(The Epoch Times)—Several former and current U.S. military officials described sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) to Congress on Sept. 9 and called on the Pentagon to be more transparent about its disclosures on the phenomenon.
During a House Oversight subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, titled “Restoring Public Trust Through UAP Transparency and Whistleblower Protection,” several past and present Department of Defense officials testified that they had witnessed UFOs—which the Pentagon now refers to as unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP)—while serving in the military.
The hearing also featured a new, never-before-seen video of an alleged UFO recorded near the coast of Yemen in October 2024.
Air Force veteran Dylan Borland told lawmakers that he encountered “sustained reprisals” and retaliation from the Pentagon after whistleblowing about an alleged UFO he saw while working at a military base in 2012.
“I saw an approximately 100-foot equilateral triangle take off from near the NASA hangar on the base. The craft interferes with my telephone, did not have any sound, and the material it was made of appeared fluid or dynamic,” Borland said.
“I was under the triangular craft for a few minutes, and then it rapidly ascended to commercial jet level in seconds, displaying zero kinetic disturbance, sound, or wind displacement.”
He continued, “The craft itself was this black, metallic flight paint, but on top of the craft was this gold lava plasma, some type of fluid, going over and around the craft.”
Borland said he was under the craft for roughly two to three minutes before the center light flashed two to three times and then shot off up to “commercial jet level” altitude without making a sound.
He said he felt static electricity all over his body and then detected the “smell of after a thunderstorm or lightning storm” in the air.
Several years after the incident occurred, Borland claimed he was exposed to classified information from UFO “legacy crash retrieval programs” through a sensitive position within a Department of Defense special access program.
He alleged that several intelligence officers approached him, citing misconduct within these programs and the threat of retaliation if they came forward.
Borland accused the Pentagon of “blocking, delaying, and ultimately removing [his] ability to be employed within the [intelligence community]” after he became a whistleblower in March 2023 and filed a complaint with the Office of the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community.
The Pentagon and its UFO-investigation team, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
Alexandro Wiggins, an active-duty Navy operations specialist and senior chief petty officer, described an alleged UFO sighting off the coast of Southern California in February 2023.
The sighting was similar to the “tic tac” shaped UFO that retired Navy Commander David Fravor allegedly saw near the San Diego coast in 2004, which he described to Congress during a 2023 hearing.
“What I observed and what our crew recorded was not consistent with conventional aircraft or drones as they appear on our system,” Wiggins said.
“A self-luminous tic tac-shaped object emerged from the ocean before linking up with three other similar objects. The four then disappeared simultaneously with a high, synchronized, near-instantaneous acceleration.”
He “observed no sonic boom and no conventional propulsion signatures, no exhaust plume, no control surface articulation on the SAFIRE image system.”
The military’s SAFIRE image system is an advanced ultra-long-range thermal imaging technology used on a number of different aircraft.
However, Wiggins said he faced “no pushback at all” after coming forward with his account and encountered no retaliation or reprisals from the Navy or Department of Defense.
“I was treated fair. And I appreciate the Navy itself with assisting me, with coming here to being able to testify,” he said.
While discussing their sightings, the officials called for more transparency from the Pentagon on UFOs.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) emphasized the need for whistleblower protections and accused the Pentagon of lying to Congress about what it knows regarding UFOs.
“We are definitely being lied to, there’s just no doubt about that,” he said.
Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) played a video of a flying orb that was struck by what he described as a hellfire missile, but the orb continued its trajectory after being shot.
At the end of the hearing, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), who chairs the House Oversight Committee’s “Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets,” said: “We cannot maintain trust in government if we keep American people in the dark.”
The host of the hearing suggested signing a letter to ensure whistleblowers like Borland receive protection when coming forward with allegations about UFOs or reprisals in the military.
