Welcome to Earth, UFOs [PHIL-OSOPHY]

How do you put a baby alien to sleep? You rocket.

I wanted to start off with a lame joke because what I'm going to share with you is no joke. It is real. Respected military and former government officials are speaking out about something that's hard to understand: UFOs.

What are these things? Luis Elizondo, former director of the Pentagon's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) tells it like it is. We're talking about aircraft that can go from zero to hypersonic speeds in a blink of an eye and disappear over the horizon.

For humankind, that's too difficult to understand because, since Icarus, we've relied on wings to give lift. These UFOs have no engines and no wings. We have no idea what propels a craft to go so fast and without any emission. In other words, our flying machines are radically different from their technology and that's the part that's baffling.

There are UFOs in U.S. airspace and they need to be taken seriously. Will we overcome long-standing stigmas and talk more openly about these mysterious aircraft, some of which may pose a bigger threat than we realize? If it is another country on Earth that's developed this technology, we have to know. Or if these things are from a country far off in space and time, we have to know that too.

If you'll go to the National UFO Reporting Center, they collect and report legitimate and objective UFO data. You can check state-by-state to see if anything has been reported here in Massachusetts, or anywhere in the United States and beyond.

We simply don't have the technology to build an aircraft that flies five times the speed of light and doesn't break the sound barrier, and craft that seemingly defies the natural effects of Earth's gravitational pull. And don't forget, our F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft, one of the most maneuverable in the U.S.'s arsenal, reaches its limits at around 16 to 18 G's, while the human body can withstand about nine G's for a very short time before a person would pass out.

It's time to pull back the curtain and see what has been kept shrouded in secrecy in the Land of Oz.

Phil Paleologos is the host of the Phil Paleologos Show on 1420 WBSM New Bedford. He can be heard weekdays from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Contact him at phil@wbsm.com and follow him on Twitter @PhilPaleologos. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.