Overview

The 2023 UFO Military Retrieval Program Whistleblower Report refers to claims made by David Grusch, an Air Force veteran and former member of the task force the U.S. government created to investigate UFOs or UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena), about a rumored government "crash retrieval program" that involved gathering crashed spacecraft of extraterrestrial origin and reverse-engineering them. Grusch filed a whistleblower report with the U.S. Congress and the Inspector General, and a journalistic account of his claims was published in the Debrief. Online, people riffed and made memes about the contents of Grusch's report, leading to aliens and UFOs trending on several platforms in early June 2023. A month later, Grusch then testified under oath in front of the House Oversight Committee, causing a resurgence in discourse, memes and media coverage.

Background

On June 5th, 2023, David Grusch (seen below) released his statements about the whistleblowing report to The Debrief.^[1] In the article, Grusch alleges that while working for the official UAP (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) task force, set up in 2019, other military officials told him that there were secret programs concealed from Congress and the UAP task force to retrieve and study parts of crashed spacecraft.

This UAP task force Grusch worked for was set up to evaluate footage of UAPs after many videos and material about possible UAPs were released in the late 2010s. An article published in the New York Times in 2017 established that the Pentagon had been researching UAPs for years, and two of the three journalists who worked on that article authored the article in The Debrief about Grusch's whistleblower report.^[3]

According to The Debrief's reporting, Grusch included classified information about specific locations and types of retrieved spacecraft in his whistleblower report to Congress. However, he did not share this classified information with the press.

Many of Grusch's claims are sourced from other people, and a few other high-ranking officials have come forward to corroborate Grusch's statements. In his report, Grusch also says that he suffered "retaliation" for trying to come forward, and alleges "wrongdoing" on the part of people in the military and intelligence services who tried to hide these UAP programs from Congress.^[1]

The report also alleges that these programs to collect and reverse-engineer crashed UAPs date back to the "early 20th century" and the United States is not the only country involved in this project. Apparently, according to Grusch, for over 80 years the U.S. has been competing with its adversaries to collect, secure and reverse-engineer the technology found in UAPs for military purposes.^[2]

Developments

The Debrief Article / News Nation Interview

The Debrief article was published on June 5th, 2023, and Grusch did an interview with the news outlet News Nation^[2] and Elizabeth Vargas later that evening. The NewsNation YouTube channel uploaded a preview of the interview that same day, receiving over 100,000 views in 12 hours (seen below).

Media stories in other outlets such as the Daily Mail and New York Magazine followed on June 6th as the story went viral.

Grusch's Testimony To House Oversight Committee

On July 26th, 2023, Grusch testified under oath to the House Oversight Committee's national security subcommittee alongside two former fighter pilots who had firsthand experience with UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena), which is the official term used by the U.S. government instead of UFOs.^[9]

The Twitter^[10] account @PopBase was one of the first to share a clip from Grusch's testimony, gathering over 60,000 likes in less than a day (seen below).

Former US intelligence official David Grusch claims under oath that aliens exist and that the US government is in possession of UFOs and non-human bodies. pic.twitter.com/oZ6J66dy4F

— Pop Base (@PopBase) July 26, 2023

A transcript of the clip can be accessed below:

Rep. Nancy Mace: "If you believe we have crashed craft…do we have the bodies of the pilots…?"
David Grusch: "As I've stated…biologics came with some of these recoveries."
Rep. Mace: "Were they Human or non-human?"
Grusch: "Non-human."

Online Reactions

After June 2023 Debrief Article

On June 5th, 2023, many online shared The Debrief article and the interview conducted on News Nation with Grusch. For example, on Reddit, that same day, threads garnering thousands of upvotes discussed the report at places like /r/aliens^[4] and /r/JoeRogan.^[7]

On June 6th, Matt Walsh, the prominent rightwing influencer, also posted prolifically about the story on his Twitter^[5] and lobbied for his media niche to pay more attention to it. He received over 8,100 likes in less than eight hours for the tweet (seen below).

Other people expressed doubt about the veracity of the whistleblower report, such as Twitter^[6] user @EverydayWarren, who pointed out that a disproportionate majority of UFO sightings come from the United States, and so might be more of a folkloric phenomenon than an empirical one, receiving over 6,200 likes in less than 24 hours (shown below).

Some online also argued that the UAP report, like other disclosures or news about unidentified aerial phenomena, existed as a purported distraction from other things the U.S. government was involved in. Some, such as Twitter user @_emergent_ who posted a One Does Not Simply Walk Into Mordor meme on June 6th, expressed doubt about Grusch's legitimacy, receiving almost 200 likes in roughly 12 hours.^[8]

After July 2023 Public Testimony

Various internet users reacted en masse to Grusch's testimony on July 26th, 2023, with many Twitter users noting the seriousness of Grusch's claims while still acknowledging their own apathy. For example, Twitter^[11] user @CharlieSosnick posted one such tweet on July 26th, gathering over 50,000 likes in a day (seen below, left). Also that day, Twitter^[12] user @cushbomb posted a tweet that read, "This alien shit is the most 'pics or didn’t happen' deal in history," gathering over 7,000 likes in a day (seen below, right).

On July 26th, Redditor^[13] /u/HumanityUpdate posted a clip from Grusch's hearing to /r/UFOs, gathering over 6,000 upvotes in a day (seen below).

Search Interest

External References