YouTube video · UAP Gerb · 25 August 2024
The Majestic-12 Documents [With Ryan S. Wood]
A long documentary and interview with Ryan Wood, who with his father collected some 3,500 pages of MJ-12 material from seven sources. Wood ranks the Eisenhower Briefing Document, the SOM1-01 recovery manual and the IPU papers highest and walks through how each has been checked: Truman's appointment logs, the Kirtland phone books, a printer's view of the type. The FBI's 'bogus' stamp and Klass's and Aldrich's critiques are recorded as commentary, since none shows a documentary contradiction. By the end Gerb thinks MJ-12 likely was, and possibly is, a real group.
On the record
- Truman's appointment logs for 24 September 1947 and 1 August 1950.
- The Army's FOIA acknowledgement of the Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit.
- NSAM 271 of 12 November 1963.
Open questions
- Who 'Thomas Cantwheel' was; a Reddit researcher proposes CIA officer Boris Tarasoff, unconfirmed.
- Where the Cutler-Twining onion skin is held: the note says the Library of Congress manuscript division.
Leads to follow
- The Kirtland 1954-56 phone books and Building 21 records.
- The 1999 Fort Meade FOIA release of the Bowen manuscript.
Timeline
On the recordWitness testimonyAlleged / one person's word
The claims, checked
On the record (4)
Stanton Friedman matched a Truman-Forrestal-Bush meeting on 24 September 1947 and a Truman-W.B. Smith meeting on 1 August 1950 to the appointment logs, and placed Hillenkoetter in New York, not Korea, in late 1952.firsthandTruman appointment logs and Friedman's research (cited by Wood)The Eisenhower Briefing Document (18 November 1952)Vannevar Bush
The Army acknowledged the Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit in FOIA replies to Richard Hall (1980) and William Steinman (1984).firsthandArmy FOIA replies (cited by Wood)The 'Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit' report (22 July 1947)
Archive-held items carry the name: the 1954 Cutler-Twining memo on the 'NSC/MJ-12 Special Studies Project' (an onion-skin copy) and a JIOA Paperclip memo marked 'CIA MJ-12' at College Park.Where each copy sits is as Wood gives it.firsthandarchive copies (cited by Wood)Majestic 12
CIA officer Reuben Efron, later in the Oswald mail-intercept chain, was with Senator Russell during the 1955 Caspian train sighting.firsthandCIA records (cited by Gerb and Wood)Senator Russell's flying saucers
Witness testimony (9)
He and his father collected about 3,500 pages over 19 years (1984-99) from seven sources; he ranks the Eisenhower Briefing Document, SOM1-01 and the IPU papers highest and knows of no document shown to be faked.firsthandMajestic 12The Eisenhower Briefing Document (18 November 1952)SOM1-01: Extraterrestrial Entities and Technology, Recovery and Disposal (1954)
He matched the manual's initials EWL and JRT to two officers living on Perimeter Road at Kirtland in the 1954-56 phone books; the JRT he found denied it and EWL had died.analysisSOM1-01: Extraterrestrial Entities and Technology, Recovery and Disposal (1954)Kirtland Air Force Base
A retired Government Printing Office printer said the raised 'z' points to a hot-lead press and that the dashes and capitals are right for the period.secondhandretired GPO printer → Ryan Wood → told itSOM1-01: Extraterrestrial Entities and Technology, Recovery and Disposal (1954)
Navy yeoman Dale Bailey says he saw the manual in 1976 while destroying UFO files for an admiral.firsthandDale BaileySOM1-01: Extraterrestrial Entities and Technology, Recovery and Disposal (1954)
Jan Aldrich's 1996 critique lists procedures the manual leaves out.Commentary; no documentary contradiction.analysisJan Aldrich (1996)SOM1-01: Extraterrestrial Entities and Technology, Recovery and Disposal (1954)
The FBI stamped its copy 'bogus' and Philip Klass attacked the papers.Commentary under our rules; neither shows a documentary contradiction.analysisFBI file annotation; Philip KlassMajestic 12The Eisenhower Briefing Document (18 November 1952)
Charles Ethan Ray's daughter said 'absolutely' when asked whether autopsy work like that in the IPU report was work he would be tapped for.secondhandCharles Ethan Ray's daughter → Ryan Wood → told itThe 'Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit' report (22 July 1947)
Alan Kraus (2024), from the Mogul field-operations director's records, says Mogul flight 4 did not fly on 4 June 1947.Undercuts the balloon explanation for Roswell.analysisAlan Kraus (2024)Roswell: the Army's 'flying disc'The 'Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit' report (22 July 1947)
MJ-12 was real but 'had absolutely nothing to do with UFOs'.Commentary. He also wrote that Robert Wood thought SOM1-01 might be Soviet-targeted disinformation; Ryan Wood rejects this.firsthandJohn B. AlexanderMajestic 12
Alleged / one person's word (6)
The Eisenhower Briefing Document, dated 18 November 1952, says Truman set up MJ-12 by classified order on 24 September 1947 on the advice of Bush and Forrestal, and names Bronk, Menzel, the El Indio crash of 1950 and contingency plan MJ-1949-04P/78.Disputed provenance.anonymousEisenhower Briefing Documentanonymous sender → Jaime Shandera (1984) → told itThe Eisenhower Briefing Document (18 November 1952)Majestic 12El Indio-Guerrero crash (6 December 1950)
SOM1-01 reached Don Berliner in 1994 as undeveloped 35 mm Tri-X film mailed anonymously; its control page reads 'Kirtland AFB, KB-88, Building 21, N.Mex'.Disputed provenance.anonymousSOM1-01anonymous sender → Don Berliner (1994) → told itSOM1-01: Extraterrestrial Entities and Technology, Recovery and Disposal (1954)Kirtland Air Force Base
SOM1-01 sends intact craft and weapons to Area 51 S-4, functional devices to a 'Red Team', media to Kirtland Building 21, dead entities to the Wright-Patterson 'Blue Room' and living ones to 'OPNAC BBS-01', and lists triangles of about 300 ft as new technology.anonymousSOM1-01anonymous sender → Don Berliner (1994) → told itSOM1-01: Extraterrestrial Entities and Technology, Recovery and Disposal (1954)Area 51 and S-4Wright-Patterson AFB & 'Hangar 18'
Bowen's 'Encyclopedia of Flying Saucers' manuscript, released through a Fort Meade FOIA in 1999, carries ink notes attributed to Vannevar Bush, including 'this should not get out' beside man-made gravity craft; Wood dated the ink to about 1962.Attribution disputed.anonymousunidentified annotator → Fort Meade FOIA (1999) → Ryan Wood → told itThe Bowen manuscript with marginal notes (about 1960)Vannevar Bush
The MJ-12 name survives today with sub-compartments working with Aerospace Corp, Carlyle, EG&G and RAND.speculationMajestic 12The Aerospace CorporationEG&GRAND Corporation
MJ-12 likely was, and possibly is, a real group; the papers thin out after the 1954 Atomic Energy Act, which fits the 'transclassified' language of the Schumer UAP Disclosure Act.Gerb's view moved from 'a mix of information and disinformation'.speculationMajestic 12Atomic Energy Act of 1954The UAP Disclosure Act