A few days ago, while staying in Teton Village, Wyoming, a gentleman approached me because he had heard about my book, “Out of This World.” Over coffee, he described years spent investigating more than 100 reports of unidentified aerial phenomena tied to rocket launches along Florida’s Space Coast. Most proved explainable. A few did not.
Then he recounted a remarkable story involving a retired officer who had served as a military mortician and claimed he had examined what he believed were the bodies of non-human beings. Rather than accepting or dismissing the account, I asked the questions any experienced analyst should ask: Where are the photographs? The laboratory reports? Who maintained the chain of custody? Can any of it be independently corroborated?
I asked him to reconnect with the retired officer and obtain answers. Until then, the account remains exactly what it is: an intriguing but unverified claim.
That conversation reminded me of something I learned over 24 years as an Army officer and another 22 years as a Pentagon strategist. The greatest danger in today’s UAP debate is not government secrecy. It is public certainty.
Some have already decided ) prove extraterrestrial visitation. Others insist every report is nonsense or simple misidentification. Neither position reflects disciplined analysis. Good intelligence work begins neither with belief nor disbelief. It begins with evidence.
During my years in the Pentagon, I sat through countless briefings involving classified capabilities and intelligence assessments. Governments classify information to protect sources, preserve technological advantages and safeguard operations. Classification is not proof. Neither is testimony, however sincere. Evidence, not confidence, must remain our standard. Good analysts distinguish between what remains secret and what remains unexplained.
That distinction matters because Washington has changed how it approaches this subject. The Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office has released three batches of declassified case files this year, on May 8, May 22, and June 12. One report, dated June 5 and signed by AARO Director Jon Kosloski, documents an October 2023 incident in which law enforcement observed an orange “mother orb” releasing smaller red orbs. The Pentagon’s own case analysis states the case remains unresolved, with unrecognized technology among the possible explanations.
The documentary “The Age of Disclosure,” featuring Secretary of State Marco Rubio and several sitting members of Congress, became Amazon Prime’s best-selling documentary within 48 hours of its November release. Yet even Rubio, who appears in the film, has since said publicly he doesnt “have any independent way to verify the things they said,” precisely the caution this debate requires.
Washington is no longer treating UAPs as an occasional curiosity. It is treating them as a continuing intelligence challenge. professionals should investigate unexplained events. Scientists should test competing hypotheses. Congress should insist on transparency whenever national security permits.
But there is a distinction America seems to be missing. Investigation is not interpretation. Governments can collect radar tracks, infrared imagery, pilot testimony and sensor data. None of those, by themselves, explain what these phenomena actually are.
That is why America is asking the wrong question. Most public discussion revolves around what the . Those are legitimate questions in a constitutional republic. Yet even if every classified document were releas
