John Ventre has spent 20 years waiting for the world to take UFOs seriously, but now that the federal government is finally acknowledging the phenomenon, he is questioning its sudden change in stance.
Ventre, the former state director for the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), will host the 19th annual Pittsburgh UFO Conference at Westmoreland County Community College near Youngwood on April 11.
“I keep doing it because we haven’t gotten a definitive answer yet,” Ventre said. “It’s funny because, when the government was saying UFOs aren’t real, I didn’t believe them. … But now that they are saying UFOs are real, I’m very skeptical as to why they are coming forward and telling us this.”
The local quest for answers comes amid a major shift in Washington. The Pentagon’s 2024 report on UFOs revealed hundreds of unidentified and unexplained aerial phenomena but no evidence of aliens, according to the Associated Press.
And in February, President Donald Trump posted on social media, directing the Pentagon and other government agencies to release files related to “alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena, unidentified flying objects and any and all other information connected to these highly complex but extremely interesting and important matters.”
The post came hours after Trump accused former President Barrack Obama of disclosing classified information by suggesting in a podcast interview that aliens are real. Obama later clarified he had not seen evidence aliens have made contact with people but said, “Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there.”
The local conference will be held in the college’s Science Hall in Hempfield, with doors opening at 8:30 a.m.
The speaker lineup includes Frank Chille of New Jersey at 9 a.m., discussing the work of William Tompkins; and Bill Birnes, lead investigator for the television series “UFO Hunters,” at 10:30 a.m.
Afternoon sessions include military veteran Joe Foster at 12:30 p.m. and Bruce Pearson of Allentown, who will recount a reported sighting at Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico at 2 p.m.
Ventre will lead a 3:15 p.m. tribute to Fred Saluga, the former assistant state director of MUFON who died in December. Saluga, a Uniontown native, previously headed the Fayette County Bigfoot Research Project.
The day concludes with Ventre’s 4:45 p.m. presentation on a 1992 MIT symposium regarding alien abductions.
“We want to make it comfortable for people to come forward and speak about UFO encounters they’ve had,” Ventre said. “Years ago, people would laugh if you said something like this, but that’s not the case anymore.”
The conference is expected to wrap up at 6 p.m. The campus cafe will be open for attendees, and vendors will offer books and merchandise throughout the day.