NASA or Space Force

Wanna feel your powers, stun me with your lasers

THE THOUGHT: Space Junk

Jon Stokes

Back in the summer of 2023, I found myself at a dinner roundtable discussion in DC with a collection of American Dynamism types. We were there to talk reindustrialization and the coming revival of American manufacturing — or, at least, the other attendees were there to talk about that.

Me, I was there to talk about the space aliens.

And as luck would have it, I was seated next to the perfect guy for that.

A few weeks before my DC trip, UFO whistleblower and former intelligence official David Grusch had publicly testified to congress about the alleged existence of a whole secret universe of X-Files type stuff tucked deep away in the bowels of the big defense majors, safe from civilian oversight and political meddling. Downed flying saucers, high-definition footage of off-world craft, high-stakes aerial engagements with mysterious craft that could move at impossible speeds, run-ins with aliens both live and dead. It was all there, and Grusch and the other two former Air Force servicemen who testified alongside him had everyone’s attention for a least a week, until we all moved on to a new Current Thing.

I’ve kept a close eye on the UFO topic ever since the release of the famous “Tic-Tac” videos to the New York Times in 2017. And though my interest in the topic has since faded, at the time of that dinner in 2023, I was pretty deep into it.

So, when I crashed this dinner at the invitation of a friend, I knew there would be NatSec types in attendance and I was determined to strike up as many conversations as I could about the Grusch news. Surely, I thought, somebody there might Know Something.

After the food was served but before the formal discussion started, I chatted up the guy next to me. It started out the usual way — what brings you to this dinner, where do you work, and so on. But the minute he told me where he worked, all the other chit-chat stopped and I asked him point blank about David Grusch.

The guy I was talking to had worked for the UAP Task Force, and had actually known Grusch and worked with him both on the UAPTF and in another part of government. When I asked him point-blank what he thought of Grusch’s claims, I expected him to shut me down. Instead, he thought for a moment, and responded, “It would be very interesting if what he’s saying were true.”