Thanks, Mr. Chair. I thank the witnesses for their endurance and service today. Mr. Fravor, you've described your episode in detail now, and you call it the most credible UFO sighting in history. I wonder, was this the first time that you encountered a UFO or a UAP in 2004?
Yes. And what was your general attitude or perspective on the UFO discussion before that happened? I never felt that we were alone with all the planets out there, but I wasn't a UFO person. I wasn't watching History Channel and MUFON and all that.
And have you had experiences or encounters since that happened?
No.
And so have you formed any general conclusions about what you think you experienced then?
Yes, I think what we experienced was, like I said, well beyond the material science and the capabilities that we had at the time that we have currently or that we're going to have in the next ten to 20 years.
Very good. Mr. Grusch, you've been able to answer in great detail on certain questions and then other things you say you're not able to respond to. Can you just explain where you're drawing the line? What's the basis for that?
Yeah, based on my DOPSR security review and what they've determined, that is unclassified.
I see. So you're answering any questions that just call upon your knowledge of unclassified questions, but anything that relates to classified matters, you're not commenting on in this context
in an open session, but happy to participate in a closed session at the right level.
Yeah. Okay. And, Mr. Graves, you've said that there are dozens of fellow pilots, military pilots. Are there also commercial pilots who've encountered the same kind of sightings that you described before?
They are similar. Pilots, commercial pilots have less range and less sensors to be able to reach out and look for objects over wide swaths of airspace. And so pilots are seeing them? Commercial pilots are seeing them, and they're typically closer, and the range of what they're seeing is pretty large.
What is the most vivid concrete sighting with the naked eye of the objects that you described before? The cube like objects?
Certainly. I think the most vivid sighting of that would have been near midair that we had at the entrance to our working area. One of these objects was completely stationary at the exact entrance to our working areas, not only geographically, but also at altitude. So it was right where all the jets are going, essentially on the Eastern Seaboard. The two aircraft flew within about 50ft of the object, and that was a very close visual sighting.
And you were in one of the aircraft?
I was not. I was there when the pilot landed. He canceled the mission after, and I was there. He was in the ready room with all his gear on with his mouth open, and I asked him what the problem was, and he said he almost hit one of those darn things.
He said he was 50ft away from it.
Yes, sir.
And his description of the object was consistent with the description you gave us before?
A dark gray or a black cube inside of a clear sphere?
Inside of a clear sphere, yes.
And with no self evident propulsion system
no wings, no IR energy coming off of the vehicle, nothing tethering it to the ground. And that was primarily what we were experiencing out there.
I'm, over time. Thank you very much for your service, and I yield back to Mr. Chairman.