Claim · G-001

David Grusch: Claims that the United States holds material of non-human origin, including intact and partially intact craft.

David Grusch · Jun 5, 2023 · The Debrief, article by Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal (statements cleared by DOPSR) (Article)

Hearsay Legacy program and recoveries

In support

Karl Nell, a retired Army colonel and liaison to the UAP task force in 2021-22, called Grusch “irreproachable”; according to The Debrief (June 5, 2023), the officer appearing as “Jonathan Grey,” an identity used within the agency and presented as a NASIC UAP analyst, states that retrievals of this kind do not concern only the United States (the article does not indicate independent verification of identity and role); Christopher Mellon says that well-informed officials described the alleged program to him in detail. These are testimonies, not public evidence.

Against or denials

DoD spokesperson Sue Gough (2023): AARO found no verifiable information on programs of possession or reverse engineering of extraterrestrial materials. The AARO Historical Report vol. 1 (March 8, 2024) found no verifiable evidence of reverse engineering by the government or by private companies, and the AARO FY2025 report (July 2026) again rejects the idea that the government holds recovered UAP material. These are findings of absence of evidence to date, which do not rule out programs AARO did not have access to. As for "Jonathan Grey": NASIC spokesperson Michelle Martz told the Dayton Daily News (June 12, 2023) that she did not know who he is and had no record of him as an employee, adding that NASIC does not customarily adopt a pseudonym upon hiring; Ralph Blumenthal, co-author of The Debrief article, replied to the paper that he had confirmed that a person with that identity works for NASIC, adding nothing more. Neither the denial nor the confirmation is documented.

Sources

1. AARO, FY2025 Consolidated Annual Report on UAP (July 2026), PDF copy on The Black Vault (primary source)
2. AARO, Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with UAP, vol. 1 (March 8, 2024), copy on The Black Vault (primary source)
3. Newsweek, Grusch, the Vatican and the craft recovered in Italy (August 2, 2023) (press)
4. The Debrief, “Intelligence Officials Say U.S. Has Retrieved Non-Human Craft” (Kean and Blumenthal, June 5, 2023) (press, pro-disclosure)

On this site

People 1

• David Grusch

Claims 7

• David Grusch: Asked whether the government possesses UAPs, he answers “absolutely,” based on interviews with more than 40… Disputed
• David Grusch: Claims that he was informed, in the course of his official duties, of a decades-long program to retrieve… Disputed
• David Grusch: Claims that some craft crashed and others landed, specifies that he has not seen one in person and says his… Unverifiable
• David Grusch: Maintains that the origin of these objects is “exotic,” that is, attributable to non-human intelligence… Disputed
• David Grusch: Claims that for decades a “Cold War” unknown to the public has been underway to recover and exploit… Unverifiable
• David Grusch: Claims that some crashed UFOs were entrusted to a defense contractor. Disputed
• David Grusch: Claims that the recovered material shows exotic engineering, with specific isotopic ratios and heavy elements. Unverifiable

Documents 5

• The 1947 Twining letter: the phenomenon is “real,” but there are no crash-recovered exhibits Original available
• The Joint Staff's procedures for reporting UAP and handing material over to AARO (May 19, 2023) Original available
• The prepublication review file for the message on the alleged retrieval program circulated by Christopher Mellon Documented provenance
• AARO's Historical Record Report, vol. 1 (March 2024) Original available
• AARO's Consolidated Annual Report on UAP for Fiscal Year 2025 Original available

Where the claims come from 1

• The United States holds intact or partially intact craft of non-human origin, the product of a retrieval…

Open in the interactive archive The whole section: Claims

UAPgrade's entries are compiled with artificial intelligence (three verifiers with opposing roles) and checked against the sources listed above: how we work. Have a document that changes this entry? Bring it to the Investigations Unit.