Anna Paulina Luna Tells Joe Rogan About Her UFO Experience in Air Force
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
During an interview with Joe Rogan on his eponymous Joe Rogan Experience podcast on Wednesday, U.S. Representative Anna Paulina Luna recounted her experience with an unidentified flying object (UFO) while serving in the Air Force.
Newsweek reached out to Luna's office for comment via email.
Why It Matters
Luna, a Florida Republican, has been among lawmakers calling for greater transparency from the federal government, including on UFO investigations.
Questions about UFOs have captivated the American public for decades. While many people may associate UFOs with aliens, the government has generally focused on whether the objects are from U.S. adversaries and pose national security risks in its investigations. The government has never confirmed the existence of extraterrestrial life, but theories about the possibility of life outside the planet endure.
A YouGov poll from September 2024 found that a majority of Americans—53 percent—believe aliens definitely or probably exist. That poll surveyed 1,135 adults from September 17 to September 20, 2024, and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
What To Know
On the podcast, Luna, 36, told Rogan that during her time at Portland Air National Guard—where she worked as an airfield manager—she encountered an unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP). In efforts to describe a broader range of unexplained sightings, the U.S. government shifted to the term UAP in lieu of UFO, as the latter refers specifically to flying objects.
Luna said an airspace incursion occurred one day while she was working. But when she asked a pilot for more information, she said they told her they were not allowed to talk about it, she told Rogan.
"No one really wanted to address it, and so from what I gathered, that had likely been a UAP," she said. "So that kind of was my perspective."
She said she did not look at it with a "crazy lens of perspective" because she believes "you never know if we're the only ones out there, essentially."
U.S. Representative Anna Paulina Luna attends a House Oversight Subcommittee hearing on April 1 in Washington, D.C.
U.S. Representative Anna Paulina Luna attends a House Oversight Subcommittee hearing on April 1 in Washington, D.C.Rogan asked why she did not assume it could have been another country's military craft, but Luna said the way the pilot discussed it made her believe otherwise.
"He didn't want to, from what I gather, get taken off flight status, and he was like, 'I really can't discuss it. We couldn't identify it, essentially.' And it had outperformed them," Luna said.
The Florida Republican leads a House Oversight Committee on "disclosure," which focuses on government transparency on matters from UFOs to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. She said the task force was formed after pilots at Eglin Air Force Base came forward to accuse the Air Force of covering up instances of UAP incidents.
The panel's investigations have indicated there is technology out there that "would rival what we know currently with physics" and that the U.S. does not have "the ability to reproduce" it.
What People Are Saying
Luna also said on the podcast: "Based on the photos that I've seen, I'm very confident that there's things out there that have not been created by mankind."
The Department of Defense All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) wrote in a June 2024 report: "It is important to underscore that, to date, AARO has discovered no evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity, or technology."
What Happens Next
Luna's task force will continue exploring questions about UAPs and other mysteries that have fueled concerns over government transparency.
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