence intelligence officer.
It’s been over 6 months since David Grusch, a U.S. Air Force officer and former intelligence official, claimed that the U.S. government and private military contractors (i.e. Lockheed Martin) were involved in the recovery and reverse engineering of alien spacecraft and biological matter.
A surge of activity from both mainstream and alternative media followed, but like many intriguing stories, interest eventually waned. Drone activity over New Jersey in late 2024 prompted me to think about David Grusch again. While his claims are captivating, I was more interested in examining our reactions to them. These reactions reveal how we attempt to make sense of life’s mysteries.
Drones over New Jersey
This blog will explore:
- what we know of David Grusch
- the nature of his allegations and motivations
- reactions from critics in the scientific community and mainstream media.
Though the subject matter is extraterrestrial, we will conclude by reflecting on what these reactions reveal about ourselves.
What we know of David Grusch
David Charles Grusch was born in 1987 and grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He served 14 years in the U.S. Air Force, becoming a career intelligence officer and a decorated veteran of the Afghanistan conflict. From 2019 to 2021, he represented the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) on the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) Task Force.
In an interview with NewsNation, David stated,
“And my last position, which I left in April of 2023, I co-lead the UAP portfolio for the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency and some of the highest officials within the Department of Defense and intelligence community used to call on me to advise them on some of the hardest target sets that the country had.”
According to The Intercept, David was committed to a psychiatric facility on two occasions—in 2014 and 2018—following incidents involving drunkenness and suicidal remarks. Despite these incidents, he managed to retain his top-secret security clearance.
David discussed his mental health on the Joe Rogan podcast. He explained he experienced PTSD due to his deployment to Afghanistan, citing the “silent suffering of intel professionals”. David went on to explain that he’s “high functioning autistic” and “how I process trauma I didn’t understand until many years later.” He mentioned the impact of a colleague’s suicide on his wellbeing, saying, “That really affected me.”
In the podcast, David explains he declared his mental health challenges to the appropriate authorities and sought help for them.
Karl E. Nell, a retired Army Colonel and current aerospace executive, was the Army’s liaison for the UAP Task Force from 2021 to 2022. He worked with David and described him as “beyond reproach.”
The Debrief reported that David was assessed by the NRO’s Operations Center Deputy Director as an “adept staff officer and strategist” and “total force integrator with innovative solutions and actionable results.”
The nature of his allegations and motivations
In June 2023, David publicly shared his claims. The following month, he testified under oath before a House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. He described a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse-engineering program to which he was denied access.
“My testimony is based on information I’ve been given by individuals with a long-standing track record of legitimacy and service to this country, many of whom have shared compelling evidence in the form of photography, official documentation and classified oral testimony to myself and many various colleagues.” David Grusch
His claims include:
- The U.S. government:
- first became aware of non-human intelligence in the 1930s.
- maintains a highly secretive UAP recovery program, possesses “non-human” spacecraft and has attempted to reverse engineer it.
- has recovered non-human “dead pilots”.
- This information has been illegally withheld from Congress, with elements within the government covering up these activities for nearly a century. People have been harmed and killed to conceal these programs.
David shared his motivations for going public during his testimony to Congress and on various podcasts. He cited a:
- Commitment to truth, transparency, and accountability
- Elements of the intelligence community seek “to purposely and intentionally thwart legitimate Congressional oversight of the UAP Program.”
- “Individuals on these UAP programs approached me in my official capacity and disclosed their concerns regarding a multitude of wrongdoings, such as illegal contracting against the Federal Acquisition Regulations and other criminality…”
Testimony to Congress
- Belief going public is in the best interest of humanity
- “We’re in this loop, we’re not progressing in a healthy way as a civilisation… It’s becoming more divisive whether you’re on the left or the right… humanity is kinda stuck right now and we need to change…”
- “…and this subject is one of the only unifying… ontologically shocking… but generally unifying topics… This could change humanity for the better, make us look inside ourselves, become less divisive”.
Joe Rogan Podcast
Reactions from critics in the scientific community and mainstream media.
Critics of David’s claims have primarily based their rejection on three factors:
- Lack of evidence
- Concerns about David’s character
- Suspicions of a purposeful misinformation campaign by the U.S. Government
1. Lack of evidence
NASA administrator Bill Nelson dismissed David’s testimony. He compared it to someone claiming, “a friend” has “a UFO locked up in a warehouse.” Nelson made this comment while launching a report on UAPs that found no evidence of extraterrestrial life.
Avi Loeb, a theoretical astrophysicist at Harvard University, stated in a phone interview with the Washington Post that “this David Grusch guy is basing his entire claim on conversations that he had,” rather than on “actual evidence. Somebody interviewing another guy who tells the story—who cares?”
Adam Frank, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Rochester, critiqued David’s claims in an interview with Big Think. He labelled them as “hearsay,” where “one person claims to know someone who knows another person who heard from yet another that the government has alien spaceships.”
2. Concerns about David’s character
The same Washington Post article noted retired Navy pilot Ward Carroll’s comments regarding David, saying, “He has this intensity, and we know the type… Sometimes they’re a little eccentric.”
Dr Sean Kirkpatrick, head of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), testified before Congress that there was “no credible evidence thus far of extraterrestrial activity” or “off-world technology”. He criticised David’s claims as “extremely unethical and immoral.”
Physicist and cosmologist Sean M. Carroll discussed David on the Mindscape podcast, stating that he was “discussing the holographic principle and extra dimensions and things like that,” which should “raise alarm bells.” Carroll concluded that David “gives off all the signs of being a complete crackpot.”
3. Purposeful misinformation campaign by the U.S. Government
Some sceptics believe that David’s claims are part of a disinformation campaign by the U.S. government aimed at distracting the public from pressing real-world issues, such as the declining standard of living, erosion of civil liberties, or government corruption.
Gareth Nicholson, editor for the South China Morning Post, suggested that “the current UAP flap could be an attempt by the U.S. military to engage in a disinformation campaign to disguise real aerospace breakthroughs or an attempt to flush out advanced technologies held by rivals like Russia and China.”
Concluding Reflection
Regardless of whether you’re a believer, agnostic, or a sceptic… take a moment to consider the following:
- Aliens exist, and they’ve been visiting Earth and interacting with humans since antiquity.
- Our governments have withheld this information from the public, and in some cases, they have harmed or killed people to maintain secrecy.
These notions have world-shattering implications across several domains, including psychological, scientific, social, spiritual/religious, economic, and political. For instance, the Western world is currently experiencing unprecedented levels of mistrust toward governments and institutions. Just look at the commentary surrounding COVID-19 and vaccines! Can you imagine the extent of mistrust that would arise if it were revealed that our governments have kept knowledge of extraterrestrial life secret, even going so far as to harm or kill people to keep it hidden?
Given these implications, it’s understandable that critics of David’s claims demand hard proof. At the same time, is it realistic to have expected David to illegally obtain and share such proof? Especially if people have allegedly been harmed or killed to keep this information a secret?
On another note, people’s belief that David’s claims represent a misinformation campaign by the U.S. government also highlights the growing mistrust in government/institutional authority. In this interpretation, the perceived threat is not from extraterrestrial beings. It is from those in authority who claim to have our best interests at heart while secretly pursuing their own agendas.
Perhaps the most sobering reaction came from my partner, who was bewildered I spent a few hours putting this blog together (it was much longer than that!).
“Life is really hard at the moment… cost of living, job insecurity, and this God-awful cycle of killing in Europe and the Middle East that we can’t seem to stop. Who has the headspace to care about aliens?”
Who does care?
References
Carroll, S. (Host). (2023, Aug 7). Ask me anything [Audio Podcast Episode]. In Mindscape Podcast. https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2023/08/07/ama-august-2023/
Frank, A. (2024, Nov 15). New UFO hearings continue an “endless loop” of sensation. Big Think. https://bigthink.com/13-8/new-ufo-hearings-continue-an-endless-loop-of-sensation/
Gipson, A., Sancho, M., Lake, Z., Leavitt, D., & Coulthart, R. (2023, Jun 11). We are not alone. The UFO whistleblower speaks. NewsNation. https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/we-are-not-alone-the-ufo-whistleblower-speaks/
Hawgood, A. (2023, Oct 5). Behind the scenes of a UFO whistleblower’s odd visit to Capitol Hill. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/of-interest/2023/10/05/ufo-david-grusch-uap-congress-yes-theory/
Kean, L. & Blumenthal, R. (2023, Jun 5). Intelligence officials say US has retrieved craft of non-human origin. The Debrief. https://thedebrief.org/intelligence-officials-say-u-s-has-retrieved-non-human-craft/
Klippenstein, K. (2023, Aug 9). UFO whistleblower kept security clearance after psychiatric detention. The Intercept. https://theintercept.com/2023/08/09/ufo-david-grusch-clearance/
Nicholson, G. (2023, Jun 17). As a US whistle-blower raises the UFO question, perhaps it’s time the world looked for answers. South China Morning Post. https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3224288/us-whistle-blower-raises-ufo-question-perhaps-its-time-world-looked-answers
Rogan, J. (Host). (2024, June 28). #2065 – David Grusch [Podcast Episode]. In Joe Rogan Experience. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8TqBrrqL4U&t=4614s
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