The past few years have seen many interesting news headlines that seemed unbelievable. However, none are probably more potentially world-changing than the 2017 story of a secret Pentagon program investigating Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), or as government insiders now call them, Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon (UAPs). Former Army Counterintelligence (ACI) Special Agent Luis Elizondo provided this information to the New York Times. Elizondo had headed up a DoD program called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), investigating UAPs to determine their cause and origin. Elizondo highlighted the program after resigning from government service, while also promoting his new joint venture "To the Stars Academy of Arts & Science," a group supposedly formed to study UFO/UAP phenomena.
The heart of Elizondo's story are some physics-defying evidence which he also helped get publicly released, including military fighter jet videos that track objects appearing to defy the laws of physics. DoD confirmed the videos are authentic, which are further backed up by first-hand pilot accounts. With a new book coming out, Elizondo is hinting at even more information being publicly released. Elizondo says, “The American people now know a small portion of what I and my colleagues in the Pentagon have been privy to: That these UAPs are not secret U.S. technology, that they do not seem to belong to any known allies or adversaries, and that our intelligence services have yet to identify a terrestrial explanation for these extraordinary vehicles. This conversation is only just beginning.”
One of many released videos: Still image taken from Navy fighter plane tracking a UAP that appeared to be executing impossible aerial maneuvers.
While many are both amazed and intrigued by these recent stories, they are, in fact, nothing new. UFOs have been a part of world conversations for many years--mostly among conspiracy theorists. Now they actually seem taken seriously by major news outlets. What is less well known regarding the UFO phenomenon is that Elizondo is not the first ACI involvement. There are countless stories of "men in black" and secret military or government agents lurking around witnesses of UFO encounters, asking questions, and even sometimes appearing to threaten those who dare to reveal information.
We also know that ACI has been involved with securing some very unusual formerly classified projects, such as "Project Stargate," the psychic/remote viewing operation that was declassified in 1995. However, some of these stories are little more than rumor, with a few even involving men in suits who displayed badges and credentials with "Military Intelligence" written on them (ACI's badges had this written on them from World War II through 2011).
One of the first American UFO incidents to receive national headlines was the infamous Roswell, New Mexico incident in 1947. In fact, one of the reasons why the incident was immediately sensationalized was that the U.S. Army itself released a statement to the press saying that the Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) had recovered a "flying saucer" which had crashed on a ranch. The RAAF senior intelligence officer, MAJ Jesse Marcel, was one of the first people at the alleged crash scene and managed the recovery efforts. Accompanying MAJ Marcel to the alleged crash site was RAAF Counter Intelligence Corp (CIC) Special Agent in Charge (SAC), CPT Sheridan D. Cavitt, who famously denied MAJ Marcel's account, and went on to join the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) with many other CIC agents when the U.S. Air Force branched off of the U.S. Army Air Corps. As is known, the Army retracted its statement about the saucer crash not long after the initial press release, changing the story to say it was nothing more than a weather balloon. While the U.S. Air Force did modify the story again in 1994 to say it was a classified weather balloon under Project Mogul, it should be noted that MAJ Marcel claimed it was not a weather balloon at all in his only known television interview in 1980. Marcel went on to state that Brigadier General Roger Ramey was the person who concocted the weather balloon story, and ordered Marcel to pose with photographs of the weather balloon "debris." Marcel's children have even stated they remember playing with strange other-worldy artifacts which Marcel had recovered from the crash site.
Even more intriguing are the other eyewitnesses who have stated they spotted government agents in the area during this incident. Some were even contacted by these agents, who claimed they were U.S. Army agents (to include eyewitness accounts of SAC Cavitt continuing with questioning individuals and participating in the crash site, despite his claims denying it). Were Army CIC agents involved with an alleged UFO cover-up? According to a recently enhanced memorandum BG Ramey held in one of the many press photographs taken, it seems as though CIC's involvement here was also confirmed. Researcher David Rudiak has enlarged and enhanced the letter in Ramey's hand, claiming to have deciphered much of the writing. That writing includes references to a "CIC Team" which we know was the abbreviation commonly used for the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps, ACI's immediate predecessor agency.
BG Ramey (left) shown with the supposed weather balloon debris and an unknown memo in his hand.
Enlarged version of memo in BG Ramey's hand with writing clearly visible.
Computer enhanced version of the memo with much of it's writing deciphered.
We may never know for sure what really happened at Roswell in 1947. However, whether or not you believe the incident was a crashed alien spacecraft, or a classified government weather balloon, the CIC's involvement would definitely mean that the Army was looking to protect a secret of some sort. As for ACI's other activities, we can only say this: The more information that the U.S. government declassifies, the more we learn about how deeply involved ACI was in some of the most interesting events in history.
Author note: At the time of this writing, Luis Elizondo is not a member of the ACISAA and the ACISAA does not endorse his upcoming book release or any of his writings.
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