I began this month full of hope in anticipation of the unclassified and all-sources report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon (UAP), the official military term used for Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), commissioned by the Intelligence Authorization Act. However, I conclude this month once again feeling disappointed, but still clinging to hope. After months of analysis, recently released UFO footage by the Navy, and even a groundbreaking segment on 60 Minutes where military officials admit there are things out there they can’t explain, the final report falls short of actually admitting there are Aliens visiting our planet. After analyzing the limited data collected by the United States military between November 2004 and March 2021, the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force concluded that incidents “fall into one of five potential explanatory categories: airborne clutter, natural atmospheric phenomena, USG or U.S. industry developmental programs, foreign adversary systems, and a catchall ‘other’ bin.” Yes, you read that correctly. The possibilities of extraterrestrials visiting our planet has been dismissed to an “other bin.” The same title Mom gives the folder of the miscellaneous stuff on her computer that she can’t quite categorize.

Now in their defense, the United States government has spent a lot of time and energy over the years either ignoring or downright denying UFOs exist. In fact this report acknowledges that “no standardized reporting mechanism existed until the Navy established one in March 2019. The Air Force subsequently adopted that mechanism in November 2020, but it remains limited to USG reporting.” While compiling this report, the UAP task force did hear anecdotally about other sightings, but they decided to only focus on firsthand accounts by military aviators “that were collected from systems we considered to be reliable.” So technically by their current standards they didn’t have a lot of material to work with when writing this report. However, what about Project Blue Book, which was the systematic study of UFOs by the United States Air Force from March 1952 to December 1969? Perhaps if they didn’t change the name to “Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon” and searched their old records for the more traditional term “Unidentified Flying Object,” they’d have more information to work with for this report? It is evident in documents released through the Freedom of Information Act, that the US military continued to track these sightings well after 1969. I agree though that the data is old, but I’m sure there is some information to be gleaned from it. After all, in this most current report they resorted back to the age old 1947 Roswell excuse by stating that of the 144 items analyzed one happened to be a “deflating balloon.” That’s like trying to say in a very backhanded way, we were right back in 1947 it was a weather balloon, and we’re sticking to that excuse!

I admit this report does go farther than previous information shared in that there is acknowledgement that “in 18 incidents, described in 21 reports, observers reported unusual UAP movement patterns or flight characteristics.” They even go on to state that “some UAP appeared to remain stationary in winds aloft, move against the wind, maneuver abruptly, or move at considerable speed, without discernible means of propulsion.” However rather than take that extra step and proclaim this technology is not from this planet, they take a different perspective. “UAP pose a hazard to safety of flight and could pose a broader danger if some instances represent sophisticated collection against U.S. military activities by a foreign government or demonstrate a breakthrough aerospace technology by a potential adversary.” Yes, this is true. But could the UAP task force at least admit this adversary could be from outer space? Or better yet, what about being a bit more opened minded? Instead of calling it an adversary, what if we approach these UFOs as potential friends checking in on us? After all, that is what Valiant Thor said back in the 1950s.

However, now that the door is opened, even if it is just a crack to peek inside, there is hope that more information will be released. Not only is this unclassified report labeled as a “Preliminary Assessment,” but there is acknowledgement of a plan to move forward with more research. “The UAPTF’s long-term goal is to widen the scope of its work to include additional UAP events documented by a broader swath of USG personnel and technical systems in its analysis. As the dataset increases, the UAPTF’s ability to employ data analytics to detect trends will also improve.” However, still playing it safe they did fall back on the old weather balloon excuse. “As the database accumulates information from known aerial objects such as weather balloons, high-altitude or super-pressure balloons, and wildlife, machine learning can add efficiency by pre-assessing UAP reports to see if those records match similar events already in the database.” But it is a start, right? Upon its release senior government officials told the media that they would be providing lawmakers with an update in 90 days. Some even revealed that in addition to the unclassified report, a classified one was also released on June 25, 2021. Now if only I can get my paws on a copy of that report! In the meantime though, this Dog Ufologist remains optimistic that this is just the beginning of more information to be released. If you would like to read the official 9 page report on UAP from the office of the Director of National Intelligence, please visit Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon.