Strange and Unexplained · Cristina Gomez

They Have The Tech BUT Did NOTHING

March 21, 2026·35 min·2 clips

Airports and military bases are shutting down globally due to UFO sightings, and a recent alert at Barksdale Air Force Base reveals a drone threat notification.

1. Strange and Unexplained host Christina interviews Micah Hanks, editor of The Debrief, about a convergence of UAP-related news stories including military base shutdowns, pending government disclosure, and a recently disappeared major general. 2. Micah Hanks reports for The Debrief, an independent science and defense journalism outlet; Christina co-hosts the Strange and Unexplained podcast, which covers UAP, anomalous phenomena, and related government activities. 3. The episode's thesis is that governments worldwide are consistently failing to act on documented drone and UAP intrusions at military installations, and that U.S. disclosure institutions like AARO are not fulfilling their mandated investigative mission. 4. Hanks broke the Barksdale Air Force Base story after an unnamed active U.S. Air Force member who reads The Debrief tipped him off that a terror threat notification was issued the morning a drone was spotted over the Louisiana base. 5. The Barksdale threat notification was sent by text, email, and social media, citing possible targeting of personnel or infrastructure; within hours, The Debrief published an article on the incident. 6. Hanks notes that a 2024 joint Pentagon, FAA, FBI, and DHS assessment stated most New Jersey drone sightings were misidentifications, but the fine print acknowledged a 'limited number' of genuine drone sightings over military bases as 'an ongoing problem.' 7. AARO director Dr. John Kozlowski and former deputy director Tim Phillips have both publicly discussed unusual luminous orbs and spherical objects detected near military installations, raising the question of whether some drone sightings are the same objects AARO is investigating. 8. Germany passed a law permitting shoot-downs of threatening drone-like objects, but since the law passed, no objects have been shot down — including after the Berlin airport was closed for 30 minutes due to unknown objects detected by the control tower. 9. The FBI and DOJ announced in December that they apprehended a Chinese national flying a drone over a Navy base — one of only approximately two successful interceptions out of what Hanks describes as probably thousands of documented sightings over military installations. 10. On UFO disclosure, Hanks notes that AARO's 2025 annual report — due October 31st — remains unreleased as of March 2026, and the Volume 2 historical report is two years overdue despite congressional mandates. 11. War Secretary Pete Hegseth, DNI Tulsi Gabbard, and President Trump all publicly stated they would work toward UFO file declassification; AARO's own response was to say this is 'essentially what we've already been doing.' 12. Hanks argues that AARO's first historical report contained significant errors, and that Christopher Mellon, Robert Powell of the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies, and Hanks himself all published critiques pointing out those errors. 13. He contrasts AARO's inaugural director Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick's dismissive attitude — described by witnesses including Jeffrey Nusatelli, George Knapp, and Ryan Graves as disrespectful — with new director Dr. John Kozlowski's more measured and public-facing approach. 14. Witnesses who testified before Congress between 2023 and 2025, including Ryan Graves and Jeffrey Nusatelli, described AARO under Kirkpatrick as collecting witness reports while dismissing their significance. 15. Hanks presents the 1968 Minot Air Force Base case: a B-52 crew was directed airborne during landing to investigate a reported object, detected it on radar, observed it visually including as it appeared to land, and photographed it — but Project Blue Book resolved the case as ball lightning and planetary misidentification. 16. He argues that Project Blue Book functioned primarily as public relations rather than genuine investigation, providing the American public reassurance during the Cold War while controlling the UAP narrative under Air Force oversight. 17. The episode's most specific claim involves Major General William McCaslin: a WikiLeaks-released email from Tom DeLonge to John Podesta during the 2016 presidential campaign states that McCaslin helped DeLonge assemble his advisory team and was planning to attend a UFO disclosure meeting with Podesta. 18. McCaslin previously led the Air Force Research Lab at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base — which DeLonge's email says is where Roswell wreckage was sent — and also oversaw U.S. special access programs, managing approximately 11,000 Air Force civilian and military personnel. 19. Hanks urges responsible engagement with the McCaslin story, distinguishing between factual acknowledgment of his background and documented connections versus unfounded speculation about kidnapping or UFO secrets linked to his disappearance. 20. UAP researchers, defense-adjacent news followers, and those tracking U.S. government UFO disclosure efforts would find this episode most substantive; listeners who find UFO topics speculative or unsupported by official evidence would likely not engage.

As heard by us

A UFO conversation that keeps its focus on evidence, credibility, and responsible debate.

The discussion treats recent UFO news as something worth taking seriously, moving from airport and military-base shutdowns to Barksdale Air Force Base and the larger question of how institutions should handle a subject this sensitive.

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You want UFO talk that feels urgent, skeptical, and grounded at once.

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