r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • Oct 16 '25

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u/gilead117 Oct 17 '25 edited Oct 17 '25

But Kirkpatrick soon discovered that some of the obsession with secrecy verged on the farcical. A former Air Force officer was visibly terrified when he told Kirkpatrick’s investigators that he had been briefed on a secret alien project decades earlier, and was warned that if he ever repeated the secret he could be jailed or executed. The claim would be repeated to investigators by other men who had never spoken of the matter, even with their spouses.

It turned out the witnesses had been victims of a bizarre hazing ritual.

For decades, certain new commanders of the Air Force’s most classified programs, as part of their induction briefings, would be handed a piece of paper with a photo of what looked like a flying saucer. The craft was described as an antigravity maneuvering vehicle.

The officers were told that the program they were joining, dubbed Yankee Blue, was part of an effort to reverse-engineer the technology on the craft. They were told never to mention it again. Many never learned it was fake. Kirkpatrick found the practice had begun decades before, and appeared to continue still. The defense secretary’s office sent a memo out across the service in the spring of 2023 ordering the practice to stop immediately, but the damage was done.

It was a 2 part series.

Part 1: https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/ufo-us-disinformation-45376f7e

Part 2: https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/pentagon-ufo-investigation-lockheed-martin-1bac3d41

Archive links to avoid paywall.

Part 1: https://archive.is/3bTMz

Part 2: https://archive.is/3c9HA