The world of UFO speculation is on high alert right now thanks to a few viral stories – perhaps most prominently, that of whistleblower David Grusch. Grusch made headlines last week when he went public with his claims that the U.S. government has been secretly hiding extra-terrestrial technology from the general populous. Here’s a quick breakdown of who Grusch is, why many people are taking his claims seriously, and why many others are not.
Grusch was born in 1987 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and has spent most of his adult life working for the U.S. Air Force. According to a report by The Independent, he was a decorated combat officer during the War in Afghanistan before moving on to loftier jobs at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). In 2019, Grusch became the NRO’s representative with the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, which is where his involvement with UFOs began.
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Reporting on UFOs has become much more mainstream since 2017 when the Pentagon formally acknowledged the existence of the UAP task force, which has since been renamed the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or AARO. At the time, the military also declassified many videos and reports of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), which is the military’s modern name for UFO sightings. However, as revelatory as that was, Grusch claims that many big secrets have still been hidden from the American people, and he sees it as a breach of their rights.
About two years into his work with AARO on behalf of the NRO, Grusch filed a complaint with the Intelligence Community Inspector General. According to a report by The Debrief, Grusch wrote that “elements” within the intelligence community were purposefully withholding information about UAP from Congress in order to avoid oversight from elected officials. Grusch’s lawyers later said that this complaint was successfully presented to the inspector general and that Grusch was protected from retaliation.
Still, Grusch left the NRO in late 2021 and became the NGA’s co-lead for UAP analysis. In that role, he helped draft the National Defense Authorization Act of 2023 before leaving the military and the government altogether on April 7, 2023. Grusch then came forward with his story publicly starting on June 5, 2023.
Grusch had trouble getting his story published because of the lack of firsthand evidence and the difficulty to verify all of his claims. He worked with reporters Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal – both of whom have reported on UFOs extensively before – but they were turned down by The New York Times, Politico and The Washington Post before finally taking the story to NewsNation. As Grusch explained in his interview there, he did not see any extra-terrestrial materials himself nor even photos of them, but he spoke with several people who had. He also said that he had further evidence to back up his story which he shared with the inspector general and with Congress, but he could not share it with reporters because it was classified. Nonetheless, many viewers and readers felt that they were being asked to take Grusch at his word with little to back him up.
One major factor in Grusch’s favor is the endorsement of two other high-ranking people from the military – retired Army colonel Karl Nell and current intelligence official Jonathan Grey. Nell told New York Magazine that Grusch is “beyond reproach” and backed up Grusch’s claim that the military is working actively to retrieve and reverse engineer extra-terrestrial technology. Grey said: “The non-human intelligence phenomenon is real. We are not alone. This is a global phenomenon, and yet a global solution continues to elude us.”
Members of Congress have confirmed that they have received Grusch’s filings and are reviewing them now, with plans to hold a hearing at some point in the future. AARO has said that it has not found any evidence to back up Grusch’s claims but that it will continue to investigate. In the meantime, Grusch continues to speak to reporters around the world about extra-terrestrial life.
