The NPR account of the July 27, 2023 hearing captures the human dimension of a historic event: OVERFLOW ROOM: The hearing was open to the public. People waited hours to secure seats. An overflow room of approximately 100 people watched via screen. A 22-year-old from New York City who attended said he came “knowing that it’s something that could be a historic moment.” He declined to give his name — “due to stigma that still persists around the subject.” Even at a Congressional UAP hearing in 2023, a civilian attendee wouldn’t give his name to NPR. That is the stigma problem made visible. THE GASP: He confirmed there was “definitely a gasp and everyone was definitely a little bit shocked” when Grusch described non-human biologics. A similar response when Grusch described the personal retaliation he suffered. THE SYSTEMIC PROBLEM ALL THREE AGREED ON: Grusch, Graves, and Fravor all called for a “safe and transparent centralized reporting system” to eliminate the stigma around reporting. This is the same systemic gap identified across: UK RAF pilots telling Nick Pope they didn’t report “for fear of ridicule”; NUFORC’s 170,000 reports vs AARO’s 2,000 (suggesting 98%+ of civilian sightings bypass AARO); Graves’ estimate that only 5% of military encounters reach AARO. THE ANALYTICAL CONCLUSION: The UAP stigma — deliberately cultivated via decades of debunking operations documented in CIA and Project Blue Book records — has created a reporting void that ensures the phenomenon is structurally undercounted. The suppression of reporting IS the cover-up. You don’t need to classify every file if no one will file a report in the first place.