There were 50 or 60 people who flew with me in 2014-2015 and could tell you they saw UAP every day. I have seen for myself on radar and talked with the pilots who have experienced near misses with mysterious objects off the Eastern Seaboard that have triggered unsafe evasive actions and mandatory safety reports. For pilots to feel comfortable, it will require a culture shift inside organizations and in society at large. There was no upside to reporting hard-to-explain sightings within the chain of command, let alone doing so publicly. There has been little support or incentive for aircrew to speak publicly on this topic. I know the fear of stigma is a major problem because I was the first active-duty fighter pilot to come forward publicly about regular sightings of UAP, and it was not easy. UAP are a national security problem, and we urgently need more data. How are we supposed to make sense of hundreds of reports of UAP that violate restricted airspace uncontested and interfere with both civilian and military pilots? However, just this past week, a Chinese surveillance balloon shut down air traffic across the United States.

Mysteriously, no UAP reports have been confirmed to be foreign so far. Over the past year, the government has collected hundreds of new reports of enigmatic objects from military pilots and sensor systems that cannot be identified and “represent a hazard to flight safety.” The report also preserves last year’s review of the 26-year reporting period that some UAP may represent advanced technology, noting “unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities.” While the unclassified version is brief, its findings are sobering.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) last week published its second ever report on UAP activity. We don’t know what they are, and we are unable to mitigate their presence. government, former presidents, members of Congress of both political parties and directors of national intelligence are trying to tell the American public the same uncomfortable truth I shared: Objects demonstrating extreme capabilities routinely fly over our military facilities and training ranges. Navy F/A-18 fighter pilot who witnessed unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) on a regular basis, let me be clear.

Fighter pilot