One California grandmother has been waiting for answers since she was a child and her mother spotted a UFO hovering while she hung clothes out to dry. A therapist in Texas has been an “experiencer” since childhood. And another Lone Star resident, a 36-year-old musician, has been delving into the extraterrestrial world since he learned about an incident not far from his hometown.
All of them on Friday, like the rest of the “UFO community,” were waiting with bated breath for what was touted by the US government as a historic moment: The first release of never-before-seen files about unidentified anomalous phenomena, a trove of 162 documents including images, details and, enthusiasts hope, a step towards further transparency – and answers about what’s “out there”.
“Whereas previous Administrations have failed to be transparent on this subject, with these new Documents and Videos, the people can decide for themselves, ‘WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?'” President Donald J. Trump wrote on Truth Social after the documents were released. “Have Fun and Enjoy!”
The Department of War debuted a new website for the public on Friday with files and images – but no commentary or conclusions on the material, writing that, “given the scope of this task,” it would “be releasing new materials on a rolling basis as they are discovered and declassified, with tranches posted every few weeks.
John Erik Ege, regional director at MUFON Texas – (MUFON stands for Mutual UFO Network – said he was “intrigued”.
Courtesy of John Erik Ege“I think this is a move in the right direction,” said Ege, a therapist who has followed this issue since he was a child. “I don’t think they’re trying to hide anything, but the stuff that they’re releasing is stuff that we’ve known for, like, forever, almost.
“There’s no new details. There’s no clear evidence that they have the bodies or that they made contact, but I’m very hopeful that we’re moving in the right direction.”
The new files include decades of declassified military memos, reports from the Apollo Moon missions, and reports from individuals who claim to have witnessed a UFO – or an unidentified flying object – that they suspect has extraterrestrial origins.
They did not hold any serious bombshells – nor any confirmation of alien life – but it marked the latest clear acknowledgement by the US government that it has investigated sightings of unidentified objects.
Many ufologists and UFO enthusiasts were keenly aware that, while they found the release “underwhelming,” the tranche of information could likely be revelatory to the average reader.
“These aren’t really just aimed for people who are in the UFO community, but … the American people and the general public – to give some kind of reassurance of transparency,” said Daniel Jones, 36, a fellow admin with Ege of the Texas UFO Network’s Facebook page – which has more than 25,000 members.
Jones, who got engaged last year at a UFO festival, said that he knew “this first batch of files wasn’t, more than likely, going to contain anything extremely substantial” – but he’s “hopeful to see more definition on the part of the government” in future releases.
So is Elaine Loperena, 69, who stood in her kitchen Friday morning and, while perusing the documents on her tablet, didn’t see too much that leapt out as new or surprising – though she’s spent a lifetime falling down UFO research rabbit holes. Waiting for answers since she was a child and her mother swore she saw a UFO, Loperena is still more than enthused about the government’s decision to make the release.
“I knew Trump was going to announce it; I’ve said it all along,” said Loperena, 69, who lives in Clovis, California. “You know, he wants to go down in history; we all know he has an ego, and, bless him, he’s sticking by his guns and he’s starting the process.”
The push for answers has been getting stronger and more visible in the UFO community recently, she said; as an admin of a dedicated UFO Facebook group, she’s seen it firsthand.
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The group had around 40,000 members when she joined about three years ago but now numbers close to 100,000 – “and this has just been in the last few months,” she said of the recent surge.
“What is unique, and makes it so hard for this to be hidden, is the fact that now there are interviews and past interviews of people who were in the know, who knew this, that were in the military, and that discussed what they knew, what they saw, and even on their deathbed they did,” she said.
“It’s starting to flow now … I just see it picking up such speed, and it’s not going to go backwards; it’s going forward, for sure,” she said. “The snowball is getting bigger.”
Like Jones in Texas, Loperena hopes Friday’s files mark just the tip of the iceberg – with plenty more to come.
“This disclosure has to be done properly,” she said; information has been “dripping” so far – though this week’s release marked “a big drip.’
When it’s time to divulge the full truth that she believes is out there, she said, “it’s got to be bipartisan, for sure.” She worries that “people aren’t going to believe it” if the details are just coming from Trump and his administration due to political divides in the US.
Believer or not, ufologist or not, the files were undeniably creating buzz on Friday; Ege said he looked forward to the promised upcoming releases of more.
He believes that “many presidents wanted to do it, and I don’t know if they were blocked or discouraged”. He said he thinks Trump isn’t “scared” or worried if it “brings wrath or not”.
Some within the UFO community believe information will be doubted no matter who releases it. Ege said that, if polled the community, “I’d probably have 20 percent of them say that they think this is probably going to be a false flag and misdirection.
“I don’t think they trust the government, for one,” he said, adding that some hold beliefs that aliens are living among us and that the government has made deals with extraterrestrial life.
Many were publicly dissecting the files on Friday.
“In several cases, the released images are so compressed, artifact-heavy, or lacking in scale/context that it is difficult to determine what is even being shown,” one all-star contributor to a UFO group posted. “Some appear to be reconstructed overlays based on witness testimony rather than direct imagery of an object itself.
“That is not the same thing as releasing compelling evidence.”
The release, he wrote, “feels more like theater than disclosure.”
But even documented evidence and released files won’t be enough to satisfy some doubters, said Loperena.
“You’re always going to have the naysayers,” she said. “Some of those, it’s going to take an ET to show up and, you know, ask for dinner.
“There’s just those people that can’t wrap their heads around this, number one, and then there’s those people that [say] ‘Well, I need proof.'”
She and the others are hoping that more definitive proof comes soon.
