Within a brief span of just 6 months following the highly publicized Roswell crash on July 2, 1947, and the subsequent discovery of another mysterious crashed UFO at San Augustine Flats near Magdelena, New Mexico, on July 3, 1947, an extensive and significant reorganization of various government agencies and a shuffling of numerous key personnel took place. By late 1947, in response to these extraordinary events, the government established a small, highly compartmentalized group of carefully selected individuals whose primary mission was to study the unusual phenomena while maintaining an absolute level of TOP SECRET confidentiality. The central impetus behind the original "Security Lid," as well as the very reason for its construction, was rooted in the urgent analysis and persistent attempts to duplicate the advanced technologies inherent in the enigmatic flying discs.
If the Government were to discover concrete evidence of Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, would they actually choose to tell the public about it? Not on their own volition, that’s for certain. The “Majestic 12” Documents represent perhaps the most significant and compelling Government documents ever leaked to the public domain. The hypocrisy of the situation is that skeptics have long argued for substantiated proof of an ongoing UFO/ET cover-up orchestrated on behalf of the Government, but yet when presented with this substantial evidence, they often deny its validity and concoct various excuses for it. I guess that it’s just easier than facing the overwhelming documented facts and evidence that could potentially challenge their longstanding beliefs.
All the alleged original members of MJ-12 were particularly notable for their extensive military, government, and/or scientific achievements, making them figures of significant interest to researchers and historians alike. Interestingly, all of these individuals were already deceased when the documents first surfaced, adding an air of mystery to the narrative surrounding the group. The last of these prominent figures to pass away was Jerome Hunsaker, who unfortunately died just a few months before the MJ-12 papers first came to public attention.
The original composition of this group was notable, consisting of six civilians, the majority of whom were accomplished scientists, alongside six high-ranking military officers, two representatives from each of the major military services. Among these key figures were three prominent individuals—Souers, Vandenberg, and Hillenkoetter—who had notably served as the first three heads of central intelligence in the United States. However, no documents that I have found have been able to provide clear information regarding who actually held the position of director of MJ-12, nor did they clarify if there existed any sort of organizational hierarchy that governed this enigmatic group.
The confirmed members of this highly classified and enigmatic group known as MJ-12 were:
Rear Adm. Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter: first CIA director
Dr. Vannevar Bush: chaired wartime Office of Scientific Research and Development and predecessor National Defense Research Committee; set up and chaired postwar Joint Research and Development Board (JRDB) and then the Research and Development Board (RDB); chaired NACA; President of Carnegie Institute, Washington D.C.
James Forrestal: Secretary of the Navy; first Secretary of Defense (replaced after his death on MJ-12 by Gen. Walter Bedell Smith, 2nd CIA director)
Gen. Nathan Twining: headed Air Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson AFB; Air Force Chief of Staff (1953–1957); Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff (1957–1961)
Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg: Directed Central Intelligence Group (1946–1947); Air Force Chief of Staff (1948–1953)
Gen. Robert M. Montague: Guided missile expert; 1947 commander of Fort Bliss; headed nuclear Armed Forces Special Weapons Center, Sandia Base
Dr. Jerome Hunsaker: Aeronautical engineer, MIT; chaired NACA after Bush
Rear Adm. Sidney Souers: first director of Central Intelligence Group, first executive secretary of National Security Council (NSC)
Gordon Gray: Secretary of the Army; intelligence and national security expert; CIA psychological strategy board (1951–1953); Chairman of NSC 5412 Committee (1954–1958); National Security Advisor (1958–1961)
Dr. Donald Menzel: Astronomer, Harvard; cryptologist during war; security consultant to CIA and NSA
Dr. Detlev Bronk: Medical physicist; aviation physiologist; chair, National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council; president Johns Hopkins & Rockefeller University
Dr. Lloyd Berkner: Physicist; radio expert; executive secretary of Bush’s JRDB
Many of these members of M-J12 had ties to a wide range of activities related to UFOs and their enigmatic encounters:
Vandenberg, As Director of Central Intelligence in the pivotal year of 1946, he had been responsible for overseeing a series of detailed investigations into the enigmatic so-called Ghost rockets that had been sighted across Europe, and he meticulously wrote intelligence memos discussing the peculiar phenomena associated with these sightings. Later, during his tenure as Air Force Chief of Staff, both Vandenberg and Twining played significant roles in overseeing the early U.S. Air Force UFO investigations, including notable initiatives such as Project Sign and Project Blue Book. They also made a number of public statements regarding the enigmatic nature of UFOs, contributing to the larger discourse surrounding aerial phenomena..
Twining had previously written a now-famous Secret memo on September 23, 1947, which is notably the day before Truman allegedly established the controversial MJ-12 committee. In this significant document, Twining asserted that flying saucers were indeed real, prompting a call for a formal investigation to be conducted by multiple government organizations, including the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Bush's Junior Research and Development Board (JRDB), and the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board. This important memo and its implications led directly to the establishment of Project Sign in late 1947, setting the stage for more extensive investigations into unidentified aerial phenomena.
Vandenberg met with Bush's Joint Research and Development Board (JRDB) in a suddenly-called, high-stakes meeting on the morning of the intense Roswell UFO incident, which took place on July 8, 1947. This meeting was soon reported in the press as being crucial for managing the later public relations crises that emerged from the event. Meanwhile, RAdm. Konstantine Konopisos has most recently been implicated regarding his involvement with the later years of the controversial MJ12 activities, serving as Vice Judge Advocate General (JAG) of the United States Navy during this intriguing period.
Bush was directly implicated in the extensive investigations detailed within the 1950-51 Canadian documents, where he was identified as heading a highly secretive UFO investigation within the Research and Development Board (RDB); this assertion was further confirmed by the prominent Canadian scientist Wilbert B. Smith. Immediately following the highly publicized Roswell UFO incident, which captured the attention of the nation, Bush made several public statements denying any knowledge of UFOs or any possible relation they might have to ongoing secret government projects.
Berkner was a prominent figure on the 1953 CIA-organized Robertson Panel, which was tasked with debunking UFOs and addressing public concerns regarding unidentified aerial phenomena. In addition to his role on the panel, he also played a significant part in helping to establish Project Ozma, which was the very first radio telescope search dedicated to finding extraterrestrial intelligence beyond our planet.
Menzel filed a comprehensive UFO report in 1949 and subsequently went on to write several influential books aimed at debunking various UFO claims. He became recognized as the most prominent public UFO debunker of his time, diligently working to dismantle myths surrounding these phenomena. Many UFO researchers and historians perceive this as part of a larger "cover-up" related to the alleged MJ12 - alien connections, suggesting that his efforts may have been intended to obscure the truth about extraterrestrial encounters.
Hillenkoetter, a prominent figure in the field of unidentified aerial phenomena, was actively involved on the board of directors of the influential civilian UFO organization known as NICAP. He made significant public statements to Congress regarding the undeniable reality of UFO sightings and encounters in 1960, which stirred considerable interest and debate about the existence of these mysterious objects in our skies.
The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), which was chaired by Hunsaker from the years 1941 to 1958, is also known from various documents to have occasionally delved into intriguing UFO cases that piqued their interest. Other notable members of NACA during that period in history included Bush, who served from 1938 to 1948, Compton from 1948 to 1949, Vandenberg from 1948 to 1953, Twining from 1953 to 1957, and Bronk, whose term lasted from 1948 to 1958.
Teller was a member of a distinguished scientific panel in the year 1949 at the renowned Los Alamos National Laboratory, engaged in a thorough investigation into the mysterious UFO phenomenon widely recognized as the green fireballs.
After the Roswell Crash and subsequent various crash and retrieval events, besides the MJ-12 committee, a flurry of activity began in the upper levels of our government. During this time, multiple agencies were formed.
1. The Research and Development Board (R&DB)
2. Air Force Research and Development (AFRD)
3. The Office of Naval Research (ONR)
4. CIA Office of Scientific Intelligence (CIA-OSI)
5. NSA Office of Scientific Intelligence (NSA-OSI)
No single one of these groups was aware of the complete story, which is not at all uncommon in the often murky and complex world of Intelligence circles. Each group was instructed to know only the specific parts that MJ-12 deemed appropriate for them to understand. Furthermore, MJ-12 operates through the various civilian intelligence and investigative entities that exist. The CIA and FBI, for instance, are skillfully manipulated by MJ-12 to carry out their specific purposes and agendas without question. The NSA (National Security Administration), on the other hand, was established primarily to protect the closely guarded secret of the recovered flying discs and has since gained complete control over all forms of communication intelligence. This extensive control enables the NSA to monitor any individual's activities through various channels, including mail, telephone conversations, telegrams, In the present day, this has been expanded to include computers and other electonic devices, allowing for the monitoring of private and personal communications whenever they may desire to do so.