For almost as long as humans have been capable of defying gravity, flinging ourselves into the heavens with metal wings, we’ve seen things in the sky that we can’t explain. It’s an area of study that’s been, for the most part, confined to the fringes of polite society. But now these unexplained flying objects have captured the attention of mainstream America — and Congress.
I knew that I regarded myself as more of a Dana Scully than a Fox Mulder, as dedicated to rational inquiry, logic and science as you can be at the age of 8.
I never watched “The X-Files” when it was on the air — as a somewhat cowardly lad who self-censored his media consumption, I knew that it was probably too scary for my developing tastes. But I still knew that I regarded myself as more of a Dana Scully than a Fox Mulder, as dedicated to rational inquiry, logic and science as you can be at the age of 8. I still do, to be honest. That’s why I’m deeply skeptical that the objects we see in the grainy videos that have been circulating online for years are from another planet.
But now that I’m older, I find myself understanding Mulder a little better, with his belief in things unknown. And like the poster in his FBI office read, “I want to believe.” I just need the evidence.
I will say, though, the evidence that UFOs actually are zipping around out there has grown considerably since I was a kid. It’s not hard to see why the public has been so fascinated since last year, when the Defense Department confirmed the provenance of some of the videos out there. Just in the last few days, a recently leaked video from the Navy showed … something disappearing into the water off California.
That clip was released just ahead of CBS’ “60 Minutes” interview with two former Navy pilots who recounted their experiences with unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs — the official term the U.S. government uses for these kinds of things. And they knew how wild their claims sound, which is a good first step to establishing a witness’s credibility.
“Over beers we’ve said, ‘Hey man, if I saw this solo, I don’t know that I would have come back and said anything,’” Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich said. “Because it sounds so crazy when I say it.”
Even former President Barack Obama weighed in on these objects Monday. “What is true, and I’m actually being serious here, is that there is footage and records of objects in the skies that we don’t know exactly what they are,” Obama said on CBS’ “The Late Late Show with James Corden.” (Sidebar: What a bit of synergy there for the “60 Minutes” segment; well done, everyone on the CBS crew who made that happen.)
“We can’t explain how they move, their trajectory,” Obama continued. “They did not have an easily explainable pattern. And so I think that people still take seriously trying to investigate and figure out what that is.”
Let me pause to say that yes, I do believe that alien life exists somewhere out there. But as I said in an essay last year, I think we’re not exactly the first stop on the galactic traveler’s itinerary — nor should we be. Humanity has a long way to go before we’re ready for visitors from beyond.
It’s the folks who do think we’re Grand Central Station for various alien species who have kept the discussion about what pilots have seen confined to the realm of kooks and cranks for decades. But that could change soon — in the next few weeks, Congress will receive a “detailed analysis of unidentified aerial phenomena data and intelligence” from the Office of Naval Intelligence, the Pentagon’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force and the FBI.









