A story on the trail

Split by service

There is no single legacy program: the Air Force, the Army, the Navy and the labs each keep their own, and barely talk.

Our reading across the sources1947 to now2 min read

In 60 seconds

There is no single program. It started as one in 1947, under a control group in the National Security Council, but each service took its own share: the Air Force through Wright-Patterson and later NASIC, the Army through its R&D office and Dugway, the Navy through MITRE and NURO, and the labs through Sandia, Los Alamos and DOE. After 1978 the silos hardened. Gerb's point is that they barely cooperate, so the Army and the Air Force each tried to copy the same cloaking without telling the other, and a story that blames only the contractors misses most of it.

22 events: 8 on the record7 named witness6 unnamed insider1 UAP Gerb’s reasoning

The claim, in our words · Gerb's reading, across 22 of our records

“Each service runs its own legacy program, stovepiped from the others, with no authority over all of them.”

How it branched

Each line is a branch, named at its end. Dots are the key moments below.

Key moment
One program, 1947
Air Force
Labs and the CIA
Navy and Marines
Army
Turning points: 1947 Air Force · Labs · 1958 Navy · 1960 Army
Chapter 1 · 1947 to 1977

One program

A shared start under the NSC; the services take their shares.

Key moments

1947Air Materiel Command takes the materialWright Field becomes the Air Force's store.Named witness
1958MITRE's two Navy programsGerb's sources: two Navy programs since 1958.Unnamed insider
1960Army Foreign Technology deskTrudeau's Army R&D office, where Corso worked.On the record
Chapter 2 · 1978 to 2002

Silos

Review scatters the control group; each service keeps its own.

Key moments

1978EO 12036: the silos hardenGerb: under review, the control group scatters and each service keeps its own.On the record
Chapter 3 · 2003 to now

No one in charge

NASIC, Dugway, Crane and the labs work apart, sometimes on the same thing.

Key moments

2004Army and Air Force each try cloakingGerb: both services tried to adapt electro-optic cloaking from downed craft "with little to no cooperation"; a general who showed it was demoted.UAP Gerb’s reasoning
2025An Army legacy-program witnessGerb's unnamed Army witness: the Army has its own legacy program.Unnamed insider

All 22 events, branch by branch, in the Workspace →

Where it meets other stories

The legacy programshares 19 records: National Security Act of 1947, Wright-Patterson AFB & 'Hangar 18', Sandia National Laboratories, Philip J. Corso and more
The squeezeshares 4 records: Executive Order 12036, Matthew James Sullivan, The MITRE Corporation
The undersea programshares 4 records: The MITRE Corporation, National Underwater Reconnaissance Office, The triangle raised from the North Atlantic…, The 'Off-World Technologies Division' under…
The price of contactshares 2 records: Matthew James Sullivan, New UFO Witnesses Break Silence to Investigator - UAP Gerb - DEBRIEFED ep. 49

Want to dig?

The Workspace has every case, person, document and episode, with the board, the atlas, timelines and the threads between them.

Open the Workspace →
Sources include war.gov/ufo (PURSUE), the FBI Vault, NASA and ASU Apollo archives, congressional testimony and the witnesses' own words. Each case links to its sources.A research project by Igor France · updated 25 October 2026 · Privacy