Overview

• A Pentagon review finds that in the 1980s an Air Force colonel distributed doctored saucer photos near Area 51 to divert attention from F-117 stealth jet tests.
• AARO director Sean Kirkpatrick uncovered a hazing ritual called “Yankee Blue” that misled new recruits into believing they were joining an alien reverse-engineering program.
• Investigators concluded that the 1967 incident in Montana, where nuclear missiles appeared disabled by a UFO, was actually a failed electromagnetic pulse test.
• The Defense Department acknowledged it has not released all of AARO’s findings and promised a follow-up volume of its Historical Record Report later this year.
• Officials used UFO conspiracy theories to conceal multiple classified weapons projects from both the public and potential foreign observers.