WASHINGTON D.C., DC — Our fascination with UFOs is nothing new.
The first report of a "flying saucer" over the United States came in 1947, when a private pilot sighted nine disk-shaped objects near Mt. Rainier, Washington.
But for decades, if you bought into the idea that there was something else out there - something you saw but couldn’t explain - you were more than likely not taken seriously.
That mindset is quickly changing.
With more reports of what are now called unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs, it’s time to stop calling it science fiction and start taking the claims seriously.
And that’s why Congressional lawmakers met Tuesday for the first public hearing on UFOs in more than 50 years.
Ronald Moultrie, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, said the Pentagon is trying to destigmatize the issue and encourage pilots and other military personnel to report anything unusual they see.
“We want to know what's out there as much as you want to know what's out there,” Moultrie told lawmakers, adding that he was a fan of science fiction himself. “We get the questions not just from you. We get it from family, and we get them night and day.”
The Pentagon alone has investigated around 400 cases of UAPs, and according to a government report, there was a definitive explanation for only one.
It may not mean "close encounters," like an alien abduction reported in Australia in 1988, are true. But it does legitimize reports from Navy pilots, like the local pilots based out of Naval Air Station Oceana featured in a 2019 documentary on the History Channel.
The efforts to learn more at the federal level will hopefully bring us one step closer to figuring out what’s out there.