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A battle is still brewing within the government over UFO disclosure, and the latest chapter takes place at Eglin Air Force Base. After the government UFO task force AARO claimed that a UAP sighting at Eglin was just a balloon, Rep. Matt Gaetz called them out on social media for hiding vital information. 

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Gaetz Said AARO’s Report ‘Does Not Reflect All of the Information I Was Shown’

AARO (All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office) produced a report about a UFO sighting at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, ultimately concluding that this was just a balloon. But Rep. Matt Gaetz, whose security clearance let him see more information about the UFO sighting, called AARO out for hiding the truth. 

Gaetz quoted AARO’s tweet about its finding and then wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter): 

“Last year, when I attempted to receive a briefing with the flight crew who witnessed the UAP at Eglin AFB, the Air Force tried to block me. This report by the AARO is incomplete and does not reflect all of the information that I was shown. I believe all of the information regarding the sighting should be released to the public, including pictures from the pilot and radar signatures.”

Gaetz Said What He Saw ‘Did Not Have Any Human Capability That I’m Aware Of’

During the July 2023 UFO hearing with three witnesses (including whistleblower David Grusch), Gaetz recounted his first attempt to get information from Eglin Air Force Base. He was accompanied by Rep. Tim Burchett and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna. 

He said that at first they were denied any access, but later they were shown an “image” and allowed to speak with just one member of the flight crew that encountered the UAP. 

“The image was of something that I am not able to attach to any human capability, either from the United States or from any of our adversaries, and I’m somewhat informed on the matter having served on the armed services committee for seven years having served on the committee that oversees DARPA and Advanced Technologies for several years,” he said during the 2023 hearing.

He said he asked the flight crew member why there wasn’t a working FLIR system or video, and then he shared the response.

‘He (the flight crew member) said they were out on a test mission that day over the Gulf of Mexico,” Gaetz recalled. “And when you’re on a test mission you’re supposed to have clear air space, not supposed to be anything that shows up. And they saw a sequence of four craft in a clear diamond formation for which there is a radar sequence that I and I alone have observed in the United States Congress. One of the pilots goes to check out that diamond formation and sees a large floating — what I can only describe as an orb. Again, like I said, not of any human capability that I’m aware of. And when he approached, he said that his radar went down. He said that his FLIR system malfunctioned and that he had to manually take this image from one of the lenses and it was not automatic automated in collection as you would typically see in a test mission.”

That led to Gaetz asking Retired Commander David Fravor, one of the witnesses in the hearing, what he thought about the fact that the objects could disarm the pilots’ sensors.

Fravor replied: “Well I think this goes to that National Security side and you can go back through history of things showing up at certain areas and disabling our capabilities, which is disheartening. And for us, I mean like I said, it completely disabled the radar and aircraft when I tried to do it, the only way we could see it is passively, which is how he got that image. So I think that’s a concern on what are these doing. Not only how do they operate but their capabilities inside to do things like this.”

Gaetz’s website also shares details about what he learned and the discussion during the hearing. 

In an interview with Project Unity, Burchett spoke in March about a classified briefing in Florida that he and Rep. Matt Gaetz had attended. Burchett said that Gaetz had spoken about becoming aware of a craft that, to his knowledge, “didn’t exist.” The description appears to match the Eglin UAP. 

“Its heat signature was on the bottom of it,” Burchett said. “It was bell or elongated, maybe not elongated, but a compressed saucer-type situation. And it had some particular things on it that, I’m not sure… We talked to the pilots and they described what they saw… I won’t tell you what it was, but I leaned over to Matt — you know what a spook is right? — they’re CIA operative, whatever… The pilot said something… After he said it, I could tell he thought, ‘I shouldn’t have said that.’ And then I leaned over to Matt and said, ‘It looks like the spook is getting nervous.’ And he looked up and said, ‘Yeah, they said something that they shouldn’t have.’ But, we’re getting closer. We’re getting closer.” 

Burchett also addressed the Eglin UAP sighting on Twitter. One person wrote, “Tim stated this in an interview a while back. Gaetz had to call some higher up in Washington to allow them in because they were refused access. What they saw blew their mind. They had no idea that we had crafts like this.” 

Burchett retweeted this and clarified, “We don’t have crafts like this.” 

In an interview with Newsmax, Gaetz also may have been referring to the Eglin incident when he said: “I have seen evidence of craft that I am not familiar with any of our allies or adversaries or even our country possessing. I’ve seen that craft taken by air crews who have gotten quite close to it and we’ve got a lot more questions about why this information isn’t more broadly available to the American people.” 

Rep. Tim Burchett & Rep. Matt Gaetz appear to have attended a classified UAP briefing on a military base in Florida on February 21st.

They were apparently shown images of 4 UFOs with abnormal heat signatures flying closely next to a U.S. military aircraft.#ufotwitter #ufo #uap pic.twitter.com/j4h9bqf7q5

— UAP James (@UAPJames) March 11, 2023

AARO’s Analysis Claimed the Eglin Air Force UAP Was a Balloon

AARO is claiming the UAP seen at Eglin Air Force Base in January was just a balloon. You can read the full resolution in the embedded PDF below. 

Case Resolution of Eglin UAP 2 508 by Stephanie Dube Dwilson on Scribd

The report begins by noting that a military pilot reported four UAP on January 26, 2023, off the coast of Florida. They appeared to be flying in formation, but he only observed one object visually “and captured two images of the single object via the aircraft’s elctro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensor.” The report claims that the video equipment was inoperable “prior to and during the aircraft’s flight,” which runs counter to Gaetz saying the video and radar were rendered inoperable by the object. AARO’s report does say that the pilot notes the radar malfunctioned when they got within 4,000 feet of the object. AARO says this was due to a tripped circuit breaker that had “tripped three times in the prior months.” So they conclude the object was not associated with any malfunction. 

AARO’s report describes the object as being “gray with a paneled surface and orange-red coloring at the center,” 12-feet in diameter, and “moved very slowly or was potentially stationary.” The pilot said he observed a heat signature on the bottom portion of the UAP, and the top portion was “a rounded, three-dimensional cone shape.” The pilot also reported seeing a “vertically oriented engine affixed to the side of the object.”  

They continue, writing that with “moderate confidence” they can conclude it “likely was an ordinary object,” probably a “lighter-than-air (LTA) object, such as a large form-factor balloon; a meteorological balloon; a large Mylar balloon; or a large, commercial, outdoor, helium-filled, lithing balloon.” 

They note that a “blurry” observation was likely a “visual misperception due to environmental conditions.” 

The report goes on to share an infrared image of the UAP, an electro-0ptical image of the UAP, and an image of a commercial lighting system. (Note that Gaetz says what was shown to him was not in the report.) 

They also shared the pilot’s drawing of the object. 

The Air Force Originally Said There Was a Video of the Incident

Interestingly, UAP researcher Abbas Michael Dharamsey filed a FOIA request over the Eglin Air Force base incident. Prior to AARO’s report, the pilot’s drawing and a few other details were released by the Air Force.

The letter to Dharamsey notes: “The responsive video you are requesting is not releasable to you in accordance with 5 USC 552 Exemption (b)(1).” 

Representatives Said Eglin Air Force Base Pushed Back Against an Initial Investigation

Several House Representatives have said they got a lot of pushback from Eglin when they first tried to investigate the UAP reports. 

In a press conference with Burchett, Maskovitz, and Burlison, Luna and Burchett spoke about a trip some of them had made to Eglin Air Force base to speak with pilots about UAPs, and how the Commanding General had stopped them. 

Burchett said they were told they would be briefed on the issue, but when they got to Eglin, the meeting had nothing to do with UFOs. So he stopped the briefing and asked if they were going to talk about UAPs at all and was told no. 

Luna added: “it was a Commanding General of Eglin Air Force Base. And ultimately even before we got down there, the Pentagon tried to cancel the field hearing… These were whistleblowers, these were pilots who had come forward to Rep. Gaetz’s office with information saying this needs to be investigated, we have an increase in sightings in this region and it’s a cause for concern for national security reasons… So we went down there. We were stonewalled. They would not give us access to testimony from some of the pilots. They were hiding images & information.”

Luna said they had to really push and fight to get any access. 

“And ultimately what ended up happening is we had to actually call House Armed Services, Chairman Rogers got involved, the Pentagon got involved…” Luna recalled. “We actually got into an argument with the General of that base. It’s important to note that we were there simply to follow up on the whistleblowers that came forward with information….”

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Stephanie

Stephanie Dwilson started Post Apocalyptic Media with her husband Derek. She's a licensed attorney and has a master's in science and technology journalism. You can reach her at [email protected].

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