On September 9, 2025, the halls of Capitol Hill buzzed with an unusual sense of anticipation as the third congressional hearing on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs)—the modern term for UFOs—unfolded. At the center of the spectacle was Missouri Congressman Eric Burlison, who stunned lawmakers and the public alike by sharing never-before-seen video footage of a US military drone firing a Hellfire missile at a mysterious orb-shaped object off the coast of Yemen. The missile, a 100-pound class air-to-ground precision weapon, bounced harmlessly off the UFO, which then zipped away at extreme speed, seemingly unfazed. The footage, shown publicly for the first time, instantly became the talk of the nation.
According to The Daily Mail, Congressman Burlison explained that the missile strike had occurred on October 30, 2024. The video, grainy but unmistakable, captured the missile’s direct hit and the UFO’s improbable escape. “This is exceptional evidence,” said Jeffrey Nuccetelli, a retired Air Force military police officer who was among the three military whistleblowers to testify at the hearing. Nuccetelli and his colleagues described the footage as a watershed moment in the ongoing struggle for government transparency on the issue of UAPs.
But the video was only the beginning. The hearing quickly shifted focus to the personal stories of the three veterans—Nuccetelli, Dylan Borland, and Alexandro Wiggins—who claimed to have had extraordinary encounters with unexplained aerial phenomena during their service. Their testimonies painted a picture of a military and intelligence community deeply reluctant to acknowledge, let alone investigate, these bizarre sightings.
Nuccetelli recounted a series of five unexplained incidents at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base between 2003 and 2005. Among the most striking was an event in October 2003, when he and fellow officers witnessed a giant rectangle-shaped craft, more than 100 yards long, hovering silently over missile defense sites. “We received reports of a glowing red square hovering over the base,” Nuccetelli told lawmakers. A week later, patrols saw a strange light over the ocean, which rapidly descended, hovered, and then vanished. The Air Force veteran claimed that after one particularly close encounter, a witness was threatened by superiors and told to keep quiet.
When pressed by Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert on the fate of the official reports, Nuccetelli revealed a disturbing practice: “They destroyed all the police records, so you couldn’t even call the Air Force and ask them if there was a vehicle accident,” he said. According to Project On Government Oversight (POGO) senior policy counsel Joe Spielberger, such actions underscore the critical role of whistleblowers in exposing government wrongdoing.
Dylan Borland, a former Air Force geospatial intelligence specialist, presented a similarly harrowing account. In 2012, while stationed at Virginia’s Langley Air Force Base, Borland reported seeing a 100-foot triangle-shaped craft flying low overhead, silent but powerful enough to interfere with his phone signal. After reporting the incident to his superiors, Borland said he became the target of an orchestrated campaign of retaliation: “Multiple government agencies blocked me from getting work, forged my documents, and manipulated my security clearance.” He added that other intelligence officers told him they had faced similar consequences after reporting their own encounters. Borland claimed that the US intelligence community even engaged in phishing attacks to monitor what he had disclosed to the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) during a polygraph test in November 2024.
When South Carolina Congresswoman Nancy Mace asked if he feared for his safety, Borland replied, “I don’t believe a government group is currently attempting to kill me, but my reputation has been so damaged that I’m currently living off of unemployment assistance.” His words, as reported by The Daily Mail, resonated throughout the hearing room, highlighting the personal toll exacted on those who dare to speak out.
The third witness, Alexandro Wiggins, an active duty US Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer, described a startling encounter while aboard the USS Jackson off the Southern California coast on February 15, 2023. Wiggins saw a Tic-Tac-shaped craft emerge from the Pacific Ocean and join three others in a tight formation above the ship. “All of the Tic-Tacs shot off at the same time with incredible speed, without creating a sonic boom or making the typical engine trails of a plane or drone,” Wiggins testified. His account echoed earlier reports of the infamous Tic-Tac UFOs spotted by Navy pilots over the Pacific in previous years.
Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, chairwoman of the hearing, did not mince words in her criticism of the Pentagon’s UAP investigation leadership. In her opening statement, Luna called Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, the former head of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (ARRO), a “documented liar” who undermined UFO investigations. Luna declared her willingness to subpoena Kirkpatrick to testify about alleged misconduct at the ARRO, signaling a growing impatience in Congress with what many see as stonewalling by the Department of Defense.
Veteran investigative journalist George Knapp, chief reporter for KLAS-TV in Las Vegas, provided historical context during the hearing. Knapp reminded lawmakers and the public that for decades, the US government insisted there was no documentation of strange craft or UFOs. That narrative began to unravel with the passage of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in 1966, which led to the release of thousands of previously classified documents, many detailing UAP sightings worldwide. “Americans were told for decades that there was no documentation of any kind of strange craft, but that changed when the Freedom of Information Act was enacted,” Knapp said, as quoted by The Daily Mail.
The hearing’s revelations left many wondering whether the tide is finally turning toward greater transparency. Congressman Burlison’s decision to share the missile strike footage, combined with the veterans’ vivid testimonies and growing congressional scrutiny, suggests that the era of official silence around UFOs may be drawing to a close. Yet the road ahead is uncertain. As whistleblowers continue to face retaliation, and as records are destroyed or withheld, the true nature of these unexplained phenomena—and the government’s response—remains shrouded in mystery.
For now, the American public has been given a rare, unfiltered glimpse into a world long hidden from view. Whether this marks the beginning of a new era of openness or simply another chapter in a saga of secrecy is a question that only time will answer.
