There have been "thousands" of reports of alien-related occurrences in the military, according to former Senator Harry Reid, who helped secure funding for UFO-studying efforts during his time at Congress, Nextgov reported.
“In the past, pilots were afraid to report these strange things happening—for fear it would affect their advancement in the officer corps", Reid told Nextgov in one of the episodes of the podcast 'Critical Update'.
He also noted that many people he randomly encounters at work often ask him about UFOs, and the report outlined that the government will soon have to provide members of Congress with what is currently known about allegations of the existence of aliens.
“The one thing that we established is that not a dozen people have seen these occurrences. Not 100 of them. Thousands of people have seen them", the former senator noted.
In August 2020, the Pentagon announced the formation of a task force dedicated to what is believed to be UFO-related issues. Although it is unclear what the so-called Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force will be doing, some are hyped about the mysteries in space that could potentially be solved.
Whether the sightings are indeed of an extraterrestrial origin or will be found to come from an earthbound adversary, people expect the task force to use sophisticated technology to find the truth.
Dr. Joseph Pesce, an astrophysicist and program director with the National Science Foundation’s division of astronomical sciences, said that he does not rule out the possibility of out-of-this-world tools to be used to “understand the universe around us and our part in it.”
“Space travel is difficult—for many reasons,” he said, adding, “I’m not arrogant enough to think that we know everything about nature and the universe, and the laws of nature.”