UFOs in the U.S.A.
Since the infamous Roswell incident of 1947, when the term “flying saucer” was first used and Area 51 became a center of mystery, UFOs and aliens have captured the public imagination. While speculation of secret military experiments or foreign advanced weaponry abounded, the more captivating theory centered on the possibility of extraterrestrial life visiting this planet. The idea of aliens coming to Earth with advanced technology resonated through pop culture. Countless movies, television shows, books, and every sort of media in between all became successful due to the mystery associated with UFOs.
While the UFO craze was greatly capitalized on, speculation on real-life aliens never stopped.
As seen in several recent polls, there is a significant demographic of people in the United States who believe that UFOs can be attributed to alien life forms. A 2019 study showed that 33 percent of Americans believe that the government is hiding what they know about UFOs, and even more believe that life exists on other planets.
Explanations and Misinformation
The UFO rabbit hole is deep and obscure. Tangled webs of conspiracies featuring mind-control, corruption, men in black, and all manner of deceptive forces litter this field of study. Amidst numerous outlandish and unsubstantiated claims, it’s true that many UFO sightings remain unexplained.
There are a myriad of phenomena which explain many instances of UFO sightings. Weather balloons, meteors, planet sightings, lenticular clouds, mirages, and atmospheric lighting are just a few causes of misidentifications. Despite being very plausible, many question the legitimacy of these explanations, and point to instances which remain unexplained. Looking at the actions of the powers-that-be concerning this subject, it is not hard to imagine why there is a lack of faith.
In 1997, the C.I.A admitted that they and the U.S. military deliberately lied about a significant percentage of UFO sightings during the 1950s and 1960s. During that time, the U.S. army had been developing advanced reconnaissance aircraft such as the Lockheed U-2 and the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. These spy planes were used during the Cold War, and were considered top-secret. In order to protect their secrets, the CIA mislead the public with false explanations for sightings of these high-altitude planes. This admission of misinformation was seized upon by the UFO community, which took it as an indication that the government was not to be trusted. If they lied about that, what else could they be hiding?
Recent Developments
Public fascination on the topic was reignited last year when previously classified information was made public by the Pentagon. The information in question consisted of several videos taken by Navy pilots, showcasing flying objects performing extraordinary maneuvers (such as accelerating to mach-speed instantly) which defy explanation. While the videos showing unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs (as the government refers to them) had already been leaked years earlier, they were officially released by the Department of Defense on April 27th, 2020.
In an associated statement, the DOD explained that their decision was based on wanting to “clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the circulating footage was real.” Former Senator and UFO enthusiast, Harry Reid was enthusiastic about the news. Reid was the Senate Majority Leader from 2007 to 2015, and a key figure in creating the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program. To him and many others in the UFO community, this was merely the first step in moving towards UFO transparency.
On August 4th, 2020, the Department of Defense officially established the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force. The goal of this group is to “detect, analyze and catalog UAPs that could potentially pose a threat to U.S. national security.” Officials such as Senator Marco Rubio are concerned primarily that most UAPs present possible threats from foreign powers. He theorizes that a nation such as China or Russia may have made a “technological leap,” which speaks to a militaristic paranoia which has been around since the Cold War. On the other hand, UFO enthusiasts like Harry Reid are hell bent on uncovering evidence of extraterrestrial life through this new program.
Attached to the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force is a groundbreaking innovation for UFO studies: a deadline. The Intelligence Authorization Act, which was passed as part of December’s $2.3 trillion coronavirus relief bill, contained a stipulation that the UAPTF must make their findings known within 180 days. The Act additionally requested that other intelligence agencies go public with their UAP information, including the CIA, FBI, and the Office of Naval Intelligence.
During the early days of 2021, the CIA made the first leap and released 2,700 pages of information on the subject of UAPs. Amongst these documents are correspondences between government officials and agencies, communications from other nations on UFOs, interviews/testimonies from scientists and military personnel, as well as notices on the establishment/maintenance of UFO study groups within the government. Although these documents are now publicly available, there are still sections which remain redacted and unreadable.
The CIA claimed that this is the extent of their information, but there is no way to know for sure if this is true. This information was made available largely due to the efforts of John Greenewald Jr.: the founder of The Black Vault, an online database for declassified government documents. He was also responsible for scanning and reformatting the documents into usable files, which can be accessed here.
After decades of public fascination with UFOs, it feels like the U.S. government might finally be opening up under the pressure from the people and their representatives. Frankly, it’s past time they did. During the past decade, sightings have been easier to record than ever due to the availability of smartphones, and the internet is the perfect place for UFO communities to speculate on what these objects actually are. It’s possible that U.S. government agencies are releasing information to stop conspiracy theories from running rampant, but there is no certain way to pin down their motivations.
It remains unclear what will happen when the deadline for the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force arrives. The Department of Defence will have to face decades-old questions, and their answers could range from banal to ground-breaking. There is also the matter of trust to consider, which is lacking for many ufologists.
Still, the task force and growing pressure to release UFO information is something of an exciting event. Whether the key to the UFO mystery is something here on Earth, or from beyond the stars, it is a compelling thread to follow.
Photo by Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
