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---
category: "Government Organization"
tags:
- Organization
- Government
- AirForce
- Intelligence
- ScientificAndTechnicalIntelligence
- WrightPatterson
- ProjectBlueBook
- UFO
- ForeignMaterielExploitation
alias:
- Foreign Technology Division
- FTD
- AFSC Foreign Technology Division
- Air Technical Intelligence Center
- ATIC
- Aerospace Technical Intelligence Center
- Air Force Foreign Technology Center
- Foreign Aerospace Science and Technology Center
- National Air Intelligence Center
- NAIC
- National Air and Space Intelligence Center
- NASIC
summary: "Wright-Patterson scientific and technical intelligence unit, the Air Technical Intelligence Center from 1951, Foreign Technology Division from 1961 and NASIC since 2003, which housed Project Blue Book and analyzed UFO reports by regulation."
location: "Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio"
start: 1951-05-21
relations:
- type: reported_to
with: "[[Air Force Systems Command]]"
start: 1961-07-01
end: 1991-10-01
role: "assigned to the command when activated as the Foreign Technology Division"
fn: 1
- type: participant_in
with: "[[Project Blue Book]]"
start: 1961
end: 1969-12-17
role: "named in Air Force Regulation 80-17 of September 19, 1966 as the unit supporting and analyzing Project Blue Book"
fn: 5
- type: contractor_to
with: "[[Battelle Memorial Institute]]"
reverse: true
start: 1951-12
role: "scientific support contract for UFO reports under the Air Technical Intelligence Center (Project Bear, Project Stork)"
fn: 8
created: 2026-10-03
updated: 2026-10-03
---
The [[U.S. Air Force|Air Force]]'s official lineage for the [[National Air and Space Intelligence Center]] (NASIC) begins on July 1, 1961, when the Foreign Technology Division (FTD) was "activated, and organized" at [[Wright-Patterson Air Force Base]] under [[Air Force Systems Command]]. It was redesignated Air Force Foreign Technology Center on October 1, 1991, Foreign Aerospace Science and Technology Center on January 1, 1992, National Air Intelligence Center on October 1, 1993, and National Air and Space Intelligence Center on February 20, 2003; it was made a field operating agency of the Air Force on September 29, 2014 and has had a presence at [[Fort George G. Meade]], [[Maryland]] since June 8, 2007.[^1]
### From McCook Field to the Air Technical Intelligence Center
The unit traces its heritage to the Foreign Data Section of the [[Army Signal Corps]]' Airplane Engineering Department, established at [[McCook Field]] in 1917, and to the [[Technical Data Laboratory]] that from December 1942 carried out the [[United States Army Air Forces|Army Air Forces]]' scientific and technical intelligence mission at [[Wright Field]]. Captured German and Japanese aircraft began arriving at Wright Field in 1943; after the war in Europe Colonel [[Harold E. Watson]] and a group of handpicked pilots gathered German aircraft and sent them to [[Air Materiel Command]]'s [[T-2 Intelligence]] Department at Wright Field and [[Freeman Field]], [[Indiana]]; "[[Operation Paperclip]], a follow-on project, brought over 200 German scientists and technicians to Wright Field"; and by the end of 1947 Wright Field personnel had processed over 1,500 tons of captured documents.[^2] T-2 Intelligence was established in July 1945 and became the Air Materiel Command's Intelligence Department in October 1947.[^2]
On May 21, 1951 the Air Force established the [[Air Technical Intelligence Center]] (ATIC) at Wright-Patterson "as a field activity of the [[Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence]]," which in the [[Korean War]] exploited captured Russian aircraft and studied a defected [[MiG-15]]; it was renamed the Aerospace Technical Intelligence Center on September 21, 1959, after the [[Sputnik]] launches, and the Foreign Technology Division in July 1961 after the establishment of the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] on August 1, 1961 and the realignment of the technical intelligence function under Air Force Systems Command.[^2] In the 1970s the division "acquired capabilities in human intelligence targeting and laser signal analysis" and consolidated its scientific and technical databases, and its personnel became known as "the experts in Soviet aircraft, missiles, space systems and related equipment performance."[^2]
### Blue Book and the contractors
[[Project Grudge]] and [[Project Blue Book]], the Air Force's UFO reporting projects, ran at ATIC under [[Edward J. Ruppelt]]. In December 1951 Ruppelt arranged a contract with an unnamed Midwestern research organization (the [[Battelle Memorial Institute]]) to provide scientists, a questionnaire and a punch-card statistical study; its product, Special Report No. 14, was issued in May 1955 under ATIC's cover.[^3][^4] The memorandum on the [[Robertson Panel]] of February 16, 1953 lists among the evidence presented "Progress Reports of Project STORK (code name for Battelle Memorial Institute contract work supporting ATIC)."[^8] The [[Department of Defense]]'s [[All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office]] calls this contract "Project BEAR (Late 1951 to Late 1954)" and states that the contractor's report was released "under the cover of ATIC to maintain its anonymity."[^4] On February 15, 1954 Lieutenant General [[Donald L. Putt]], signing as "Commander," forwarded to the ATIC commander, Colonel [[George L. Wertenbaker]], a report on a December 16, 1953 sighting by the [[Lockheed Aircraft Company|Lockheed]] chief engineer [[Kelly Johnson]] and Lockheed flight test personnel, writing that the report "was handed to me by Lockheed personnel with the explanation that Mr. Johnson was most reluctant to write the report in the first place and then refused to forward it on to you"; the Blue Book file for the case contains only that report and a record card reading "lenticular cloud" (see [[Lockheed Skunk Works]]).[^6] A [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] memorandum of October 11, 1960 describes the Battelle repository called Project White Stork as concentrating "on subjects of interest to the Air Force's Aerospace Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Field," and records that the Agency's [[Office of Scientific Intelligence]] was considering funding it.[^7]
### The Foreign Technology Division in the 1966 regulation and review
Air Force Regulation 80-17 of September 19, 1966 provides that "The Air Force Systems Command will support the program with current resources within the Foreign Technology Division (FTD) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, to continue the Project Blue Book effort." Base commanders were to investigate each sighting, with the exception that "FTD at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, independently or with the help of pertinent Air Force activities, may conduct any other investigation." FTD was to "Analyze and evaluate all information and evidence reported to bases on those UFOs which are not identified at the base level," to "Use other Government agencies, private industrial companies, and contractor personnel to assist in analyzing and evaluating UFO reports, as necessary," and to "prepare a final case report on each sighting reported to it," sending significant findings to Systems Command at [[Andrews Air Force Base]] and from there to Air Force headquarters.[^5] The [[Air Force Scientific Advisory Board]]'s ad hoc committee under [[Brian O'Brien]], which met on February 3, 1966 and included [[Carl Sagan]], heard briefings from "the AFSC Foreign Technology Division, which is the cognizant Air Force agency that collates information on UFO sightings and monitors investigations of individual cases"; the memorandum of September 28, 1965 by Major General [[E. B. LeBailly]] that requested the review records a determination by the Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans and Operations that FTD "should continue to exercise its presently assigned responsibilities concerning UFOs," and the committee's distribution list includes the Commander of FTD.[^9] AARO's 2024 report dates the O'Brien Committee to 1964.[^4]
The [[Condon Committee]]'s bibliography cites an English translation of a Russian conference on the twinkling of stars prepared by the "Translation Services Branch Foreign Technology Division, WP-AFB, Ohio."[^10] [[J. Allen Hynek|Hynek]]'s 1969 correspondence with the FTD commander and his consultancy to the division from 1970 are described on the page for J. Allen Hynek.
### The Ufimtsev translation
[[Ben Rich]] wrote in his 1994 memoir that in 1975, after a July [[Pentagon]] briefing on Soviet air defenses, his mathematician [[Denys Overholser]] found, in a paper by the Soviet scientist [[Pyotr Ufimtsev]] titled "Method of Edge Waves in the Physical Theory of Diffraction," a method of calculating the radar cross section of a shape, and that the paper "had only recently been translated by the Air Force Foreign Technology Division from the original Russian language." Rich wrote that Overholser admitted the paper was "so obtuse and impenetrable that only a nerd's nerd would have waded through it all," and that Ufimtsev "had provided us with an 'industrial-strength' theory" for the faceted [[F-117 Nighthawk|F-117]] design.[^13]
### After Blue Book
An Air Force memorandum of October 20, 1969 signed by Brigadier General [[C. H. Bolender]] recommending Blue Book's termination stated that "reports of unidentified flying objects which could affect national security are made in accordance with [[JANAP 146]] or [[Air Force Manual 55-11]], and are not part of the Blue Book system," as the reporter [[Billy Cox]] quoted it in 2015.[^11] Secretary of the Air Force [[Robert C. Seamans Jr.]] announced the termination of Blue Book on December 17, 1969.[^4] [[Dale Graff]], a civilian scientist at FTD, later managed remote viewing taskings for the [[Stargate Project]] from Wright-Patterson (see his page).
### Foreign materiel exploitation and the reverse engineering allegations
Notes attributed to the physicist [[Eric Davis]] of October 16, 2002 record Vice Admiral [[Thomas R. Wilson]] saying that when program managers told him in June 1997 that they ran "a reverse engineering program" he first thought they meant "recovered Soviet/Chinese, etc. hardware ... like a missile or intell platform or aircraft" and "actually came to meeting expecting to find a sensitive foreign collection and reverse engineering operation," with "UFOs" used as a cover for that; the notes have him adding that the managers "said they weren't that either." Wilson told the [[Sarasota Herald-Tribune]] in 2020 that the notes were "all fiction."[^12] The Foreign Technology Division's recorded mission after 1961 was the exploitation of captured foreign aircraft and the evaluation of Soviet systems.[^2] AARO's report states that "AARO found no empirical evidence for claims that the USG and private companies have been reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology."[^4]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Air Force Historical Research Agency, "National Air and Space Intelligence Center (ACC)," lineage, assignments and stations, prepared by Daniel L. Haulman, https://www.dafhistory.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/432518/national-air-and-space-intelligence-center-acc/ (read from the Wayback Machine raw copy).
[^2]: National Air and Space Intelligence Center, "National Air and Space Intelligence Center Heritage," fact sheet, https://www.nasic.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Article/611728/national-air-and-space-intelligence-center-heritage/ (read from the Wayback Machine raw copy).
[^3]: Edward J. Ruppelt, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects (1956), chapter nine, Project Gutenberg ebook 17346, https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/17346/pg17346.txt
[^4]: Department of Defense, All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, Volume I, February 2024, pp. 7 to 9, 17 to 19 and 28 to 29, https://media.defense.gov/2024/Mar/08/2003409233/-1/-1/0/DOPSR-CLEARED-508-COMPLIANT-HRRV1-08-MAR-2024-FINAL.PDF (read from the Wayback Machine raw copy).
[^5]: Air Force Regulation 80-17, 19 September 1966, paragraphs 3b to 3e, Condon Report Appendix B, https://files.ncas.org/condon/text/appndx-b.htm
[^6]: Martin Shough, "A Study of the Lockheed Sightings," National Aviation Reporting Centre on Anomalous Phenomena, July 2014, appendix reproducing the letters of Putt (February 15, 1954) and Johnson (January 23, 1954), https://mail.project1947.com/fig/Lockheed_Case_Dec_16_1953.pdf
[^7]: Chief, Intelligence Production Faculty, CIA Intelligence School, "Weekly Activities Report No. 36," October 11, 1960, CIA-RDP78-04836A000100040080-9, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp78-04836a000100040080-9
[^8]: Durant memorandum of February 16, 1953 on the Robertson Panel, Condon Report Appendix U, https://files.ncas.org/condon/text/appndx-u.htm (Tab C: "Progress Reports of Project STORK (code name for Battelle Memorial Institute contract work supporting ATIC)").
[^9]: Special Report of the USAF Scientific Advisory Board Ad Hoc Committee to Review Project "Blue Book," March 1966, with Tab A (LeBailly memorandum of September 28, 1965) and distribution list, Condon Report Appendix A and Section V, chapter 2, https://files.ncas.org/condon/text/appndx-a.htm and https://files.ncas.org/condon/text/s5chap02.htm
[^10]: Condon Report, Section VI, chapter 4, references, https://files.ncas.org/condon/text/s6chap04.htm
[^11]: Billy Cox, "The hunt for missing pieces," Sarasota Herald-Tribune, June 3, 2015, reproduced at https://mail.project1947.com/articles/The_hunt_for_missing_pieces.pdf (the Bolender memorandum itself was not opened).
[^12]: "EWD NOTES 10/16/02, Eric Davis Meeting with Adm. Wilson," p. 12, https://documents2.theblackvault.com/casefiles/wilsonleak.pdf ; Wilson's 2020 statement to Billy Cox as reproduced in The Black Vault, https://www.theblackvault.com/casefiles/the-admiral-wilson-leak-an-analysis/ .
[^13]: Ben R. Rich and Leo Janos, Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed (Boston: Little, Brown, 1994), chapter on the origin of stealth, https://archive.org/details/skunk-works-apersonal-memoir-of-my-years-at-lockheed-ben-rrich (text lines 437 to 440 and 516 to 552). Sole source for the passage so cited; the translation itself was not located.

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---
created: 2025-07-23
updated: 2025-07-23
updated: 2026-10-02
title: Office of Naval Research
tags:
- organization
@ -12,12 +12,35 @@ category: "U.S. Government"
summary: "The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is an agency within the U.S. Navy responsible for the science and technology programs of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps."
start: 1946
location: "Arlington, Virginia"
relations:
- type: subject_of
with: "[[Morris K. Jessup]]"
start: 1955
role: "received the annotated copy of The Case for the UFO; Special Projects officers Sherby and Hoover took interest (Varo Edition introduction dates the postmark 1955; Barker dates it April 1956)"
fn: 2
- type: funded
with: "[[James E. McDonald]]"
start: 1966-05
role: "ONR project monitor Jim Hughes said ONR would pay for McDonald's Wright-Patterson trip to read the [[Project Blue Book]] files"
fn: 4
---
The [[Office of Naval Research]] (ONR) is an agency within the [[U.S. Navy]] responsible for the science and technology programs of the [[U.S. Navy]] and Marine Corps. It funds basic and applied research to develop new technologies and capabilities for naval operations.[^1]
In the context of psychic research, the ONR funded the development of the superconducting-shielded magnetometer used by [[Arthur Hebard]] at [[Stanford University]], which was later used in [[Hal Puthoff]]'s experiments with [[Ingo Swann]]. The ONR also provided contracts to scientists like [[Allan H. Frey]] for research on the effects of microwave radiation on the human body.[^1]
---
### The Jessup annotated copy
The introduction to the Annotated Edition of [[Morris K. Jessup]]'s [[The Case for the UFO]] states that the annotated paperback arrived at ONR in a manila envelope addressed to "Admiral N. Furth, Chief, Office of Naval Research, Washington 25, D.C.," postmarked [[Seminole, Texas]], 1955, marked "Happy Easter"; that in July or August of that year it appeared in the incoming correspondence of Major [[Darrell L. Ritter]], USMC, of the Aeronautical Project Office; that Captain [[Sidney Sherby]], on reporting aboard, obtained it from Ritter; and that Sherby and Commander [[George W. Hoover]], Special Projects Officer, "indicated direct interest in some of the material therein" in light of "the possibility of discovering clues to the nature of gravity." The [[Varo Manufacturing Company]] of [[Garland, Texas]] "offered to re-publish the book together with all notations in a very limited edition."[^2] [[Gray Barker]], in his 1973 preface to the facsimile, wrote that Admiral Furth received the envelope in April 1956 and that Sherby and Hoover "were deeply involved in satellite development."[^2] ONR's house publication reported that Rear Admiral [[Rawson Bennett II]] relieved Rear Admiral [[Frederick R. Furth]] as Chief of Naval Research on December 31, 1955, that Furth had served two years as Chief, that his duties had included the "Vanguard" satellite project, and that he was to join the [[ITT Corporation|International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation]].[^3] The first [[Carlos Allende|Allende]] letter to Jessup, dated January 13, 1956, advised him to "contact Rear Admiral Ransom Bennett for verification of info herein. Navy Chief of research."[^2]
### McDonald, 1966
[[Paul E. McCarthy]] wrote that [[James E. McDonald]]'s ONR project monitor, [[Jim Hughes (Office of Naval Research)|Jim Hughes]], told him in May 1966 that, because McDonald's work was for ONR, it would pay the trip expenses to read the Blue Book files at [[Wright-Patterson Air Force Base]]; that McDonald wrote Hughes that he wished a briefing on "the rumored Navy studies of UFOs" and asked whether ONR might fund his travel for UFO research; and that this began "a controversy within a controversy" over use of ONR atmospheric research funds for UFO research. McCarthy also wrote that in early 1968 McDonald sent Hughes copies of the [[Condon Committee]] "Low memo" and [[National Academy of Sciences]] correspondence, in light of "the day when he would apply to the ONR for funding to do UFO work."[^4][^5]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
[^2]: Introduction and Barker preface, M. K. Jessup, The Case for the UFO, Varo Edition (Saucerian Press facsimile, 1973; transcription 2003), https://archive.org/details/THECASEFORTHEUFOVaroEditionM.K.Jessup
[^3]: Naval Research Reviews, vol. 9, no. 1 (January 1956), pp. 22 to 23, https://www.onr.navy.mil/media/document/naval-research-reviews-vol-9-no-1-january-1956
[^4]: Paul E. McCarthy, "Politicking and Paradigm Shifting," Ph.D. dissertation, University of Hawaii, 1975, chapter 2, pp. 39 to 40, https://files.ncas.org/mccarthy/chap02.html
[^5]: Paul E. McCarthy, same, chapter 3, p. 144, https://files.ncas.org/mccarthy/chap03.html

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---
updated: 2026-10-03
tags: ["Organization", "Government", "USA"]
category: "U.S. Government"
summary: "The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is a U.S. government agency responsible for regulating the securities markets and protecting investors.[^1]"
@ -11,7 +12,12 @@ The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is a U.S. government agency respons
The SEC filed suit against [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]], [[Agha Hasan Abedi]], [[Bert Lance]], and others in connection with the purchase of [[Financial General Bankshares]] stock.[^1] The nominees used by BCCI to secretly acquire Financial General Bankshares were summarily sued by the SEC for failing to declare that they were acting as a group.[^2]
### EDGAR contract
The Baltimore Sun of January 5, 1989 reported that on Tuesday, January 3, 1989, after a delay of more than two years, the SEC awarded a 52 million dollar contract to build its electronic data gathering, analysis and retrieval system, EDGAR, to a consortium led by [[BDM Corporation|BDM Corp.]] of [[McLean, Virginia]], which the paper called "a subsidiary of the Ford Motor Co." The other members were [[Mead Data Central]], [[Sorg, Inc.]] and [[Bechtel Information Systems]]. The eight-year contract provided for BDM to design and install a computer to accept and disseminate all SEC filings by more than 11,000 publicly traded companies and 2,700 investment firms, and the SEC said EDGAR should provide more than 170 million dollars in savings.[^3]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 12.
[^2]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 183.
[^3]: "SEC awards data pact," Business Briefly, Baltimore Sun (Baltimore), January 5, 1989, p. 1D, https://www.newspapers.com/image/378257935/

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---
category: "Private Organization"
tags:
- Organization
- UAP
- Nonprofit
- Aviation
alias:
- Americans for Safe Aerospace
- ASA
- Safe Aerospace
summary: "Washington, D.C. nonprofit founded by Ryan Graves, recognized as a 501(c)(3) in January 2024, which collects pilot and witness reports of unidentified anomalous phenomena and filed Forms 990-EZ for 2024 and 2025."
location: "Washington, D.C."
relations:
- type: founded
with: "[[Ryan Graves]]"
reverse: true
role: "founder and executive director, per the organization's website and its Forms 990-EZ"
fn: 2
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Ryan Graves]]"
reverse: true
role: "executive director, 30 hours per week, compensation 0 dollars on the Form 990-EZ for 2024"
start: 2024
fn: 3
created: 2026-10-02
updated: 2026-10-02
---
Americans for Safe Aerospace (ASA) is a nonprofit corporation in [[Washington, D.C.]] (employer identification number 92-2948733). The [[Internal Revenue Service]] data in the [[ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer]] database lists it as a 501(c)(3) public charity with an IRS ruling date of January 2024, at 1620 I Street NW, Suite 750; its Form 990-EZ for 2024 gives 1090 Vermont Avenue NW, Suite 750, and its Form 990-EZ for 2025 and its website give 1620 I Street NW, Suite 900.[^1][^3][^4]
### Stated purpose and leadership
The organization's website describes it as "a nonprofit led by military pilots" that works in "reporting, research, policy, education," runs a confidential channel through which pilots and veterans can report "unidentified anomalous phenomena" encounters, states that public reports are de-identified, and lists a podcast hosted by [[Ryan Graves]]. It names Graves as ASA's founder and records his testimony on July 26, 2023 before the [[House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform|House Oversight Committee]], at the hearing at which [[David Grusch]] and [[David Fravor]] also testified.[^2]
### Forms 990-EZ
ASA's Form 990-EZ for calendar year 2024 (signed August 26, 2025, by Ryan Graves) reports gross receipts of 63,084 dollars, contributions, gifts and grants of 55,773 dollars, sales of inventory of 7,311 dollars (cost of goods sold 4,363), total revenue of 58,721 dollars, total expenses of 9,446 dollars (including 747 dollars to independent contractors and no salaries), and net assets of 2,895 dollars at the start and 52,170 dollars at the end of the year. The Schedule A reports that substantial contributors gave 45,000 dollars of the year's support; the contributor schedule is restricted from public release. The return states the primary exempt purpose as "To advance aerospace safety and national security through education research and nonpartisan engagement supporting pilots and aerospace professionals in reporting and analyzing UAP, disseminating safety information and partnering with scientific and government stakeholders to close domain-awareness gaps," and reports "over 200 reports" received through "a secure program for pilots and the public to report UAP sightings," with high-priority cases referred "to government channels including Senate committees and the [[Pentagon]] directly," and a membership that grew "from zero to over 8000 members." It lists Ryan Graves as executive director (30 hours per week), [[Haley Morris]] as secretary and [[Brad Crispin]] as treasurer (10 hours per week each), none compensated. It answers no to lobbying activities and to political campaign activity.[^3]
ASA's Form 990-EZ for calendar year 2025 (return dated May 18, 2026) reports gross receipts of 77,745 dollars, contributions of 74,508 dollars, total revenue of 75,266 dollars, total expenses of 92,750 dollars (salaries and other compensation 52,736 dollars, fees to independent contractors 2,372 dollars, other expenses 37,642 dollars including 18,516 dollars for travel), and net assets of 41,468 dollars at the start and 23,984 dollars at the end of the year; the beginning figure differs from the 52,170 dollars reported for the end of 2024 and the return refers to a "filed 2024 amended" statement. Program service expenses total 72,497 dollars. The return reports "over 800 reports," membership of "over 30,000," and the same three officers with no compensation. Schedule A reports substantial contributors of 37,617 dollars of the year's support.[^4] The IRS Exempt Organizations index lists a second Form 990-EZ filing for tax period 2024 in 2026 (object ID 202621399349200202), apparently the amended return.[^5]
### Advisors
The website lists as advisors [[Alex Dietrich]] (former [[United States Navy|Navy]] fighter pilot), David Fravor (retired Navy commander), [[Michael Greene]] (former [[United States Marine Corps|Marine Corps]] F/A-18D weapons systems officer), [[Sam Fletcher]] (retired Navy commander and congressional military adviser), [[Jay Stratton]] (former director of the [[UAP Task Force]]), [[Christopher Mellon]] (former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence), [[Tim Gallaudet]] (retired Navy rear admiral and former acting [[National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration|NOAA]] administrator), [[Kirk McConnell]] (former congressional defense and intelligence staff member), [[Susan McCue]] (former chief of staff to Senator [[Harry Reid]]), [[Bryan Bender]] (communications executive and former [[Politico]] defense editor), [[Mike Gold]] (former [[NASA]] associate administrator), [[David Radzanowski]] (former NASA chief financial officer), [[Robin Hanson]] ([[George Mason University]]), [[Avi Loeb]] ([[Harvard University]], head of the [[Galileo Project]]), [[Garry Nolan]] ([[Stanford University]]) and [[Ravi Starzl]] ([[Carnegie Mellon University]]).[^2]
### Lobbying and campaign records
A search of Senate [[Lobbying Disclosure Act]] records on October 2, 2026 returned no filing in which Americans for Safe Aerospace appears as registrant or client, and none of the 65 filings whose specific issues mention "UAP" names it. No [[Federal Election Commission|FEC]] committee under that name was located. FEC receipts under the name Ryan Graves belong to several unrelated individuals (Colorado, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Utah and Washington addresses and employers) and none is attributed to the founder.[^6]
### Footnotes
[^1]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, Americans For Safe Aerospace, EIN 922948733. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/922948733.json
[^2]: Americans for Safe Aerospace, website, home page and policy pages, retrieved October 2, 2026. https://www.safeaerospace.org
[^3]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search e-file data, Form 990-EZ, Americans for Safe Aerospace, EIN 92-2948733, tax period ended December 31, 2024, object ID 202502389349200045, in https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2025/2025_TEOS_XML_09A.zip
[^4]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search e-file data, Form 990-EZ, Americans for Safe Aerospace, tax period ended December 31, 2025, object ID 202611399349200506, in https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2026/2026_TEOS_XML_05A.zip
[^5]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search index for 2026. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2026/index_2026.csv
[^6]: Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act database search by client and registrant name and by issue text, October 2, 2026. https://lda.gov/api/v1/filings/?client_name=Americans+for+Safe+Aerospace ; Federal Election Commission, OpenFEC API, committee search "safe aerospace" and schedule A contributor name "Graves, Ryan," October 2, 2026. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/

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---
category: "Organizations"
tags:
- Organization
- DefenseContractor
- Intelligence
- Carlyle
- Vinnell
- UFO
- McLeanVirginia
alias:
- BDM Corporation
- The BDM Corporation
- BDM
- BDM International
- BDM International, Inc.
- BDM Federal
- Braddock, Dunn and McDonald
- Braddock, Dunn & McDonald, Incorporated
summary: "McLean, Virginia defense and intelligence contractor founded in 1959 as Braddock, Dunn and McDonald, owned by Ford Aerospace from 1988 and by a Carlyle-led group from 1990, and sold to TRW in 1997."
location: "McLean, Virginia"
relations:
- type: founded
with: "[[Joseph Braddock]]"
reverse: true
start: 1959
role: "co-founder with Bernard J. Dunn and Daniel F. McDonald"
fn: 1
- type: owned
with: "[[Ford Aerospace]]"
reverse: true
start: 1988
end: 1990-10
role: "acquired all outstanding stock of the predecessor company"
fn: 1
- type: owned
with: "[[Carlyle Group]]"
reverse: true
start: 1990-10-23
end: 1997-12-24
role: "investor group led by Carlyle bought the predecessor's business and assets for about $126.5 million; Carlyle held 62.8 percent before the 1995 offering and 25.8 percent in November 1997"
fn: 7
- type: funded
with: "[[Loral Aerospace Corporation]]"
reverse: true
start: 1990-10-23
role: "$13 million in subordinated notes due October 23, 1997"
fn: 7
- type: owned
with: "[[TRW]]"
reverse: true
start: 1997-12-24
role: "tender offer at $29.50 per share completed December 24, 1997, merger December 29, 1997"
fn: 29
- type: owned
with: "[[Vinnell Corporation]]"
start: 1992-03-13
role: "acquired the stock for about $29.6 million"
fn: 10
- type: director_of
with: "[[Frank Carlucci]]"
reverse: true
start: 1990-10
role: "chairman of the board; chairman of the compensation committee by 1997"
fn: 7
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Albert Stubblebine]]"
reverse: true
start: 1984
role: "executive after leaving the Army; employed by BDM in the Washington area as of December 10, 1985"
fn: 24
- type: contractor_to
with: "[[Defense Nuclear Agency]]"
start: 1976
end: 1980
role: "topical and final reports under contracts DNA 001-76-C-0238, 001-78-C-0077, 001-78-C-0323, 001-79-C-0040 and 001-79-C-0098"
fn: 5
- type: contractor_to
with: "[[Ballistic Missile Defense Organization]]"
start: 1988
end: 1993
role: "one of three super SETA contractors, about $112.2 million in costs to March 31, 1993"
fn: 21
- type: contractor_to
with: "[[Office of Foreign Missions]]"
start: 1983
role: "five BDM employees at the office's founding, 35 by June 1985"
fn: 19
created: 2026-10-02
updated: 2026-10-03
---
The BDM Corporation, called BDM International, Inc. after 1990, was a systems-analysis and information-technology contractor headquartered at 7915 Jones Branch Drive and later at 1501 BDM Way, [[McLean, Virginia]]. Its 1995 prospectus states that the company "was formed in 1959 by Drs. [[Joseph Braddock|Joseph V. Braddock]], [[Bernard J. Dunn]] and [[Daniel F. McDonald]] as 'Braddock, Dunn & McDonald, Incorporated.'"[^1] Its 1996 revenue was about one billion dollars,[^2] and on March 1, 1997 it had about 8,700 employees, with joint ventures employing about 3,000 more.[^2]
### Founding and Early Contracts
The founders were physicists. Braddock took his bachelor's degree at [[St. Peter's College]] in 1951 and his master's and doctorate in physics at [[Fordham University]] in 1952 and 1958, according to the 2001 Navigator Award biography published by the [[Potomac Institute for Policy Studies]], which says he retired from BDM in 1993. The same citation describes BDM as "a principal nuclear weapons 'failure testing' company in the [[United States]]," says Braddock's "technical mastery" was key to the [[NATO]] strategy known as [[Follow-On Forces Attack]], and dates the Carlyle acquisition to 1991, a year later than the company's own filings.[^3] Through 1974 the firm filed its reports as "Braddock, Dunn and McDonald, Inc." from 5301 Central Avenue NE, Albuquerque, [[New Mexico]], and the work then in the [[Defense Technical Information Center]] collection concerns weapons effects: a 1963 "Nanosecond Pulse Breakdown Study," a 1965 "Investigation of the Statistics of Breakdown Using Nanosecond Pulse Techniques," a 1969 "Semiconductor and Nonsemiconductor Damage Study," a 1971 report on electromagnetic pulse data reduction codes, and, in December 1973, "Hertzian Generator Development" (report RADC-TR-73-325, contract F30602-72-C-0388, job order 55730377, for the [[Rome Air Development Center]], [[Griffiss Air Force Base]], on the "frozen wave" Hertzian generator concept for electromagnetic wave generation). A further 1974 item is titled "Chemical Reaction Hertzian Generator."[^4]
The company's reports from the late 1970s are addressed from McLean and carry [[Defense Nuclear Agency]] sponsorship. They include "The Soviet Navy Declaratory Doctrine for Theatre Nuclear Warfare" (DNA 4434T, September 30, 1977), "Behavioral Aspects of Fallout Shelter Stay" (DNA 4628T, May 26, 1978), "Issues Concerning the Psychological Impact of Tactical Nuclear Warfare" (DNA 4962T, April 6, 1979, contract DNA 001-79-C-0098, authored by the firm's "Human Sciences" group), "Soviet Intermediary Strategic C2 Entities" (DNA 4355T-3, April 30, 1979), "The Operational Sustainability of Soviet Theater Forces" (DNA 5661F-1, December 1979, contract DNA 001-79-C-0040, released under [[Freedom of Information Act|FOIA]] request 84-53) and "Strategic Industry Attack" (DNA 5173F, January 15, 1980, contract DNA 001-78-C-0323).[^5] The firm's study of the [[Vietnam War]], "A Study of Strategic Lessons Learned in Vietnam," was written under [[United States Army]] contract DAAG39-78-C-0120 as a final draft submitted to DAMO-SSP. The [[United States Army War College]] Strategic Studies Institute wrote to the Defense Technical Information Center on March 9, 1981 that in December 1980 the War College Security Office had telephoned all recipients of the study to say that it contained classified information and should be secured, that BDM had revised the pages to delete the classified material, and that the revised copy was enclosed for assignment of new AD numbers.[^6]
### Ford Aerospace and the Carlyle Buyout
The 1995 prospectus states that the predecessor company "was a public company from 1980 until 1988, when [[Ford Aerospace]], then a wholly owned subsidiary of [[Ford Motor Company]], acquired all of the outstanding stock."[^1] In October 1990, "on behalf of certain investors, Carlyle, a private merchant banking firm, formed BDM Holdings, Inc.," and a subsidiary named New BDM, Inc., which acquired substantially all of the predecessor's assets. The investor group, led by [[Carlyle Group]] and members of management, paid about 118 million dollars in cash, adjusted by arbitration in August 1991 to a final price of about 126.5 million dollars, plus about 7 million dollars in expenses. The financing consisted of 30 million dollars in stock bought by the investors, 80.5 million dollars in senior secured borrowings, 10 million dollars from Carlyle for Series A Preferred Stock, and 13 million dollars from [[Loral Aerospace Corporation]], a subsidiary of [[Loral]], in subordinated notes due October 23, 1997. Carlyle received a financial advisory fee of about 1.6 million dollars.[^7] The Los Angeles Times of September 19, 1990 reported under the headline "Loral to Sell BDM to Carlyle Group for $130 Million," by Dean Takahashi, that [[Loral|Loral Corp.]], although its purchase of Ford Aerospace was not yet complete, said on Tuesday, September 18, that it would sell BDM International Inc., "the largest subsidiary of Ford Aerospace," to the Carlyle Group of Washington for 130 million dollars. The SEC filings above give about 118 million dollars in cash at the October 1990 closing and a final price of about 126.5 million dollars after arbitration in August 1991. The Times reported that the price was under a third of the 425 million dollars Ford Motor Company paid for BDM in 1988, and that analyst Walter Peterson of [[Ferris, Baker Watts]] said consulting firms typically sell for about 30 percent of annual revenue and that Loral was "getting a premium price." It also reported that Carlyle, with partner [[Westinghouse Electric Corporation]], was one of several groups that had bid unsuccessfully for all of Ford Aerospace, and that Carlyle said it would name former Defense Secretary Frank C. Carlucci chairman of BDM.[^8]
The investor group of October 23, 1990 comprised The Carlyle Partners Leveraged Capital Fund I, the [[Richard King Mellon Foundation]], and two [[Equitable Capital]] partnerships. The stockholders agreement provided for seven directors designated by Carlyle, five by management and three independent directors named jointly, with the board fixed at 13. In February 1991 the company sold 1,339,217 shares at 4 dollars to employees, directors and consultants and 1,500,000 shares to Carlyle at the same price; the board of regents of the [[University of Texas System]] and the [[Permanent University Fund]] of Texas later held shares as well. In July 1993 and March 1994 the company repurchased 100,000 shares each from the Mellon foundation at 8 and 12 dollars, and on May 27, 1994 it bought 2,250,000 common and 350,000 Class B shares from the investor group at 14 dollars.[^7]
[[Frank Carlucci]] was chairman of BDM's board from October 1990 and, by 1997, chairman of its compensation committee and a member of its executive and nominating committees. His filed biography gives him as Chairman and Managing Director of Carlyle from 1993 and Vice Chairman from 1989, Secretary of Defense from 1987 to 1989, and a director of, among others, [[Ashland Oil]], [[General Dynamics]], [[Westinghouse Electric Corporation]], [[Bell Atlantic]] and [[Northern Telecom]]. [[William E. Conway Jr.]], a Carlyle managing director since 1987, was vice chairman. [[Philip A. Odeen]], a former [[National Security Council]] program analysis director and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, was president and chief executive officer from May 1992. The 1995 prospectus lists as other directors [[Helmut Sonnenfeldt]] (Guest Scholar at the [[Brookings Institution]], director since March 1991), [[Hans Mark]] (former Secretary of the Air Force and Deputy Administrator of [[NASA]], director since August 1991), [[Neil Goldschmidt]] (Governor of Oregon from 1987 to 1991, director since July 1993), [[Walther Leisler Kiep]] (director since January 1995 and chairman of the supervisory board of the German company [[IABG]], in which BDM acquired a 45 percent interest in November 1993 from a company principally owned by the German government), [[Earle C. Williams]] (president and chief executive officer of the predecessor from 1972 and of the company from 1990 to 1992), [[James A. D. Geier]], [[John M. Slosar]] (formerly of Ford Aerospace) and [[Thomas G. Ricks]] of the University of Texas System.[^7]
Carlyle was paid an annual fee of 500,000 dollars plus expenses for financial and investor-relations services, and received about 505,000, 535,000 and 512,000 dollars for 1994, 1993 and 1992; in 1992 it also received a 250,000 dollar advisory fee on the Vinnell purchase.[^7] Before the initial public offering of June 1995, The Carlyle Group L.P. owned 5,750,000 shares, 62.8 percent. The offering was priced at 18.50 dollars a share, and the March 1996 secondary offering's table of selling stockholders gave Carlyle 43.9 percent before and 31.4 percent after.[^7] The 1997 proxy statement lists Carlyle at 7,660,000 shares, 26.4 percent.[^9]
### Vinnell and Saudi Arabia
On March 13, 1992 BDM acquired the stock of [[Vinnell Corporation]] for about 29.6 million dollars including expenses. The seller, who in 1995 was a member of Vinnell's board, received a 3.7 million dollar subordinated note at 10 percent and a consulting agreement of 250,000 dollars for 1992 and 200,000 dollars a year for 1993 through 1996; the prospectus does not name him.[^10] Vinnell, described as "a 63-year old company," operated in [[Saudi Arabia]], [[Turkey]], [[Oman]] and [[Egypt]]. Its contract to train the [[Saudi Arabian National Guard]] accounted for 55 percent of its 1994 revenue, about 70.2 million dollars. In the spring of 1995 a joint venture in which Vinnell held 51 percent, with another partner holding 49 percent, was selected in April 1995 for a three-year follow-on contract of 163 million dollars beginning in July 1995 and running through June 1, 1998; the prospectus anticipated "reduced profits" from it. Work performed since May 1994 through an affiliate 60 percent owned by Vinnell supported the [[Bradley Fighting Vehicle]] program for the Royal Saudi Land Forces with the affiliate of [[FMC Corporation]] called FMC Arabia (1994 revenue about 25.2 million dollars). Vinnell also ran five [[Job Corps]] centers for the [[Department of Labor]] (about 19.0 million dollars in 1994) and, as a 50 percent partner in joint ventures with [[Brown and Root]], [[Airwork]] and [[SEACOR]], operated U.S. military facilities in Turkey, three [[United States Air Force|Air Force]] facilities in Oman, and personnel support in Egypt (joint-venture revenue about 72 million dollars in 1994). BDM Federal separately provided logistics and information-technology services to the Royal Saudi Air Force (about 28.8 million dollars in 1994).[^10] The Boston Globe of November 14, 1995, reporting on Saudi security assistance after the [[1995 Riyadh bombing|Riyadh bombing]] of the Saudi Arabian National Guard program office, stated that Vinnell, "a defense contractor in Fairfax, Va.," had a five-year, 819 million dollar contract to help support the Army program training the Saudi Arabian National Guard through December 1998. It quoted Todd Stottlemyer, spokesman for Vinnell's parent, BDM International of McLean, as saying that Vinnell and another BDM subsidiary, BDM Federal, did contract work with the Royal Saudi Air Force, the Saudi land forces and other elements of the Saudi military, with about 1,000 employees in Saudi Arabia. The article reported six people killed, including five Americans, and that American advisers went with the Guard's King Abdul Aziz Brigade when it became the first Saudi armed force to mobilize for the [[Gulf War]].[^11] The 1995 prospectus described a follow-on contract of 163 million dollars for three years from July 1995; the Globe gave a five-year, 819 million dollar contract through December 1998, and the two descriptions are not reconciled in either source.
The same filing reports that Vinnell and another party signed a consent decree with the [[Environmental Protection Agency]] in 1992 for an asbestos mine Vinnell had owned until operations there ceased in May 1974.[^10] The annual report for 1996 states that the [[Department of Defense]] produced about 36 percent of revenue, international defense agencies 27 percent, civil agencies 20 percent and commercial clients 17 percent.[^2]
That report also discloses a sealed civil qui tam suit, first disclosed in the Form 10-Q for the period ended September 30, 1996. It "alleges violation under the federal False Claims Act in connection with certain mischarging under overseas government contracts administered by the [[U.S. Air Force]], related to certain housing rented in connection with overseas operations, alleged improper hiring of and payments to certain employees, alleged improper payments to a subcontractor, and alleged improper purchases and payments made in support of client activities." Revenue from those contracts in 1996 was about 41 million dollars, and BDM had received a subpoena from the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Defense and an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the [[Eastern District of Virginia]]. The company stated that it would cooperate and that liability should not be material.[^2] The matter was still described in the third-quarter 1997 Form 10-Q.[^12]
### Intelligence Community Work
Declassified [[Central Intelligence Agency]] records show BDM as a support contractor to several offices of the agency and its community staff. In a letter of December 2, 1983, the [[Intelligence Information Handling Committee]] of the [[Director of Central Intelligence]] thanked Earle Williams for the firm's work on an "Intelligence Community Telecommunications Issues Study" and for computer-security support to the committee's [[CIRS]] security working group.[^13] A memorandum of June 15, 1984 bound a BDM employee, [[Robert MacOnie]] (praised in the December 1983 letter for the telecommunications study), to restrictions on a draft statement of work for video-disc production, including a promise that BDM would not bid on the resulting contract.[^14] In 1985 BDM provided administrative support to a Concurrent Processing Symposium sponsored by the CIA and funded by [[DARPA]], held on July 15 to 17 at the [[West Park Hotel]], [[Tysons Corner, Virginia]], and on July 18 at CIA headquarters, with about 250 attendees from the CIA and other community agencies, the National Security Council and the Air Force; panel discussions on classified applications followed on the fourth day.[^15] On July 26, 1985 BDM's Stuart W. Bowen wrote to the CIA that BDM had presented a one-day program on how BDM operates to senior [[National Security Agency]] executives twice, most recently in June 1985, paid for by the NSA through a purchase request of about 1,000 dollars.[^16] On August 29, 1985 the CIA's Office of Training and Education replied to [[Stuart W. Bowen]] of BDM, who had proposed a one-day program for senior executives, that the agency was "not in a position to pursue that type of program," while the Office of Information Technology would review BDM briefings offered by [[Laurence Jacobs]].[^16] A February 1987 memorandum records a briefing to the CIA Comptroller on a BDM study of the Office of Communications' funding.[^17] A CIA employee was to speak on contracting at BDM in McLean on February 27, 1985 in a professional development program of the [[Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association]], on a panel with a representative of the National Security Agency.[^18]
The [[State Department]] letter of June 27, 1985 to the director of the [[Intelligence Community Staff]] states that when the [[Office of Foreign Missions]] was established in early 1983 it had three State officers, two secretaries, one representative each from the CIA, the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]], the NSA, Army, [[United States Navy|Navy]], Air Force and [[Customs Service]], and five BDM employees; by June 1985 the "contract work force" was 35 BDM employees plus four consultants, which the letter ties to a "sophisticated data base management system accessible to the foreign affairs and national security communities." BDM staff were assigned to its programs: 11 employees in motor vehicle controls (registration, titling, plates, drivers' licenses and diplomats' traffic violations), six in the tax exemption card program, two in housing services, one in customs clearance, and three systems analysts full time on an accreditation data base. The sanitized letter is marked Secret.[^19]
In 1988 Braddock was listed to speak on "Continuing Modernization of Soviet Forces and Concepts of War" at an Air Force symposium on developments in the [[Soviet Union]].[^20] The Department of Defense Inspector General reported in April 1994 (report 94-077) that BDM, [[The Analytic Sciences Corporation]] and [[Riverside Research Institute]] held the three five-year cost-plus-award-fee "super" scientific, engineering and technical assistance contracts at the [[Ballistic Missile Defense Organization]]; to March 31, 1993 BDM had incurred about 112.2 million dollars, delivered about 1.5 million staff hours and received an award fee of about 15.1 million dollars, and in March 1993 it received a 12-month bridge contract of 22.1 million dollars.[^21] BDM Federal's 1994 work included systems integration for the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] "as the developer of [[EDGAR]]" (about 8.1 million dollars of 1994 revenue), the Air Force's DMRD-924 logistics computer consolidation (362 million dollars), operation of elements of the [[Joint Readiness Training Center]], and senior-level engineering for the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (about 22.1 million dollars).[^10] The Commission had announced on January 4, 1989 that on January 3 it awarded the contract to build the EDGAR electronic filing system to BDM, "bidding with" [[Mead Data Central]], [[Sorg, Inc.]] and [[Bechtel Information Systems]]; the expected eight-year term began with three years on a cost-reimbursement-plus-fixed-fee basis followed by five fixed-price years, at an estimated total cost to the government of approximately 52 million dollars.[^22] The [[Baltimore Sun]] of January 5, 1989 reported that the award followed a delay of more than two years, described the winning bid as a consortium led by BDM, which it called "a subsidiary of the Ford Motor Co.," with Mead Data Central, Sorg Inc. and Bechtel Information Systems, and stated that the eight-year contract covered a computer to accept and disseminate all filings by more than 11,000 publicly traded companies and 2,700 investment firms, with the Commission saying EDGAR should provide more than 170 million dollars in savings.[^23]
### Stubblebine and the 1985 Conference
[[Albert Stubblebine]] commanded the [[United States Army Intelligence and Security Command]] from May 1981 to June 1984. [[Jim Schnabel]] wrote in [[The Independent]] of August 27, 1995 that Stubblebine "retired from the Army in 1984 to become an executive at BDM Corporation, a Washington-area defence and intelligence contractor," and "left BDM a few years ago."[^24] A [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] addendum to a memorandum for the record dated December 10, 1985 lists "Stubblebine, Albert MG (Ret.)," as commanding general of INSCOM from May 1981 to June 1984 and "presently employed by BDM Corp. in the Wash., D.C. area."[^25] Stubblebine's own biography on the website of a Canadian company on whose board he sat states that "upon retirement, he served as the Vice President for Intelligence at BDM and ran his own consulting firm."[^26] [[John B. Alexander]] wrote in 2011 that Stubblebine went to work for BDM "as Vice President for Intelligence Operations."[^27] [[George P. Hansen]] wrote in *The Trickster and the Paranormal* that [[Karl Pflock]] worked for BDM International between 1989 and 1992 and that Stubblebine, chairman of Psi Tech, "also worked for the company" during that time; the Loose Threads authors also quote a transcript in which Admiral [[Bobby Ray Inman]] told an interviewer that a retired rear admiral and former Director of [[Office of Naval Intelligence|Naval Intelligence]], [[Sumner Shapiro]], "has been a Vice President of BDM."[^28] No source opened gives the date on which Stubblebine left the company.
Alexander wrote that the initial meetings of his "[[Advanced Theoretical Physics Working Group|ATP]]" group "would be held in the BDM secure facilities" at Tysons Corner, and that he informed Braddock, "the 'B' of BDM," who "seemed mildly curious, but exhibited no strong interest one way or another."[^27] A [[Department of Energy]] form DOE F 5631.20 dated May 8, 1985 requests admission for three [[Los Alamos National Laboratory]] employees to "the BDM McLean secure facility, 7915 Jonesbrook Rd.," on May 20 to 25, 1985 for an "Advance Theoretical Physics Conference," at TOP SECRET/RESTRICTED DATA access.[^27] James Shannon's handwritten attendee list places "Bert Stubblebine" under the organization "BDM" and carries a separate unnamed line marked BDM.[^27] [[Jacques Vallee]]'s journal entry of May 11, 1986 and [[Eric Davis]]'s notes of an October 2002 meeting, which mention a "BDM thing" and "AP-10," are described on the working group's page.[^27]
### Sale to TRW
The 1997 solicitation statement records that in the last week of August 1997 Philip A. Odeen and other executives decided to explore a combination; that [[Wasserstein Perella and Co.]] was engaged on September 8; that [[TRW]] signed a standstill agreement on September 29; that on October 31 TRW indicated 28.00 dollars a share, which the company's adviser said the board would not pursue; and that on November 10 TRW stated that to raise the price it required an irrevocable option and agreement to tender from Carlyle, a 35 million dollar break-up fee and a no-shop provision, together with employment arrangements for senior management. On November 12 TRW indicated 29.50 dollars. TRW's chairman [[Joseph T. Gorman]] had met Odeen on November 6. [[Bear Stearns]] gave TRW a fairness opinion on November 20, and the agreement was signed that evening. Carlyle affiliates holding 7,660,000 shares, about 25.8 percent, agreed to tender and gave an option at 29.50 dollars.[^29] TRW's offer documents estimate the funds required at about 930 million dollars; the joint press release of November 21, 1997 calls the transaction "valued at nearly $1 billion."[^29] Under the merger agreement the Carlyle monitoring and advisory arrangements ended at the effective time, and Odeen and [[Roy Woodle]], president and chief executive of Vinnell, were to sign new employment agreements.[^29] TRW's subsidiary Systems Acquisition Inc. completed the tender offer on December 24, 1997 and was merged into BDM on December 29, 1997, leaving BDM a wholly owned TRW subsidiary;[^30] BDM filed a Form 15 on December 29, 1997.[^31]
### Footnotes
[^1]: BDM International, Inc., Form S-1/A, filed June 26, 1995, "Corporate History," SEC accession 0000950112-95-001766, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/870763/0000950112-95-001766.txt. The 1996 Form 10-K (0000870763-97-000002) repeats the founders' names.
[^2]: BDM International, Inc., Form 10-K for 1996, filed March 18, 1997, accession 0000870763-97-000002, Items 1 and 3, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/870763/0000870763-97-000002.txt.
[^3]: Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, "2001 Navigator Award Winners" (Dr. Joseph V. Braddock, Founder, BDM), https://www.potomacinstitute.us/events/navigator-awards/1275-2001-navigator-awards, read in the Wayback Machine capture https://web.archive.org/web/2023/https://www.potomacinstitute.us/events/navigator-awards/1275-2001-navigator-awards. Sole source for the passages so cited.
[^4]: DTIC AD0407469, AD0614286, AD0745926, AD0731500, AD0774567 (RADC-TR-73-325, BDM/A90) and AD0920469, read in the archive.org items of the same identifiers, for example https://archive.org/details/DTIC_AD0774567. Titles and dates for all but AD0774567 are from archive.org metadata; the AD0774567 text was read directly.
[^5]: DTIC reports ADA058363 (DNA 4434T, BDM/W-77-474-TR), ADA064144 (DNA 4628T), ADA084651 (DNA 4962T, BDM/W-79-058-BR), ADA084659 (DNA 4355T-3, BDM/W-79-089-TR), ADA383295 (DNA 5661F-1, BDM/W-79-597-TR) and ADA099400 (DNA 5173F, BDM/W-79-532-TR, authors E. J. Bitinas, W. J. Christensen, J. Kenworthy and R. S. Smith), each read in the archive.org item of the same identifier, for example https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA099400.
[^6]: BDM Corporation, "A Study of Strategic Lessons Learned in Vietnam," DTIC ADA096424 to ADA096428, with the Strategic Studies Institute transmittal of March 9, 1981, https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA096424.
[^7]: Same, "Certain Transactions" (1990 Acquisition, Investor Agreement, Stockholders Agreement), "Management," "Compensation Committee Interlocks" and principal-stockholders table; BDM International, Inc., Form 424B4, filed March 22, 1996, accession 0000950112-96-000860, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/870763/0000950112-96-000860.txt; Form 424B1, filed June 30, 1995, accession 0000950112-95-001792 (price 18.50 dollars), https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/870763/0000950112-95-001792.txt.
[^8]: Dean Takahashi, "Loral to Sell BDM to Carlyle Group for $130 Million," Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles), September 19, 1990, p. 46, https://www.newspapers.com/image/175530103/
[^9]: BDM International, Inc., Form DEF 14A, filed April 11, 1997, accession 0000912057-97-012636, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/870763/0000912057-97-012636.txt.
[^10]: Form S-1/A, June 26, 1995, "Business," "Management's Discussion," "Certain Transactions" (Acquisition of Vinnell) and "Risk Factors," https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/870763/0000950112-95-001766.txt.
[^11]: "[Headline not captured]," Boston Globe (Boston), November 14, 1995, p. 20, https://www.newspapers.com/image/441109447/ (the same wire story ran in other papers that day; headline and byline not captured).
[^12]: BDM International, Inc., Form 10-Q, filed November 14, 1997, accession 0000870763-97-000020, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/870763/0000870763-97-000020.txt.
[^13]: Letter of the Intelligence Information Handling Committee to Earle Williams, December 2, 1983, CIA-RDP85M00158R000600090006-3, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp85m00158r000600090006-3.
[^14]: Memorandum to Robert MacOnie, BDM, IHC/MM 84-54, CIA-RDP86M00017R000400310058-8, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp86m00017r000400310058-8.
[^15]: "1985 Accomplishments, Office of Research and Development," CIA-RDP88G01332R000100070015-8, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88g01332r000100070015-8. The text gives the symposium dates as July 15 to 18 without a year; the document's 1985 scope is the basis for the year.
[^16]: Letter of the Director of Training and Education to Stuart W. Bowen, August 29, 1985, CIA-RDP89-00955R000100060040-7, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp89-00955r000100060040-7.
[^17]: Memorandum for the record DDA 87-0241, "Comptroller Brief on Office of Communications BDM Study," February 10, 1987, CIA-RDP89G00643R001300030044-2, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp89g00643r001300030044-2.
[^18]: "Outside Activity - AFCEA," 1985, CIA-RDP88G00186R000700830033-2, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88g00186r000700830033-2.
[^19]: Letter to the Director, Intelligence Community Staff, from the Office of Foreign Missions, June 27, 1985, CIA-RDP87M00220R000200260008-4, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp87m00220r000200260008-4. The archive's title attributes the letter to James E. Nolan, Jr.; the signature block is not legible in the text layer.
[^20]: Air Force symposium program, "Developments in the Soviet Union," 1988, CIA-RDP90G01353R002000030007-4, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90g01353r002000030007-4.
[^21]: Department of Defense Inspector General, "Super Scientific, Engineering, and Technical Assistance Contracts at the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization," Report No. 94-077, April 8, 1994, DTIC ADA375287, https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA375287.
[^22]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC News Digest, January 4, 1989, "SEC Names Contractor for EDGAR System" (Press Release 89-1), https://sec.gov/news/digest/1989/dig010489.pdf.
[^23]: "SEC awards data pact," Business Briefly, Baltimore Sun (Baltimore), January 5, 1989, p. 1D, https://www.newspapers.com/image/378257935/
[^24]: Schnabel, Jim. "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Psi," The Independent (London), Sunday Review, August 27, 1995, pp. 10-13, as transcribed by the Foreign Broadcast Information Service, CIA-RDP96-00791R000200090001-7 (also CIA-RDP96-00791R000100030073-5), read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp96-00791r000200090001-7.
[^25]: "Addendum to MFR, dtd 10 Dec 85," CIA-RDP96-00788R001700030001-1, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp96-00788r001700030001-1.
[^26]: Canadian Subsidiary Technology Inc. board of directors page, Wayback capture of February 6, 2005, https://web.archive.org/web/20050206131007id_/http://canadiansub.com/Board.html. The page is a promotional biography written for the company; sole source for the quoted title.
[^27]: Advanced Theoretical Physics Working Group page of this vault, drawing on Elizondo and the Hermetic Penetrator, "The Loose Threads Report," Anomaly Archives, 2022, pp. 16-22, 166, 187-188, https://anomalyarchives.org/wp-content/uploads/PDF-Loose-Threads.pdf, which quotes Alexander, *UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies, and Realities* (2011); the book was not opened. Sole source for the passages so cited.
[^28]: Elizondo and the Hermetic Penetrator, "The Loose Threads Report," Anomaly Archives, 2022, pp. 61-62, https://anomalyarchives.org/wp-content/uploads/PDF-Loose-Threads.pdf, quoting Hansen, *The Trickster and the Paranormal* (2001), and a transcript of Inman; neither original was opened. Sole source for the passages so cited.
[^29]: BDM International, Inc., Schedule 14D-9, filed November 26, 1997 (letter to stockholders; "Background of the Offer"; Stockholders Agreement; severance and employment arrangements; press release of November 21, 1997), accession 0000950152-97-008353, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/870763/0000950152-97-008353.txt; TRW Inc., Schedule 14D-1, same date, accession 0000950152-97-008369, Item 9 (about 930 million dollars), https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/870763/0000950152-97-008369.txt.
[^30]: TRW Inc., Form 8-K, accession 0000950152-97-008891, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/100030/0000950152-97-008891.txt.
[^31]: BDM International, Inc., Form 15-12G, filed December 29, 1997, accession 0000950152-97-008867, EDGAR filing index https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/870763/0000950152-97-008867-index.html.

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20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Battelle Memorial Institute.md Normal file
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@ -0,0 +1,88 @@
---
category: "Private Organization"
tags:
- Organization
- Private
- ContractResearch
- UFO
- AtomicEnergy
- Ohio
- ATIC
- ProjectBlueBook
- Intelligence
alias:
- Battelle Memorial Institute
- Battelle
- BMI
- Battelle Columbus Laboratories
- Battelle Columbus
- Project Bear
- Project BEAR
- Project Stork
- Project White Stork
summary: "Columbus, Ohio contract research institute that held the Air Technical Intelligence Center's UFO support contract (Ruppelt's Project Bear, the Robertson Panel's Project Stork) from late 1951 and produced Blue Book Special Report No. 14."
location: "Columbus, Ohio"
relations:
- type: contractor_to
with: "[[Air Technical Intelligence Center]]"
start: 1951-12
end: 1954-12
role: "scientific support contract for Project Grudge and Project Blue Book (Project Bear, later Stork), including the questionnaire and punch-card study published as Special Report No. 14"
fn: 5
- type: contractor_to
with: "[[Central Intelligence Agency]]"
role: "site of two sets of tests on a model of a Soviet-designed biological bomblet under the Agency's Clear Vision program, according to intelligence officials quoted by the New York Times"
fn: 10
- type: contractor_to
with: "[[Atomic Energy Commission]]"
start: 1965-01-04
role: "operated the Hanford Laboratories (later Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) for the commission"
fn: 9
- type: founded
with: "[[Gordon Battelle]]"
reverse: true
start: 1925
role: "institute created under the will of the Columbus industrialist Gordon Battelle"
fn: 1
created: 2026-10-03
updated: 2026-10-03
---
The Battelle Memorial Institute is a nonprofit contract research organization at 505 King Avenue, [[Columbus, Ohio]], next to [[Ohio State University]], created under the will of the Columbus steel heir [[Gordon Battelle]]. The will was drawn in 1920, Gordon Battelle died in 1923, and the institute was incorporated as a nonprofit in 1925; its first laboratory opened in October 1929 with a staff of about thirty and its first director was the metallurgist [[Horace W. Gillett]].[^1] [[Clyde E. Williams]] replaced Gillett in 1934 and resolved to make the institute's services more readily available to industry; in 1943 Battelle technologists began studying the fabrication of uranium for the [[Manhattan Project]].[^1] In the early 1950s the institute bought a large tract of land near Columbus and built the world's first privately owned nuclear research center, with a research reactor, a critical assembly facility and hot cells.[^1] The inventor [[Chester Carlson]] approached the institute in 1944, and through its subsidiary [[Battelle Development Corporation]] the institute agreed to help refine his dry copying process; a later relationship with the [[Haloid Company]] (afterward [[Xerox Corporation]]) ended in the early 1960s with an exchange of xerography patents for equity that by the early 1970s gave Battelle an investment portfolio valued above $225 million.[^1]
### The contract Ruppelt would not name
[[Edward J. Ruppelt]] described the origin of the arrangement in 1956. After the reorganization of [[Project Grudge]] he wrote that no one on his staff could answer questions that would arise from UFO reports, so he decided to "set up a contract with some research organization who already had such people on their staff." The day after Christmas 1951 he and Colonel [[S. H. Kirkland]] of [[Colonel Dunn]]'s staff left [[Dayton, Ohio|Dayton]] for a two-day conference with the organization. Ruppelt wrote that "Their organization cannot be identified by name because they are doing other highly secret work for the government," and called it "Project Bear." He described it as "a large, well-known research organization in the Midwest" with "several hundred engineers and scientists" ranging "from experts on soils to nuclear physicists," which had no staff astronomer or psychologist but agreed to obtain them on subcontract.[^2] Two studies were part of the arrangement: a study of how much a person could be expected to see and remember in a UFO sighting, ending in an interrogation form, and a statistical study of all UFO reports on [[IBM]] punch cards, with about a hundred items on each card.[^2] Ruppelt wrote that the questionnaire, which Project Bear developed over five months with psychologists from a midwestern university, was in use by June 1952, ran eight pages with sixty-eight questions "booby-trapped in a couple of places" as a cross-check on the observer, and that by the summer of 1952 three scientists were employed full time on Project Bear.[^2]
The memorandum of the [[Robertson Panel]], prepared for the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] after the panel's meetings of January 14 to 17, 1953, names the contractor. Its minutes for Thursday, January 15 record that "The Project STORK support at Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, was described by Dr. Hynek" ([[J. Allen Hynek]]), and its list of evidence presented includes "Progress Reports of Project STORK (code name for Battelle Memorial Institute contract work supporting [[Air Technical Intelligence Center|ATIC]])." In the online edition of Appendix U of the [[Condon Committee]] report published by the [[National Capital Area Skeptics]], which marks deletions in the 1968 printing as restored in braces from a copy obtained from the [[Parascope]] site and checked against a [[National Archives and Records Administration|National Archives]] copy, the words "Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus" and "code name for Battelle Memorial Institute" appear in braces.[^3] The same Condon appendix contains the [[United States Air Force|Air Force]] regulation under which, from 1966, the [[Foreign Technology Division]] was authorized to "Use other Government agencies, private industrial companies, and contractor personnel to assist in analyzing and evaluating UFO reports, as necessary."[^4]
The [[Department of Defense]]'s [[All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office]] (AARO) listed the arrangement in February 2024 as "Project BEAR (Late 1951 to Late 1954)": "an informal name given by Capt Ruppelt, Chief of Project GRUDGE, to a contract he created with the Battelle Memorial Institute (BMI) to provide scientific support," with technical support, a study of recall of interviewees, an improved debriefing questionnaire and a punch-card system. The report states that "BMI released a report under the cover of ATIC to maintain its anonymity," completed in late 1954 and titled "Special Report No. 14," and that it concluded it was "highly improbable" that the cases represented technology beyond "present day scientific knowledge." AARO's notes for the entry cite [[Hector Quintanilla]]'s article in the CIA journal [[Studies in Intelligence]] of Fall 1966.[^5]
### Special Report No. 14
The report is catalogued as Study No. 102-EL-55/2-79, Project No. 10073, dated May 5, 1955, titled "Analysis of Reports of Unidentified Aerial Objects," issued as [[Project Blue Book|Blue Book]] Special Report No. 14 of the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) at [[Wright-Patterson Air Force Base]]. The text, as scanned, does not name Battelle; it states that "a panel of consultants was formed, consisting of both experts within and outside ATIC," that it rests on "approximately 4,000 reports" of June 1947 to December 1952 reduced to IBM punched-card abstracts, and that the study was undertaken "to determine if 'flying saucers' represented technological developments not known to this country."[^6] The introduction quotes Hynek's definition of a flying saucer as "any aerial phenomenon or sighting that remains unexplained to the viewer at least long enough for him to write a report about it," citing his 1953 article in the [[Journal of the Optical Society of America]].[^6] Its conclusions attribute the failure to identify most of the objects classified as unknown to "a combination of factors, principally the reported maneuvers of the objects and the unavailability of supplemental data such as aircraft flight plans or balloon-launching records." They state that "there was a complete lack of any valid evidence consisting of physical matter in any case of a reported unidentified aerial object," that the probability that the unknowns were "flying saucers" was "extremely small," and that "It can never be absolutely proven that 'flying saucers' do not exist."[^6]
### Project White Stork
The arrangement outlasted Blue Book's early years. A memorandum of October 11, 1960 from the Chief of the Intelligence Production Faculty of the CIA's [[CIA Intelligence School|Intelligence School]], in the Agency's [[CIA CREST Reading Room|CREST]] collection with the marking "USAF Declass/Release Instructions On File," reports a visit by a staff member (name withheld) to "the Air Force's Project White Stork (PWS) at Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, Ohio." It states that White Stork "has assumed increasing importance to OSI analysts because it is able to provide considerably more assistance for many scientific and technical intelligence research tasks than any other repository in the Intelligence Community"; that information specialists with science degrees mark documents, answer reference queries and maintain a card file keyed to underlined "clue terms" including "personalities, institutes, and place names"; that the Agency's [[Office of Scientific Intelligence]] was "considering providing funds to PWS"; and that at that time White Stork "concentrates on subjects of interest to the Air Force's Aerospace Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Field, Dayton."[^7] A [[Department of State|State Department]] memorandum of November 10, 1964 to the [[Foreign Area Research Coordination Group]] lists a second Battelle unit, the [[Remote Areas Conflict Information Center]] in Columbus, among research and analysis centers serving the military.[^8]
### Atomic Energy Commission and national laboratory work
On January 4, 1965 the "key" to the [[Hanford Laboratories]], first called the Pacific Northwest Laboratory, was officially transferred to Battelle, which operated it for the [[Atomic Energy Commission]]; the laboratory became the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in 1995.[^9] In 1978 the [[Department of Energy]] selected Battelle to manage a program on commercial nuclear waste isolation, and in the 1960s and 1970s the institute was the subject of an [[Internal Revenue Service]] tax dispute (settled for $47 million in taxes and loss of tax-free status) and of an [[Ohio Attorney General]] challenge to its reading of Gordon Battelle's will, settled in 1975 with a distribution of $80 million to other charities.[^1]
### Classified work
The institute worked on rocket and missile propulsion during the [[World War II|Second World War]] and on nuclear propulsion research that led to the submarine [[USS Nautilus]] in 1948.[^1] [[The New York Times]] reported on September 4, 2001 that the Central Intelligence Agency, in a program code-named [[Clear Vision]] that began in 1997, built and tested a model of a [[Soviet Union|Soviet]]-designed biological bomblet, that "the agency conducted two sets of tests at Battelle, the military contractor," and that the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] had taken over a project to replicate a genetically altered anthrax strain, to be part of [[Project Jefferson]], for which the [[West Jefferson, Ohio]], laboratory of Battelle had been selected. A spokesman for the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lieutenant Commander [[James Brooks]], declined comment and, asked about the precautions at Battelle, said security was "entirely suitable for all work already conducted and planned for Project Jefferson."[^10]
### Footnotes
[^1]: "Battelle Memorial Institute, Inc.," International Directory of Company Histories, Gale (entry reprinted at Reference for Business), https://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/88/Battelle-Memorial-Institute-Inc.html (the entry gives 1920 for the will, 1923 for Gordon Battelle's death, 1925 for incorporation and October 1929 for the first laboratory; other histories give 1923 for the will and 1929 for the institute's beginning).
[^2]: Edward J. Ruppelt, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects (Garden City: Doubleday, 1956), chapters nine and ten, Project Gutenberg ebook 17346, https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/17346/pg17346.txt (passages on the meeting "the day after Christmas," "Project Bear," the interrogation form and the IBM file; the staff and questionnaire passages in chapter ten).
[^3]: F. C. Durant, "Report of Meetings of the Office of Scientific Intelligence Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects," Central Intelligence Agency, 16 February 1953, printed as Appendix U of the Condon Report, https://files.ncas.org/condon/text/appndx-u.htm (Part I, Thursday morning; Tab C, "Evidence Presented"; NCAS editors' note on restored deletions). Reading room copy: CIA-RDP79B00752A000300100010-4, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp79b00752a000300100010-4
[^4]: Air Force Regulation 80-17, 19 September 1966, paragraph 3d, Condon Report Appendix B, https://files.ncas.org/condon/text/appndx-b.htm
[^5]: Department of Defense, All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, Volume I, February 2024, "Project BEAR (Late 1951 to Late 1954)," with notes 23 to 25 citing Hector Quintanilla Jr., "The Investigation of UFOs," Studies in Intelligence 10, no. 4 (Fall 1966), pp. 95 to 110, https://media.defense.gov/2024/Mar/08/2003409233/-1/-1/0/DOPSR-CLEARED-508-COMPLIANT-HRRV1-08-MAR-2024-FINAL.PDF (read from the Wayback Machine raw copy, web.archive.org/web/2024id_/ plus that address).
[^6]: Air Technical Intelligence Center, Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14, "Analysis of Reports of Unidentified Aerial Objects," Study No. 102-EL-55/2-79, Project No. 10073, 5 May 1955, pp. vii to viii, 1 to 3 and 94, https://archive.org/details/ProjectBlueBookSpecialReport14 (OCR text read at /download/ProjectBlueBookSpecialReport14/pbbsr14_djvu.txt).
[^7]: Chief, Intelligence Production Faculty, Intelligence School, Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum "Weekly Activities Report No. 36, 5-11 October 1960," 11 October 1960, CIA-RDP78-04836A000100040080-9, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp78-04836a000100040080-9 (the visitor's name is withheld under exemption 25X1A9A; "OSI" is the Office of Scientific Intelligence).
[^8]: William J. Nagle, Chairman, Foreign Area Research Coordination Group, Department of State, memorandum "Foreign Area Research Notes," 10 November 1964, CIA-RDP66B00403R000300360003-8, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp66b00403r000300360003-8
[^9]: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, "Moments in Time," https://www.pnnl.gov/our-history/moments-in-time (transfer of the key on January 4, 1965; the 1995 renaming).
[^10]: Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg and William J. Broad, "U.S. Germ Warfare Research Pushes Treaty Limits," The New York Times, September 4, 2001, https://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/04/world/us-germ-warfare-research-pushes-treaty-limits.html (read from the Wayback Machine copy).

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20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies.md
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@ -15,25 +15,37 @@ summary: "Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) was the primary DIA c
start: 2008-01-01
end: 2012-01-01
location: "Las Vegas, Nevada"
aliases:
- BAASS
- Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies, LLC
- Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies LLC
relations:
- type: contractor_to
with: "[[Defense Intelligence Agency]]"
role: "sole bidder and awardee, firm fixed price order HHM402-08-C-0072 (Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications)"
start: 2008-09-22
end: 2010-12-21
fn: 3
updated: 2026-10-02
---
Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) was a subsidiary of [[Robert Bigelow]]'s aerospace and real estate enterprise, established as a scientific research and contracting organization to pursue anomalous phenomena investigation, including unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP). It was the primary contractor for the Defense Intelligence Agency's [[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program|AATIP]]-related research program (formally designated the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program, AAWSAP) from 2008 to approximately 2010.[^1]
Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) was a subsidiary of [[Robert Bigelow]]'s aerospace and real estate enterprise, established as a scientific research and contracting organization to pursue anomalous phenomena investigation, including unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP). It was the primary contractor for the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]]'s [[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program|AATIP]]-related research program (formally designated the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program, AAWSAP) from 2008 to approximately 2010.[^1]
### Background: Robert Bigelow
Robert T. Bigelow was born in 1944 in [[Las Vegas]], Nevada. He built a significant fortune through Budget Suites of America, a chain of extended-stay apartment hotels, and through Bigelow Aerospace, a commercial space company focused on the development of expandable habitat modules for space stations. Bigelow had maintained a longstanding personal interest in UAP and anomalous phenomena, influenced by his family's reported UAP encounter and by his relationship with Nevada Senator Harry Reid, who shared his interest in the subject.[^1]
Robert T. Bigelow was born in 1944 in [[Las Vegas]], [[Nevada]]. He built a significant fortune through [[Budget Suites of America]], a chain of extended-stay apartment hotels, and through Bigelow Aerospace, a commercial space company focused on the development of expandable habitat modules for space stations. Bigelow had maintained a longstanding personal interest in UAP and anomalous phenomena, influenced by his family's reported UAP encounter and by his relationship with Nevada Senator [[Harry Reid]], who shared his interest in the subject.[^1]
In 1996, Bigelow purchased the Sherman family's ranch in northeastern Utah - known as the Skinwalker Ranch - for $200,000. The property had been the site of reported anomalous events including cattle mutilations, apparitions, unusual craft sightings, and other phenomena reported by the Sherman family and documented in local press. Bigelow established the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS) in 1995 to conduct systematic investigation of anomalous phenomena, and NIDS researchers conducted observation at Skinwalker Ranch from 1996 through the early 2000s.[^1]
In 1996, Bigelow purchased the [[Sherman family]]'s ranch in northeastern [[Utah]] - known as the [[Skinwalker Ranch]] - for $200,000. The property had been the site of reported anomalous events including cattle mutilations, apparitions, unusual craft sightings, and other phenomena reported by the Sherman family and documented in local press. Bigelow established the [[National Institute for Discovery Science]] (NIDS) in 1995 to conduct systematic investigation of anomalous phenomena, and NIDS researchers conducted observation at Skinwalker Ranch from 1996 through the early 2000s.[^1]
### AAWSAP Contract
In 2008, the Defense Intelligence Agency awarded a $10 million per year contract (for a minimum of two years, totaling approximately $22 million) to BAASS to conduct the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program. The contract was secured through the advocacy of Senator Harry Reid (D-Nevada) and two colleagues, Senators Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), who obtained the funding as an earmark. The contract specified research into advanced aerospace threats including potential foreign developments - the framework that allowed UAP investigation to be packaged as a defense intelligence requirement rather than a paranormal inquiry.[^1]
In 2008, the Defense Intelligence Agency awarded a firm fixed price order to BAASS, with a one-year base period and one option year, to conduct the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program. The contract was secured through the advocacy of Senator Harry Reid (D-Nevada) and two colleagues, Senators [[Ted Stevens]] (R-Alaska) and [[Daniel Inouye]] (D-Hawaii), who obtained the funding as an earmark. The contract specified research into advanced aerospace threats including potential foreign developments - the framework that allowed UAP investigation to be packaged as a defense intelligence requirement rather than a paranormal inquiry.[^1]
BAASS employed approximately 50 full-time researchers and contracted hundreds more to staff the program. The chief scientist was [[Hal Puthoff]], the physicist who had directed the original SRI remote viewing program in the 1970s and maintained decades of research interest in advanced propulsion and UAP physics. BAASS investigators conducted site visits to UAP encounter locations, collected witness testimony, analyzed materials, and commissioned studies on advanced propulsion, exotic physics, and human physiological effects from UAP encounters.[^1]
BAASS employed approximately 50 full-time researchers and contracted hundreds more to staff the program. The chief scientist was [[Hal Puthoff]], the physicist who had directed the original [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI]] remote viewing program in the 1970s and maintained decades of research interest in advanced propulsion and UAP physics. BAASS investigators conducted site visits to UAP encounter locations, collected witness testimony, analyzed materials, and commissioned studies on advanced propulsion, exotic physics, and human physiological effects from UAP encounters.[^1]
### Skinwalker Ranch and Anomalous Phenomena
BAASS investigators conducted detailed ongoing research at Skinwalker Ranch during the contract period. The ranch had been the site of continued anomalous events since NIDS's initial investigation, and BAASS deployed instrumented observation posts, camera systems, and resident researchers. The scope of reported phenomena at the ranch - which Colm Kelleher and George Knapp documented in *Hunt for the Skinwalker* (Paraview Pocket Books, 2005) - included UAP, cattle mutilations, poltergeist-type effects, and what researchers described as a "hitchhiker effect," in which phenomena reportedly followed investigators home.[^1]
BAASS investigators conducted detailed ongoing research at Skinwalker Ranch during the contract period. The ranch had been the site of continued anomalous events since NIDS's initial investigation, and BAASS deployed instrumented observation posts, camera systems, and resident researchers. The scope of reported phenomena at the ranch - which [[Colm Kelleher]] and [[George Knapp]] documented in *[[Hunt for the Skinwalker]]* (Paraview Pocket Books, 2005) - included UAP, cattle mutilations, poltergeist-type effects, and what researchers described as a "hitchhiker effect," in which phenomena reportedly followed investigators home.[^1]
### Reports and DIRD Studies
@ -41,13 +53,64 @@ BAASS produced a series of Defense Intelligence Reference Documents (DIRDs) - te
### Medical Effects Research
BAASS research included investigation of physiological effects reported by individuals claiming proximity to UAP, building on a database of cases with reported biological effects. [[Kit Green]], the CIA neurophysiologist who had overseen the original SRI remote viewing program from 1972, contributed to this aspect of the research, applying forensic neurological analysis to reported injury patterns. The physiological effects research represented a continuity between the 1970s government anomalous phenomena programs and the AATIP-era research.[^2]
BAASS research included investigation of physiological effects reported by individuals claiming proximity to UAP, building on a database of cases with reported biological effects. [[Kit Green]], the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] neurophysiologist who had overseen the original SRI remote viewing program from 1972, contributed to this aspect of the research, applying forensic neurological analysis to reported injury patterns. The physiological effects research represented a continuity between the 1970s government anomalous phenomena programs and the AATIP-era research.[^2]
### Termination and Legacy
The BAASS contract was not renewed after its initial two-year period. The AAWSAP program transitioned to a smaller successor effort designated AATIP, directed by Luis Elizondo within the Pentagon's Washington Headquarters Services. BAASS's accumulated research and case files remained with the program's intelligence customers. Robert Bigelow later sold Skinwalker Ranch to a new ownership group in 2016.[^1]
The BAASS contract was not renewed after its initial two-year period. The AAWSAP program transitioned to a smaller successor effort designated AATIP, directed by [[Luis Elizondo]] within the [[Pentagon]]'s [[Washington Headquarters Services]]. BAASS's accumulated research and case files remained with the program's intelligence customers. Robert Bigelow later sold Skinwalker Ranch to a new ownership group in 2016.[^1]
### Solicitation and award
The Defense Intelligence Agency published its request for proposals on August 18, 2008, listing twelve technical areas: lift, propulsion, control, armament (radio-frequency and directed energy), spatial and temporal translation, signature reduction, materials, configuration and structure, power generation, human effects, human interface, and technology integration. A DIA talking paper dated May 4, 2009 states that DIA "received only one bid, from Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS), in response to the RFP," determined the proposal responsive, and signed the contract on September 22, 2008.[^3] A second DIA memorandum describes BAASS as "the only bid, headquartered in [[North Las Vegas]], Nevada." The November 17, 2009 talking points describe the award to "the sole bidder" as covering "unclassified research in 11 technical areas" with technical reports due July 31, 2009.[^4][^5] The solicitation number is HHM402-08-R-0211, and the awarded contract number appears on DIA's own forms as HHM402-08-C-0072.[^6][^7] Block 6 of the order form gives the solicitation issue date as September 1, 2008, block 8 gives an offer due date of September 10, 2008, and the order incorporates the BAASS proposal dated September 3, 2008; the DIA talking paper dates the request for proposals August 18, 2008.[^3][^6]
The award document is a Standard Form 1449 (Solicitation/Contract/Order for Commercial Items) issued by the [[Virginia Contracting Activity]] at [[Bolling Air Force Base]] (issuing office code HHQ402, administered by ZD50). It names "Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies, LLC, 4640 S Eastern Ave, Las Vegas NV 89119" as contractor (CAGE 54JU7) and designates the [[NSA]] Finance and Accounting Office at [[Fort Meade|Fort George G. Meade]], Maryland as the paying office. Block 26 of this copy gives the total award amount as 21,948,810 dollars. The copy of the same Standard Form 1449 reproduced at the front of the modification P00001 package (block 3 award date September 22, 2008, block 6 solicitation issue date September 1, 2008) gives the total award amount in block 26 as 10,000,000 dollars.[^8] The contract type is firm fixed price, with a base year of September 22, 2008 to September 29, 2009 and an option year of September 22, 2009 to September 21, 2010; the order incorporates BAASS's proposal dated September 3, 2008. The line items are monthly status reports, project management plans for the tasks listed as 3.a.1 through 3.a.12, research reports for the same tasks, a "Comprehensive Integrated Threat Assessment," travel, and other direct costs; the unit prices and line amounts are redacted under [[Freedom of Information Act|FOIA]] Exemption 4.[^6] The statement of work (section 5.1) required the contractor to provide a work facility with a Top Secret facility clearance granted by the [[Defense Security Service]], and states that cleared facilities "are not required at contract inception."[^7] Modification P00001 refers to the order as dated September 22, 2008.[^8]
DIA's response letter in case FOIA-00269-2018, which released a single six-page document, is dated June 26, 2023; its response letter in case FOIA-00349-2018, a request that cited contract HHM402-08-R-0211, is dated October 13, 2022 and covers nine documents (36 pages).[^6][^7] Two documents (13 pages) were withheld in full under 10 U.S.C. 424 and 41 U.S.C. 2102(a)(1) (contract source selection information).[^7]
### Payments, funding and modifications
A DIA contract status briefing dated December 16, 2008 for contract HHM402-08-C-0072 states that "equal amount monthly payments to contractor have commenced and allow for research subcontracts to be put into place quickly," that the technical approaches were "established, traditional techniques within intended scope of contract," and that the effort was "on track, on schedule, and within cost." It records that the first contract status brief was given on November 10, that Senator Harry Reid raised the subject in a meeting on November 13, and that BAASS submitted program management plans for the twelve technical areas on November 21, 2008.[^9]
A briefing of August 24, 2009 states that BAASS was "in full compliance," had delivered 12 project management plans and 26 detailed research reports ("twice minimum requirement") by June 30, 2009, that DIA should proceed with option year 1 "subject to available funding," and that 12 million dollars for continuation had been submitted in the fiscal 2010 defense budget. It records that the contracting officer would extend the contract through September 30 to use fiscal 2010 funds in option year 1 at no additional cost to the government, and that BAASS had indicated it was "willing to operate 'at risk' in option year 1 until FY10 funding arrives."[^10] A later briefing states that the 12 million dollars "also covers BAASS overhead, staff, facilities, IT, security, databases, etc."[^11]
The modifications released in FOIA-00349-2018 are:
Modification P00001, effective September 2, 2009 (signed September 4, 2009): extended the period of performance to September 30, 2009, revised the option year to October 1, 2009 to September 30, 2010, and exercised option year 1 "subject to availability of funds" under FAR 52.217-9, with a modification amount of 0.00 dollars. The contractor address on this form is 1899 W Brooks Ave, North Las Vegas.[^8]
Modification P00002, effective February 2, 2010: provided funding (amount redacted) for the exercise of option year 1, removed the availability-of-funds clause of P00001, and directed BAASS to "identify impacts to deliverables as a result of reduced funding for Option Year 1" and to identify "technical risks of reduced funding."[^12]
Modifications P00003 and P00004, both distributed May 18, 2010: administrative changes concerning the contracting officer's representative.[^12]
Modification P00005, September 28, 2010: extended the period of performance from September 21, 2010 to December 21, 2010 under FAR 52.217-8, with no funding required.[^12]
DIA's October 30, 2009 memorandum lists 26 technical reports delivered in fiscal 2009. It states that eight reviews were performed by other authors listed in its table and five by outside reviewers, among them three research staff members at [[Sandia National Laboratories]], and that "based on draft budget guidance, [[U.S. Congress|Congress]] apparently will fund the contract's option year one at $12 million."[^5] A 2010 memorandum to the [[Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics]] states that the fiscal 2010 Defense Appropriations Act "included a $12 million add for the project," that twelve additional reports were produced and delivered, and that one of the 26 reports, "Advanced Space Propulsion Based on Vacuum (Spacetime Metric) Engineering," was published in March 2010.[^5]
### Counterintelligence notation
Talking points prepared for the Deputy Secretary of Defense's November 17, 2009 meeting with Senator Reid contain the entry "August 2008: DIA learned of counter-intelligence concerns with Bigelow Aerospace, the parent company of Bigelow Aerospace Advance Space Studies. These concerns do not appear to be directly related to Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Application Program (AAWSAP)." The next entry reads "September 2008: DIA awarded the contract to the sole bidder." The document does not state the nature of the concerns. The talking points are attached to a memorandum signed by [[James Clapper|James R. Clapper Jr.]], [[Under Secretary of Defense]] for Intelligence, recommending against a Special Access Program; it states that the program manager and his leadership "saw no justification for Special Access protections based on the content of the FY09 deliverables or the anticipated FY10 work."[^4]
Sole source for the August 2008 counterintelligence sentence: the November 17, 2009 talking points as released. The redactions leave the nature of the concerns and the component that learned of them unstated.
### Appropriation as described in DIA papers
The talking points state that "Senators Reid and Inouye co-sponsored a $10M earmark in the July 2008 supplemental" and that "a $12M earmark has been allocated to support the program in FY2010," and record that Reid met a DIA analyst "at a technical conference" in early 2008. They list that a Reid staff member, [[Robert T. Herbert|Bob Herbert]], made "multiple phone calls" between July and October 2009 to [[Marcel Lettre]] (listed as "PDASDILA"), asking about the status of the response to Reid's June 24, 2009 letter, and that DIA met Herbert on November 4, 2009, who "relayed the Senator's impatience."[^4]
### Foundations at the contractor's address
The [[Robert Thomas Bigelow Educational Foundation]] Inc (EIN 93-3962948) and the [[Robert Thomas Bigelow Medical Foundation]] Inc (EIN 93-3974535), both with a March 2024 [[Internal Revenue Service|IRS]] ruling date as 501(c)(3) organizations, list their address as 4640 S Eastern Ave, Las Vegas, Nevada, the contractor address on the 2008 order. Their Forms 990-PF for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2024 report contributions of 62,000 dollars to each, all from Robert Thomas Bigelow, expenses of 105 and 8,158 dollars, and year-end assets of 61,895 and 53,953 dollars. The returns list Robert Thomas Bigelow as president and director and as treasurer and director, [[Donna Stauch]] as secretary and director, and Colm Kelleher and [[Jody Erickson]] as directors.[^13]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Lacatski, James T., Kelleher, Colm A., and Knapp, George. *Skinwalkers at the Pentagon: An Insider's Account of the Secret Government UAP Program*. RTMA, 2021. Elizondo, Luis. *IMMINENT: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs*. Morrow, 2024.
[^2]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
[^3]: Defense Intelligence Agency, Talking Paper, "Senator Reid Visit to Director, DIA," May 4, 2009, released by DIA to The Black Vault. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/dia/AAWSAP/DR_Reid_Mtg_May09.pdf
[^4]: Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, final packet for the Deputy Secretary of Defense's November 17, 2009 meeting with Senator Harry Reid, including the memorandum signed by James R. Clapper Jr. and the talking points. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/dia/AAWSAP/09117-Final_Packet_Presented_to_DepSecDef.pdf
[^5]: Defense Intelligence Agency, Info Memo U-10-2552CE to the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, "Advanced Aerospace Threat and Identification Program," 2010; and Info Memo U-429-09 of October 30, 2009, "Review of Advanced Aerospace Contract Deliverables." https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/dia/AAWSAP/U-10-2552CE-IM-ATL.pdf and https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/dia/AAWSAP/U-429-09-DWO-IM.pdf
[^6]: Defense Intelligence Agency, Standard Form 1449, order HHM402-08-C-0072, signed September 22, 2008, released with a DIA letter dated June 26, 2023 in FOIA-00269-2018. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/dia/AAWSAP/FOIA-00269-2018-.pdf
[^7]: DIA letter U-22-8017/IMO-2 (FOIA) of October 13, 2022 and attached records (statement of work sections 5.1 and 9; modifications), FOIA-00349-2018. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/dia/AAWSAP/FOIA-00349-2018.pdf ; document index with release notes: https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/the-advanced-aerospace-weapon-system-applications-program-aawsap-documentation/
[^8]: Modification P00001 (Standard Form 30), effective September 2, 2009, with the attached copy of Standard Form 1449 for order HHM402-08-C-0072. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/dia/AAWSAP/Contract_FY10.pdf
[^9]: Defense Intelligence Agency, briefing "Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Contract Status," contract HHM402-08-C-0072, December 16, 2008. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/dia/AAWSAP/DI_Brief_2008.pdf
[^10]: Defense Intelligence Agency, briefing "Aerospace Contract Status," August 24, 2009. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/dia/AAWSAP/Contract_Status_24Aug09.pdf
[^11]: Defense Intelligence Agency, briefing "Contract Status," 2009 (undated), slide on option year 1 deliverables. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/dia/AAWSAP/Contract_Status_Briefing.pdf
[^12]: Modifications P00002 (February 2, 2010), P00003 and P00004 (May 18, 2010) and P00005 (September 28, 2010), contract HHM402-08-C-0072, in FOIA-00349-2018. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/dia/AAWSAP/FOIA-00349-2018.pdf
[^13]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search e-file data, Form 990-PF, The Robert Thomas Bigelow Educational Foundation Inc (EIN 93-3962948, object ID 202403379349100410) and The Robert Thomas Bigelow Medical Foundation Inc (EIN 93-3974535, object ID 202413379349100411), tax period ended January 31, 2024, in https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2024/2024_TEOS_XML_12A.zip ; ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer API records for the same EINs. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/933962948.json and https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/933974535.json

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---
category: "Private Organization"
tags:
- Organization
- Private
- Contractor
- NuclearTesting
- Nevada
- Area51
- AtomicEnergyCommission
- Janet
- UFO
alias:
- EG&G
- EG&G Inc
- EG&G Incorporated
- EG&G Inc.
- EG&G Special Projects
- EG&G Special Projects, Inc.
- EG&G Technical Services
- EG&G Division
- Edgerton, Germeshausen & Grier
- Edgerton, Germeshausen and Grier
- Edgerton, Germehausen & Grier
- EGG
summary: "Massachusetts instrumentation contractor founded in 1947, Atomic Energy Commission and Department of Energy test-site contractor in Nevada, Groom Lake radar test operator and, in witness accounts, the Las Vegas boarding point for Groom Lake."
location: "Wellesley, Massachusetts; Las Vegas, Nevada"
start: 1947
relations:
- type: founded
with: "[[Harold Edgerton]]"
reverse: true
start: 1947-11-13
role: "MIT professor who with Kenneth Germeshausen and Herbert Grier formed the partnership Edgerton, Germeshausen & Grier"
fn: 1
- type: contractor_to
with: "[[Atomic Energy Commission]]"
start: 1947
role: "nuclear test instrumentation and advice for tests in Nevada and the Pacific"
fn: 1
- type: contractor_to
with: "[[Department of Energy]]"
end: 1995-12-31
role: "Energy Measurements and Reynolds Electrical and Engineering contracts at the Nevada Test Site, among five Department of Energy contracts held in 1994"
fn: 3
- type: contractor_to
with: "[[United States Air Force]]"
role: "operated a radar evaluation facility at Indian Springs, Nevada under an Air Force contract in the 1950s"
fn: 5
- type: participant_in
with: "[[OXCART]]"
start: 1959-09-10
role: "moved its radar test facility to the former U-2 site at Groom Lake for radar cross section tests of the A-12 mockup"
fn: 6
created: 2026-10-03
updated: 2026-10-03
---
EG&G began as a partnership, Edgerton, Germeshausen & Grier, formed on November 13, 1947 by the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] professor [[Harold Edgerton]] and his former students [[Kenneth Germeshausen]] and [[Herbert Grier]], and quickly collected contracts to advise the government on nuclear tests in [[Nevada]] and the South Pacific. One of its first employees was [[Bernard J. O'Keefe]], who served with the [[21st Bomber Command]] in the [[Mariana Islands]] and was sent to [[Japan]] after the surrender to investigate its nuclear work; O'Keefe later led the company and wrote a book, [[Nuclear Hostages]].[^1] EG&G was a [[Massachusetts]] company of 1947 with annual sales of $2.7 billion in 1993, providing "systems engineering and test site operating and management services to government agencies and laboratories" and instruments and components for government and commercial customers.[^2]
### Nevada Test Site contracts
In 1994 the company held five [[Department of Energy]] contracts, two of them relating to the [[Nevada Test Site]]: Energy Measurements, under which the company "provides scientific and engineering services for the DOE's underground nuclear weapons test program" in cooperation with the [[Sandia National Laboratories|Sandia]], [[Los Alamos National Laboratory|Los Alamos]] and [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory|Lawrence Livermore]] laboratories, principally by measuring energy from underground detonations; and [[Reynolds Electrical and Engineering Company]], for support and maintenance, construction at the [[Tonopah Test Range]] and surface testing and drilling at the [[Yucca Mountain Project]]; the other three were at [[Rocky Flats]], near [[Golden, Colorado]], the [[Idaho National Engineering Laboratory]] and the [[Mound Laboratory|Mound]] facility in [[Miamisburg, Ohio]]. Both Nevada contracts were to expire at the end of December 1995, and the company's subsidiaries included "EG&G Special Projects, Inc." (Nevada) and "EG&G Energy Measurements, Inc."[^2] In 1994 the company determined that it would not seek renewal of its four Department of Energy contracts and reclassified the segment as discontinued operations; the Rocky Flats contract ended in June 1995, and the Reynolds and Energy Measurements contracts expired on December 31, 1995.[^3] The registrant was known as EG&G Inc until July 26, 1999 and as [[PerkinElmer]] Inc from November 5, 1999.[^3] The Nevada Test Site contracts, the 1999 transfer of the technical services business out of PerkinElmer and its acquisition in August 2002 by [[URS Corporation]] with [[Carlyle-EG&G Holdings Corp.]] are treated on the page for [[Area 51]]; URS's "EG&G Division" specialized in "the operations and maintenance of military and federal installations, flight training, emergency preparedness and homeland security, weapons systems engineering and modernization," under [[George R. Melton]], who had been president and chief executive of EG&G Technical Services, Inc. from November 2000 to August 2002.[^4]
### Radar ranges at Indian Springs and Groom Lake
Research on masking the aircraft's radar image under [[Project RAINBOW]], done by the [[Scientific Engineering Institute]], was tested by "Edgerton, Germeshausen & Grier (EG&G), which was also composed of MIT faculty members," which "under an [[United States Air Force|Air Force]] contract to evaluate radars" operated "a small testing facility at [[Indian Springs]], Nevada, not far from Area 51"; a [[Lockheed Aircraft Company|Lockheed]] test pilot flew the modified [[U-2 Spy Plane|U-2]] over what the history calls "little more than a series of radar sets and a trailer" of instrumentation, so that EG&G technicians could record the returns.[^5] In spring 1959 [[Kelly Johnson]]'s [[Lockheed Skunk Works]] began building a full-scale [[A-12]] mockup to be tested for radar cross section by EG&G with the Scientific Engineering Institute at Indian Springs; Lockheed objected to the site because the pylon would not support the mockup and the facilities were in full view of a nearby highway; and "On 10 September 1959, EG&G agreed to move its radar test facility to the former U-2 testing site at Area 51 of the [[Atomic Energy Commission]]'s Nevada Proving Grounds," the mockup being carried by trailer truck from [[Burbank, California]] and placed on the pylon by 18 November.[^6]
### The McCarran building and the Janet flights
Aviation writers state that the passenger shuttle known by the radio call sign [[Janet (airline)|Janet]], which carries government and contractor employees from a private terminal at [[Las Vegas]] to sites in the [[Nevada Test and Training Range]], was long operated by EG&G; one such account dates the first Janet flights to 1972 and traces the contract through URS (which acquired EG&G Technical Services in 2002) and [[AECOM]] (which acquired URS in 2014) on the basis of URS's history of providing the service and its job postings, including a 2010 notice for [[Boeing]] 737 flight attendants requiring a Single Scope Background Investigation.[^7] An Air Force request for information of November 7, 2023 for a ten-year contract to operate six Boeing 737-600 aircraft and five Beechcraft King Airs from Las Vegas, described as "transportation operations out of a variety of locations, including both open commercial airfields and restricted access, highly secure, government-controlled sites," was reported by the trade press, which lists the current contractor as a successor to the same chain.[^7] The annual reports of EG&G and URS opened for this page do not mention Janet or [[Groom Lake]].[^2][^4]
[[Bob Lazar]] said on Las Vegas television that the [[United States Navy|Navy]] was his employer, that "it was EG&G where I got the job," that when he was told to go to work he "drove there parked my car there and got in a plane" at [[McCarran International Airport]], "there was special projects EG&G building," flew to Groom Lake, and was taken by bus to the [[S-4 (Area 51)|S-4]] site near [[Papoose Lake]]. A transcript of a [[KLAS-TV]] report by [[George Knapp]] states that [[Los Alamos]] officials said they had no records of Lazar, that "EG&G which is where Lazar says he was interviewed for the job at s4 also has no records," and that a 1982 Los Alamos telephone directory and newspaper clipping listed Lazar there.[^8] Notes attributed to the physicist [[Eric Davis]], dated October 16, 2002, begin "Rich says to go to EG&G Special Projects building at Grice and Paradise. 'Meet at 10 A.M.'" and record that Vice Admiral [[Thomas R. Wilson]], the former director of the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]], arrived at 10:10 and that the two sat in his car behind the EG&G building until 11:20; Wilson told the [[Sarasota Herald-Tribune]] reporter [[Billy Cox]] in 2020 "It's all fiction" and that he "definitely did not sit with him in a car for an hour in Las Vegas." The "Rich" in the notes who gives Davis the meeting place is a contact of Davis and Wilson whom the notes tie to the [[Association of Former Intelligence Officers]] and the [[National Nuclear Security Administration]], and who is named in the notes together with a "Doug"; the notes do not identify him further.[^9] The Wilson-Davis notes are discussed further on the page for the [[Wilson-Davis Memo]].
### Frost v. Perry and Kasza v. Browner
The reported decisions in the Groom Lake waste cases, [[Frost v. Perry]] and [[Kasza v. Browner]], do not name EG&G. The [[United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit|Ninth Circuit]]'s opinion of January 8, 1998 describes the plaintiffs as "Former workers at a classified facility operated by the [[U.S. Air Force|United States Air Force]]," lists the defendants in Frost v. Perry as [[William Perry]], then Secretary of Defense, [[Anthony Lake]], then National Security Advisor, and [[Sheila Widnall]], Secretary of the Air Force, and the defendant in Kasza v. Browner as [[Carol Browner]], Administrator of the [[Environmental Protection Agency]], and records the appearances of [[Jonathan Turley]] and [[Joan Manley]] of [[George Washington University]] for the plaintiffs and of the [[Department of Justice]] for the government.[^10] The district court's order of May 4, 1995 on a motion to compel concerned an interrogatory asking the Air Force to identify the names used for "the operating location near Groom Lake" and quotes Secretary Widnall's unclassified declaration that the location "has no official name."[^11] The [[Las Vegas Sun]] reported on October 14, 1996 that the workers alleged "the Air Force and its contractors" filled 55-gallon drums with toxic waste in the 1980s and burned them in trenches, and on March 7, 1996 that [[Helen Frost]], a plaintiff who had unsuccessfully sued over her husband's death in 1993, said that [[Robert Frost]] had worked as a sheet-metal worker at Groom Lake in the 1980s; [[The Village Voice]] described [[Wally Kasza]] as a 69-year-old sheet metal worker from the base who replaced Frost as an industrial supervisor there after Frost died. No opinion, order or news report opened for this page names the employer of Robert Frost or Wally Kasza.[^12] Cox News Service reported on August 16, 1994, in the [[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]], that Jonathan Turley had sued the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to enforce environmental laws at a secret air base in Nevada, that he said he represented unidentified current and former workers at "Area 51," and that the suit alleged that the burning of hazardous and toxic wastes at the base caused serious injuries to employees and at least one death; the report described the base as also known as "Dreamland," on the edge of Groom Dry Lake, and the portion read does not mention EG&G.[^13]
### Footnotes
[^1]: "EG&G Incorporated," International Directory of Company Histories, Gale (reprinted at Encyclopedia.com), https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/politics-and-business-magazines/egg-incorporated (the partnership date of November 13, 1947, the AEC and Nevada contracts, and O'Keefe's career). The entry spells the name "Germehausen."
[^2]: EG&G Inc., Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 2, 1994, filed April 1, 1994, business description, contract descriptions and list of subsidiaries, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/31791/0000031791-94-000004.txt
[^3]: EG&G Inc., Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 1995, filed March 22, 1996, management's discussion of discontinued operations and the Nevada Test Site contracts and list of subsidiaries, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/31791/0000031791-96-000004.txt ; Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR submissions record for CIK 0000031791, former names "EG&G INC" (to July 26, 1999) and "PERKINELMER INC" (from November 5, 1999), https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0000031791.json
[^4]: URS Corporation, Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2003, filed January 22, 2004, business description ("In August 2002, we acquired Carlyle-EG&G Holdings Corp. and Lear Siegler Services, Inc.") and executive officers, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/102379/000095014904000182/f95747e10vk.htm
[^5]: Gregory W. Pedlow and Donald E. Welzenbach, The CIA and the U-2 Program, 1954-1974, chapter 3, p. 130, in National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 434, https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB434/docs/U2%20-%20Chapter%203.pdf
[^6]: Pedlow and Welzenbach, chapter 6, "The U-2's Intended Successor: Project OXCART, 1956-1968," pp. 274 to 275, https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB434/docs/U2%20-%20Chapter%206.pdf
[^7]: "The secret airline you've perhaps seen but never heard of," 100 Knots, https://www.100knots.com/the-secret-airline-youve-perhaps-seen-but-never-heard-of/ ; Andrew Curran, "U.S. Air Force scouting for new operator of Janet B737s," ch-aviation, November 14, 2023, https://www.ch-aviation.com/news/134054-us-air-force-scouting-for-new-operator-of-janet-b737s ; Aviacionline, "USAF seeks new contractor to manage JANET's 737-600s," https://www.aviacionline.com/usaf-seeks-new-contractor-to-manage-janets-737-600s (states the mission "was long operated by EG&G"). Sole source for the passages so cited; no contract document or FAA record was opened.
[^8]: KLAS-TV, Las Vegas, report by George Knapp (the transcript file gives no date; Lazar's 1989 broadcasts are May and November 1989), as transcribed in the compilation "Bob Lazar interview transcript dump," Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/bob-lazar-em-grande-entrevista-especial-legendado-em-portugues.-www.braufonet.com.br (file Bob lazar em grande entrevista especial ... _djvu.txt, lines 1318 to 1340 and 2846 to 2856; the compiler and the broadcast date are not given in the file). Sole source for the passages so cited.
[^9]: "EWD NOTES 10/16/02, Eric Davis Meeting with Adm. Wilson," pp. 1 and 5, as leaked in 2019, in The Black Vault, "The 'Admiral Wilson Leak,'" https://www.theblackvault.com/casefiles/the-admiral-wilson-leak-an-analysis/ (PDF https://documents2.theblackvault.com/casefiles/wilsonleak.pdf); Wilson's statements to Billy Cox of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 2020, as reproduced there. The authorship and provenance of the notes are unverified; Davis has not commented.
[^10]: Kasza v. Browner, 133 F.3d 1159 (9th Cir. 1998), opinion of Judge Rymer, Harvard Caselaw Access Project, https://static.case.law/f3d/133/cases/1159-01.json
[^11]: Frost v. Perry, 161 F.R.D. 434 (D. Nev. 1995) (Pro, J.), Harvard Caselaw Access Project, https://static.case.law/frd/161/cases/0434-01.json
[^12]: "Ex-workers: Judge ignored Area 51 evidence," Las Vegas Sun, October 14, 1996, https://lasvegassun.com/news/1996/oct/14/ex-workers-judge-ignored-area-51-evidence/ ; "Alien Toxins," The Village Voice, https://www.villagevoice.com/alien-toxins/ ; "Judge throws out Groom Lake suit," Las Vegas Sun, March 7, 1996, https://lasvegassun.com/news/1996/mar/07/judge-throws-out-groom-lake-suit/
[^13]: "EPA Sued On Secret Air Base / Agency Didn't Shield Workers, Suit Says," Cox News Service, Dayton, Ohio dateline, St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis), August 16, 1994, p. 2B, https://www.newspapers.com/image/142561425/

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---
category: "Private Organization"
tags:
- Organization
- UAP
- Physics
- ZeroPointEnergy
- BeamedEnergyPropulsion
- TTSA
alias:
- EarthTech International
- EarthTech International, Inc.
- EarthTech
- ETI
- Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin
- IASA
summary: "Austin, Texas physics research company headed since 1985 by Hal Puthoff, paid under two statements of work totaling 60,000 dollars by To The Stars Academy in August 2018 while Puthoff sat on that company's board."
location: "Austin, Texas"
relations:
- type: head_of
with: "[[Hal Puthoff]]"
reverse: true
role: "President and chief executive officer; also Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin"
start: 1985
fn: 1
- type: contractor_to
with: "[[To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science]]"
role: "two statements of work: materials analysis (SOW-MSSA, 35,000 dollars) and beamed energy propulsion launch systems (SOW-BELS, 25,000 dollars)"
start: 2018-08
fn: 2
created: 2026-10-02
updated: 2026-10-02
---
EarthTech International, Inc. (ETI) is a research company in [[Austin, Texas]] whose president and chief executive officer is [[Hal Puthoff]]. Puthoff is also the director of the [[Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin]] (IASA), and the filings of [[To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science]] with the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] state that he has held both positions since 1985.[^1]
### Corporate officers and affiliations
The To The Stars Academy annual report for fiscal 2017 describes Puthoff as "President and CEO of EarthTech International, Inc. (ETI), and Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin (IASA), positions he has held since 1985," and states that in those positions he "has published numerous papers on electron-beam devices, lasers and space propulsion and has patents issued in the laser, communications, and energy fields." The same biography lists earlier research at [[General Electric]], [[Sperry]], the [[NSA|National Security Agency]], [[Stanford University]] and [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI International]], and states that he "regularly serves various corporations, foundations, [[NASA]], and other government organizations as advisor on leading-edge technologies and future technology trends."[^1] The reports for fiscal 2020 and 2021 state that before joining To The Stars Academy in 2017 he "was, and still is" president and chief executive of ETI and director of IASA.[^3]
### Statements of work for To The Stars Academy
In August 2018 To The Stars Academy of Arts and Science Inc. entered two statements of work with ETI "to prepare plans, perform scientific analysis, and advise the company on materials analysis ('SOW-MSSA') and beamed energy propulsion launch systems ('SOW-BELS')." The annual report states that "ETI's founder and president is company Director Harold E. Puthoff," that the value of SOW-MSSA is 35,000 dollars and of SOW-BELS is 25,000 dollars, and that of the 60,000 dollar total, 30,000 dollars was paid during 2018. Under SOW-MSSA, ETI was "responsible for planning, execution analysis, and experimentation to establish the properties of specific materials," and was to "advise on the collection and scientific evaluation of materials samples the company obtains through reliable reports of advanced aerospace vehicles of unknown origin." The company reported that with completion of SOW-BELS it "now has a defined program plan" for a beamed-energy cubesat launch system.[^2]
The two statements of work are described in the filing as related-party transactions. Puthoff held 392,620 shares of Class A stock after the April 2019 rescission of earlier issuances (reduced from the shares issued to him in May 2017), and 1,800 shares of Class B stock.[^2][^3]
### Federal awards
[[USASpending.gov|USAspending.gov]], which holds federal contract and grant records from fiscal 2008 onward, returns no prime award to EarthTech International or to the Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin. Awards under similar names in the database (EarthTech West Ltd, EarthTech Inc., EarthTech Engineering LLC, EarthTech Products Inc., EarthTech Energy Inc.) are construction, engineering and energy firms with different recipients and descriptions and are not treated as this company.[^4]
### Patents
[[Google Patents]] lists two [[United States]] patents with Harold E. Puthoff as inventor and Earthtech International, Inc. as original assignee: US 5,845,220, a communication method and apparatus using signals comprising scalar and vector potentials without electromagnetic fields (filed August 23, 1993, granted December 1, 1998), and US 10,361,792, "Communications system" (filed August 31, 2016, granted July 23, 2019; Puthoff and [[Christopher A. Eusebi]], inventors). A later patent in the same family, US 11,777,198, filed April 27, 2021 and granted October 3, 2023, lists [[Quantcomm]] LLC as assignee.[^5]
### Footnotes
[^1]: To The Stars Academy of Arts and Science Inc., Form 1-K for fiscal 2017, filed April 30, 2018, Item 3 biographies. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1710274/000114420418023727/0001144204-18-023727.txt
[^2]: To The Stars Academy of Arts and Science Inc., Form 1-K for fiscal 2018, filed April 30, 2019, Item 1 (Aerospace Division), Item 5 and related-party note. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1710274/000114420419022341/0001144204-19-022341.txt
[^3]: Form 1-K for fiscal 2019, filed June 12, 2020 (share counts), fiscal 2020, filed April 30, 2021, and fiscal 2021, filed May 2, 2022 ("was, and still is"). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1710274/000110465920072815/0001104659-20-072815.txt , https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1710274/000149315221010202/0001493152-21-010202.txt and https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1710274/000149315222011769/0001493152-22-011769.txt
[^4]: USAspending.gov, spending_by_award search for recipient text "EarthTech" and "Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin," retrieved October 2, 2026. https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/search/spending_by_award/
[^5]: Google Patents, records for US5845220A, US10361792B2 and US11777198B1, retrieved October 2, 2026. https://patents.google.com/patent/US5845220A/en , https://patents.google.com/patent/US10361792B2/en and https://patents.google.com/patent/US11777198B1/en

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---
category: "UFO & Anomalous Phenomena"
tags:
- Organization
- Nonprofit
- UFO
- Parapsychology
- Rockefeller
- ClintonWhiteHouse
- FallsChurchVirginia
alias:
- Human Potential Foundation
- HPF
- Human Potential Foundation, Inc.
- Human Potential Foundation Press
summary: "Nonprofit founded in 1989 by C. B. Scott Jones and Senator Claiborne Pell, funded chiefly by Laurance Rockefeller in its first years, which sponsored the 1995 conference When Cosmic Cultures Meet and dissolved in 1998."
location: "Falls Church, Virginia"
relations:
- type: founded
with: "[[C. B. Scott Jones]]"
reverse: true
start: 1989
role: "president"
fn: 1
- type: founded
with: "[[Claiborne Pell]]"
reverse: true
start: 1989
role: "co-founder per the Colorado finding aid; board member per a 1992 white paper"
fn: 1
- type: director_of
with: "[[Mark Sandground]]"
reverse: true
role: "board member, per a 1992 white paper; the Foundation's offices were those of his law firm"
fn: 2
- type: funded
with: "[[Center for Psychology and Social Change]]"
start: 1993
role: "grant for the Program for Extraordinary Experience Research, per the Center's newsletter"
fn: 6
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Richard Farley]]"
reverse: true
role: "director of project development, for about three years, per Grant Cameron"
fn: 5
created: 2026-10-02
updated: 2026-10-02
---
The Human Potential Foundation was a nonprofit corporation that [[C. B. Scott Jones]] founded with [[Claiborne Pell]] in 1989 and ran as president until its dissolution in 1998.[^1] The [[Center for Applied Anomalous Phenomena]], which Jones founded in 1985, was absorbed into it; the Foundation managed three centers (interspecies communication, intercultural medical exchange, and thanatology and survival research) and a small press for limited runs of books; the interspecies communication center organized research on psychic communication with dolphins (project [[Neptune's Helper]]) and on human interaction with potential extraterrestrials, which produced the 1995 conference.[^1]
### Offices and Board
A white paper of February 20, 1992 by [[Robert J. Durant]] gives the Foundation's address as 8000 Towers Crescent Drive, Suite 600, [[Vienna, Virginia]] 22182, in the offices of the law firm [[Sandground Barondess and West]], and states that [[Mark Sandground]] and Pell served on its board and that it was "reportedly funded by Laurance Rockefeller."[^2] Letters of 1993 and early 1994 carry the Foundation's address as 282 North Washington Street, [[Falls Church, Virginia]] 22046, and letters from mid-1994 on carry P.O. Box 6, Falls Church, Virginia 22040, with a logo of three linked emblems.[^3] [[Menelika McCarthy]] is named in the 1992 paper as Jones's assistant.[^2]
### Funding
The [[University of Colorado Boulder|Colorado]] finding aid states that the primary donor in the first two and a half years was [[Laurance Rockefeller]], "whose support was conditional with a program designed to get the [[United States]] government to acknowledge the existence of alien life."[^1] A handwritten note signed by [[John Gibbons]] and dated 3/29/94 on the scan reads that the Foundation "is funded in part, I believe, by L.R."[^4] In a letter to [[Newt Gingrich]] of August 17, 1995 Jones wrote that "the Human Potential Foundation has been supported by Mr. Laurance S. Rockefeller and others."[^3] [[Richard Farley]], whom Cameron describes as hired as director of project development and as having worked for the Foundation for about three years, is cited by [[Grant Cameron]] for the statement that Rockefeller put 700,000 dollars through it from 1991 to 1994; Cameron also writes that [[Common Cause Magazine]] reported more than 700,000 dollars for those years.[^5] Cameron states that Farley left the Rockefeller effort in April 1994 in protest at its approach, and that Farley says the "Matrix of UFO Beliefs" paper in the [[Office of Science and Technology Policy|OSTP]] files is an altered version of the one he wrote.[^5]
The newsletter of the [[Center for Psychology and Social Change]] for September 1993 states that [[John E. Mack]]'s abduction research, "Funded by a grant from the Human Potential Foundation," was proceeding under the Center as the [[Program for Extraordinary Experience Research]].[^6]
### Programs
Jones's letters to the White House describe the Foundation's work on [[UFO]] disclosure as an effort to move the government from "secrecy, silence and disinformation" toward openness, culminating in a conference. Its press was edited by [[Robert G. Teets]] of [[Terra Alta, West Virginia|Terra Alta]], [[West Virginia]], whose own book on grassroots UFO activity Jones sent on December 2, 1994; Jones's letter of February 17, 1994 refers to the "UFO Matrix of Belief" he had provided Gibbons in 1993.[^3] On May 16, 1995 Jones wrote to members of the House that the Foundation's conference, "[[When Cosmic Cultures Meet]]," would be held at the [[Sheraton Washington]] hotel on May 27 to 29, 1995, and urged them to attend (a wire story by [[Dinah Eng]] printed on May 17, 1995 described the program as an examination of contact with extraterrestrials rather than a debate on their existence, and identified Jones as the Foundation's president)[^7]; the [[William J. Clinton Presidential Library|Clinton Library]] holds the invitations sent to the President and First Lady (collection 2008-1575-F, not scanned).[^3][^8] The [[White House]] declined for [[Hillary Clinton|Mrs. Clinton]] on December 15, 1994 and for the President on December 21, 1994.[^3] The registration packet contained a questionnaire; of 175 registered attendees, 102 returned it, and those who did were promised a copy of the Conference Proceedings. A composite of the answers was sent to every member of [[U.S. Congress|Congress]] in August 1995.[^9]
In August 1995 the Foundation mailed every member of Congress a packet, described under the [[Rockefeller Initiative]].[^3]
### Dissolution
The finding aid gives the dissolution as 1998; the [[Peace and Emergency Action Coalition for Earth]], founded by Jones, received its [[Internal Revenue Service]] ruling in October 1998.[^1][^10]
### Footnotes
[^1]: University of Colorado Boulder Libraries, "C. B. 'Scott' Jones papers" (COU:4004), biographical note and Series 4 scope note, https://archives.colorado.edu/repositories/2/resources/346 and https://archives.colorado.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/311786.
[^2]: Robert J. Durant, "Will the Real Scott Jones Please Stand Up?" (February 20, 1992), CIA-RDP96-00792R000400300004-7, https://cia.gov/readingroom/node/1697635. Sole source for the passages so cited.
[^3]: Jones letters to Gibbons of February 17, May 26, June 10, December 2 and December 13, 1994, and February 9, March 31 and August 23, 1995, as listed in the Paradigm Research Group index, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller_Initiative_Documents.htm, and attachments to RID-8-23-95-2.htm (letters of May 16 and August 17, 1995); Patti Solis and William M. Webster IV to Jones, RID-12-15-94.htm and RID-12-21-94.htm.
[^4]: Jones to Gibbons, February 17, 1994, with Gibbons's note signed JHG and dated 3/29/94, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-2-17-94.htm.
[^5]: Grant Cameron, "Extraterrestrial Politics in the Clinton White House (1993-2001) and the Rockefeller Initiative," text and note iii, Wayback Machine capture of May 28, 2014, http://web.archive.org/web/20140528091234/http://www.x-ppac.org/OSTP.html. Sole source for the passages so cited; Farley's figure is not documented in any record opened.
[^6]: Center for Psychology and Social Change, *CenterPiece*, September 1993, p. 2, https://johnemackinstitute.org/CenterPiece_1993_0900.pdf.
[^7]: Dinah Eng, "The day that cosmic cultures meet," *Pensacola News Journal*, May 17, 1995, p. 7, https://www.newspapers.com/image/267898730/; the same text appeared as "Conferees seek plan for dealing with 'Them'," *The News-Star* (Monroe, La.), May 19, 1995, p. 13, https://www.newspapers.com/image/1245983088/.
[^8]: William J. Clinton Presidential Library, "When Cosmic Cultures Meet - Collection Finding Aid," 2008-1575-F, https://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/show/36409.
[^9]: Jones, questionnaire attachment to the letter of August 17, 1995 to Representative Steven Schiff, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-8-17-95.htm.
[^10]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, Peace and Emergency Action Coalition for Earth (EIN 74-2888837), https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/742888837.json.

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20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Lockheed Skunk Works.md Normal file
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---
category: "Private Organization"
tags:
- Organization
- Private
- Aerospace
- Lockheed
- SkunkWorks
- Area51
- BlackProjects
- UFO
- Contractor
alias:
- Lockheed Skunk Works
- Skunk Works
- The Skunk Works
- Skonk Works
- Lockheed Advanced Development Projects
- Advanced Development Projects
- ADP
- Lockheed Martin Skunk Works
- Lockheed Martin Advanced Development Programs
- Advanced Development Programs
summary: "Lockheed's Burbank advanced development unit, begun in 1943 under Kelly Johnson, builder of the U-2, A-12 and F-117, and in some accounts a custodian of recovered craft, which the Pentagon denies."
location: "Burbank, California"
start: 1943
relations:
- type: owned
with: "[[Lockheed Aircraft Company]]"
reverse: true
start: 1943
role: "advanced development division, formally Advanced Development Projects"
fn: 1
- type: head_of
with: "[[Kelly Johnson]]"
reverse: true
start: 1943
end: 1975
role: "founding head of the unit and Lockheed chief engineer"
fn: 1
- type: contractor_to
with: "[[Central Intelligence Agency]]"
start: 1955
role: "built the U-2 and the Groom Lake test site under Richard Bissell"
fn: 2
- type: subject_of
with: "[[All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office]]"
start: 2022
role: "according to the Wall Street Journal, tested a purported Roswell metal fragment shortly before the Pentagon investigator asked six contractors in 2022 whether they held alien technology"
fn: 7
created: 2026-10-03
updated: 2026-10-03
---
The Skunk Works is the nickname of [[Lockheed Aircraft Company]]'s Advanced Development Projects, later Advanced Development Programs of [[Lockheed Martin]]. The unit began in June 1943, when [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] "anxiously watched [[Germany]] develop the world's first jet fighter" and turned to the 33-year-old chief engineer [[Kelly Johnson]], who was given British jet engines and 180 days and "readied 'Lulu Bell' in 143 days," the [[P-80 Shooting Star]]. By 1980 the unit had at any one time between 2,000 and 8,000 engineers, machinists and test pilots; its work "often involves building a plane here and transporting it by night in a cargo aircraft or truck to some testing strip in the [[Nevada]] desert"; Lockheed declined to answer questions about it; and margins on such work could reach 12 percent against about 6 percent on most military contracts, according to a securities analyst quoted by the [[The Wall Street Journal|Wall Street Journal]].[^1] The name came from [[Al Capp]]'s "[[Li'l Abner]]" comic strip, whose moonshine still was "the skonk works"; that an engineer named [[Irv Culver]] answered a telephone "Skonk Works" while the staff worked in a circus tent beside a plastics factory, and in 1960 Capp's publisher objected, so "we changed it to Skunk Works and registered the name and logo as trademarks," according to [[Ben Rich]], who headed the unit from January 17, 1975.[^2]
### The U-2 and Groom Lake
Rich wrote that the test pilot [[Tony LeVier]] found from the air and landed on the dry lake bed now called [[Groom Lake]], that Kelly Johnson flew back with LeVier and "a tall civilian introduced to him only as 'Mr. B.'" ([[Richard Bissell]]), who remarked "This will do nicely," and that Johnson's private log recorded flying "very illegally" over an atomic bomb on its tower about nine hours before detonation; Johnson proposed the name Paradise Ranch.[^2] The site's later history, including the CIA's 2013 acknowledgment, is on the page for [[Area 51]]. The unit built the [[U-2 Spy Plane]], the [[A-12]] and the [[SR-71]], and later the [[F-117 Nighthawk|F-117]]; [[EG&G]] tested the radar cross sections of its aircraft at the site beginning in 1959.[^2][^3]
### Kelly Johnson's sightings and the Blue Book file
On December 16, 1953 a Lockheed WV-2 flight test crew of five, [[Roy E. Wimmer]], [[Rudy L. Thoren]], [[Philip A. Colman]], [[Charles Grugan]] and [[Joseph F. Ware Jr.]], and Johnson and his wife Althea at their ranch near [[Agoura, California|Agoura]], independently watched a black, sharp-edged object over the sea west of [[Los Angeles]] that dwindled and vanished. According to the study of the case by [[Martin Shough]] of the [[National Aviation Reporting Centre on Anomalous Phenomena]], on the next day Thoren mentioned the sighting in Johnson's office and Johnson described his own, whereupon the two groups found they had watched the same object; Johnson collected five reports "under special cover" and they were forwarded through Lieutenant General [[Donald L. Putt|D. L. Putt]] to the [[Air Technical Intelligence Center]] ([[Foreign Technology Division|ATIC]]) at [[Wright-Patterson Air Force Base]]. Putt's covering letter of February 15, 1954 to the ATIC commander, Colonel [[George L. Wertenbaker]], says the report "was handed to me by Lockheed personnel with the explanation that Mr. Johnson was most reluctant to write the report in the first place and then refused to forward it on to you because of his belief that those who profess to have seen flying saucers are not usually considered to be logical and practical hard-headed engineers." Johnson's own report of December 18, 1953 is addressed to the "Air Force Investigating Group on Flying Saucers." Shough records that Johnson stated, "in official confidence," that around Christmas 1951 he had seen a fast-moving "flame or emanation" of "beautiful light blue" colour near [[Brents Junction]] that he believed to be a "flying saucer," and that Ware's statement in the file describes a large circular object he watched from his own roof about Christmas 1951 and visits to "the group of people" at [[Giant Rock]] who "eat and sleep saucers." Shough found that the Blue Book file consists only of the reports as forwarded, with Ware's map missing and no recorded inquiry, and that the [[Project Blue Book]] record card gives the conclusion "OTHER - CLOUD lenticular cloud." Shough wrote that "The only conventional explanation having even a little plausibility is an unusually compact and well-defined lenticular wave cloud," but that "such a cloud seems unlikely."[^4]
The Kelly Johnson file among the papers of Ben Rich at the [[Huntington Library]] includes the document "Sighting of a flying saucer by certain Lockheed Aircraft Corporation personnel on 16 December 1953."[^5]
### Accounts of recovered material at the Skunk Works
The [[Wilson-Davis Memo|Wilson-Davis notes]] of October 16, 2002, attributed to [[Eric Davis]], quote Vice Admiral [[Thomas R. Wilson]] as saying that in June 1997 he found in a records group of the [[Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology]] a program run by "An aerospace technology contractor," "one of the top ones in US," "the best one of them," with intelligence "in their corporate portfolio," and declined to name it: "Core secret," "can't tell." The notes record Wilson describing a conference room "secure vault" meeting with a program director, a corporate attorney and a retired [[National Security Agency]] security director who called themselves "the watch committee," and an "intact craft" "not of this Earth."[^6] The contractor is not named in the notes. A letter of April 25, 2002 paper-clipped into them, from [[Will Miller]], offers "Particulars on a 'special team' involved (as a secondary mission) with recovering crashed 'craft' including, but not limited to, the previously classified F-117 Stealth Fighter" and "A list of civilian government contractors" likely to have "current involvement in and knowledge of USG work in alien-derived technologies."[^6] Wilson told the [[Sarasota Herald-Tribune]] reporter [[Billy Cox]] in 2020: "It's all fiction."[^6]
The Wall Street Journal reported on June 21, 2025 that Davis, "for years ... was part of a small group of defense experts who had claimed to know about a top-secret program at Lockheed's Skunk Works to hoard extraterrestrial technology." The same account states that in 2022 [[Sean Kirkpatrick]], then the [[Pentagon]]'s UFO investigator, asked executives of the six largest defense contractors "Have any of your companies ever gained access to alien technology?"; that for Lockheed Martin "the answer was...complicated," because the Skunk Works "had, in fact, just tested, and attempted to replicate, a piece of metal that was said to have been gathered from a crashed UFO outside [[Roswell Incident|Roswell]]"; that [[To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science]] had bought the pieces of metal in 2019 for $35,000 from a UFO researcher, and that the fragments had reached the radio host [[Art Bell]] by mail in 1996 from a listener who wrote that a grandfather had collected them as part of a military crash-retrieval team at Roswell; that the [[United States Army|Army]] agreed to test the metal for antigravity and cloaking properties; and that Kirkpatrick's team obtained it and had [[Oak Ridge National Laboratory]] test it, finding that "the alloy isn't from outer space and doesn't have antigravity properties" and was probably from a [[World War II|Second World War]]-era manufacturing test of an aircraft part or an armament such as a shell casing. According to the Journal, "Lockheed declined to comment and referred questions to the Army."[^7]
### Official statements
The July 26, 2023 hearing of a subcommittee of the [[House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform|House Oversight Committee]], at which [[David Grusch]] testified under oath to "a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse-engineering program," names no company in its transcript: the words Lockheed, Skunk Works, EG&G and [[Battelle Memorial Institute|Battelle]] do not occur in it. Asked by Representative [[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez]] about "the interactions between defense contractor companies and any UAP-related programs," Grusch answered "the contractors, you know, or the metal benders, so to speak, the ones actually doing specific performance on government contracts"; asked by Representative [[Eric Burlison]] whether there was evidence the recovered aircraft were produced by domestic military contractors, he said "Not to my knowledge. Plus, the recoveries predate a lot of our advanced programs" that he was "waiving off."[^8]
The [[Department of Defense]]'s [[All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office]] stated in February 2024 that it "found no empirical evidence for claims that the USG and private companies have been reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology"; that "The executives, scientists, and chief technology officers of the companies named by interviewees met with the Director of AARO and denied on the record that they have ever recovered, possessed, or engaged in reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial technology"; and, of a thirdhand account by one interviewee that an unnamed organization held twelve recovered craft and had a [[Central Intelligence Agency]] "partnership with the company that ended in 1989," that it "discovered no empirical evidence supporting these claims." The report does not name the companies. It describes "Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Program organization, also known as 'Skunk Works'" as the developer of the [[P-175 Polecat]] unmanned aircraft (first flight 2005, disclosed at the 2006 [[Farnborough Airshow]]) and the [[RQ-170 Sentinel]], and Lockheed Martin with [[Boeing]] and [[Advanced Research Projects Agency|DARPA]] as developers of the [[RQ-3 Dark Star]], which "Some observers asserted ... resembled a flying saucer with long narrow wings."[^9] A Pentagon spokeswoman, [[Sue Gough]], told the Wall Street Journal that the investigation "has not discovered any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently."[^7]
[[Ron Blackburn]], a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel then at the Skunk Works, helped [[John B. Alexander]] draw up the invitation list for the [[Advanced Theoretical Physics Working Group]] in 1984, according to Alexander (see those pages).
### Rich and the E.T. joke
Rich's lecture line from 1983 that the Skunk Works had a contract to take E.T. home, and the 1993 account of it by [[Jan Harzan]], are on the page for Ben Rich.[^10]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Roy J. Harris Jr., "The Skunk Works: Hush-Hush Projects Often Emerge There," The Wall Street Journal, October 13, 1980, CIA-RDP90-00806R000100660006-2, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00806r000100660006-2
[^2]: Ben R. Rich and Leo Janos, Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed (Boston: Little, Brown, 1994), https://archive.org/details/skunk-works-apersonal-memoir-of-my-years-at-lockheed-ben-rrich (text lines 180 to 200, 1440 to 1456, 2937 to 2950, 3462 to 3480 and the footnote at 9208).
[^3]: Gregory W. Pedlow and Donald E. Welzenbach, The CIA and the U-2 Program, chapter 6, pp. 274 to 275, https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB434/docs/U2%20-%20Chapter%206.pdf
[^4]: Martin Shough, "A Study of the Lockheed Sightings," National Aviation Reporting Centre on Anomalous Phenomena, July 2014, summary, sections 1 and 7 and appendix (letters of Putt, February 15, 1954, and Johnson, January 23 and December 18, 1953; statements of Ware and others), https://mail.project1947.com/fig/Lockheed_Case_Dec_16_1953.pdf (scans at nicap.org/docs/lockufo3.pdf, not opened).
[^5]: Huntington Library, "Ben R. Rich papers, 1940-1995," Online Archive of California, https://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c86d5rqx/admin/
[^6]: "EWD NOTES 10/16/02, Eric Davis Meeting with Adm. Wilson," pp. 3 to 4 and 8 to 13, https://documents2.theblackvault.com/casefiles/wilsonleak.pdf ; Wilson's 2020 statement to Billy Cox as reproduced in The Black Vault, https://www.theblackvault.com/casefiles/the-admiral-wilson-leak-an-analysis/ . Provenance of the notes unverified; Davis has not commented.
[^7]: Joel Schectman and Aruna Viswanatha, "Was It Scrap Metal or an Alien Spacecraft? The Army Asked an Elite Defense Lab to Investigate," The Wall Street Journal, June 21, 2025 (print edition of June 23, 2025, as "A UFO Legend Lands Up at Elite Defense Lab"), read from an archived copy at https://gwern.net/doc/www/www.wsj.com/9c50364a40ee3cbeb3463a6068c4884ff0f637cc.html
[^8]: House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, hearing "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency," July 26, 2023, Serial No. 118-53, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-118hhrg53022/html/CHRG-118hhrg53022.htm (full text searched; no company named in the testimony of Grusch, Ryan Graves or David Fravor other than Graves's reference to Boeing contractors at Vandenberg).
[^9]: Department of Defense, All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, Volume I, February 2024, pp. 7 to 9, 28 to 29 and 44 to 45, https://media.defense.gov/2024/Mar/08/2003409233/-1/-1/0/DOPSR-CLEARED-508-COMPLIANT-HRRV1-08-MAR-2024-FINAL.PDF (read from the Wayback Machine raw copy).
[^10]: Peter W. Merlin, "Taking E.T. Home: Birth of a Modern Myth," SUNlite 5, no. 6 (2013), https://web.archive.org/web/20150321193509/home.comcast.net/~tprinty/UFO/SUNlite5_6.pdf

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20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/National Institute for Discovery Science.md
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@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ summary: "The National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS) was a privately fu
start: 1995
end: 2004
location: "Las Vegas, Nevada, USA"
updated: 2026-10-02
---
The [[National Institute for Discovery Science]] (NIDS) was a privately funded research organization founded by billionaire [[Robert Bigelow]] in 1995. The organization was dedicated to the scientific study of [[Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena]] (UAP) and other paranormal phenomena.[^1]
@ -16,11 +17,17 @@ The [[National Institute for Discovery Science]] (NIDS) was a privately funded r
NIDS conducted research into a wide range of anomalous phenomena, including UAP sightings, cattle mutilations, and other paranormal events. The organization was known for its scientific approach to these topics, and it employed a team of scientists and researchers to investigate cases and analyze data.[^1]
One of the most well-known projects undertaken by NIDS was the investigation of [[Skinwalker Ranch]], a property in Utah with a long history of strange and often terrifying phenomena. NIDS conducted a multi-year investigation of the ranch, documenting a wide range of anomalous activity.[^1]
One of the most well-known projects undertaken by NIDS was the investigation of [[Skinwalker Ranch]], a property in [[Utah]] with a long history of strange and often terrifying phenomena. NIDS conducted a multi-year investigation of the ranch, documenting a wide range of anomalous activity.[^1]
### Press Report of April 1997
The *[[Deseret News]]* reporter [[Zack Van Eyck]] wrote in April 1997 (reprinted in *The [[Uintah Basin Standard]]* on April 29) that research scientists who had taken control of a 480-acre [[Uintah County, Utah|Uintah County]] ranch near [[Randlett, Utah|Randlett]] the previous fall remained there although they had not seen the phenomena that its former owners, [[Terry Sherman|Terry]] and [[Gwen Sherman|Gwen]] Sherman, described. A spokesman for the [[Las Vegas]]-based institute said the researchers had yet to see flying craft, cattle mutilations or the "balls of light" that the Shermans said killed dogs. [[John B. Alexander]], identified as the institute's director for scientific liaison, was quoted: "There have been some minor observations, but nothing you would stand behind." The story described Bigelow as a Las Vegas real estate magnate who founded the institute and who bought the ranch in September 1996, three months after the Shermans first told their account publicly in the *Deseret News*; it said two scientists and a veterinarian had set up an observation post, that the institute had not released details to other UFO researchers who were frustrated by that, and that Alexander said findings would be posted on the institute's web page (accessnv.com/nids).[^2]
### Connection to AATIP
The work of NIDS was a precursor to the research conducted by the [[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program]] (AATIP). When [[Robert Bigelow]]'s company, [[Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies]] (BAASS), was awarded the contract for the AATIP program, the research that had been started by NIDS was continued and expanded upon under the auspices of the government program.[^1]
The work of NIDS was a precursor to the research conducted by the [[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program]] (AATIP). When Robert Bigelow's company, [[Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies]] (BAASS), was awarded the contract for the AATIP program, the research that had been started by NIDS was continued and expanded upon under the auspices of the government program.[^1]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Elizondo, Luis. *Imminent*. William Morrow, 2024.
[^2]: Zack Van Eyck, "No UFOs or ETs have dropped in at spooky ranch," *The Uintah Basin Standard* (Roosevelt, Utah; reprinted from the *Deseret News*), April 29, 1997, p. 2, https://www.newspapers.com/image/725294178/.

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---
category: "UFO & Anomalous Phenomena"
tags:
- Program
- UFO
- Abduction
- Psychiatry
- Harvard
- Rockefeller
- Cambridge
alias:
- Program for Extraordinary Experience Research
- PEER
- Program for Exceptional Experience Research
- PEER Perspectives
summary: "Abduction research and support program founded in 1993 by John E. Mack under the Center for Psychology and Social Change, begun on a Human Potential Foundation grant and, per the Mack Institute, Laurance Rockefeller funding."
location: "Cambridge, Massachusetts"
relations:
- type: founded
with: "[[John E. Mack]]"
reverse: true
start: 1993
fn: 1
- type: funded
with: "[[Human Potential Foundation]]"
reverse: true
start: 1993
role: "grant, per the Center's newsletter of September 1993"
fn: 3
- type: member_of
with: "[[Center for Psychology and Social Change]]"
start: 1993
end: 2002
role: "project of the Center"
fn: 1
created: 2026-10-02
updated: 2026-10-02
---
The Program for Extraordinary Experience Research (PEER) was a project of the [[Center for Psychology and Social Change]] of [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], founded in 1993 by [[John E. Mack]] to investigate reports of encounters with non-human beings and to support the people reporting them.[^1] The Center's later name is the [[John E. Mack Institute]], whose history states that "the next year [after the 1992 renaming], with funding from Laurence Rockefeller, the Center formed" PEER, and that the program concluded in 2002.[^2]
### Funding
The Center's newsletter *CenterPiece* of September 1993 announced "PEER Research on UFO Abductions": Mack, a founder and board member, was "completing a book detailing more than a dozen case studies," and the project, "Funded by a grant from the Human Potential Foundation," would be under the Center's auspices, with [[Karen Wesolowski]] as executive director, [[Pam Kasey]] coordinating support, and [[Caroline McLeod]] and [[Barbara Corbisier]] heading research.[^3] The [[Human Potential Foundation]] was run by [[C. B. Scott Jones]]; a handwritten note of [[John Gibbons]] signed JHG and dated 3/29/94 says the Foundation "is funded in part, I believe, by L.R.," that is, by [[Laurance Rockefeller]].[^4] Rockefeller invited Mack to his [[JY Ranch]] roundtable of September 1993, and a photograph published by [[Paradigm Research Group]] with its own caption names Mack among those present.[^5] In a letter to Gibbons of April 26, 1994 Rockefeller wrote that "the publication of John Mack's book has brought renewed attention to the abduction phenomenon."[^6] The Center's newsletter of February 1994 announced Mack's book *[[Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens|Abduction]]*, due for release in the spring of 1994, a PEER support program and a PEER academic conference planned for the spring of 1995.[^7]
*PEER Perspectives* no. 2 (Winter 1998/99) states that PEER was "founded in 1993 by [[Harvard University|Harvard]] professor of psychiatry John E. Mack," is "funded primarily through private donations and also through research grants" from the [[Fetzer Institute]], the [[Lifebridge Foundation]] and the [[National Institute for Discovery Science]], and reports that a panel of nine physical scientists chaired by [[Peter Sturrock]] and "funded by the Laurance S. Rockefeller Fund" had concluded in a report of June 1998 that UFOs are worthy of serious scientific study; it adds that in five and a half years PEER had received letters from individuals in some fifty countries.[^8] Separately, [[Ben MacIntyre]] of the London *[[The Times|Times]]* wrote in May 1995 that Mack's Center for Psychology and Social Change "is supported by an annual grant of $250,000 from Laurance S. Rockefeller," and the [[Valley News]] of May 20, 1995 reported that Rockefeller "reportedly donates a quarter million dollars a year" to the Center while a Rockefeller spokesman declined comment on Mack's projects; neither article names the program or a source for the figure.[^9][^10]
### Harvard Inquiry
In the summer of 1994 Dean [[Daniel C. Tosteson]] of [[Harvard Medical School]] convened a faculty committee chaired by [[Arnold Relman]] that reviewed Mack's work with abduction subjects. In August 1995 the university counsel [[Anne Taylor]] said that the review had ended with "no adverse action taken," and Relman said that tenure was never considered. The committee's preliminary report, drafted earlier in 1995, "chastised Dr. Mack for 'affirming the delusions' of his many patients," according to the [[Baltimore Sun]] of August 4, 1995.[^11] [[Alan Dershowitz]] criticized the inquiry in the [[The Harvard Crimson|Harvard Crimson]] on June 30, 1995, and Relman replied on September 13, 1995.[^12]
### Footnotes
[^1]: John E. Mack Institute, "History," https://johnemackinstitute.org/history/ and "Program for Extraordinary Experience Research (PEER)," http://johnemackinstitute.org/2003/01/program-for-extraordinary-experience-research-peer/.
[^2]: John E. Mack Institute, "History," https://johnemackinstitute.org/history/. The statement is the Institute's own; no grant record was located.
[^3]: Center for Psychology and Social Change, *CenterPiece*, September 1993, p. 2, "Center Welcomes PEER Research on UFO Abductions," https://johnemackinstitute.org/CenterPiece_1993_0900.pdf.
[^4]: Jones to Gibbons, February 17, 1994, with note signed JHG and dated 3/29/94, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-2-17-94.htm.
[^5]: Rockefeller to Gibbons, August 4, 1993, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-8-4-93.htm; Paradigm Research Group, "September 14-15, 1993 Meeting at Rockefeller's JY Ranch," http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/9-14-93_Meeting.htm.
[^6]: Rockefeller to Gibbons, April 26, 1994, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/2-26-94%20LR%20Letter%20to%20JG/Letter.jpg.
[^7]: *CenterPiece*, February 1994, https://johnemackinstitute.org/CenterPiece_1994_0200.pdf.
[^8]: *PEER Perspectives* no. 2 (Winter 1998/99), pp. 1 and 12, https://johnemackinstitute.org/PEER_Perspectives_2.pdf.
[^9]: Ben MacIntyre, "Harvard professor's stories of close encounters, other-world sex, embarrass university," *The San Francisco Examiner* (London *Times* credit), May 5, 1995, p. 16, https://www.newspapers.com/image/461595501/.
[^10]: "Harvard's Mack: The Subject Is Aliens," *Valley News* (West Lebanon, N.H.), May 20, 1995, p. 23, https://www.newspapers.com/image/833962083/. Byline not read.
[^11]: "'Kooky' or not, Harvard won't censure its 'UFO professor'," Baltimore Sun, August 4, 1995, https://www.baltimoresun.com/1995/08/04/kooky-or-not-harvard-wont-censure-its-ufo-professor/.
[^12]: Arnold S. Relman, "The Motivation for the Mack Inquiry," Harvard Crimson, September 13, 1995, https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1995/9/13/the-motivation-for-the-mack-inquiry/; Crimson, April 19, 1995, https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1995/4/19/mack-scientist-or-tale-spinner-pat-first/.

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@ -0,0 +1,109 @@
---
category: "UFO & Anomalous Phenomena"
tags:
- Organization
- UFO
- Disinformation
- Counterintelligence
- AFOSI
- MJ12
- 1980s
alias:
- The Aviary
- Aviary
- the aviary
- The Birds
- the birds
summary: "Name applied in UFO literature to the bird-named military and intelligence contacts who supplied UFO information to William L. Moore in the 1980s, and to a later roster published by Richard Boylan."
created: 2026-10-02
updated: 2026-10-03
---
The Aviary is the name used in the UFO literature for the intelligence, military and defense-industry contacts who passed information on UFOs to [[William L. Moore]] and [[Jaime Shandera]] between 1980 and 1988, and for a later roster of such figures published by [[Richard J. Boylan]]. Accounts differ on who named the group and who belonged to it.
### The Naming
A UFO BBS text file, an encyclopedia-style account of the Moore affair whose author is not identified in the copy consulted, states that Moore and Shandera "had given them avian names and called the sources collectively 'the birds.'"[^1] [[Mark Pilkington]] wrote in 2010 that "when researcher Bill Moore was drawn into this network by [[Richard Doty]] and his colleagues at [[Air Force Office of Special Investigations|AFOSI]], he gave them the nickname the Aviary and identified them all using bird names," and described the network as "a loose-knit group of scientists, intelligence specialists and military personnel," formed in the mid-1970s, "all fascinated by the UFO subject," which had developed a distilled version of its findings that it called "the Core Story."[^2] Boylan wrote that "a small group of individuals with extremely high security clearances" had interacted unofficially since the 1970s and "gave themselves code names, using mostly bird names," numbering "roughly a dozen."[^3]
The same account states that in September 1980, according to an account Moore gave seven years later, a caller identifying himself as being from [[Kirtland Air Force Base]] asked to meet him, that Moore and the man he would call "Falcon" met at a local restaurant, and that this "would initiate a long-running relationship" between Moore (and, beginning in 1982, Shandera) and 10 members of "a shadowy group said to be connected with military intelligence and to be opposed to the continuation of the UFO cover-up."[^1] Pilkington wrote that a Denny's restaurant "may even be where Doty and Falcon first met Bill Moore back in 1980."[^2]
William L. Moore said on July 1, 1989 that the name Falcon "was invented by my partner Jaime Shandera and I in 1984 strictly as a way of facilitating our talking to each other about this person, particularly on the telephone without having to use a name"; that Richard Doty "was similarly referred to by us as the Sparrow"; that neither man was aware of the labels, nor anyone else to Moore's knowledge, before about mid-1985; and that in mid-1987, "just after we went public with the MJ-12 papers," at Falcon's suggestion and with Doty's concurrence they began "dropping subtle hints that Falcon might in fact be Doty," which he called "an excellent diversion, particularly with respect to the effect it had following the UFO coverup live show."[^4] Moore closed the speech: "I am presently working with a network of more than a dozen individuals, some of whom hold some very impressive credentials... Our group is euphemistically called the aviary and each individual uses a code name of a bird as an identifier."[^4] Doty said on [[Coast to Coast AM]] on February 27, 2005 that Moore "was recruited by another person within [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] to provide disinformation," as "an asset," and that his own task was to make contact with Moore after a radio appearance; [[Greg Bishop]], on the same program, said the contact was known as Falcon, "apparently from the Defense Intelligence Agency," and head of the operation against [[Paul Bennewitz]].[^5] Mark Pilkington asked whether Colonel [[Barry Hennessey]], who ran the AFOSI special projects unit at the [[Pentagon]] in the period of the MJ-12 release and the Bennewitz affair, was Falcon, and wrote that Hennessey and Moore had both denied it.[^3]
### Falcon, Condor and Richard Doty
According to the account, the caller telephoned the [[Albuquerque, New Mexico|Albuquerque]] radio studio after a broadcast on September 8, 1980; the caller "identified himself as an individual from nearby Kirtland AFB."[^1] [[Robert Hastings]] wrote on March 1, 1989 that "it has been established that 'Falcon,' one of the principle [sic] sources of the [[Majestic-12|MJ-12]] material, is Richard C. Doty," formerly of AFOSI District 17 at Kirtland Air Force Base, who retired on October 1, 1988. He gave two bases: that [[Linda Moulton Howe]] told him that when Doty invited her to his Kirtland office in early April 1983 he "identified himself as code-name 'Falcon' and stated that it was Bill Moore who had given him that name," and that "a ranking member of the production team" of the television program UFO Cover Up?-Live confirmed in early December 1988 that Doty was Falcon and that the program's second source, Condor, was [[Robert Collins]], "until recently, a Captain in the [[U.S. Air Force]]" stationed at Kirtland.[^6] Both Moore and Richard Doty denied that Doty was Falcon, saying that Doty had been given that pseudonym long after the 1983 meeting with Howe and that the real Falcon, an older man, had been in the studio audience for the broadcast while Doty was in [[New Mexico]] training with the state police; Howe stood by her account.[^6] Pilkington wrote that Doty was "aka Falcon (though not, apparently, Bill Moore's original Falcon)" and Collins "aka Condor," and that the two "would reunite in 2005 as the authors of *[[Exempt from Disclosure]]*."[^2]
The program, [[UFO Cover-Up Live|UFO Cover-Up Live!]], aired on October 14, 1988,[^7] with two Air Force insiders, faces shaded, identified as Falcon and Condor, who told of a treaty with an alien race;[^2] the UFO BBS account adds that the program was most remembered for the informants' statements that the aliens favored ancient Tibetan music and strawberry ice cream.[^1] According to that account Moore provided the two sources to the television production company in 1988.[^1] Pilkington describes Collins as "a former Air Force physicist and, like Rick, one of Bill Moore's 'aviary' of military insiders with an interest in UFOs."[^2] Robert Collins and Doty are the credited authors of *Exempt from Disclosure: The Black World of UFOs,* which Pilkington describes as self-published.[^2]
### The 1989 Lecture
On July 1, 1989, at the [[Mutual UFO Network]] symposium in [[Las Vegas]], Moore told the audience that his "role in the affair was largely that of a freelancer providing information on Paul's current thinking and activities," referring to Paul Bennewitz, and that Doty, "faithfully carrying out orders which he personally found distasteful," had been involved in the effort to confuse and discredit Bennewitz. Moore said that Doty was chosen by "the real 'Falcon'" as "liaison person, although I really don't know. Frankly, I don't believe that Doty does either. In my opinion he was simply a pawn in a much larger game, just as I was," and that he intended to "play the disinformation game, get my hands dirty just often enough to lead those directing the process into believing that I was doing exactly what they wanted me to do," while learning "who was directing it and why." Moore also said that Linda Howe had been the victim of one of Doty's disinformation operations. He said that before he stopped cooperating in 1984 he had given AFOSI "routine information" about others in the UFO community, and he named [[Len Stringfield]], [[Pete Mazzola]], [[Peter Gersten]], [[Larry Fawcett]], [[James Lorenzen|James]] and [[Coral Lorenzen|Coral]] Lorenzen and [[Larry W. Bryant]] as the subjects of intelligence-community interest between 1980 and 1984.[^8] [[Barry Greenwood]] wrote in 1989 that Moore had "covertly informed on people who thought he was their friend and colleague," and complained of Moore's admission that on UFO Cover-Up Live Falcon and Condor had said things they knew were untrue.[^1]
### Collins's Roster and Meetings
Robert M. Collins wrote in a text with a copyright notice of 2010 (and references to June and July 2012) that "during the interlude, all the players received bird names": Doty "was already the surrogate 'Falcon' when the real Falcon (DIA's, Dale Graff?) couldn't be found," [[Ernie Kellerstrauss|Ernie Kellerstrass]] became "Hawk," [[Hal Puthoff]] "Partridge," [[C.B. Scott Jones]] "Hummingbird," [[Kit Green]] "Blue Jay," [[John B. Alexander]] "Chickadee," and Collins "Condor."[^9] These differ from the roster published by Richard J. Boylan in *Perceptions*, which gives Chickadee to Jones, Owl to Puthoff and Penguin to Alexander. Collins also wrote "Heron ([[Jerry Miller]])," that Doty applied "Raven" from 1991 to [[Richard Helms]] ("Mr. R."), which he distinguished from "Jaime Shandera's 'Raven,'" calling the latter "still an unknown."[^9]
Collins dated the meetings: fall 1987, dinner at Kellerstrass's house in [[Beavercreek, Ohio]], with Moore, Jaime Shandera, Puthoff, Alexander, "Scott Jones (assistant for Senator Pell)" and Collins; August 1988, a meeting at a state park near [[Dayton, Ohio|Dayton]], Ohio, with the executive producer of UFO Cover-Up Live, Seligman, a companion of Kellerstrass from "[[Detachment 22|DET 22]]," and picture-identification checks after which the producer hired a congressional investigator and the men "all checked out"; September 1988, interviews filmed in [[Albuquerque]]; April 1989, a "mini-summit" at an Albuquerque motel with Puthoff, Green, Doty, Moore, Shandera and Collins, at which Green "took center stage by proposing several lines of attack involving disclosure strategies." After the broadcast, he wrote, "there were now two new birds in the Aviary," and "to this day many of us still stay in contact (except for Bill & Jaime)."[^9]
Collins described a "Bird Code" of more than seventeen pages, received in 1987 and 1988 by Kellerstrass, Doty, Collins, Shandera and Moore, leading to a "Bird Sanctuary," an apartment near the Mall in [[Washington, D.C.]] where a female extraterrestrial ambassador was kept; he wrote that Moore and Shandera "actually made the trips to DC" and that in the summer of 1995 Shandera met a man Collins called "Mr. X" ("Walter Ferguson, CIA?"). Moore said in 1989 that [[Jerome Clark]] had reported in *Fate* that he and Shandera made a trip to Washington in anticipation of meeting a live alien and were stood up, and that "we made the trip because we simply couldn't lose."[^9][^10]
Collins wrote that "in June/July 2012 the CIA Falcon was disclosed as none other than" [[Harry Rositzke|Harry August Rositzke]] (born 1910 in New York, died November 4, 2002 in [[Warrenton, Virginia]]); that "Bill Moore provided a name to his friend Greg Bishop in 2005" and that [[Brian Parks]] said Moore gave him "the very same name"; and, in a reference, "according to Bill Moore and known by Rick Doty it's Harry August Rositzke," with a redacted 1961 FBI memorandum on Rositzke supplied by Parks, whose statement is dated "07-20-012." The name is Collins's report of what Moore told others; Moore did not publish it, and in 1989 he said Falcon was a name he and Shandera had coined in 1984.[^9][^10] In a chapter of the same book Doty is quoted as saying that Helms told Green "Always believe what Richard Doty tells you about UFOs."[^9]
Doty wrote on March 3, 1989 that he was not "the Falcon mentioned in the Television program last October" and had "been exonerated by Government Investigative Agencies regarding that matter."[^11] Robert Hastings had reported on March 1, 1989 that Doty and Collins both denied involvement in the MJ-12 affair, and that a member of the production team had identified Falcon and Condor to him in early December 1988.[^12]
### Boylan's Roster
Richard J. Boylan published in *[[Perceptions]]* an article stating that "a small group of individuals with extremely high security clearances" had interacted since the 1970s, that "leaked reports from sources close to some Aviary members" suggested a split between members favoring broad disclosure of UFO information and members resisting it, and that the group was separate from a higher "[[PI-40]]" group, which he attributed to reporting by [[Steven Greer]]. The article does not name a source for its list of "reported Aviary members." In a separate passage Boylan wrote that "an often-reliable Washington, D.C.-area" source whom he called "Beltway Throat," and whom the host site's editor, in an interpolation, calls [[Dan T. Smith|Dan Smith]], was "in dialogue with a number of members of the Aviary." Beltway Throat's claims, as reported by Boylan, included access by several members to two books, the "Yellow Book" and the "Red Book," and a predicted landing of extraterrestrials on April 24, 1997.[^3] The list as reproduced reads:[^3]
Blue Jay: Dr. Christopher "Kit" Green, described as chief of the biomedical sciences department at [[General Motors]] and former head of the CIA's UFO files at the "Weird Desk." See Kit Green.
Pelican: Ron Pandolfi, described as "CIA Deputy Director for the Division of Science and Technology and current custodian of UFO files at the 'Weird Desk'" who "may be involved in the [[White House]] initiative to promptly release UFO information to the public." See [[Ronald Pandolfi]].
Sea Gull: [[Bruce Maccabee]], described as a research scientist in optical physics and laser weapons applications at the [[Naval Surface Weapons Laboratory]] in [[Maryland]] and a [[MUFON]] consultant.
Owl: Hal Puthoff, described as a physicist with the "Institute for Advanced Research in Austin, Texas" who specializes in zero-point energy.
Penguin: John B. Alexander, described as an Army Intelligence and Security Command lieutenant colonel and director of the non-lethal weapons department at [[Los Alamos]].
Chickadee: [[C. B. Scott Jones]], described as a retired Navy commander, former officer with the [[Office of Naval Intelligence]] and former aide to Senator [[Claiborne Pell]] (spelled "Clairborne" in the text).
Parrot (with a question mark): [[Jacques Vallee]].
Chicken Little: Dan Smith, described as a "civilian UFO research/volunteer liaison among sources within the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], the Congressional Intelligence Committees and civilian UFO researchers."
Condor: Captain Bob Collins, AFOSI.
Buzzard (with a question mark): "[[Gordon Novel|Gordon Novell]]" (as spelled), described as a free-lance man reportedly involved in zero-point energy schemes and "tied to [[Robert Bigelow|Bob Bigelow]]."
Falcon: "Sgt. Richard 'Dick' Doty, USAF (Ret.)," AFOSI, described as reported to have engaged in UFO disinformation projects, including hoaxing Linda Howe and "allegedly waging psychological warfare" on Paul Bennewitz.
Harrier (with a question mark): [[Dale Graff]].
Nightingale (with a question mark): "Jack Verona" (as spelled; presumably [[Jack Vorona]]), though the list adds that, according to Dan Smith, Nightingale "may be" the British researcher [[George Wingfield]].
Hawk: Ernie Kellerstrauss.
Woodpecker (with a question mark): Jaime Shandera, described as reported to be, with Scott Jones and Dan Smith, one of the "theologically-oriented and pro-UFO-disclosure 'Progressives'" among the Aviary.
The host site's copy contains interpolated comments by its editors, including a note that Vallee's inclusion may be the consensus of Boylan, not of the site.[^3] The issue of *Perceptions* is given only as November/December, and the text refers to events of December 1994 and to a landing predicted for April 1997 as future.[^3] Boylan wrote that "the relationship of Aviary members to MJ-12 group is murky" and that some researchers estimate "some overlap in membership."[^3]
### Reported Interactions of Listed Names
Pilkington wrote in *Mirage Men* of a meeting with Kit Green, whose interest in UFOs, Pilkington wrote, dated to "his time as the CIA's 'keeper of the weird' at the Office for Science and Technology" ("really he was a senior science analyst," Pilkington added), and who was "a close and long-standing friend of Rick Doty." Pilkington wrote that at a Denny's restaurant "back in 1986" Green, Puthoff and Vallee "distilled what they knew about the subject into what has become known as the 'core story,'" which Green stated to Pilkington as: "The ETs came here, maybe once, maybe a few times. Either through accident or design, the US government acquired one of their craft."[^2] The passages of the Green interview read do not use the word Aviary.[^2] A document in the Clinton White House science adviser's files, a letter of April 29, 1995 from [[Richard Farley|C. Richard Farley Jr.]], describes Dan Smith of [[Baltimore]] as "a self-proclaimed confidant and asset of Dr. Ronald Pandolfi."[^4]
The blogger [[Robert Schaeffer]] reported in 2019, in a passage quoted by [[Jason Colavito]], that the television producer [[Robert Kiviat]] had been engaged by [[Joe Firmage]] to develop a network series on Firmage's anti-gravity claims "and also the story of the Aviary UFO history as seen through the eyes of Pandolfi." Kiviat said, in the quoted interview, that "Pandolfi was not willing to state his claims publicly." Colavito wrote that Kiviat filed suit against Firmage, Pandolfi and the former congressman [[Daniel Marriott]] seeking $300,000. The complaint was not read, and the defendants' answers were not found.[^5]
### Footnotes
[^1]: "E B E's," parts 5, 11 and 17, UFO BBS text files UFO1024, UFO1030 and UFO1036, textfiles.com mirror, https://mirror.cyberbits.eu/textfiles.com/ufo/UFOBBS/1000/1024.ufo, .../1030.ufo and .../1036.ufo. The files carry no author line in the portions read; the text cites Moore 1989a and 1989b, Greenwood 1989 and Hastings 1989. The Greenwood quotations are as quoted in part 17. Sole source for the passages so cited.
[^2]: Pilkington, Mark. *Mirage Men: A Journey into Disinformation, Paranoia and UFOs.* 2010, chapters on the Laughlin conference, Doty, "The Man in the White Coat" and "How to Believe Weird Things," read in a PDF copy at https://avalonlibrary.net/ebooks/Mark%20Pilkington%20-%20Mirage%20Men%20-%20A%20Journey%20into%20Disinformation,%20Paranoia%20and%20UFOs.pdf. Green's statements are first-person quotations and reported speech in the book; sole source for the passages so cited. Also gives 18 October for the broadcast of UFO Cover-Up Live and says Colonel Barry Hennessey ran the AFOSI special projects unit at the Pentagon, and that Hennessey and Moore both denied he was Falcon.
[^3]: Boylan, Richard J. "UFO/ET-Disclosure Policy Splits Covert Network," *Perceptions,* November/December issue, year not stated in the copy consulted, reproduced with editorial interpolations at think-aboutit.com, Wayback Machine capture of August 31, 2013, http://web.archive.org/web/20130831033026/http://www.think-aboutit.com/ufo/aviary.htm. Sole source for the roster.
[^4]: Farley, C. Richard, Jr., letter to John H. Gibbons, April 29, 1995, Clinton Presidential Library, Office of Science and Technology Policy FOIA 01-22, item 46, https://avalonlibrary.net/Grant_Cameron/Clinton_Presidential_Library_collection/OSTP%20-%20FOIA%2001%2022/1995%2004%2029_C.%20Richard%20Farley,%20Jr.%20to%20John%20Gibbons%20-%20OSTP%20-%20FOIA%2001%2022%20-%20item%20no%2046.pdf.
[^5]: Colavito, Jason, quoting Schaeffer, Robert, and Kiviat, Robert. "Alien Autopsy Producer Sues UFO Contactee, Former CIA Scientist, and Ex-Congressman over Stalled UFO Documentary," March 23, 2019, https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/alien-autopsy-producer-sues-ufo-contactee-former-cia-scientist-and-ex-congressman-over-stalled-ufo-documentary. Sole source for the passages so cited.
[^6]: Hastings, Robert. Statement of March 1, 1989, as quoted in "E B E's," part 16, UFO BBS file UFO1035, https://mirror.cyberbits.eu/textfiles.com/ufo/UFOBBS/1000/1035.ufo. The denials by Moore and Doty and the account of the "real Falcon" are in that file's own narration, not in the Hastings quotation. The original statement was not opened.
[^7]: Timothy Good, ed., *The UFO Report 1990*, "Editor's Foreword" (London, April 1989), pp. vii to viii (October 14, 1988); Barry Taff, UFO BBS file UFO135 ("When the final product aired on October 14 of that year"); Linda Moulton Howe, *An Alien Harvest*, 2nd ed. (2014), pp. 193 to 196; Robert Collins and Richard Doty, *Exempt from Disclosure* ("The show finally aired on October 14, 1988"); Internet Archive upload description ("Broadcast 10/14/88"). Mark Pilkington, *Mirage Men*, gives 18 October.
[^8]: Moore, William L., lecture of July 1, 1989, MUFON International UFO Symposium, Las Vegas, as quoted in "E B E's," part 17, UFO BBS file UFO1036, https://mirror.cyberbits.eu/textfiles.com/ufo/UFOBBS/1000/1036.ufo (which cites Moore 1989b). The speech text itself was not read.
[^9]: Robert Collins and Richard Doty, *Exempt from Disclosure: The Black World of UFOs* (Peregrine Communications; copyright notice 2010), introduction; Section 1, "Go west as they say," "Summits without the Cocktails, the fall of 1987," "And We Became Birds: 'The Aviary,'" "August 1988: Cloak & Dagger," "September 1988," "April 1989"; Section 2, Chapter 4 and references 4a, 4b and 5, https://archive.org/details/exempt-from-disclosure (OCR text read). Collins's account is the sole source for the passages so cited.
[^10]: William L. Moore, "UFOs and the U.S. Government, Part I," address to the MUFON International UFO Symposium, Las Vegas, July 1, 1989, video recorded by Ron Regehr (Internet Archive item bill-moore-1989-mufon, https://archive.org/details/bill-moore-1989-mufon), read in the caption transcript of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUfimKiS-po; captions mis-render names ("Dodie," "Chandere") and are corrected here. The printed version in the MUFON UFO Journal of November and December 1989 was not obtained.
[^11]: Richard C. Doty, letter of March 3, 1989, http://textfiles.com/ufo/doty.ufo
[^12]: Robert Hastings, "The MJ-12 Affair: Facts, Questions, Comments," March 1, 1989, https://web.archive.org/web/20161028084620/http://www.sacred-texts.com/ufo/hastings.htm

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20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science.md
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@ -8,20 +8,121 @@ category: "Private Organization"
summary: "To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science (TTSA) was a public benefit corporation founded by musician Tom DeLonge of the band Blink-182."
start: 2017
location: "San Diego, California"
aliases:
- TTSA
- To The Stars Inc.
- To The Stars Academy of Arts and Science Inc.
- TTS AAS
- To The Stars
relations:
- type: founded
with: "[[Tom DeLonge]]"
reverse: true
role: "co-founder, President and interim Chief Executive Officer; majority shareholder through Gravity Holdings, LLC"
start: 2017
fn: 2
- type: director_of
with: "[[Hal Puthoff]]"
reverse: true
role: "Vice President of Science and Technology and board member; resigned from the board February 2021 and moved to the science advisory board"
start: 2017
end: 2021-02
fn: 2
- type: director_of
with: "[[Jim Semivan]]"
reverse: true
role: "founder, Vice President Operations and director"
start: 2017
fn: 2
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Luis Elizondo]]"
reverse: true
role: "Chief of Security and Special Programs; later Director of Government Programs and Services; laid off with severance December 2020"
start: 2017
end: 2020-12
fn: 2
- type: member_of
with: "[[Christopher Mellon]]"
reverse: true
role: "advisory board; resigned November 2020"
start: 2017
end: 2020-11
fn: 2
- type: partner_of
with: "[[U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command]]"
role: "Cooperative Research and Development Agreement 19-15, Novel and Emerging Technology Exploitation, with the Ground Vehicle Systems Center"
start: 2019-10-10
end: 2024
fn: 10
- type: funded
with: "[[Tom DeLonge]]"
reverse: true
role: "advances, notes, lines of credit and share conversions"
start: 2016
fn: 6
updated: 2026-10-02
---
[[To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science]] (TTSA) was a public benefit corporation founded by musician Tom DeLonge of the band Blink-182. The organization's goal was to investigate [[Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena]] (UAP) and other fringe scientific topics, and to educate the public about these issues through a combination of scientific research, entertainment, and publishing.[^1]
[[To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science]] (TTSA) was a public benefit corporation founded by musician [[Tom DeLonge]] of the band [[Blink-182]]. The organization's goal was to investigate [[Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena]] (UAP) and other fringe scientific topics, and to educate the public about these issues through a combination of scientific research, entertainment, and publishing.[^1]
### Founding and Mission
Tom DeLonge founded TTSA in 2017 with the goal of bringing the UAP conversation out of the shadows and into the mainstream. He assembled a team of former high-ranking government officials and scientists to lead the organization, including [[Luis Elizondo]], [[Christopher Mellon]], [[Jim Semivan]], and [[Hal Puthoff]].[^1]
The company was structured with three divisions: Science, Aerospace, and Entertainment. The plan was to use the entertainment division to generate revenue that would fund the scientific and aerospace research. TTSA was instrumental in the public release of the three declassified UAP videos - "FLIR" (Tic Tac), "GIMBAL," and "GoFast" - which were posted on its YouTube page in conjunction with the 2017 New York Times article that revealed the existence of [[AATIP]].[^1]
The company was structured with three divisions: Science, Aerospace, and Entertainment. The plan was to use the entertainment division to generate revenue that would fund the scientific and aerospace research. TTSA was instrumental in the public release of the three declassified UAP videos - "FLIR" ([[Tic Tac]]), "[[GIMBAL]]," and "GoFast" - which were posted on its [[YouTube]] page in conjunction with the 2017 [[New York Times]] article that revealed the existence of [[AATIP]].[^1]
### Role in UAP Disclosure
TTSA played a significant role in the early stages of the modern UAP disclosure movement. The organization provided a platform for [[Luis Elizondo]] to speak publicly about his work with AATIP after he resigned from the Pentagon. The company also produced the television show "Unidentified: Inside America's UFO Investigation" on the History Channel, which featured Elizondo and other former government officials investigating UAP cases.[^1]
TTSA played a significant role in the early stages of the modern UAP disclosure movement. The organization provided a platform for Luis Elizondo to speak publicly about his work with AATIP after he resigned from the [[Pentagon]]. The company also produced the television show "[[Unidentified: Inside America's UFO Investigation]]" on the [[History Channel]], which featured Elizondo and other former government officials investigating UAP cases.[^1]
While the organization was ultimately not financially successful and many of its key members, including Elizondo, Mellon, and Puthoff, eventually moved on, TTSA was instrumental in raising the public profile of the UAP issue and helping to break the long-standing stigma surrounding the topic.[^1]
### Registration, offerings and proceeds
To The Stars Academy of Arts and Science Inc., a [[Delaware]] public benefit corporation of [[Encinitas, California]] ([[Securities and Exchange Commission|SEC]] CIK 1710274, file number 24R-00116), filed an offering statement on Form 1-A on August 15, 2017; the SEC qualified it on September 29, 2017, for the sale of Class A common stock with a minimum of 1,000,000 dollars and a maximum of 50,000,000 dollars. Its Regulation A annual reports (Form 1-K) and semiannual reports (Form 1-SA) state the following proceeds.[^2][^3]
First offering: approximately 1,370,000 dollars raised, with proceeds net of offering costs of approximately 1,172,000 dollars during 2018 (offering costs of about 244,000 dollars in 2017 and 199,000 dollars in 2018); 274,046 new Class A shares were issued to investors in 2018.[^3] Second offering (qualified July 12, 2019, up to 30,000,000 dollars): approximately 818,000 dollars raised by its expiry in July 2020 per the fiscal 2020 report (the fiscal 2021 report gives 161,762 shares sold at 5 dollars, 808,810 dollars gross), net proceeds of about 336,000 dollars in 2019 and 167,200 dollars in 2020.[^4] Third offering (qualified September 18, 2020, described as up to 6,000,000 shares in the 2020 report and up to 30,000,000 dollars in the 2021 report, with [[Digital Offering]], LLC as selling agent at a 7.0 percent fee plus warrants for 2.0 percent of gross proceeds): approximately 113,500 dollars raised before the company stopped marketing it on December 18, 2020.[^4] Fourth offering (qualified March 31, 2022): approximately 488,790 dollars raised before termination on November 3, 2022.[^5] The four stated figures sum to approximately 2,790,290 dollars gross (2,781,100 dollars using the 808,810 dollar figure for the second offering).
### Losses
The filings report a net loss from operations of 422,670 dollars for 2016; 30,665,436 dollars for 2017, of which stock-based compensation expense was 29,535,799 dollars (including 18,958,333 dollars recognized on the option grant to [[Kari DeLonge]]); 10,660,495 dollars for 2018 (stock-based compensation 9,165,417 dollars); 9,392,988 dollars for 2019; 4,071,560 dollars for 2020 (the fiscal 2020 statement of operations shows an operating loss of 3,935,621 dollars, the figure the fiscal 2021 report gives for 2020); 581,396 dollars for 2021; 1,339,512 dollars for 2022 (the fiscal 2022 statements show a net loss of 1,351,896 dollars, the figure the fiscal 2023 report gives for 2022); 143,387 dollars for 2023; 57,388 dollars for 2024; and 225,736 dollars for 2025. The report for the six months to June 30, 2026 states a net loss of 134,424 dollars against 315,829 dollars for the same period of 2025. The reports for fiscal 2021 through 2025 carry a going-concern paragraph.[^3][^4][^5]
### Founder shares and the 2019 rescission
In May 2017 the corporation issued 12,500,000 shares of Class A and 5,400 shares of Class B stock to [[Gravity Holdings]], LLC (controlled through the [[DeLonge Family Trust]]), [[JimSem1]], LLC (wholly owned by Jim Semivan) and Harold Puthoff "in exchange for a nominal cash payment and past and anticipated future efforts to support the company's business and objectives"; Gravity Holdings held 60,000,000 Class A shares, 85.7 percent of the class in the first annual report, after receiving 55,000,000 shares on June 1, 2017 for contributing To The Stars, Inc. In April 2019 the company executed a Rescission and Relinquishment Agreement that cancelled 58,174,203 issued shares of Class A stock and 7,359,687 awards or options; the issuances to Gravity Holdings, JimSem1 and Puthoff were reduced to 9,428,240, 786,580 and 392,620 shares, and Kari DeLonge's option (granted June 6, 2017 for 5,000,000 shares at 0.003 dollars) was reduced to 785,240 shares.[^2][^6]
### Officer and director compensation
The first annual report (fiscal 2017) lists cash compensation of 100,000 dollars to Kari DeLonge (Chief Content Officer, sister of Tom DeLonge), 67,962 dollars to [[Lisa Clifford]] (Secretary) and 31,584 dollars to the firm of [[Louis Tomassino]] (Chief Financial Officer) for accounting and tax services, and states that its subsidiary To The Stars, Inc. "did not compensate its executive officer and sole director, Tom DeLonge in cash" while Gravity Holdings, LLC received 60,000,000 Class A shares and DeLonge was owed 100,000 dollars in royalties for 2017; the three directors as a group received 67,500,000 Class A and 5,400 Class B shares. For fiscal 2018 the highest-paid officers were Kari DeLonge (100,256 dollars), Lisa Clifford (74,617 dollars) and [[Stephen Justice]], Chief Operations Officer (43,792 dollars). For fiscal 2019 the table lists [[J. Christopher Mizer]] (director since May 14, 2019, paid 30,000 dollars in cash and 300,000 restricted shares under an Independent Director Agreement at 5,000 dollars per month) alongside Kari DeLonge (100,000) and Lisa Clifford (45,871). Mizer is also co-founder of [[Vivaris Capital]], LLC, which held a consulting agreement from August 2019 at 10,000 dollars per month; on June 23, 2021 the company terminated it, agreed that 170,000 dollars was owed, and settled for 40,000 dollars in cash plus 108,333 shares at 1.20 dollars. Mizer was paid 30,000 dollars in director's fees in each of 2021 through 2025. Luis Elizondo, Hal Puthoff, Jim Semivan and Christopher Mellon do not appear in the compensation tables; the filings describe their roles but do not report their pay, except for the statements of work with EarthTech International below.[^2][^3][^4][^7]
### Related-party financing by Tom DeLonge
[[Our Two Dogs]], Inc., owned by the DeLonge Family Trust (99 percent) and [[Chloe the Dog]], LP (1 percent), advanced 511,414 dollars in 2017, of which 463,414 dollars was reclassified as contributed capital; it also held a loan of 300,000 dollars (April 2016), raised to 600,000 dollars in August 2017 at 6 percent. On March 31, 2019 it forgave the 600,000 dollar principal and 88,123 dollars of interest (688,123 dollars, treated as contributed capital). A licensing agreement of April 26, 2017 with Tom DeLonge, [[Mr. Handsome]], LLC and [[Good In Bed Music]], [[ASCAP]], covering his name, likeness and [[Angels and Airwaves]] works, carries a minimum royalty of 100,000 dollars per year (0.5 to 15 percent of gross sales above that), recorded as cost of revenue and unpaid as of the end of 2017, 2018 and 2019 (accumulated 100,000, 200,000 and 300,000 dollars). In 2018 DeLonge extended a 495,000 dollar revolving line of credit at 8.58 percent, secured by company intellectual property (335,000 dollars outstanding at the end of 2018 and 463,837 dollars at the end of 2019); in July 2019 the company bought a set of metamaterials from DeLonge for 35,000 dollars. Total amounts owed to DeLonge were 791,123 dollars (end of 2017), 1,288,148 dollars (2018), 963,763 dollars (2019) and 727,043 dollars (2020). In June 2021 the line of credit balance (517,435 dollars plus 52,364 dollars interest) and 372,165 dollars in personal advances (including 157,244 dollars used to pay credit card balances) were converted into 784,970 shares of Class A stock, and the fiscal 2021 report states both that 607,121 dollars of 2021 advances were converted at 1.20 dollars per share and that additional advances of 392,200 dollars through December 31, 2021 were converted to 326,834 shares. In March 2026 DeLonge, then described as chief executive, lent 42,000 dollars, repaid in April 2026, and on July 7, 2026 lent 150,000 dollars at 5 percent to be repaid from 5 percent of weekly receipts.[^2][^3][^6][^4][^8]
### EarthTech International statements of work
In August 2018 the company entered two statements of work with [[EarthTech International]], Inc., "whose founder and president is company Director Harold E. Puthoff": one for materials analysis ("SOW-MSSA," 35,000 dollars) and one for beamed energy propulsion launch systems ("SOW-BELS," 25,000 dollars), totaling 60,000 dollars, of which 30,000 dollars was paid during 2018. The materials statement of work was described as covering "materials samples the company obtains through reliable reports of advanced aerospace vehicles of unknown origin."[^9]
### Army Cooperative Research and Development Agreement
Exhibit 6.28 to the company's Form 1-A/A of August 3, 2020 is Cooperative Research and Development Agreement No. 19-15, "Novel and Emerging Technology Exploitation (NETE)," between the company and the [[U.S. Army]] [[Combat Capabilities Development Command Ground Vehicle Systems Center]], [[Warren, Michigan]]. It was signed on October 10, 2019 by [[Jeffrey L. Langhout]], Director of the Ground Vehicle Systems Center, and by Kari DeLonge as officer of the company. The government principal investigators are [[Ben Soave]] and Dr. [[Joseph Cannon]] (Ground Vehicle Survivability and Protection); the collaborator's principal investigator and preferred contact is Luis Elizondo, listed as "Director of Global Security and Special Programs." The term is 60 months from signature; the milestone table runs technical work from October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2023.
The agreement's work plan states that the collaborator "has access to advanced materiel solutions" and "contacted Government about the innovations within their hold," that "Collaborator leaders are prior Government employees," and that "the [[Office of the Secretary of Defense]] (OSD) can share historical reports of findings and origin of materiel solutions in the possession of the Collaborator." The government is to test "inertial mass reduction, mechanical/structural metamaterials, electromagnetic metamaterial wave guides, quantum physics, quantum communications, and beamed energy propulsion," with the company to supply "samples of mechanical and EM sensitive metamaterial collected, obtained, or developed as part of its Field Operations," material analysis data, and beamed energy propulsion and active camouflage hardware. Article 7.2 states that the government "will not provide any federal or other funds to the Collaborator"; the payment schedule reads "None"; the government's anticipated resources are estimated at 750,000 dollars and the collaborator's at 1,000,000 dollars "determined by business needs and funding availability." The document describes the company as incorporated in [[California]]; the SEC registrant is a Delaware corporation. Article 4.8.3 provides that the work "may cover Classified national security information" and refers to a DD Form 254.[^10]
Annual reports from 2021 describe the Army testing of "anomalous materials" provided by the company, slowed by the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. The reports for 2024 and 2025 state that, "as part of their oversight and through the CRADA," [[Oak Ridge National Laboratory]] was tasked with analysis of a specimen "to assess whether the specimen is of terrestrial origin and the bismuth in the specimen could act as a terahertz waveguide"; that in April 2024 ORNL "produced a summary of findings that concluded the Materials to be terrestrial in origin" and not meeting "the theoretical requirements to function as a terahertz (THz) waveguide"; that the report "did not offer a firm conclusion as to the origin and purpose of the Materials"; that Hal Puthoff and [[Eric Davis]] met the laboratory in September 2024 and published a memorandum to the company's board in February 2025 which "did not reveal any form of proof of exotic (Extraterrestrial, Ultra-terrestrial, or inter-dimensional) origin, but it did not absolutely rule it out either"; and that the CRADA ended in 2024. The reports state that the [[All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office]] was "congressionally mandated" in 2022 to explore historical records of unidentified anomalous phenomena incidents.[^8]
### Personnel changes reported to the SEC
[[Colm Kelleher]] resigned from the advisory board in October 2019. The annual report for 2020 states that Christopher Mellon resigned from the advisory board in November 2020, that Stephen Justice resigned as Chief Operations Officer in December 2020, that "Luis Elizondo, the Company's Director of Government Programs & Services, was laid off with severance" in December 2020, and that Hal Puthoff resigned from the board in February 2021 and moved to the science advisory board. The report describes these changes as part of a "pivot" to entertainment operations.[^4]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Elizondo, Luis. *Imminent*. William Morrow, 2024.
[^2]: To The Stars Academy of Arts and Science Inc., Form 1-K for fiscal 2017, filed April 30, 2018 (accession 0001144204-18-023727), including Exhibits 6.7 to 6.11. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1710274/000114420418023727/0001144204-18-023727.txt ; offering circular, Form 1-A/A filed September 18, 2017 (accession 0001144204-17-048316). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1710274/000114420417048316/0001144204-17-048316.txt
[^3]: Form 1-K for fiscal 2018, filed April 30, 2019 (accession 0001144204-19-022341). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1710274/000114420419022341/0001144204-19-022341.txt
[^4]: Form 1-K for fiscal 2020, filed April 30, 2021 (accession 0001493152-21-010202). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1710274/000149315221010202/0001493152-21-010202.txt ; Form 1-K for fiscal 2021, filed May 2, 2022 (accession 0001493152-22-011769). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1710274/000149315222011769/0001493152-22-011769.txt
[^5]: Form 1-K for fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2023, liquidity sections; Form 1-SA for the six months ended June 30, 2026, filed September 18, 2026 (accession 0001493152-26-043283). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1710274/000149315226043283/0001493152-26-043283.txt
[^6]: Form 1-K for fiscal 2019, filed June 12, 2020 (accession 0001104659-20-072815). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1710274/000110465920072815/0001104659-20-072815.txt
[^7]: Form 1-K for fiscal 2022 (accession 0001493152-23-014729), fiscal 2023 (0001493152-24-016672), fiscal 2024 (0001641172-25-005183) and fiscal 2025 (0001493152-26-019571), compensation of directors sections. https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001710274&type=1-K
[^8]: Form 1-K for fiscal 2021, 2024 and 2025, sections headed "U.S. Army Cooperative Research and Development Agreement"; Form 1-SA for the six months ended June 30, 2026 (accession 0001493152-26-043283) for the 2026 DeLonge loans and the 1-K for fiscal 2025 for the DeLonge Promissory Note.
[^9]: Form 1-K for fiscal 2018 Items 1 and 5 and the financial statement note on related parties; repeated in the fiscal 2019 report.
[^10]: Exhibit 6.28, Cooperative Research and Development Agreement No. 19-15, to Form 1-A/A filed August 3, 2020 (accession 0001104659-20-089220). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1710274/000110465920089220/tm2023098d2_ex6-28.htm

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---
category: "Private Companies"
tags:
- Organization
- DefenseContractor
- Electronics
- NightVision
- Garland
- Texas
- UFO
- VaroEdition
alias:
- Varo Manufacturing Company
- Varo Manufacturing Co.
- Varo Mfg. Co.
- Varo, Inc.
- Varo Inc.
- Varo
summary: "Garland, Texas electronics manufacturer for the military whose Military Assistance Division retyped an annotated copy of M. K. Jessup's The Case for the UFO after it reached Office of Naval Research officers."
location: "Garland, Texas"
relations:
- type: contractor_to
with: "[[Office of Naval Research]]"
start: 1955
role: "described by Barker as a government contractor; its Military Assistance Division retyped the annotated Jessup paperback for a limited edition (the Varo Edition introduction dates the work to 1955; Barker places the ONR routing in 1956)"
fn: 1
created: 2026-10-02
updated: 2026-10-03
---
Varo Manufacturing Company, later Varo, Inc., was an electronics maker in [[Garland, Texas]], that supplied equipment to the U.S. military.[^1][^2] The introduction to the Annotated Edition of [[Morris K. Jessup]]'s [[The Case for the UFO]] names it as the firm that offered to republish the annotated paperback "in a very limited edition as a prelude to consideration of further pursuit of this unconventional material."[^1]
### The Annotated Edition
The unsigned introduction to the Annotated Edition states that "Varo Mfg. Co., Garland, Texas, offered to re-publish the book together with all notations," after the annotated copy had reached the [[Office of Naval Research]] (ONR) and had drawn "direct interest" from Captain [[Sidney Sherby]] and Commander [[George W. Hoover]], Special Projects Officer at ONR. It names Miss [[Michael Ann Dunn]] as the person who "has undertaken the task of rewriting this book including all notes, interjections, underscoring, and etc.," retaining by form, position, color and footnotes as much of the relationships of the annotated copy as possible, and states that no attempt was made to read crossed-out material with ultraviolet light.[^1]
[[Gray Barker]] wrote in 1973 that Varo was at that time "deeply involved in aero-space design and manufacturing for the military," that one division was called "Military Assistance," which "may have coordinated the firm's activities with the government," that the division "agreed to run off a limited number of copies," and that Dunn was personal secretary to the company's president, "a Mr. Stanton." He wrote that Varo said its personnel records failed to find a record of her employment. Barker stated the book was "evidently taken to the Varo firm by Sherby, possibly in conjunction with Hoover," and he named two theories: that senior officers passed the matter down through lower officers so that Varo would print it without publicity, or that lower-ranking officers such as Sherby asked for the reprint as a personal favor. He gave the second as "the writer's best guess," and wrote that Jessup was called in by Varo, shown the book, and given several copies. He described a spiral bound volume of more than 200 pages, each page passed twice through an office duplicator, black ink for the original text and red for the annotations. The number of copies is not stated in his preface.[^2]
The two accounts differ on the date. The introduction places the envelope's postmark in 1955; Barker places the arrival of the book at ONR in April 1956, after [[Frederick R. Furth]] had, according to ONR's house publication, been relieved as Chief of Naval Research on December 31, 1955.[^1][^2][^4]
### Defense work
A trade-press item reproduced on the site of the Salisbury archive reports that Varo, Inc., Garland, Texas, developed the "Varotron," a device generating infrared, visible and ultraviolet radiation by passing an electron beam over a grating, described by its inventor [[Winfield W. Salisbury]] in a report at the "recent American Optical Society meeting in [[Rochester, New York|Rochester, N. Y.]]," and covered by U.S. Patent No. 2,634,372, issued to Salisbury in 1953. The item says the device "appears to have application to communications and possibly exotic weapons, similar to optical masers (lasers)." The same archive lists Salisbury's position at Varo from 1958 to 1965 as "Research and Development in Radiation Weapons for [[U.S. Air Force]]; Chief Scientist."[^3] Later Varo night vision products included the Noctron series, for which Varo, Inc. filed trademark applications on March 5, 1973 (Noctron IV, a night vision passive viewer using a multiple stage image intensifier) and May 5, 1980 (Noctron V, a second generation viewer using microchannel plate image tube technology).[^5]
[^1]: Unsigned "Introduction" to the Annotated Edition, in M. K. Jessup, The Case for the UFO, Varo Edition, transcribed by the Quantum Future Group, 2003, pp. 7 to 9, https://archive.org/details/THECASEFORTHEUFOVaroEditionM.K.Jessup (djvu text, reread 2026-10-03).
[^2]: Gray Barker, preface dated July 1973, same volume, pp. 2 to 6.
[^3]: "Winfield W. Salisbury at Varo, Garland, Texas, 1958-1965," Salisbury archive page with reproduced trade-press item (publication and date of the item not shown on the page), https://mail.smecc.org/salisbury_at_varo.htm
[^4]: Naval Research Reviews, vol. 9, no. 1 (January 1956), "New Chief of Naval Research," p. 22, https://www.onr.navy.mil/media/document/naval-research-reviews-vol-9-no-1-january-1956
[^5]: Varo Inc. trademark filings, Justia Trademarks owner listing, https://trademark.justia.com/owners/varo-inc-79620 (the page returns 403 to command-line fetches; filing dates and descriptions taken from a search summary of the listing, not independently opened).