DALLAS — July 26, 2023, will be a day Danny Silva never forgets.
That Wednesday Silva watched a live broadcast of a congressional hearing where three whistleblowers told Congress the U.S. government is hiding a multi-decade program that captures unidentified flying objects (UFOs).
“This is no longer Hollywood movies, or UFO lore,” Silva said regarding what he calls a historic moment for the UFO community. “This is a legit congressional hearing, and they’re under oath. It’s a huge deal.”
Silva’s an independent UFO journalist out of Fort Worth. On his self-titled blog he reports on news involving UFOs, or as government officials are now calling them “unidentified anomalous phenomena,” formerly “unidentified aerial phenomena,” or UAP.
“UAP is a catch-all term describing an object detected in the air, sea and space defying easy explanation,” said Silva.
The July 26 hearing, titled “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency,” was hosted by the House Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs.
Silva said he and the UFO community expected the hearing for years. David Grusch, a former Air Force intelligence officer, David Fravor, a retired Navy commander, and Ryan Graves, an ex-Navy pilot, claimed the Pentagon is in possession of alien spacecraft remains.
It surprised Silva to see members of Congress such as Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., ask Grusch bluntly if, “our government is in possession of UAPs.”
“Absolutely, based on interviewing 40 witnesses over four years,” responded Grusch.
Even though a lot of the information shared was previously known throughout the UFO community, Silva said it’s new for those who haven’t been following issues involving UFOs closely.
Silva’s interest in UFOs started in 2017 when Luis Elizondo, the former director of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) testified to Congress, and three Navy videos were leaked, including the infamous 2004 “Tic Tac” UFO video.
One moment in the hearing that stood out to Silva was when Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., questioned Grusch about extraterrestrial bodies.
“If you believe we have crashed craft, as stated earlier, do we have the bodies of the pilots who piloted this craft?” asked Mace.
“Biologics came with some of these recoveries, yeah,” responded Grusch.
Silva said seeing lawmakers take UFOs seriously is changing public perception.
“Clearly there’s a lot of information that we don’t know,” said Rep. Garcia during the hearing. “But it’s also very clear that we have to continue our investigation and accountability own asking the right questions and souring that they’re part of the public record.”
Silva said he hopes to see the full discloser from the government.
“We get our hopes up in the UFO community about a lot of things. We get burned a lot of times, so I’ve become a big pessimist when these things are occurring and I try really hard not to get my hopes up,” he said.
On the same day of the more than two-hour UAP hearing, during a press briefing at the White House, a reporter asked National Security Council Communications Coordinator John Kirby if the “government believes there’s life outside of Earth.”
“What we believe is that there are unexplained aerial phenomena,” responded Kirby. “These phenomena have, in some cases, had an impact on our training ranges, on our pilot’s ability to fly, train, operate, and stay ready… it’s a national security issue worth looking at.”
“It’s absolutely a national security issue,” Silva said. “That’s been the main point as advocates and people in the government that people are trying to drive home, whether you believe they're drones, balloons like we saw earlier this year, or non-human intelligence, UFOs, whatever, is flying in our skies is a big deal.”
Silva added he feels previous UFO hearings have been “lackluster” and haven’t gotten the media attention they deserve.
“This one really did knock it out of the park,” said Silva. “Even though it was a lot of the same information we in the UFO community have already heard, but this time it was under oath, and it had a big media following. There’s a lot of vindication. This was big for everyone.”
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Share your ideas with DFW human interest reporter Lupe Zapata by e-mailing him at Lupe.Zapata@Charter.com