While Vice President JD Vance talks about visiting Area 51 but never quite finds the time, a congressman from Missouri has been quietly doing the thing Vance only talks about – walking into classified military facilities tied to UAP crash retrieval programs, with White House and Pentagon permission, and reporting what he finds.
Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) has already completed his first tour. He has four more U.S. installations on his list. One site is on foreign soil, reportedly built around an object so large it can’t be moved. And as of March 2025, his special advisor on the effort is David Grusch – the former intelligence officer who told Congress under oath that the U.S. government has recovered non-human craft and biological material.
“I’m from Missouri – you’re going to have to show me. I don’t think the whistleblowers are lying, but I just haven’t seen the same evidence that these people had.”
The First Visit: Pax River
In February 2026, Burlison made a White House-approved visit to Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland – commonly known as Pax River. A White House official accompanied him on the trip.
According to reporting from Liberation Times, Burlison verified the existence of a hangar that former Pentagon UAP official Luis Elizondo had previously named in written congressional testimony. Elizondo alleged the hangar was built to accommodate the transfer of advanced materials between Lockheed Martin and aerospace businessman Robert Bigelow – a transfer that was reportedly blocked by the CIA, the original custodian of the materials.
Burlison also observed a private runway and a crane allegedly built to support the transfer by air and by river.
The hangar was empty.
“They were very open on this first tour. Even said that this was kind of a test, because they had never really done this before.”
Burlison had anticipated the empty hangar for months, publicly voicing concerns that materials could be moved before any congressional visit. He acknowledged to the New York Post that federal employees “very well could be moving things knowing that I’m coming on specific dates.”
The findings were reported back to the White House. The official who accompanied Burlison described it as one of the most enjoyable experiences of their job. More visits are planned.
Four More Bases – and One Abroad
Four additional classified U.S. military bases are on Burlison’s list. He declined to name them publicly.
But the most striking claim involves a foreign site:
“I’ve heard publicly and behind doors in a SCIF that there is an object in a foreign country that is too big to move. I think it had been a crash that had been there for quite some time, but I don’t know how long.”
The facility was reportedly built around the object. Burlison wants to visit but is holding off until he has more evidence: “I want more evidence before I go on a wild goose chase in another country.”
How He Got Access
Burlison’s access didn’t come through a formal subpoena or congressional hearing. It came through a side conversation.
During budget negotiations over the One Big Beautiful Bill, Burlison pulled a White House staffer aside and made a direct, informal request. That request was granted, and the Department of War authorized the tour.
It’s a revealing detail about how disclosure sometimes works – not through grand legislative action, but through a congressman cornering the right person at the right moment.
Grusch Is Now on His Team
In March 2025, Burlison formally appointed David Grusch as a special advisor to support his UAP transparency work, including his role on the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets.
Grusch is the former Air Force officer who served 14 years, worked as a senior intelligence officer at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), and officially represented the NRO on the UAP Task Force from 2019 to 2021. His 2022 whistleblower complaint to the Intelligence Community Inspector General was found “credible and urgent.”
In February 2026, Grusch told Bret Baier on Fox News that the government has “recovered the vehicles” with “physical proof” – and that he personally reviewed photographic evidence of non-human remains.
Having Grusch as an advisor means Burlison isn’t walking into these facilities blind. He has someone who knows where the bodies are buried – possibly literally.
The Broader Congressional Push
Burlison isn’t operating alone. Running parallel to the physical site visits, his team sent a formal letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, DNI Tulsi Gabbard, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright requesting the release of specific named classified files – complete with file names, dates, and document metadata.
The letter was co-signed by Reps. Nancy Mace, Eli Crane, Scott Perry, Anna Paulina Luna, Tim Burchett, and Democratic member Andre Carson of the Intelligence Committee.
Meanwhile, Burchett confirmed he spoke directly with President Trump about UAP disclosure, telling the president that the evidence needs to be released and that what he has personally seen in classified settings would be “plenty for most people to handle.”
The SCIF Briefing: “Glowing Orbs That Look Like Balls of Plasma”
Update, March 28: On March 25 – three days before the NY Post story broke – Burlison held a bipartisan SCIF briefing on UAP for members of Congress. Both Democrats and Republicans attended.
“I just did a briefing today in a SCIF with Democrats and Republicans who came because they were all interested in this topic. It is probably one of the most bipartisan topics that’s up here.”
During the briefing, Burlison shared UAP videos he has obtained. He described them publicly as showing “glowing orbs that look like balls of plasma” moving at “incredible speeds.”
“I can’t tell what they are and neither can the people that filmed them. It defies logic. I don’t think our Intelligence Community knows what these things are.”
The bipartisan nature of the briefing matters. In a Congress that can barely agree on funding the government, UAP has become one of the few topics where members voluntarily show up to a classified facility together – not because they’re obligated, but because they want to know.
The Hellfire Footage
Burlison has already demonstrated his willingness to push classified material into public view. In 2025, he orchestrated the release of drone radar footage showing a Hellfire missile striking a UAP off the coast of Yemen – with the object barely responding to the impact.
He told the Post he has seen additional footage not yet made public, including video of silver, basketball-sized orbs moving through the air.
“Until there is evidence, it’s all just narrative.”
What This Tells Us
The contrast with the rest of Washington’s UFO conversation this week is stark. On the same day this story broke:
- Vice President Vance told a podcaster UFOs are demons
- Bill Maher told his HBO audience that UFO skeptics are the conspiracy theorists
- The Trump administration’s UFO file release remains unfulfilled, with aliens.gov sitting empty
- Rep. Burlison was doing the actual work – touring classified facilities, requesting named files, and building a paper trail
Burlison’s approach is notable because it doesn’t require anyone to believe anything. He’s not asking the public to accept whistleblower testimony on faith. He’s physically going to the locations, documenting what he finds, and reporting it. The hangar was empty – he said so. The materials may have been moved – he said that too. But the infrastructure Elizondo described was there. The runway was there. The crane was there.
The “show me” state is showing up. The question is whether the rest of Washington will follow.
Sources: New York Post · Liberation Times · UFO News · Rep. Burlison Press Release