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Official hearing transcript PDF (mirror)

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This is the official transcript of a July 26, 2023 hearing held by the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability's Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, titled "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency." Witnesses Ryan Graves, David Grusch and retired Commander David Fravor testified under oath. Members pressed for transparency, and Graves described a near midair encounter with a cube inside a clear sphere.

  • p. 11 …and researcher tell me that we should never rule any- thing out. We know that our…
  • p. 18 …What you do not see is the radar tape that was never released, and we do…
  • p. 38 …That jet was never built to be an ISR platform, and it is a pain in…
  • p. 40 …do not—you know, they tell you never to acknowledge tradecraft, right. So, what I personally…
  • p. 43 …I have actually never seen anything personally, be- lieve it or not. Ms. MACE. All right…
  • p. 44 …it just sat somewhere in a file. Never got reported. Ms. MACE. In a drawer. It…
  • p. 45 …We never saw it on our radars. Our fire control radars never picked it up. The…
  • p. 46 …No, and never felt threatened at all. Mr. LANGWORTHY. If the aircraft was armed do you…
  • p. 50 …I never felt that we were alone with all the planets out there. But I was…
41
questions answered whether it is about funding, what programs
are happening, and what is out there?
Mr. GRUSCH. I can give you a specific cooperative and hostile wit-
ness list of specific individuals that were in those.
Ms. MACE. And how soon can we get that list?
Mr. GRUSCH. I am happy to provide that to you after the hearing.
Ms. MACE. Super. Thank you. And I yield back.
Mr. GROTHMAN. OK. Now we have Mr. Langworthy. OK.
Mr. LANGWORTHY. Thank you very much. I would like to thank
all of the witnesses for being here today to discuss this very unique
topic and I would like to jump right into my questions, if you do
not mind.
Commander Fravor, can you briefly describe your background?
Commander FRAVOR. Yes. I was an enlisted Marine, Naval Acad-
emy graduate, Navy, flew for 18 years. Got a Master’s from Univer-
sity of Houston and I have worked in the private sector for the last
what now, 19—16 years, 17 years. I do a lot of defense work.
Mr. LANGWORTHY. Really gold-plated credentials. Commander
Fravor, we have all seen this floating Tic Tac video that you en-
gaged with on November 14th, 2004. Can you briefly talk about
why you were off the coast of San Diego that day?
Commander FRAVOR. Yes. We were at a work up with all the bat-
tle groups. So, we integrate the ships with the carrier, the airwing
with the carrier, and we start working.
So, we were doing an air to air defense to hone not only our
skills but those of the USS Princeton when they had been tracking
them for 2 weeks. The problem was that there was never manned
aircraft airborne when they were tracking them and this was the
first day and, unfortunately, we were the ones airborne and went
and saw it.
Mr. LANGWORTHY. Do you remember the weather that day? Was
it cloudy or windy or anything out of the ordinary on the Pacific
coast?
Commander FRAVOR. It was actually—if you are familiar San
Diego, it was a perfect day, light winds, no whitecaps, clear skies.
Not a cloud. It was—for flying it was the best.
Mr. LANGWORTHY. Now, is it true that you saw, in your words,
a 40-foot flying Tic Tac shaped object?
Commander FRAVOR. That is correct. For some people that can-
not—know what a Tic Tac is it is a giant flying propane tank.
Mr. LANGWORTHY. Did this object come up on radar or interfere
with your radar or the USS Princeton?
Commander FRAVOR. The Princeton tracked it. The Nimitz
tracked it. The E2 tracked it. We never saw it on our radars. Our
fire control radars never picked it up.
The other airplane that took the video did get it on a radar. As
soon as it tried to lock it, it jammed the radar, spit the lock and
he rapidly switched over to the targeting pod, which you can do in
the F–18.
Mr. LANGWORTHY. From what you saw that day and what you
have seen on video did you see any source of propulsion from the
flying object including on any potential thermal scans from your
aircraft?

Cases discussed

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Hearing transcript, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 54 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.