MILWAUKEE— Seeking to bring the government’s work on identifying UFOs out of the shadows, a congressional panel on Tuesday held the first public hearing on the mysterious occurrences in more than a half-century.

U.S. Congressman Mike Gallagher (R-Green Bay) sits on the House subcommittee that this week heard testimony from Pentagon officials about UFOs or unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP). 

Gallagher admitted he came into the hearing somewhat skeptical about the possibility that UAPs could be linked to life beyond Earth. 

But he said the hearing raised enough questions to merit further investigation into UAPs. 

"The reality is, there are only two full-time people looking into this," Gallagher said. "So, I have questions about whether they have the resources, or the access, necessary to get us closer to answering these questions. 

"The fact is, things are appearing on our ranges that should not be appearing. It jeopardizes the safety of our pilots, it compromises our ability to safeguard critical infrastructure," Gallagher said. "We need a lot more answers than we got this week." 

Gallagher added that he of course doesn't want any intelligence on UAPs to compromise U.S. defense sources, methods or technology. 

But he said, provided information doesn't compromise U.S. security, he's in favor of declassifying more information about UAPs. 

"I'm going to be pressing the Pentagon to be more transparent thus far," Gallagher said.