Mysterious aircraft that withstood missile strike, hovered over U.S. Air Force base highlight veterans’ firsthand reports of UFO sightings at hearing by House task force.
Descriptions of mysterious aircraft that withstood a missile strike and hovered over a U.S. Air Force base highlighted veterans’ firsthand reports of UFO sightings at a dramatic hearing by a special House task force collecting evidence on “unidentified anomalous phenomena.”
But one of the veterans speaking Tuesday before the House Oversight and Government Reform Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets complained he faced retaliation by the Defense Department and intelligence officials that included blacklisting from employment at federal intelligence agencies.
Air Force veteran Dylan Borland, a former geospatial intelligence specialist at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, claimed he faced reprisal after reporting a UAP event he witnessed. Borland said a triangular aircraft hovered above him for several minutes after he stepped outside for a cigarette break while on overnight duty at Langley Air Force Base in 2012.
“This craft interfered with my telephone, did not have any sound and the material it was made of appeared fluid or dynamic,” Borland told the task force. “It displayed zero kinetic disturbance, sound or wind displacement.”
The UAP then rapidly “ascended to commercial jet level” and left the area at a high rate of speed, he said.
Borland said he was interviewed by AARO in 2023 about the incident, but his claims were dismissed. AARO — the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office — was established to investigate UAP sightings by military personnel.
He said the agency’s assessments do not support the reported sightings by military personnel. AARO has maintained it has no verifiable evidence from anecdotal reports of extraterrestrial activity or technology.
“AARO uses a rigorous scientific framework and data-driven approach to better understand UAP. We will follow the science wherever it leads,” according to the agency’s website. Borland said he faced discrediting because of his report, as well as workplace retaliation and “manipulation of his security clearance.”
“I am unemployed now and have no job prospects,” said Borland, who met with the Office of the Intelligence Community Inspector General about his experience.
“I and many other individuals [who made UAP reports] feel discarded and separated from the country they served,” he said. “I have endured sustained reprisals from government agencies for more than a decade.”
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., who is chairwoman of the task force, accused the Defense Department and intelligence community of a “lack of transparency.” She said the task force has been denied access to video and files related to UAP incidents.
Luna suggested there is a cover-up by defense officials of evidence about UAP encounters. “The American people are not fragile and do not need to be shielded like children from reality,” Luna said.
“For too long, the issue of unidentified anomalous phenomena — commonly known as UAPs — has been shrouded in secrecy, stigma and in some cases outright dismissal,” Luna said at the start of the 2½-hour hearing. “This is about national security, and government accountability.”
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., a task force member, played a video he said showed an MQ-9 Reaper striking an unidentified orb moving fast off the coast of Yemen in October 2024. The orb kept flying after being hit by a Hellfire missile, he said.
“I’m not going to speculate what it is. But the question is, why are we being blocked from this information?” said Burlison, who complained the Defense Department is not fully disclosing what it knows about UAP incidents.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, said many UAP sightings may be the work of adversaries with new capabilities to gain military advantage.
“Those are the likely explanations for these mysteries,” she said.
But Crockett emphasized that military personnel who “risk careers and reputations” to report UAP sightings need protection.
“We need to ensure that people who come forward and make reports can do so without fear of retaliation,” she said.
- Security